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Cross-Cultural Examination of Women's Fashion and Beauty Magazine Advertisements in the United States and South Korea Jaehee Jung and Yoon-Jung Lee Clothing and Textiles Research Journal 2009 27: 274 originally published online 6 January 2009 DOI: 10.1177/0887302X08327087 The online version of this article can be found at: http://ctr.sagepub.com/content/27/4/274

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Cross-Cultural Examination of Women’s Fashion and Beauty Magazine Advertisements in the United States and South Korea

Clothing & Textiles Research Journal 27(4) 274­–286 © 2009 International Textile & Apparel Association Reprints and permission: http://www. sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0887302X08327087 http://ctrj.sagepub.com

Jaehee Jung and Yoon-Jung Lee

Abstract To compare differences in the construction of women's images across the United States and South Korea, this study examines advertisements in fashion and beauty magazines of the two countries. The content analysis includes product/service types, models’ characteristics, and the degrees of female objectification in this advertising venue. More body-related than non-bodyrelated product ads are prevalent in magazines from both countries, yet Korean magazines feature more body-related ads than those in the United States. Caucasian models are predominantly used across the two countries, including Korean publications. Although both Korean and U.S. women are predominantly portrayed as decorative objects, models are more often shown as submissive and passive in Korea but a greater emphasis is on body and sexuality in the United States. The homogenized beauty standards and high levels of objectification observed across the two countries demand marketing strategies that are more inclusive of diverse, active images of women. Keywords cross-cultural, fashion and beauty magazines, content analysis, advertisements or ads

Global media represent an important communication system for consumers around the world—one that is highly important for the marketing/promotional strategies of the fashion industry. Through­out that system, print media such as magazines are considered to be important venues for promoting brands and products because of their strong imagery enhanced by advanced technology. Fashion and beauty magazines in particular have been one of the most successful magazine genres around the world. Cosmopolitan, for example, is published in 28 languages, with 110 editions, reaching 36 million women worldwide (Carr, 2002).

Although media are supposed to reflect the social reality and norms of a society, they in fact create ideals that are socially acceptable. Because magazine advertisements are so pervasive, they can have a significant impact on consumers. Studies have shown that exposure to thin models through magazine reading contributes to body dissatisfaction, decreased self-esteem and confidence, and negative feelings of guilt, anxiety, shame, and depression (Pinhas, Toner, Ali, Garfinkel, & Stuckless, 1999; Tiggemann & McGill, 2004), University of Delaware Korea University, Seoul, South Korea

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Jung, Lee as well as to eating disorders in adolescent girls and adult women (Vaughan & Fouts, 2003). Adolescent girls and young women are particularly vulnerable to the ideal images in these magazines because of their high interest in fashion and beauty. In fact, the reading frequency of the magazines was most strongly predicted by a woman’s desire for selfimprovement (Thomsen, McCoy, Gustafson, & Williams, 2002), and the cues for selfimprovement may well be referenced from idealized images. The effects of advertising are not limited to the idealization of beauty standards. They also include spreading of the gender role ideology of the feminine body. In these ads, women are often depersonified and their bodies are reduced to an aesthetic object to be looked at or to serve as an object of desire for men. This objectification of the female body may reproduce the stereotypic gender roles related to physical appearance and influence women’s experience with and feelings about their bodies. Advanced technology and product globalization lead to standardized advertisements featuring images of models that are distributed around the world. This marketing practice of global advertising can result in the homogenization of beauty standards to which consumers might refer to assess their own appearance and that of others. To date, however, little research has attempted to compare any differences in the construction of these images across different cultures by crossexamining advertising images in fashion and beauty magazines. The current study attempts to fill this gap by examining the extent to which advertisements from selected fashion and beauty magazines manifest women’s sexual and objectified images across two countries: the United States and South Korea. The objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) from feminist perspectives was used as a theoretical framework because it asserts that women are frequently objectified as sex or beauty objects in the media, which can lead to physical self-objectification (Aubrey, 2006). This study examined product/

service types, models’ characteristics, and the tendency to objectify women in fashion and beauty advertising in the two countries. Product/service types such as beauty versus nonbeauty products and model characteristics such as body size were used to try to understand the extent to which magazines from each culture endorse images that may influence body image for readers. The rationale for choosing South Korea and the United States for this study is twofold. First, the two societies are comparable in terms of technology and development yet have contrasting cultural backgrounds. The United States is representative of Western culture, whereas Korea, traditionally under the influence of Confucianism, is representative of Eastern culture. Second, contrary to the assumption that body image issues would be less of a problem for women from nonWestern cultural backgrounds because of their relatively small physique and traditional beauty concepts of mild plumpness, particularly in East Asia, body dissatisfaction has been found to be more severe among Korean women than among American women (see Jung & Forbes, 2006).

