Looking at Women Who Read Men’s Magazines
Patricia Gaile Cotaoco
Discourses of Cultural Production class
For Him Magazine or FHM is one of the most popular men’s magazines in the country. It is a smorgasbord of pictures and articles about sports, the latest gadgets in the market, reviews, men’s fashion, and, of course, women and sex. Published monthly, the magazine features different women every month—celebrity or otherwise. It easily grabs the public’s attention because the front cover is always a picture of a scantily-clad, or sometimes even naked, woman posed in a very provocative way.
Obviously, the main target of the magazine is men. According to its Philippine website, the main target of FHM is 21 to 30 year-old males, usually in the AB and upper C class. However, FHM is not only enjoyed my men. There is a good percentage of women who read FHM too.
In an interview with Florabel Ibañez, a 32-year old chemist, she reads FHM “not only for entertainment, but also [to] learn some things.” She describes the magazine as “very informative.” The other interviewees have given the same answer as well. Some of these women, like April Castillo, 26, and Kelly Gelvezon, 27, even say that they get to have a “peer into the man’s world” by reading FHM and other men’s magazines.
Why do women read FHM?
Based on the interviews conducted, there are three reasons women read FHM: (a) for entertainment purposes, (b) to get information, and (c) out of curiosity. For entertainment, these women read the Ladies’ Confessions, Bar Room Jokes, and the True Stories sections. All of these sections are composed of short articles or stories sent by the readers of the magazine. Female readers send short stories about their sexual escapades, and these appear on the Ladies’ Confessions. The True Stories are short embarrassing or plain hilarious stories sent by men and women. As for the Bar Room Jokes, it is a compilation of the usual dirty jokes that men usually exchange with each other.
From the answers of the respondents, it seems that they read these sections to escape boredom. Although not all of them buy the magazine regularly, they read it whenever they have the chance or whenever they feel like reading.
According to Jackie Stacey, women used the act of going to the movie theater and watching a movie to escape from their dreary lives during the war (118). The same thing can be said for the female readers of FHM. At some point, they feel burned out and tired. This can account for things like work or just the plain simplicity of their lives. And so, the idea of being able to escape, even for a brief moment, excites these women. As Elaine Malsi, a 24-year old Research Assistant who does not buy the magazine but reads them whenever a copy is available, “It helps get boredom out of your way.” By reading the magazine, they can somehow get a break from the routine that they have to go through everyday. By reading the jokes and the other articles, they do not only have a good laugh, but they can also let their minds wander and not think of what comes in next in their “things-to-do-for-today” list.
The second reason women read FHM is that they want to get informed. The magazine has sections like Sex Confidential, an advice column about sex, and several review articles on the latest gadgets, movies, music, and books. It also features well-written articles about the latest fashion trend for men, sports, cars, and celebrities. These sections are what some of the women read for information. Ibañez said, “[The magazine] is very informative. I learn about man, manhood, cars, technology and girls.” For AJ Noel, a 24-year old freelance web designer and graphic artist, reading FHM also helps her with her job. “I get a lot of tips about the latest trends and design concepts,” she says. There are also some women, like Nikka Molina, 22, and Lilie Lazaro, 26, who take the information they get from the magazine as things that they can use for the future. Aside from the articles included in the magazine, Molina and Lazaro also consider the Ladies’ Confessions section to be informative and helpful for them. Molina claims that she gets to “learn from other people’s experiences.” The same thing goes for Lazaro who said she can use the information from the Ladies’ Confessions for future use. “When I’m married na. You know, the things a man and a woman do when they’re married na,” she said.
This what Stacey refers to as Consumption. It is a “site of negotiated meanings, of resistance and of appropriation as well as of subjection and exploitation” (118). Despite the numerous commodities that a movie advertises, Stacey argues that the audience is still an agent. The audience cannot be told what to do and how to use the meanings they get from the movies they watch. This is also what Stuart Hall meant when he came up with the concept of negotiated meanings. According to Hall, the audience does not take the meaning of the text completely. “Decoding within the negotiated version, contains a mixture of adaptive and oppositional elements. It accords the privileged position to the dominant definitions of events while reserving the right to make a more negotiated application to ‘local conditions’” (516). In this case, instead of consuming commodities, the readers of the magazine (i.e. Molina and Lazaro) consume information. Although they already claim that they can use the information for future purposes, they still decide on what to do with them. They choose which particular information to absorb, and eventually, they decide on what to do and how to use them.
Five of the women who have been interviewed said they started reading the magazine—or the reason they still read the magazine—is that they were curious. Twenty-eight-year old Jade Angeles-Padero, a housewife, said “I just get curious of its content…why men are so fond of it.” It was the same for Vanessa Javier, a 26-year old Site Support Officer. “I was intrigued by it. [My friends] said it was fun reading ladies’ confession, so I bought a copy.”
