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The Globalization of Beauty: How is Ideal Beauty Inﬂuenced by Globally

Published Fashion and Beauty Magazines?
Article in Journal of Intercultural Communication Research · May 2014

DOI: 10.1080/17475759.2014.917432
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The Globalization of Beauty: How is

Ideal Beauty Influenced by Globally
Published Fashion and Beauty
Magazines?
Yan Yan & Kim Bissell
Published online: 19 May 2014.
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To cite this article: Yan Yan & Kim Bissell (2014) The Globalization of Beauty: How is Ideal
Beauty Influenced by Globally Published Fashion and Beauty Magazines?, Journal of Intercultural
Communication Research, 43:3, 194-214, DOI: 10.1080/17475759.2014.917432
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Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 2014
Vol. 43, No. 3, 194–214, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17475759.2014.917432
The Globalization of Beauty: How is

Ideal Beauty Inﬂuenced by Globally
Published Fashion and Beauty
Magazines?
Yan Yan & Kim Bissell
The current research examined the portrayal of female beauty worldwide through a
content analysis of 5577 female models in four top beauty and fashion magazines
from 12 countries/regions. Different magazines used different standards to frame sto-
ries and select models, suggesting that the image of beauty was more a result of the
editorial rooms than derived from objective standards. North American and European
magazines dominated the beauty standards. Asian countries were relatively indepen-
dent particularly in terms of sexual frames and sexual model selections. Magazines
distributed in Latin America and South Africa were in danger of being assimilated
into the Western norms of beauty.
Keywords: Cross-cultural Communication; Beauty; Body Image
(Received 14 January 2014; accepted 20 April 2014)
Introduction
Women are constantly bombarded by information in mass media which transmits
and reinforces values, norms, and ideals of fashion and beauty via images of mod-
els, movie stars, and female celebrities in a variety of media formats (Polivy &
Herman, 2004). Mass media often portray attractive people as more desirable,
credible, and inspirational (Solomon, Ashmore, & Longo, 1992). This reflects the
Yan Yan is a lecturer in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Wuhan University, Wuhan,
Hubei 430072, China. Dr Yan’s research interests are media psychology, international communication, and
crisis communication. Kim Bissell is a professor in the Department of Journalism, University of Alabama,
PO Box 870172, 476 Phifer Hall, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0172, USA. Dr Bissell’s research interests include
media effects on children, media psychology, and visual communication. Correspondence to Yan Yan,
School of Journalism and Communication, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei 430072, China. Email:
yy.yyan8@gmail.com
Ó 2014 World Communication Association

Journal of Intercultural Communication Research 195
mainstream culture’s obsession with thinness and beauty (Chung & Bissell, 2009).
Previous research has documented the significant influence of mass media on
appearance norms, which suggests that increasing exposure to mediated beauty
enhances internalization and fantasizing by women and girls about obtaining the
characteristic body shape and facial attractiveness promoted by the media (Polivy
& Herman, 2004).
The media industry’s over-emphasis on beauty and attractiveness is not just a
phenomenon found in western countries; rather, it may be a problem or issue that
is more global in nature. The women’s magazine Cosmopolitan, for example, is
published in 36 languages, has 63 international editions, and is distributed in more
than 100 countries. What is not known about the international distribution of the
magazine is how much emphasis is placed on a narrow representation of beauty.
For example, do the models look similar across editions or are they more similar
to the magazine’s readership?