Literature Review Images of Women Portrayed in U.S. Mainstream Magazine Advertisements In the United States, sexual images of women are found not only in magazines targeting men but also in magazines aimed specifically at women (Krassas, Blauwkamp, & Weaseling, 2001), thus helping to promote the self-fulfilling prophecy that women should accept an objectified view of themselves. Sexual female images often promote the message that men are able to benefit from a sexual relationship as the product user (in ads targeting men) and that women are able to increase their sexual appeal to men (in ads targeting women). Over time, American women have been represented in the media in more diverse social roles with less overt sexual images. However, empirical research on their media representation claims

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that, although it may be subtle, women are still shown primarily in submissive roles and as sex objects (Milburn, Carney, & Ramirez, 2001). Sexual attractiveness in women is associated with physical beauty, which is considered one of the most important characteristics of femininity. In the United States, “thinness” epitomizes physical female beauty. Although there may have been a period when larger body size was associated with beauty in the United States, female models in advertising have become increasingly thinner over time, as seen in popular fashion magazines from 1959 to 1999 (Sypeck, Gray, & Ahrens, 2004). Because women are so often judged by their physical beauty, the pressure to achieve an ideal appearance is reinforced by ideals of thinness that are presented in a seemingly attainable fashion. When people presume that media images reflect the social norms and cultural values of the society, it seems natural for women to try to measure up to the standards of magazine models. This cultural obsession with thinness for a woman’s ideal appearance has been overtly expressed through a wide array of magazine ads of various consumer products, including weight loss products and services. According to the Federal Trade Commission (n.d.), many of these ads falsely claim that consumers can lose weight without burning fat or energy.

Images of Women Portrayed in Korean Magazine Advertisements Every culture has a set of beliefs and values on femininity, and Korea is no exception. Because Korea has been predominated by Confucian values for more than 500 years, its idea of femininity has traditionally been associated with virtue and modesty (Bell & Chaibong, 2003). Confucianism was the foundation of all important principles in Korea during the Choseon dynasty (1392 to 1910), and its philosophy and practices still retain considerable influence in everyday life. According to these values, men are superior to women and women are bound to home, thereby creating a strongly patriarchal society.

This emphasis on rigid gender roles limited women’s participation and visibility in traditional Korean society as well as their opportunities for education and economic success. The remarkable changes in Korea’s social, economic, and political life between 1980 and 2000 have drastically altered these gender roles, and women have gained increased freedom and opportunities to participate in a wide variety of functions. Despite these changes, however, the literature indicates that Korean ads are still portraying women in a traditional and stereotypical way (Choi, 2007). Even though some advertisers who recognize the importance of the female in initiating purchase decisions are featuring women in more active and professional roles, the prevailing images in Korean ads focus on women’s physical beauty or their role as homemakers (Kim & Lowry, 2005). Traditional feminine beauty in Korea has consisted of being moderately plump with fair skin, cultivated mannerisms and modesty, with a cultural emphasis on inner-beauty. However, shifting dress styles in the early to mid-20th century, which exposed more skin and revealed a woman’s figure, created new definitions in female beauty (Lynn, 2004). Korea’s remarkable changes toward industrialization influenced the development of the broadcasting and entertainment industries, which facilitated the influx of Western ideas about beauty. Since the liberalization of its media in the 1990s (Shim, 2006), Western celebrities and models have been frequently used to sell beauty products and services. Korean pop culture idols share Westernized characteristics of being tall and thin, with big eyes, a perfectly angled nose, a small chin, and long legs. Korean teens were found to be highly influenced by images in the media as adolescents revealed positive attitudes and high psychological needs to identify with celebrities (Kim & Lee, 2002). The increasing number of plastic surgery procedures, such as nose and double eyelid jobs, among Koreans, including teenage girls, may be attributed to the desire to be like the celebrities and models in magazines.

