When girls read : A study about women and lifestyle media in the Nordic region

Abstract: This study sought for the importance and influence of visual text in Lifestyle magazines. The aim was to see the importance of visual text for middle-aged women as well as for the magazines. It also aimed to understand how the reading of these magazines can affect women´s daily life. In the search for these six lifestyle magazines; three Swedish, two Finnish and one Danish, were analysed. There were further six interviews conducted were the Swedish magazines also were shown. What is found is the similarities the magazines pose even though being from different countries. There are some patterns in the visuality that consists. What seemed to be most differently between the magazines was the depiction of women. In the Swedish magazines all women were smiling but for men it seemed optional. The Danish magazine followed this pattern to some extent while the Finnish magazines had full segments of women without even a trace of smile. The six women interviewed all had their reasons for reading lifestyle magazines. Mostly it was to pass time when needed. Although, when reading for fun there had to be some sort of interest in the text or subject to be read. Most important though was that there had to exist recognizability. The women wanted to relate and recognize themselves in the text. This way a meaning was ascribed to the reading. Furthermore, most of them did not reflect on how women were depicted. Still though, when asked all women could give an opinion on how the women in the magazines looked. What was interesting then was that they gave the same description only with different words.