‘Media coverage of lingerie brands and its relation to femininity and representation of women’.
Research Questions:
​
Does the media coverage of Victoria’s Secret and Agent Provocateur offer inclusivity in its narratives on femininity?
​
What do Vogue and Cosmopolitan choose to communicate in the articles on lingerie?
​
How does the presentation of lingerie in popular magazines represent women and power?
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to analyse how the presentation of lingerie in popular magazines depict women and power, how the media coverage of popular lingerie brands Victoria’s Secret and Agent Provocateur convey inclusivity in its narratives on femininity and what does the two well admired women’s magazines – British Vogue and Cosmopolitan UK choose to communicate in their articles on lingerie.
​
This study aims to find out how much of inclusivity in gender-race-and-body diversity has been adapted, presentation of female sexuality, with or without male-gaze has been put in use, emphasis on class and status differences has been played out, in the said magazines foremost for or lack of the benefit for the women consuming these ideas which ultimately serves in building their self-image based on femininity, gender and power.
​
The need for this research arises, as noted by Gill (2007) in magazines for adult women, inconsistencies in the reporting of the matter at discussion can be seen, especially for advice on fashion, beauty, talks in relation to sex, emotional advice and career guidance, which is often presented contradictorily. Lingerie being an crucial part of the fashion and also an integral, intimate object for a woman which she financially spends on and wears for most of her adult life, thus takes a bigger role in its importance over how it (the product) is presented in by the mass-media, here being the women’s magazine, as it holds the potential of shaping many minds with the ideologies it chooses to promote.