This curiosity is what pushed women to read men’s magazines like FHM. Having the urge of wanting to find out what it is that engages men into reading FHM means that they want to identify with men. They want to be informed of what is going on in the men’s world. As Castillo put it, “It helps me understand the workings of the male mind.” She even adds that “the magazine talks to women in a way that screams ‘Read me so you’ll understand that big gorilla you’re with better.’” Based on these answers, it can be said that women, although they might not be aware of it, still concede to the domineering ways of men. Stacey’s second category of focus, which is Identification, may be applied here. “Film texts are said to position female spectators in the interests of patriarchy” (118). However, Stacey argued that “by shifting the focus, [the audience] can generate fantasies of power, control and self-confidence” (118). On one hand, the idea of women as agents is still a possibility. Having the chance to “peer into the man’s world” may be a good way for women to learn how to resist male domination and know how to be in control of their own lives. On the other hand, wanting to be able to “understand the workings of the male mind” only puts women in a position wherein she wants to learn how to serve him better. As Angeles-Padero said, “Women can understand their men better, about their thoughts and needs by reading men’s magazines once in a while.”
It is evident that when Castillo said, “Maybe the girls would learn a thing or two on how we can make them [men] melt in our hands more,” she was pertaining to a desire of wanting to be a man, or at least be in a man’s position. Initially, one may think of this response as a woman’s desire to be in control. However, that kind of attitude is only known to man. Stacey argued that “the version of female desire that emerges is a very pessimistic one: woman’s desire only appears on the screen to be punished and controlled by assimilation to the desire of the male character” (24-25). What this means is that, woman is still oppressed and that her desire is only superficial because it is still the man’s desire that is taking over her.
Looking at other women
The idea of Identification can also be applied to the female readers of FHM seeing or looking at other women (the models) featured in the magazine. The women featured in the magazines are not wearing anything, or if they do, only a skimpy bikini. Their pictures, wherein they are posed in the most seductive way possible, are posted on almost all the pages of the magazine for men to look at. These pictures are what really make the magazine sell. When men see them, of course, the most natural thing to do is to buy the magazine, and then ogle and drool at the sight of these commodified women. According to Mulvey, “women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact. [A] woman displayed as sexual object is the leit-motif of erotic spectacle” (348).
But what if these models are looked at by female readers?
The reactions of the respondents regarding the models featured in FHM vary. It is interesting to note the respondents who feel indifferent or talk as if they are blaming the models for choosing to pose for a men’s magazine. Ivy Anabo, 26, works as a Customer Solutions Officer. Anabo has been reading FHM for six years now, but she does not see anything wrong with the way the magazine portrays women. “They’re okay. I don’t think they’re exploited or anything,” she said. She even added that “I see women who think and feel that they are sexy, and are not afraid to show the world.” Another respondent, Lazaro, said she only feels the model is being exploited when she experiences pre-menstrual syndrome. “It’s their choice din naman e. So parang kahit minsan degrading na on the part of the girls, parang iniisip ko na lang, whatever, ginusto din nya yan. She chose to use her body instead of her brain to earn money,” Lazaro said.
While most of them maintain the “It’s okay” or “It’s their decision” response, there are also some who discriminate the models. According to Malsi, she is “disgusted if the model looks cheap.” As for Grace Chan, she even “criticizes and picks on them.” While for Gelvezon, she is actually amazed at some of the women. “Many women really want to be ‘that’ famous!” she said. Javier thinks of the same way. “Maybe it’s their fastest way to go into show business,” she said.
Responses such as these imply that these women consider the models in the magazine as the “Other,” which further adds the oppression of these women models. Again, this is a culture of male dominance. Hélène Cixous argued that “the feminine is always the ‘Other’ or the negative in the hierarchies which society constructs” (195). And so, since the female readers take on the male dominant character by discriminating or feeling that “some women [models] should not be in the magazine because they look cheap,” the models discriminated upon constitute the “Other” Cixous is talking about.
Another way of reinforcing the male domination culture and oppression of women is the perspective that the female readers employ when they are reading FHM, and thus, seeing the models in the magazine. According to Jacques Lacan’s mirror stage theory, “the child, when looking at itself in the mirror—or simply at another child—only perceives another human being with whom it merges and identifies” (98). However, the child imagines her reflection in the mirror to be “more complete, perfect and powerful” (van Zoonen, 89). It is during this phase also when the child first recognizes herself as a subject and as an object.
And so, in this case, when a female reader sees a picture of another woman, posed very seductively, does she identify with the woman in the magazine (as an object)? Or does she identify with the male character who does the looking (or the subject)?
