Women’s Contemporary Sports Magazines: Cultural Norms and Female Sexualization

Introduction

There is a stark difference between men and women’s sports magazines that you can

clearly observe when given a copy of the latest GNC sports and fitness magazine. The Fall 2017

GNC edition features a double-sided copy of Shape, a women’s fitness magazine on one side,

and Men’s Fitness on the opposing side, which is self explanatory as a men’s fitness magazine.

Just by comparing the cover page of Shape and Men’s Fitness will give you a revealing look into

the cultural norms and views of modern society within non-fiction journalism; specifically,

sports magazines. In this study, the words, “health,” “fitness,” and “sports” magazines will be

synonymous in describing general magazines that address the general audience with health and

fitness tips. Sports magazines seek to target people who are, or aspiring to be, fit. It has barely hit

a century since women were featured in sports magazines, and this is due to the growing rights of

women that change and progress just as much as their fashion styles do. As fashion began to

allow women more freedom and movement in their clothing, this has also contributed to women

being increasingly interested in participating in sports and athleticism.

Although women are increasingly featured on the cover pages of sports magazines, it is

the manner in which they are presented that draws attention to the way that females in today’s

society are viewed. I will focus my study specifically on the cover pages of women’s sports

magazines due to the visual nature that models display of cultural norms and stereotypes, as well

as the cover page’s insightful sneak peak into main topics that will be discussed later in the

magazine. This leads to my research question: how do the adjectives and model poses, depicted
on the cover pages of women’s sports magazines, reflect the cultural norms and inherent

sexualization of women in modern society?

There has been a lot of conversation surrounding the sexualization of females in sports

and sports journalism. Susan Birrell and Cheryl Cole, professors who use a feminist lens to

analyze sport and leisure culture, explore the cultural and gender norms that seek to sexualize

and perpetuate femininity ideals. Caroline Heldman, an assistant professor of politics studying

issues of gender and race, describes the out-of-body image and how women are objectified and

sexualized in the media, which leads to a poisonous trend in females’ perceptions of their bodies,

one that has recently been recognized by social scientists as self-objectification – viewing one’s

body as a sex object to be consumed by the male gaze. Joy Zoodsma, a graduate student who did

her thesis analyzing why general women’s sports magazines fail, adds to the conversation of

gender and cultural norms that surround women by describing the clash between feminism and

consumerism in women’s sports and health magazines. She states that women are expected to

construct their bodies into an ideal for men. There is a constant battle of women owning their

bodies versus using their bodies to gain attention, and this is seen within the cover pages of

women’s sports magazines today. Finally, Lisa Sheaffer, another graduate student who did her

thesis on conflicting messages in women’s fitness magazines, adds to the conversation of the

stereotypical coverage of women in sports magazines.

The theoretical framework that I will use to examine the cultural norms and female

sexualization of women in sports magazines will include Cultural-Historical Activity Theory

(CHAT), which is a socio-cultural theory developed by Vygotsky (Wilson, 21) to explain “the

development of human consciousness through mediation by the use of psychological tools such

as language…we change culture and society through mediation, and in turn this changes us”
(Wilson, 21). Leont’ev extended CHAT to include groups of people, so I will be incorporating

the activity system into my framework to explain how “activity systems have a particular motive

or object, which participants achieve through various forms of mediation, even if individual

participants are not always fully aware of the goal or object which the activity system aims to

achieve” (Wilson, 21). The Cultural-Historical Activity Theory explains how the genre of

women’s sports magazines contribute to contemporary society and culture, and the activity

system describes the genre of women’s sports magazines as a way to see “those involved in the

system, the rules and norms, the community, a division of labor, a desired object, and an

outcome – all of which experience gradual or sudden change” (Converse, 452).

To look into how the cover page’s adjectives and model poses in women’s sports

magazines sexualize women and reflect the cultural norms of today’s society, I will analyze two

cover pages from each contemporary women’s health and fitness magazines: Women’s Health,

Shape, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Health, which leads to eight cover pages in my data set.

This study can provide an in depth focus on how today’s cultural norms toward women,

especially depicted within women’s sports magazines, can actually stunt them from being

stronger and healthier due to expectations on women. Instead of forcing limitations and

expectations that sexualize women, the better alternative is to encourage equality and motivation

for strength and wellness among any gender type.

Data and Analysis

I specifically chose my data set to be contemporary cover pages of women’s sports

magazines so that I can research the issues around female sexualization and norms that are

occurring today. Another reason for focusing on a contemporary time period of women’s sports

magazines was due to the fact that there wasn’t a wide historical background of women’s sports
magazines available since they have been known to cease publication in several cases. Women

are generally not interested in sports or sports magazines as much as men are, in fact, “women

account for only about 25% of sport-viewers… there are three male viewers for every female

viewer” (Sheaffer, 11). This explains why the search for contemporary women’s sports

magazines was limited. I found four current publications that featured women’s health and

fitness, and found the patterns and rhetoric interesting in examining the cultural norms and

expectations within each cover page.

