One wiki-beer to Tom Morton! Really interesting result. I wonder what the
stats are on magazine readership by gender?
On Thu, May 3, 2012 at 12:52 PM, Thomas Morton <morton.thomas(a)googlemail.com
wrote:
> Ok, as promised I went into a local store and did this research:
>
http://instagr.am/p/KK-RXOwWyt/ I have to say I genuinely expected that I
> might have to admit to being wrong. I'm pleasantly surprised the say I
> don't think I was!
>
> But first, just to say, I felt like a bit of an idiot taking a photo and
> then jotting down notes in the shop. Which turned into feeling like a right
> prat when one of the shop assisstants asked what I was doing ;)
>
> Anyway.
>
> It's immediately obvious from the photo (which cuts off a portion either
> side of the stand, sorry) that there are a LOT of women on these covers.
> However things break down in an interesting way. The vast majority of
> covers featuring a woman, clustered to the right hand side halfway up, are
> female interest magazine (fashion, gossip, etc.). Targetted at women they
> almost exclusively feature a photo of a woman - but they are fully clothed,
> it is often a headshot and the focus is fashion/style (or a celebrity). I
> don't think these are sexist.
>
> Below them are another set of female interest mags - home and hearth. None
> of these feature a woman on the cover (though some have a person as a wider
> part of the image).
>
> Opposite these are two male-targetted types of magazine. On the middle
> shelf cars etc. and on the lower shelf computers. These almost entirely
> feature no people at all - with the exception of one PC mag which features
> a tasteful headshot of a computer generated woman (I'm willing for this to
> be included in the next set of figures, if you like) and a few with men on
> the covers.
>
> Which leaves us the top shelf - a total of 10 magazines, 5 each targetted
> at men and women. Of the 5 targetted at men you can see that 4 are
> obviously feature an amount of nudity sexualisation (although there is no
> actual bits on show). The fifth male targetted mag features a woman as
> well, dressed, but with a bared shoulder and a sexualised pose.
>
> Of the female-oriented magazines three of them feature a man with his top
> off. One doesn't feature a person on the cover. And one (ironically going
> back to the blog post linked last night) features a man with his top button
> undone... and water spilling down his chin and onto his chest.
>
> I make that 5:4, or 6:4 if you want to include the other image.
>
> My conclusions?
>
> Sex sells to men and women, somewhat equally. Tasteful pictures of women
> sell to women. Cars and digital imagery sell to men.
>
> Tom
>
>
>
>
>
> On 2 May 2012 22:52, Ryan Kaldari <rkaldari(a)wikimedia.org
wrote:
>
>> **
>> On 5/2/12 2:38 PM, Thomas Morton wrote:
>>
>> On 2 May 2012 22:36, Ryan Kaldari <rkaldari(a)wikimedia.org
wrote:
>>
>>> Perfect opportunity to share one of my favorite blog memes:
>>>
http://thehairpin.com/2011/11/women-struggling-to-drink-water
>>>
>>> Seriously though, it doesn't seem that controversial to say that
>>> mainstream advertising heavily skews to female nudity. Next time you pass a
>>> magazine stand, count the number of covers with female nudity and male
>>> nudity. I'll bet you a wiki-beer it's greater than 2 to 1. Judging by
the
>>> last time I was in Paris, I would guess 10 to 1.
>>>
>>> Ryan Kaldari
>>>
>>
>> On the principle of genuine interest I will take you up on that
>> challenge :) and will report back tomorrow.
>>
>> Tom
>>
>>
>> I'll be very happy to be proven wrong. I'm certainly subject to
>> perception bias, but perception isn't always wrong. Don't forget to take
a
>> cell-phone photo if you want to collect your wiki-beer :)
>>
>> Ryan Kaldari
>>
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