Stereotyping in Magazines

Magazines use stereotypes to reinforce an ideology that is preset in most individuals’ lives. They exclude what they believe to be unattractive or unacceptable. They include what is perceived to beautiful and position their models or products accordingly. The stereotypes in magazines are typically tall, slim models that seem to be enjoying themselves. A very small percentage of the world actually looks like this. So magazines, fashion magazines in particular, exclude what most consumers actually look like. Not everyone looks like size 2 fashion models with perfect hair when they’re at the beach. Magazines like Teen Vogue are notorious for this. To seem like they are including a variety of different people, they use models from different ethnic backgrounds, even though they may be “different” they all have the same overall body shape and I can guarantee you that very few people look like this in reality. The companies for the different brands are also to blame. For example Dolce & Gabbana tend to have a group of young adults very well dressed with a lot of makeup lounging together in a variety of positions that seem casual, and in these ads they are wearing the product or the product is displayed but typically this is too overdone.