A Study of Gender with Specific Reference to Boys’ and Girls’ Magazines

... n it about how girls should look, and talks about other peoples lives and problems a lot. especially to do with love. This signifies that girls take a lot of notice of how other 'cool' people dress, so that they can do the same, and fit in with everybody else. They also believe in sharing their problems a lot, such as in the problem pages, and enjoy hearing about other peoples lives, especially when it is to do with celebrities. This is further evidence to indicate that girl try to be like other people far more than boys do. It also shows that they are nosy. Shoot, on the other hand, is not split into different sections, and there are far fewer articles mentioned in the contents, in fact, there are only five, and a list of the posters that can be found in the magazine. This is not due just to the fact that Shoot has about half the number of pages that J17 has got. It is mostly down to the fact that the media presume that boys are not as bothered or attentive to detail as girls are.

The language used in the contents page is the final major difference between the two magazines' contents pages. J17 uses phrases to describe its articles such as: "Mad fer Backpacks: The coolest way to carry your clobber", whereas Shoot's are less interesting and are along the lines of "Owen on his hopes at Liverpool". There is a big difference between the two descriptions of the articles. For a start, the J17 article is related to fashion and being 'cool' in as many ways as is possible. If the article was in a boys magazine, it would probably not mention 'cool' and just mention that it is an article about backpacks. However, as it stands, it is done because girls like to feel reassured all the time that they are doing the 'right' thing and the manufacturers want to sell a great number of the backpacks. It is subtle advertising, because although it is not an actual advert, it does tell the girls, through signifiers, that if they buy the backpack then they will certainly be cool. The Shoot article description does not consider it necessary to use fancy slang or words to try and get the boy to read the article, because it is considered sufficient for the boy to see the name of the footballer, in this case, Michael Owen, and want to read the article because they look up to the footballer as one of their heroes. This is another of the great differences between the two genders that is visible from these magazines.

Now, I have chosen two articles, one from each magazine to compare. The main things to look ...