The Research Of The Female Image In Male Fashion Magazines

The image of women has always been a key issue by the feminist. By summarizing the previous research results on the image of women, it can be seen that they are mainly based on data support from women’s journals or magazines. However, born in the late20th century, Chinese male fashion magazines still can not avoid describing the women while writing the men, although they take the men as the main target audience and the male life as the main theme. So, what the women’s characteristics in Chinese male fashion magazines are is worth to be studied.Selected two representative male fashion magazines in China, Esquire China from1999-2011and FHM China from2005-2011, as its carrier, and from a micro perspective, this research made the image of women as its cut-in point, and did specific quantitative analysis on three parts of those magazines which include the covers, the articles and the pictures where women involved. On the basis of the analysis, it summarized the main characteristics of the image of women presented in those magazines and tried to explain the reasons for these characteristics. Then it tried a more thorough and deeper analysis study on the image of women in Chinese male fashion magazines.The paper of this research consists of four chapters. The first chapter is the introduction. It made a summary of previous research results and described former related research methods and theories so as to provide the basis for the analysis of this research. The second chapter did a quantitative analysis on the covers, the articles and the pictures where women involved in Esquire China and FHM China. It obtained the necessary data to make a comprehensive display of characteristics on the image of women presented in Chinese male fashion magazines. The third chapter made a specific analysis on the image of women presented in male fashion magazines and summarized the general characteristics if it. On the basis of the first three chapters, the fourth chapter tried to explain the factors that cause the characteristics of the image of women presented in Chinese male fashion magazines. According to this research, to a certain degree, the presentation of the image of women in Chinese male fashion magazines is subject to the influence of gender stereotype.At the same time, women are in a subordinate position in Chinese male fashion magazines, which is influenced by the visual impact of consumption of postmodern society. Women related consumption in Chinese male fashion magazines is a kind of symbol consumption, and the image of women is the visual symbol. Specific images and characteristics of women in Chinese male fashion magazines are combined results of a set of factors such as cultural background, reader’s characteristics and commercial concerns.