'The seven things all men love in bed' : young women's magazines and the governance of femininity

Rather than passing judgment of the content of young women’s magazines, it will be argued instead that such texts actually exist as manuals of self-formation, manuals which enroll young women to do specific kinds of work on themselves. In doing so, they form an effective link between the governmental imperatives aimed at constructing particular personas – such as the sexually responsible young girl - and the actual practices whereby these imperatives are operationalised.

I got drunk and lost my virginity : young women's magazines and the management of sexual identity

It has often been argued that young woman’s magazine’s, like Cosmopolitan, Cleo Dolly and Seventeen, constitute a significant instrument in the patriarchal repression of young women - their hegemonic success lying in the fact that they appear to be sites wherein young women are ‘free’ from the elements of coercion so obviously in evidence within other terrains, such as the school and the family. This paper will suggest an alternative approach to these magazines. Rather than locating such texts within an overall model of repression and patriarchal domination, it will be argued here that they can be regarded as practical manuals which enrol young women to do specific kinds of work on themselves. In doing so, they form an effective link between the governmental imperatives aimed at constructing particular personas (such as, for example, ‘the sexually responsible young woman’), and the actual practices whereby these imperatives are operationalised. These manuals do not prevent young women from learning to ‘project a unique self’, they constitute a significant source of practices and techniques through which particular types of self are shaped.

Publication Statistics Magazines 1999-

Vapaakappalekartuntaan perustuva tilasto Suomessa ilmestyvistä aikakauslehdistä vuodesta 1999 lähtien

Touche à tout : magazine des magazines

1909/06 (A2,N6).

Touche à tout : magazine des magazines

1912/07/15 (A5,N7).

Touche à tout : magazine des magazines

1910/02 (A3,N2).

Touche à tout : magazine des magazines

1911/12 (A4,N12).

Touche à tout : magazine des magazines

1912/09/15 (A5,N9).

Touche à tout : magazine des magazines

1913/07 (A6,N7).

Touche à tout : magazine des magazines

1909/04 (A2,N4).

Touche à tout : magazine des magazines

1914/03 (A7,N3).

Touche à tout : magazine des magazines

1912/02 (A5,N2).