Most American women have read Marie Claire, ELLE, Cosmopolitan or Women’s Health at some point in their lives; perhaps through a magazine subscription or while waiting in line at the grocery store. I’ve been frequenting beauty magazine websites since I started this blog, and I’ve noticed some striking similarities between the sites. Here is what I saw Monday, October 12th when visiting four homepages. With the exception of Cosmo, the content of the headers and the location of the logo and menu are all nearly the same.
I scrolled further down and noticed all four of these sites had similar Social Justice sections. (The Marie Claire image with a Trump sticker plastered over the woman’s face is a real gem.)
Then I went all the way to the bottom of each site (it took awhile) and it all made sense. Here is what I saw down there.
My favorite magazines are owned by Hearst Communications, Inc., a multinational mass media conglomerate. This explains the uniformity in appearance, content and opinion. It’s even possible they are all written by the same editorial team using different brand voices. I feel like I’ve just peeked behind the curtain a little. What seemed like a consensus of fashionable ideas is actually one company’s voice amplified across four magazines. These are the opinions Hearst would like us to have. American women take pride in thinking for themselves, but it is terribly hard to hear your own thoughts when companies are shouting their messages at you. The thing to do is to put down the magazine and turn off Netflix, NPR and social media for awhile every day and tune into your own thoughts. Your ideas on health, beauty and politics are more important than anything an editorialist could write.
Alise Elaine 