Abstract

Youth and beauty sit hand in hand, this is something that the advertising industry has

commodified in recent decades, to the degree that items such as clothes, cars and even

shampoo are sold by enticing sexual desire for beautiful, youthful models. Fashion however

seems to have taken this one step further continually pushing the boundaries of what is

acceptable within society. This paper looks at two recent issues of the fashion publications

i-D and Dazed to examine the imagery contained within to explore how young models are

sexualised and constructed messages with the images themselves. Utilising a text analysis

approach and applying the media effects theory as well as Mulveys Male gaze argument

this paper asks what are the moral implications on society, and whether society should be

taking a stance against such images. The paper finds that many adverts and editorials with

both issues contain sexualised image of models that appear to be under the age of consent,

and that this representation of the model is a deliberate and calculated approach to

encourage desire to not only the model, but the clothing worn. This paper highlights the

need for further research into the real-world ramifications of such media messages upon

the target audiences of said publications and projection of sexual desire upon teenagers.