Some of the interviewees, like Castillo and Ibañez, identify with the women when they said that sometimes they wanted to be like or look like them. “I would want to look at least half as good looking as them,” Castillo said. As for Ibañez, she said, “they inspired me to work out, to have a body like an FHM model.” This is what exactly the makers of the magazine prefer to happen: that their female readers want to look like their models. This is the preferred reading, as Hall calls it. These women are commodified, and placed on the pages of a magazine, alongside several advertisements about sex (e.g. ads about condoms). In doing so, the female readers of FHM would feel compelled or would desire to look like them—beautiful, white, skinny, and sexy. The models and the look that they project signify “willingness and readiness to subsume to the male consumer. [Their] body postures construct an image of women as powerless and submissive” (van Zoonen, 19). Simply put, what FHM does is that it defines what beautiful and what sexy should be for women. Wanting to look like the models featured in FHM means that female readers condone the commodification that is being done to the models. They further oppress these women by making them as their inspiration to work out and beautify themselves, in the hopes that, soon, they would have the same kind of body: a body worthy to be in the pages of FHM.
However, it is also possible that the female readers of the magazine identify with a male character. According to Mulvey, “she may find herself secretly, unconsciously almost, enjoying the freedom of action and control over the diegetic world that identification with a hero provides” (123). Since reading FHM is a form of escape for women, it is then possible that female readers may also take on the male role, and actually enjoy it. This can be exemplified in two of the respondents, Noel and Lazaro. Noel described the magazine as “visually stimulating,” especially if it features “a hot chick” that she likes. As for Lazaro, she claimed that she is sometimes “a bit turned on” when she looks at the pictures of the models in the magazine.
According to John Berger, “even if the women do the looking they do not seem to do it through their own eyes” (in van Zoonen, 87). Critical thinkers, like Mary Ann Doane, and Mulvey maintain the same position as Berger. According to Doane, “a reversal of the gaze is impossible” (91). Mulvey added that a masculination of spectatorship is needed if the female spectator is to identify with the active desire. This means that the female spectator should learn how to adopt a masculine view of things. Cixous’ idea that “in a certain way, ‘woman is bisexual’” (201), means that women can take on the masculine and feminine position. However, according to Stacey, it does not necessarily mean that she desires both sexes. She just has the capacity to shift from one position to another.
If Cixous’ position is that a woman is bisexual, Mulvey claims that she is more of a transvestite. “The transvestite wears clothes which signify a different sexuality, a sexuality which, for the woman, allows a mastery over the image and the very possibility of attaching the gaze to desire” (138).
From these arguments, it can be said then that there is no such thing as a female gaze, that a woman does not really have anything she can call her own because even a mere gaze belongs to men. The viewer, in this case, the female reader of FHM, looks at the object (another woman), but still looks at her through the eyes of a male. And so, regardless of who is looking at the women in men’s magazines, and regardless of who the viewer identifies with when she is looking, it only leads to one thing: more oppression for the women in the magazine.
Bibliography
Cixous, Hélène. “The Laugh of the Medusa.” Ed. Maggie Humm. Feminisms.
Doane, Mary Ann. “Film and the Masquerade: Theorising the Female Spectator.” Ed. Sue Thornham. Feminist Film Theory: A Reader.
Lacan, Jacques. “From Simone de Beauvoir to Jacques Lacan.” Ed. Toril Moi. Sexual/Textual Politics.
Mulvey, Laura. “Afterthoughts on ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ Inspired by King Vidor’s Duel in the Sun (1946).” Ed. Sue Thornham. Feminist Film Theory: A Reader.
Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Ed. Maggie Humm. Feminisms.
Stacey, Jackie. Star Gazing: Hollywood Cinema and Female Spectatorship.
Stacey, Jackie. “Gender and Sexuality.” Ed. John Storey. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture.
van Zoonen, Liesbet. Feminist Media Studies.
About FHM. FHM
Javier, Vanessa. Interview with researcher. 26 June 2008
Molina, Nikka. E-mail interview with researcher. 1 July 2008
Noel, AJ. Interview with researcher. 2 July 2008
Anabo, Ivy. Interview with researcher. 8 July 2008
Lazaro, Lilie. Interview with researcher. 11 July 2008
Malsi, Elaine. E-mail interview with researcher. 13 July 2008
Gelvezon, Kelly. E-mail interview with researcher. 14 July 2008
Chan, Grace. E-mail interview with researcher. 16 July 2008
Angeles-Padero, Jade. E-mail interview with researcher. 16 July 2008
Castillo, April. E-mail interview with researcher. 17 July 2008.
Ibañez, Florabel. E-mail interview with researcher. 26 July 2008.
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