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Jung, Lee Astonishingly, 13% of the general public in Korea has undergone cosmetic surgery, whereas the rate in the United States is 3% (Kim, 2003).

Products and Model Characteristics Shown in Previous Research In the globalization of consumer products and the advertising industry, Western advertising practices and model criteria have been transferred to other cultures. It may not be unusual to encounter Western models, or local models with Western looks, in non-Western societies. Indeed, according to a content analysis by Frith, Shaw, and Cheng (2005) of popular women’s magazines across Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States, Caucasian models were the most frequently used in all three countries, followed by Chinese models. The study’s product types were varied between Western and non-Western societies, with beauty products occupying the greatest proportion of ads in Singapore and Taiwan and clothing making up the largest proportion in the United States. Models’ characteristics of magazine ads seem to reflect the characteristics of the target readers, as images were found to be selectively chosen considering values and norms of the readers. For example, Baker (2005) found that images of women in White-oriented magazines conformed to traditional stereotypical images of gender and race, with ads portraying women in roles and with characteristics that suggest dependency and submissiveness. In contrast, ads in Blackoriented magazines portrayed women as independent and dominant. White women were much more objectified than Black women by being pictured with body only or one body part only. In addition, Black women had more European-like features (e.g., fair skin, a thin figure) in White-oriented than in Black-oriented magazines. According to Bessenoff and Priore (2007), models depicted in women’s magazines do not necessarily reflect the distribution of the ages of their readers, considering that mostly younger models are used even for magazines targeting women older than 35, such as Country Living, Martha

Stewart, or Women’s Day. Also, younger models are thinner and wear less clothing than older models. It may well be the case that standardized ads created in the head offices in Western companies (United States or Western Europe) are transferred to foreign countries with just the headlines translated. Nevertheless, images of women represented in advertising may vary according to the constructed notion of beauty in a particular culture as advertisers attempt to reflect and appeal to local readers’ characteristics. Therefore, cultural variations are expected in images of women portrayed in magazines across different cultures, and this would be the case for the United States and Korea.

Conceptual Framework Objectification of Women We used objectification of women as the central organizing term in our analysis of advertisement content, which allowed us to pay systematic attention to a variety of behaviors, such as portraying women as sex objects and/or decorative items. From a feminist perspective, objectification theory refers to a woman’s body being treated as a scrutinizable object by being separated from her persona (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). When objectification occurs, the female body is seen as a decorative object that is used as part of the scene for the advertised products/services. Sexual objectification often occurs when the focus is on isolated body parts, such as a bare stomach, cleavage, or buttocks, and it is not unusual that isolated body parts are being used in ads as part of or in comparison to product features such as shape, weight, and texture. Objectification of women is closely linked to gender stereotypes perpetuated by women’s roles in the media. Although women’s social and professional roles have been visibly portrayed in women’s fashion and beauty magazines in the past decades, more subtle cues have been adopted by the advertising industry to portray women in gender-stereotypical ways. Goffman

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(1979), who suggested that ads help construct the ideals of masculinity and femininity, pointed out subtle cues in which gender stereotyping can occur in advertising: women being shown in less prestigious occupations than men; men performing executive roles and controlling the whole situation in male/ female depictions; women being shown in contexts where they lower themselves physically or lie down at inappropriate times; women engaging in self-touch as an indication of the female body as delicate and precious, while men manipulate, grasp, or shape objects or products; and men making eye contact with the reader while women engage in mental drift or focus on the distance, a small object, or a protective male model. Because women are often viewed as objects of desire for men, objectification can be fueled by gender stereotypes focusing on their sexuality or sexual attractiveness. Women are often portrayed sexually in advertising and media in general, and a recent study on sexual content in advertising between 1993 and 2003 reported that female models were dressed more explicitly in 2003 than in 1993 despite increased social concerns over sex in advertising (Reichert & Carpenter, 2004). The extent to which they are objectified and stereotypically portrayed seems to differ according to the magazine genre, such that more stereotypical images are depicted in fashion and beauty magazines, such as Vogue, than in general interest magazines like Time (Lindner, 2004). The portrayal of women as mere decorative objects in advertising, which reproduces the stereotypical gender roles related to physical appearance, may influence women’s experience and feelings about their bodies. This poses the question: Are beautiful women objectified and used to promote sexuality in advertising across cultures? If so, are there differences across cultures? Previous studies suggest that the sexuality and objectification of women in magazines may differ according to cultural values of sexuality and equality of the sexes (Hofstede, 1998). Indeed, a study of Cosmopolitan, the transnational magazine, revealed that the presence of Western models, sexual freedom values, and less political

