The Making and Unmaking of Body Problems in Seventeen Magazine, 1992-2003

Abstract

This interpretive study explored body-related content Seventeen magazine, a fashion and beauty magazine for adolescent girls, from 1992 to 2003 (inclusive). The authors' work was guided by symbolic convergence theory, which illuminates how rhetorical visions within media can contribute to audience perceptions of reality. Analyses revealed two main rhetorical visions within Seventeen: (1) the making of body problems and (2) the unmaking of body problems. Content related to Rhetorical Vision 1 simultaneously constructed a narrow constellation of body characteristics as ideal and problematized bodies that deviated from this ideal. Content related to Rhetorical Vision 2 provided three different mechanisms for “dealing with” body problems: (a) controlling the body through bodywork regimens, (b) controlling the body through consumption, and (c) staging resistance against dominant cultural discourses about the body (e.g., the thin ideal). Findings suggest that rhetorical visions presented within Seventeen may send mixed messages to adolescents about their bodies.