Girls in Magazines



Objective(s) & Context

  1. Raise awareness about the influences of media on our understanding of body image.

  2. Build critical thinking skills through deconstructing media images from teenage girls’ magazines.

 

Duration

60 minutes

 

Group Size

12–30

 

Age Group

10–16 years old

 

Skills

Critical thinking, analytical, and communication skills, reflection

 

Format & Technique

Large group and small group work

 

Materials

Girls’ magazines

Large cardboard

Scissors

Glue

 

Facilitation Tips

  • Girls can often ask for clarity about the conceots this activity works around, such as “What is natural and what is artificial?”. Rather than giving them a definition, ask the group what the term or concept means for them and invite them to choose pictures according to their own definition.

 

Popular Education Prompts

  • This activity can stimulate conversation about what’s important to the girls, their experiences and thoughts vis-à-vis media and body image.

  • You may want to take note of the types of conversations that arise in order to follow-up with another workshop that responds to their needs or questions at a later date. For example, you might want to follow-up with media activism or a media arts workshop if the girls want to create their own media, or a self-esteem building workshop if this activity was triggering.

 

Leading the Activity: Steps to Take

Preparation:

  1. Trace a line down the middle of a piece of cardboard and write each of the following on either side of the line. Create one cardboard for each pair of words.

  • Round – Thin

  • Artificial – Natural

  • Active – Passive

  • White women (or Caucasian) – Women of colour

  • Able-bodied – Living with a disability

 

Workshop:

Part 1: Small-group work (15 minutes)

  1. Divide the group in four or five smaller groups

  2. Distribute many youth tragetted magazines to each group along with a cardbord with the terms written on it.

  3. Ask the group to cut out and glue corresponding images onto the cardboard.

 

Part 2: Presentation (20 minutes)

  1. Each group takes a turn presenting their collages to the large group.

  2. Invite each small group to talk about what images were easy or hard to find.

 

Part 3: Large-group discussion (25 minutes)

  1. Lead a discussion using the suggested questions for debriefing:

  • Going from the images that you found in the magazines, do these images really represent reality?

  • What is different from the images and reality and the people around you?

  • Do these images tell us things about being an ideal girl or woman?

  • Were there girls and young women that were not represented in these images?

  • How do we feel when images in magazines do not include or represent us?

  • Why do you think the magazines present us with models and images that are so different from reality?

  • This activity is about magazines, but can you name other sources that present us with unrealistic images and representations of people?

  • Do you think that these images have an impact? On whom? What is the impact?

  1. If you used magazines that are targeted towards youth in general or to boys and young men, you can ask:

    • What are these images telling us about the ideal boy and masculinity?

    • Do you think this has an influence on boys and young men? Why? How?

    • Do these images represent all boys and young men? Are there boys and young men who are not represented?

  1. For a deeper discussion, you can address issues of heterosexism in magazines, for example, the idea that everyone is and should be heterosexual.

  • After looking through the magazines, what do you think about the representation of heterosexuality versus homosexuality?

  • Is homosexuality and/or queerness represented? If it is represented, how is it represented?

  • What do these images say about queer, bisexual, and lesbian girls?

  • What kinds of images do we see?

  • Why do you think homosexuality and queerness is not represented in most youth magazines?

 

Debrief

  • Present alternative youth magazines to the group. This may require that you do some research. Try looking for magazines that represent a diversity of girls and young women and using magazines that are created by and for youth and young women, look for images that have not been altered for publication.

  • Ask the group if they can think of any solutions to these limiting images? Ask them how they want to take action.

 

Success Indicators

Participants are:

  • More aware of how media affects public perceptions of body image

  • Able to decipher that images in magazines are not representatives of reality

  • Participants are exercising critical thinking skills

  • Able to imagine alternative and more realistic representations in media

 

 

Source: Geneviève Morand, Authentik Magazine and Spark Media.