authoritarianism have contributed to greater sexuality in magazine advertising across cultures (Nelson & Paek, 2005). Given the rise of global products/services operated by multinational companies, it is important to see how different cultural values may influence advertised images, including model characteristics and product types between Western and nonWestern societies. If advertising reflects cultural values and norms, including varying degrees of gender and sexual norms, then product and model preferences across cultures would be reflected in objectified model types and characteristics contained in advertised images and product/service choices. Based on this conceptual framework and current literature, the present study analyzed the content of magazine ads from popular fashion and beauty magazines published in the United States and South Korea in their local languages. Because the cultural ideals of female beauty and gender roles manifest in these magazines rather than in general interest magazines, we selected them as the genre for cross-cultural comparisons. Their editorial content focuses on the shared interests of young women, such as fashion, beauty, relationships, careers, female sexuality, and fitness. Indeed, young women have reported that they read fashion magazines to gain information about beauty, fitness, grooming, and style (Levine & Smolak, 1996).

Predictions and Hypotheses Our study centered on product/service types, model characteristics, and female objectification, including sexuality, in the magazine ads. Regarding product types, it was believed that more diet- or exercise-related products and services would be advertised in the Korean magazines than in the U.S. magazines because of Korea’s booming diet industry. Korean advertisers were deemed more likely to commercialize women’s physical vulnerability by suggesting weight-loss products and services for changing body shapes and sizes. Because of the globalization of fashion and beauty products and the standardization of

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Jung, Lee advertising, both countries were predicted to use Caucasian models more frequently than models of other ethnic backgrounds. However, smaller body size was expected from Korean models because they would need to be thinner than the average Korean woman, who is already smaller in physique than American women. We expected the Korean ads to portray women more stereotypically and to objectify women to a greater degree, because the Korean culture is more patriarchal and male dominant than the United States. Objectifi­cation was conceptualized using criteria based on studies by Fredrickson and Roberts (1997), Goffman (1979), and Rohlinger (2002), including (a) the depicted role of the model in the ad, (b) what kind of gaze and touch the model is engaged in, and (c) the model’s level of nudity. We predicted that the U.S. magazines would portray women in a greater variety of roles than the Korean magazines, which we believed would depict women more predominantly in traditional decorative or domestic gender roles (mother, wife, sex partner, and so on). Models in Korean magazines were also expected to be portrayed more often as submissive and timid. In other words, they were expected to engage more in self-touch and less in a direct gaze at the reader than those in U.S. magazines. However, we expected sexualized images of women to be shown more frequently in the U.S. magazines. Because Korean society, with its deep roots in patriarchal, Confucian values of modesty and virtue, was believed to be more conservative in promoting women’s sexuality in advertising, we predicted lower levels of nudity from the Korean ads. In light of these expectations, then, we present the following hypotheses: Hypothesis 1: The types of products/ services advertised in fashion and beauty magazines will differ across the two countries. Hypothesis 2: Model characteristics featured in magazine advertisements will differ across the two countries.

Hypothesis 3: The tendency of objectifying women in magazine advertisements will differ across the two countries.

Method Sample For the content analysis used in this study, we selected popular fashion and beauty magazines using pilot surveys. Fifty undergraduate female students in a mid-Atlantic university in the United States and 60 in a private university in Seoul, South Korea, were asked about the fashion and beauty magazines they read most frequently. The top three magazines selected from each culture were Vogue, Elle, and CéCi for Koreans and Glamour, Vogue, and Elle for Americans. According to a circulation report by the Magazine Publishers of America for the second half of 2005, the magazines chosen from the United States represent a few of the most popular fashion and beauty magazines in the country, with circulation figures of 2,371,986 for Glamour, 1,260,316 for Vogue, and 1,054,447 for Elle (Magazine Publishers of America). Four monthly issues (March, April, September, and October) were chosen from each of the three magazine titles in 2006 for analysis. The issues from spring and autumn were selected to avoid bias because of seasonality. For example, the ads in summer month issues can exhibit more nudity than those in the other parts of the year.

