Evaluation And Analysis On Consumption Culture Of Female Fashion Magazines

As the rapid development of economy and the mass media, labels like “sexy”,“beautiful”, and “vogue” have been highlighted, even been “shaped”. Female fashion magazine, asa platform of female image shaping, for the purpose of promoting certain products, usually modelsthe beauty into a “myth”, steadying female consumption.This essay introduces and analyzes <Rayli-shang>, a magazine belonging to theinfluential Rayli company. As early as2005,<Rayli> ranked first in the fashion magazine marketwith21.09%market share. In the same time, it possesses Rayli.com.cn, the largest female websitein China. Rayli Book, a fashion book with the largest circulation around the country, belongs to itas well.<Rayli-shang> started publication on May2006. It is not only the earliest e-magazine inRayli Company, but also the earliest and the most influential Chinese brand e-magazine. Itcommits itself to introducing dresses and accessories. Thanks to the popularity and resources theRayli Company offered,<Rayli-shang> combines the applications of flash, video, audio, and othermultimedia technologies together, stimulating the sense organs of readers and arousing thereaders’ desire to participate.The consumerism of fashion magazine is greatly highlighted by the high-techmultimedia. Readers desperately indulged in the fantasy of “images”. Admittedly, fashionmagazines not only help readers dress up, but make a tremendous contribution to promoting thefashion industry around the country as well. However, as a cultural product, female fashion magazines care nothing but consumption. They seldom concentrate on the deep thinking about theproblems their readers may have in their daily life, let alone having the critical dimensions ofspiritual and aesthetic qualities. Trapping in a world of chasing wealth and consumption is, in asense, equal to name-dropping.The sense of worth and aesthetic of students and young women, who are the majorreaders of those magazines, is challenged constantly. In one hand, out of the desire for beauty, theycan rarely avoid the attraction of fashion magazine, and therefore cause the consumption desire. Inthe other hand, a considerable number of them are still in their adolescence, considering their lifeexperience, they are not qualified to make sensible decisions on the content of the magazines.Spreading the conception of aesthetic is the mission of fashion magazines. As anincreasingly important media, the cultivating function of it cannot be ignored. Hence, it isnecessary to use the fashion magazines in the early years as a reference, find the problems of thepresent fashion magazines, analyze them, understand them, and try to improve them.