A study of the more than fifty US and International glossy publications for women. This analysis focuses on the strategies by which the commercial structure shapes the cultural content, the magazines' repetitive attempts to secure a consensus about the feminine that is grounded in consumerism, and the contradictory semiotic structures at work within and between purchased ads, covert ads, and editorial features.

Comprising the largest of magazine categories in the United States, nearly fifty glossy publications addressed to women appear monthly on news-stands. They are a multi-million-dollar business and essential to the marketing of commodities in the consumer society. At the same time, they present to readers a master narrative about the world, an ostensibly women-centred account of reality that links the utopian to the everyday. The multiple mini-narratives that begin on the front covers and extend to the ads and features inside combine to offer a highly pleasurable, appealing consensus about the feminine. Decoding Women's Magazines studies the contradictory semiotic structures at work within and between purchased ads, covert ads, and editorial features in such genres as the beauty and fashion magazines, the service and home titles, those aimed at minority audiences, new female workers, and women with special interests and spending power. Whether addressing readers as Mademoiselle or Ms., contemporary women's magazines employ similar textual strategies to conflate commodities and desire, and thereby attain immense circulations and profits.

"Comprising the largest of magazine categories in the United States, nearly fifty glossy publications addressed to women appear monthly on news-stands. They are a multi-million-dollar business and essential to the marketing of commodities in the consumer society. At the same time, they present to readers a master narrative about the world, an ostensibly women-centred account of reality that links the utopian to the everyday. The multiple mini-narratives that begin on the front covers and extend to the ads and features inside combine to offer a highly pleasurable, appealing consensus about the feminine. Decoding Women's Magazines studies the contradictory semiotic structures at work within and between purchased ads, covert ads, and editorial features in such genres as the beauty and fashion magazines, the service and home titles, those aimed at minority audiences, new female workers, and women with special interests and spending power."--Publisher's description.

A study of the more than fifty US and International glossy publications for women. This analysis focuses on the strategies by which the commercial structure shapes the cultural content, the magazines' repetitive attempts to secure a consensus about the feminine that is grounded in consumerism, and the contradictory semiotic structures at work within and between purchased ads, covert ads, and editorial features.

Understanding Women's Magazines investigates the changing landscape of women's magazines. Anna Gough-Yates focuses on the successes, failures and shifting fortunes of a number of magazines including Elle, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Frank, New Woman and Red and considers the dramatic developments that have taken place in women's magazine publishing in the last two decades. Understanding Women's Magazines examines the transformation in the production, advertising and marketing practices of women's magazines. Arguing that these changes were driven by political and economic shifts, commercial cultures and the need to get closer to the reader, the book shows how this has led to an increased focus on consumer lifestyles and attempts by publishers to identify and target a 'new woman'.

Scholarly engagement with the magazine form has, in the last two decades, produced a substantial amount of valuable research. Authored by leading academic authorities in the study of magazines, the chapters in The Routledge Handbook of Magazine Research not only create an architecture to organize and archive the developing field of magazine research, but also suggest new avenues of future investigation. Each of 33 chapters surveys the last 20 years of scholarship in its subject area, identifying the major research themes, theoretical developments and interpretive breakthroughs. Exploration of the digital challenges and opportunities which currently face the magazine world are woven throughout, offering readers a deeper understanding of the magazine form, as well as of the sociocultural realities it both mirrors and influences. The book includes six sections: -Methodologies and structures presents theories and models for magazine research in an evolving, global context. -Magazine publishing: the people and the work introduces the roles and practices of those involved in the editorial and business sides of magazine publishing. -Magazines as textual communication surveys the field of contemporary magazines across a range of theoretical perspectives, subjects, genre and format questions. -Magazines as visual communication explores cover design, photography, illustrations and interactivity. -Pedagogical and curricular perspectives offers insights on undergraduate and graduate teaching topics in magazine research. -The future of the magazine form speculates on the changing nature of magazine research via its environmental effects, audience, and transforming platforms.

It is a stealthy silence that is challenged in an inspiring volume on sexuality in contemporary Indian culture. This anthology is a timely intervention that not only attempts to locate sex as a tangible truth in an Indian context but also inspires a hundred questions regarding hidden contours.