Coding Scheme and Categories We developed an extensive coding scheme based on previous literature (Baker, 2005; Reichert, Lambiase, Morgan, Carstarphen, & Zavoina, 1999; Rohlinger, 2002; Thompson & Gray, 1995). The first category coders recorded were the product service types, which were determined based on whether the product was related to the body. Body-related products/services were further classified into clothing, cosmetics, accessories, diet food/ services, plastic surgery, and so on. All the

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coding scales were developed to include mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive categories. After the numbers of male and female models in the ad were counted, the coders coded the women’s characteristics, including the model’s apparent race, body size, portrayed role, gaze, touch, nudity level, and whether the face was shown. The model’s body size was assessed using the Contour Drawing Rating scale (Thompson & Gray, 1995), a pictorial instrument consisting of nine line drawings of figures ranging from very thin to very obese. The faces of all figures were blocked in shaded squares so that the coder could focus on body shapes only when coding models across the two countries. The model’s role was judged using a scale developed by Baker (2005) and was modified by the authors to include the following categories: professional (wearing a business suit or in a work setting), spouse/ ­partner (interacting with someone of the other sex; e.g., kissing or hugging), decorative object (having no function other than to look attractive), product user (using the product being advertised, such as putting on makeup or wearing a pair of jeans), mother, engaging in recreational activity (playing a sport or doing something such as running), other traditionally feminine roles, other traditionally masculine roles, and other gender-neutral roles. When coding the role of a model who had more than one function, coders were asked to choose the most salient function in the advertisement. We adapted the measures used by Rohlinger (2002) to assess the models’ touch and gaze as they pertained to the objectification of women. Rohlinger devised the scales to examine how gaze and touch are applied to models based on Goffman’s (1979) classical study on gender advertisements. The touch categories included self-touch, touch involving a male, touch involving a female, touch involving both self and a male, touch involving both a male and female, touch with an object or objects (but no person), unknown, and none. The gaze categories included self-gaze, another model, the unknown reader, an

unknown or distant gaze, no gaze, the model’s head/face obscured, and other. The scale developed by Reichert et al. (1999) was used to measure nudity. The operational definition of nudity refers to a woman (or man) whose lack of clothing would be considered inappropriate if seen by others on a city street. Examples include bodies covered with sheer fabrics that allow the outline of the body to be seen, model’s back being shown without clothes, and so on. Nudity was measured using the following four categories: (a) demure, defined as “everyday dress” and included walking shorts but not short shorts or underwear; (b) suggestive, including clothing that partially exposes the upper body, such as unbuttoned blouses or muscle shirts, as well as very short shorts; (c) partially clad, designating models shown in underwear or bathing suits; and (d) nude, if the suggestion of nudity was present (models holding only a towel, or the photograph composed so that genitals were concealed) or if the models appeared to be naked but were seen in silhouette.

Coding Procedures The coders counted all ads for product/ service types, including those without models. Every ad on a page was coded separately. If a series of ads for the same product/brand appeared, coders treated each page as a single ad. Only the ads of one or more full pages containing at least one female adult model were coded for model characteristics. Whenever there was more than one model in the ad, the central figure was chosen for coding. Thus, only one model per ad was coded. One coder from Korea and one from the United States were trained in the coding scheme, and a preliminary analysis was conducted to determine the interrater reliability. The coders independently rated all ads that appeared in the 24 magazine issues (two countries, three magazines from each country, four issues of each magazine). Once the coder from each country finished coding the 12 magazine issues, the two groups of 12 issues were exchanged between the two coders. Interrater

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Jung, Lee Table 1.  Product Types

United States

Body-related products/services (total) Clothing Accessories Beauty Diet food/pills/services Plastic surgery Brand/store Noncosmetic chemicals Others Non-body-related products/services Total