I picked two cover pages from the Women’s Health magazine: the September 2017

edition featuring Sophia Vergara and the September 2015 edition featuring Chrissy Teigen. The

two cover pages from Shape for this data set consists of the June 2010 edition featuring Kim

Kardashian and the June 2013 edition featuring Britney Spears. The two cover pages from

Muscle and Fitness Hers consists of the June 2016 edition featuring Jenna Renee Webb and the

May/June 2014 edition featuring Carmen Electra. The two cover pages from Health include the

March 2016 edition featuring Ashley Benson and the November 2015 featuring Victoria Justice.

When examining each cover page for adjectives and rhetoric in fitness tips, there were

common words used such as “sexy,” “young,” “sleek,” and/or “lean”. The common recurring

theme in each cover page was to look sexy and young, paired with “fast-track” ways to achieve

these goals. Heldman explains the problem with this type of rhetoric being disseminated in

women’s sports magazines, which is that girls are taught to view their bodies as projects that

need work before they can attract others, whereas boys are likely to learn to view their bodies as

tools to use to master the environment. The theme of being hot or sexy in fitness magazines

detracts from the purpose of fitness as being a tool for health and wellness, and encourages

women to focus on their physical appearances.

 Constantly using these degrading adjectives of achieving a youthful or sexy appearance

will only lead to women self-objectifying themselves by constantly analyzing their physical

appearances for flaws to work on. The rules and norms that these women’s sports magazines

portray are perpetuated in society, and can be examined through the activity system, which

“allows for the teasing out of tensions and contradictions” (Converse, 452). Although these

degrading themes appear now, it is possible to shift the rhetoric within the genre of women’s

fitness to more positive themes of strength, health, and wellness.

The models’ within each cover page all included smiling, bare skin – even nudity in both

of the Women’s Health editions, and a pose that involved touching themselves. Although these

models are on the cover pages of fitness magazines, there seems to be a connection between the

adjectives that refer to being “sexy” or “hot,” and the models’ poses that exude femininity and

delicacy. Birrell and Cole bring up the question of

Figure 3
whether or not a woman can be strong,

aggressive, competitive, and still be considered

feminine. The answer seems to be no, when

examining the cover pages of contemporary

women’s sports magazines. Sofia Vergara, in the

September 2017 edition of Women’s Health, is

pictured nude, and touching herself as she smiles.

Chrissy Teigen, pictured in Figure 3, is posing

nude and has her arms wrapped around herself, as

she seems to be laughing. These cover pages

display these actresses as confident and sexy, yet they are posing nude in order to show their
fitness and health. “These images, and the meanings ascribed to them, inform and legitimize

unequal power relations between the sexes” (Birrell, Cole, 72).

Figure 2 states “Get it now! A body built for sex,” and this was paired with other

adjectives spread out on the cover page such as “sexy tush” and “sleek thighs,” with Britney

Spears smiling and posing in a beckoning

Figure 2
manner. This phrase encourages the act of

self-objectification, where Heldman explains

how the female audience can and will

internalize the male gaze and chronically

monitor their physical appearance as if their

bodies are supposed to be built for sex. When

celebrities such as Britney Spears, Chrissy

Teigen, and Sofia Vergara participate in the

dissemination of these degrading sports

magazines, it will only further encourage

females to view themselves as objects to be

used by men, and it can apply the other way

around such as the male audience will only view females as objects to be used.

In conclusion, it is apparent that the degrading depiction of women in contemporary

women’s sports magazines further facilitates female sexualization that limits females into

adopting the norms and standards of femininity.

 Conclusion and Stakes

Although women’s rights have gone a long way, there seems to be a consistently

reoccurring theme of female sexualization and norms that encourage themes of becoming sleek,

sexy, and young. It is interesting to note how noticeably sexualized female models are on the

cover pages of sports magazines, and how the adjectives on the cover pages contribute to the

sexualization of women. “Our relationship with the world is mediated by other people, and the

cultural-historical context in which we live. This context includes language and a range of other

symbols and artifacts” (Wilson, 21). The genre of women’s sports magazines only perpetuates

the cultural norms and gender roles that women are constantly boxed in, which limits their ability

to have any role other than being an object for men’s attention.

Women are urged to be sexy, sleek, and lean in order to fit the role of femininity, and this

in turn limits the capacity for women to be strong, self-confident, and healthy. If women’s health

magazines actually introduced themes of self-love and confidence in their adjectives without

having models smile and pose in beckoning manners, would women still find the content

attractive? Since cultural norms are always ever-changing and activity theory suggests that “not

all tensions or contradictions are obvious to the actors engaged in a given activity” (Meyers),

then it can be said that bringing attention to these degrading adjectives and sexualized models’

poses is the first step in changing the rhetoric used within the genre of women’s sports

magazines.
 Appendix

Figure 1: Shape June 2010 edition

Figure 2: Shape June 2013 edition

Figure 3: Women’s Health September 2015 edition

Figure 4: Women’s Health September 2017 edition

Figure 5: Muscle and Fitness Hers May/June 2014 edition

Figure 6: Muscle and Fitness Hers June 2016 edition

Figure 7: Health November 2015 edition

Figure 8: Health March 2016 edition

 References

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