Face-ism and Objectification in Mainstream and LGBT Magazines

Area of Science:

• Media Studies
• Gender Studies
• Sociology

Background:

• Face-ism, the tendency to depict men with greater facial prominence than women in visual media, is a recognized form of sexism.
• Previous research has primarily focused on mainstream media, leaving a gap in understanding gender representation in publications targeting diverse audiences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the presence of face-ism in magazines catering to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) audiences.
• To compare gender representation and facial prominence in LGBT magazines with those in mainstream publications.
• To determine if overall gender differences in facial prominence persist in contemporary mainstream magazines.

Main Methods:

• Content analysis of images from selected mainstream and LGBT magazines.
• Quantitative assessment of facial prominence for male and female subjects depicted in the magazines.
• Comparative analysis of face-ism prevalence across different magazine titles and categories.

Main Results:

• Face-ism was identified in Newsweek but not in Time, The Advocate, or Out.
• No significant overall differences in facial prominence were found between mainstream and LGBT magazines as broad categories.
• However, significant differences in the facial prominence of men and women were observed within individual magazines, indicating variability.

Conclusions:

• Face-ism remains a relevant issue in media representation, though its manifestation is not uniform across all publications.
• The study suggests that face-ism may be concentrated in specific magazines rather than being a pervasive issue across entire media categories.
• Future research should consider analyzing individual magazine titles due to the low similarity found between magazines within the same category, with Out and Time showing more similarity than others in their respective groups.