Korea

Total

n

%

n

%

2,019 574 549 381 26 16 158 280 35 313 2,332

86.6 24.6 23.5 16.3 1.1 0.7 6.8 12.0 1.5 13.4 100.0

2,287 1,086 314 410 10 4 356 53 54 107 2,394

95.5 45.4 13.1 17.1 0.4 0.2 14.9 2.2 2.3 4.5 100.0

n 4,306 1,660 863 791 36 20 514 333 89 420 4,726

% 91.1 35.1 18.3 16.7 0.8 0.4 10.9 7.0 1.9 8.9 100.00

Note: χ2 = 572.68, df = 8, p < .001 (across all categories).

reliabilities were calculated using simple agreement for the coding categories and revealed the following moderate to high levels of reliability: .96 for product type, .84 for race, .93 for body type, .57 for role, .70 for touch, .79 for gaze, and .74 for nudity level. After the coding was completed, the second author and a third coder verified the final coding results by resolving any discrepancies that occurred between the two coders.

Results The data were analyzed using the chi-square (χ2) statistic, independent samples t tests, and descriptive statistics. The chi-square was used to compare distributions of categorical variables in coding the magazine contents between the two countries. Of the total 4,726 advertisements (2,332 from the United States and 2,394 from Korea), 3,490 included at least one female model (United States = 1,551, Korea = 1,939). The chi-square figures generated by crosstabulation indicated significant differences between the two countries in terms of all coding categories except for the model’s touch.

Types of Products/Services As shown in Table 1, magazines from each of the two countries showed greater body-related products/services than non-body-related

ones. In the Korean magazines, the ratio of body-related ads (95.5%) was higher than in the U.S. magazines (86.6%) (χ2 = 116.9, df = 1, p < .001). Among body-related products, the proportion of clothing product ads and brand/store image ads that were based on the clothing and accessories were higher in Korean magazines (45.4% and 14.9%, respectively) than in U.S. magazines (24.6% and 6.8%, respectively), whereas the proportion of accessories ads were higher in U.S. magazines (23.5%) than in Korean magazines (13.1%). When the clothing, accessories, and brand/store ads were combined, Korean magazines featured more of these products in general (58.6%) than U.S. magazines (48.8%). Thus, Hypothesis 1 was supported. Contrary to our expectations, however, diet products or exercise programs/services, as well as plastic surgery ads, were featured more often in the U.S. ads than in the Korean ads, although the difference was not significant. The specific results for each of the product categories are shown in Table 1.

Model Characteristics Table 2 shows the distribution of model race found in the magazines. About 87.7% of the models in the U.S. magazines and 70.2% of the Korean magazines were Caucasians. Although we predicted that Caucasian models would be

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Table 2.  Models’ Race Caucasian Black Asian United States Korea (total) Elle/Vogue CéCi Total

Other/ Unknown

n

%

n

%

n

%

n

1,428 1,404 1,070 334 2,832

87.7 70.2 83.1 46.9 81.1

105 14 13 1 119

4.5 .7 1.0 0.1 3.4

18 521 153 368 539

1.2 26.9 11.9 52.3 15.4

78 61 52 9 139

%

Total n

4.8 1,551 3.1 1,939 4.0 1,236 3.1 703 4.0

% 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Note: Models in “other or unknown” category were excluded for the calculation of chi-square statistics, because the ratios of Caucasian and Asian models were of primary interest in this study. χ2 = 502.3, df = 2, p < .001 (U.S. vs. Korean magazines). χ2 = 1,051.1, df = 4, p < .001 (Korean Elle/Vogue vs. CéCi).

more frequently used in both countries, it was surprising to find that less than one third of the Korean ads used Asian models (26.9%). Even though the rate of Asian models was higher for the locally originated Korean magazine CéCi, it was still only slightly more than half of the total models (52.3%). Only 1.2% of the total models in U.S. magazine ads were Asians, whereas Blacks accounted for less than 1% of the total models in Korean magazines. The average body size of models assessed on the Contour Drawing Rating scale was significantly smaller for Korean magazines (M = 2.10, SD = .57) than for U.S. magazines (M = 2.40, SD = .78) (t = 11.13, p < .001). The Levene’s test of equality of variances revealed a significant difference in the variances as well: U.S. magazines featured models with more diverse body sizes than Korean magazines (F = 173.5, p < .001). When the race of models was compared in terms of body size assessments, mean comparisons of body sizes between Asian (M = 2.19, SD = .56) and Caucasian models (M = 2.20, SD = .66) revealed no significant differences. Thus, the differences were attributable more to the country than to race, which supported Hypothesis 2.

Objectification of Women Portrayed in Magazine Advertisements Table 3 shows the overall results for the variables used to measure female objectification in magazine ads: role, touch, gaze, extent to

which face is shown, and nudity level. Models in Korean magazines were significantly more frequently portrayed in decorative roles (82%) than those in the U.S. magazines (35.5%). No statistically significant differences were found in models’ touch. However, U.S. models more frequently gazed at the reader (United States = 66.3%, Korean = 62.4%), whereas Korean models were more likely to gaze into the distance (United States = 29.2%, Korea = 35.1%). More models in the U.S. magazines had their faces hidden (8.6%) and presented a higher level of nudity (6.1%) than models in the Korean magazines (2.5% and 3.3%, respectively).

Discussion and Implications The purpose of this study was to compare product advertisements in women’s fashion and beauty magazines from the United States and South Korea to determine whether culture might play a role in the types of products/ service being advertised, the model characteristics portrayed, and the objec­ti­­fication of women in the ads. The results clearly confirmed the presence of cultural differences as well as similarities in the ways in which female models are presented in the advertising and the types of products being advertised. Because we examined fashion and beauty magazines, it was not surprising that magazines from both countries predominantly

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Jung, Lee Table 3.  Objectification of Models United States n (%) Model’s role χ2 = 1,158.64***, df = 5 Decorative objects vs. other roles: χ2 = 814.09***, df = 1 Model’s touch χ2 = 1.228, df = 5

Model’s gaze χ2 = 21.10***, df = 3 Face shown/hidden χ2 = 68.1***, df = 1 Nudity level χ2 = 23.87***, df = 3

Decorative objects Other roles Professional Spouse/partner Product user Mother Other feminine role Total Self-touch Touch involving male Touch involving female Both self and a male Both self and female Touching an object Total Self-gaze Gaze at another model Gaze at the reader Unknown or distant gaze Total Shown Hidden Total Demure Suggestive Partially clad Nude Total

Korea n (%)

Total n (%)

  577 (35.5)     15 (0.9)     83 (5.1)   885 (54.5)    23 (1.4)      7 (0.4)

1,641 (82.0)    13 (0.6)    76 (3.8)   102 (5.1)    64 (3.2)    6 (0.3)

2,218 (61.2)   28 (0.8) 159 (4.4) 987 (27.2) 87 (2.4) 13 (0.4)

1,624 (100.0)   627 (55.2)    71 (6.3)

2,002 (100.0)   939 (56.1)   110 (6.6)

3,626 (100.0) 1,566 (55.7) 81 (6.4)

    37 (3.3)

   62 (3.7)



99 (3.5)

     3 (0.3)      4 (0.4)

    4 (0.2)     7 (0.4)



7 (0.2) 11 (0.4)



  394 (34.7) 1,136 (100.0)    17 (1.2)    44 (3.2)

  553 (33.0) 1,675 (100.0) 8 (0.4) 41 (2.1)

947 (33.7) 2,811 (100.0) 25 (0.8) 85 (2.6)

  907 (66.3)   399 (29.2) 1,367 (100.0) 1,491 (91.4)   141 (8.6) 1,632 (100.0)   917 (61.2)   388 (25.9)   101 (6.7)    92 (6.1) 1,498 (100.0)

1,191 (62.4) 670 (35.1) 1,910 (100.0) 1,652 (97.5) 50 (2.5) 2,002 (100.0) 1,132 (60.8) 570 (30.6) 98 (5.3) 62 (3.3) 1,862 (100.0)



featured body-related products rather than non-body-related ones. Even though the Korean magazines had relatively more bodyrelated ads than the U.S. magazines, they featured less plastic surgery and diet products; this is different from what we expected, considering the popularity of plastic surgery in Korea. It is possible that different editorial strategies are used for different countries even for the same magazine title, so perhaps more emphasis is placed on clothing and fashion brands in Korea than in the United States. However, it might also be the case that more plastic surgery and diet product ads are shown

2,098 (64.0) 1,069 (32.6) 3,277 (100.0) 3,443 (94.7) 191 (5.3) 3,634 (100.0) 2,049 (61.0) 958 (28.5) 199 (5.9) 154 (4.6) 3,360 (100.0)

in other type of magazines, such as general interest, than in fashion magazines in Korea. The imbalance in model ethnicity in both U.S. and Korean magazines was particularly interesting, with Caucasian models being used predominantly in both countries. The majority of models represented in the ads in Korea, including the publications of Korean origin, were Caucasian, which indicated the heavy Western influence there. However, we did not investigate whether Korean consumers are known to respond better to products and brands with Western images or whether local marketers feel that Western images attract

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greater attention from Korean consumers and therefore consider it advantageous to use Western models in magazine ads. Moreover, Korean beauty concepts have switched from mild plumpness with a round face to a thin body with prominent facial features; thus, models in the Korean magazines were found to have body sizes similar to those in the U.S. magazines. These results clearly indicate a homogenization of beauty ideals across these two countries. If a Korean woman chooses to compare herself to Western images or perceives the physical characteristics of those models as the “ideal,” then she is more likely to be dissatisfied with her body and engage in behaviors that would mold her into a persona of Western ideals. Predominantly featured Western ideals or Korean models with a “Western look” may be related to a booming cosmetic surgery industry in Korea. In the U.S. magazines, models of ethnic minorities are clearly invisible in the mainstream media despite the increasing number of them in the population. Female advertisement models were predominantly portrayed as decorative objects in both Korean and U.S. magazines, albeit in a larger proportion in Korea. Models in the Korean magazines were also less likely to gaze at the reader, which reveals a greater objectification of women in Korea. This seems to reflect the gender role specification in Korean culture, which expects women to be passive and submissive rather than direct and assertive. However, higher nudity levels in the U.S magazines seem to indicate that emphasis on sexuality in advertising is greater in the United States than in Korea. Despite women in professional roles having been visibly portrayed in women’s fashion and beauty magazines in the past decades, the fact that more U.S. models were portrayed with their faces hidden (only bodies shown) or with more nudity seems to reveal that female objectification is still prevalent in the U.S. magazines. Alternatively, the greater number of ads showing the model’s face in Korea than in the United States supports a traditional Korean concept of female beauty focusing on

the face rather than the body. Frith et al. (2005) similarly found that Western magazines placed more emphasis on a woman’s body whereas Taiwanese magazines focused on her face and that Western models featured more nudity than Asian models regardless of their sex. For industry professionals, the results of this study call for marketing strategies that are more inclusive of diverse, active images of women. There was a clear indication of homogenized beauty standards and high levels of objectification across the two countries by varying degree. Based on the belief that the media have a mainstreaming effect of cultivating consumers to perceive less cultural and political differences (Gunther & Thorson, 1992), Kim and Lowry (2005) warn that advertisers who fail to reflect societal changes will have to take responsibility for reproducing stereotypes. Furthermore, with the growing importance of women as consumers of various products and services who are now playing more dynamic and professional roles in society, advertisers may need to reassess the consequences of using stereotypical images of women. Some evidence in the literature (e.g., Bower & Landreth, 2001) shows that the use of such images is not always positive. Professional female consumers may find the objectified images of women irrelevant for them and end up rejecting the images as well as the products associated with them. Just like most other content analysis of advertisements, we did not aim to demonstrate the social consequences of ads but merely looked at the differences or similarities of female models portrayed in fashion and beauty magazines across the two countries, noting the degree of objectification in particular. Further study is recommended in this topic, possibly with interviews from local consumers across the two countries, to obtain the perspectives of magazine readers and probe the consequences of advertisements. As relevant topics of this research, there are many other factors that can be examined cross-culturally, such as characteristics of target readers, advertised brand images, and characteristics of visual images in consumer behavior and marketing areas.

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Bios Jaehee Jung, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies at University of Delaware. Her research interests include effects of cognitive and sociocultural variables on body image and subsequent individual and collective social behaviors in the cultural context; cross-cultural studies in both socialpsychological aspects of clothing and consumer behavior. Yoon-Jung Lee, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Home Economics Education at Korea University, Republic of Korea. Her research interests include consumer behavior and social psychology of clothing. She is particularly interested in the social and cultural influences on body image and clothing consumption.

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