As western media content permeates societies and cultures worldwide, the glob-
alization of a beauty and appearance ideal is gaining prevalence in non-western as
well as western societies (Coward, 1984). “Traditionally, what exactly constitutes
beauty has always been a locally indigenous evaluation. This fact is changing across
the world” (Isa & Kramer, 2003, p. 41). A cross-culturally accepted standard of
ideal beauty features high eyebrows, large eyes, high cheekbones, a small nose, and
a narrow face (Cunningham, Roberts, Barbee, Druen, & Wu, 1995). Such western-
ized ideals have eroded the national beauty standards in Japan, Saudi Arabia, and
Brazil (Inceoglu & Kar, 2009), where the appearance norm is quite different from
that of Caucasian women (Isa & Kramer, 2003). In this study, we seek to test
questions related to appearance norms via a content analysis of four fashion and
beauty magazines published in 12 countries/regions worldwide. This analysis
allowed us to identify trends, patterns, and similarities in the representation of
ideal appearance and beauty.
Literature Review
The Effect of Media Images on Individual Perception and Identification
Scholars have examined the role of physical attractiveness in personal perception
and have found that attractive individuals are evaluated more favourably (Miller,
1970), being seen as more desirable (Dion, Bersheid, & Walster, 1972) and more
successful in social interaction (Reis, Nazlek, & Wheeler, 1980).
Although the present study is not an effects study, it is important to have a jus-
tification for the study of content. Research on the effects of exposure to appear-
ance-oriented content has consistently shown that it is damaging. Girls and young
women in particular are extremely influenced by mediated images showing excep-
tionally thin female models and may take destructive paths filled with low self-
esteem, body image dissatisfaction, anorexia, bulimia, and depression in order to
196 Y. Yan & K. Bissell
attain their ideal image (Harrison & Cantor, 1997; Lavine, Sweeney, & Wagner,
1999). Psychological research has found evidence of syndromes such as body-image
distortion and appearance anxiety (Botta, 1999; Groesz, Levine, & Murnen, 2002),
which seem to be a contributing factor for long-term psychological effects.
Social comparison theory suggests that human beings have a drive to evaluate
their own opinions and abilities by making comparisons with similar others
(Festinger, 1954). The disparity between desired others and perceived self usually
results in behavior to eliminate the perceived discrepancy. Typically, the more
important and attractive the compared subject or group is perceived to be, the
stronger the pressure toward uniformity becomes. As applied in body image and
ideal beauty research, previous researchers argued that people tend to compare
themselves to people and images that represent idealistic goals (Botta, 1999; Irving,
1990). The pervasive thin ideal disseminated by mass media increases the pressure
toward ideal-beauty uniformity. Although people tend to avoid comparisons with

others who seem ultimately different from themselves, especially those considered
to be superior others, two types of situations did seem to prompt the comparison
process. One type of comparison occurs when the attractions of the compared
groups are strong. The other happens when people wish to remain a member of
the specific group (Festinger, 1954). The advantages of being a member of an
attractive group as well as the negative effects of deviation from this ideal-beauty
standard have been documented (Bersheid & Walster, 1974; Riggio, Widaman,
Tucker, & Salinas, 1991). Nevertheless, a forced comparison with ideal beauty
seems almost inevitable for most girls and young women today.
Under pressures from media and society, new media such as social networks
and online forums provide platforms of psychological catharsis particularly for
oversized and overweight people. In an analysis of women’s conversations in an
online beauty forum, Kim (2009) found that participants gained psychosocial ben-
efits such as social support, greater optimism about their body image, increased
self-esteem, and decreased psychological distress by participating in online discus-
sion. Yet even though the internet provides a pseudo space for self-disclosure, peo-
ple still use social norms as references for their compliance and/or defiance. For
example, women participating in an overweight dating site were more likely to sex-
ualize their photos and to discuss their bodies than women who used a traditional
dating site. This suggests that women on the overweight website considered their
appearance substantially more important than women on the traditional website
(Turner, 2007). While the overweight dating site provided a platform for the “co-
culture” of overweight women, they were still under pressure from normalized ide-
als. In fact, online communication still conforms to the social norms in the real
world. It was found that of people who posted face-threatening SNS messages in
facebook, those with lower physical attractiveness were more likely to be blocked
than more physically attractive senders, reflecting online users’ greater tolerance
toward good-looking persons (Pena & Brody, 2011).
In the past, commercial products or services such as cosmetics, fitness foods,
and plastic surgery could only reach their audience via mass media or public
campaigns. Now they can lobby girls and young women through the Internet 24/7.
A recent survey found that teen-targeted fashion magazines were among the most
visited sites by girls ages 12–17. Teenage girls made up 50.7% of the unique visi-
tors to CosmoGIRL!, 42.6% of those visiting TeenPeople, and 38.6% of visitors to
Seventeen (Rickert & Sacharow, 2000). These sites, together with fashion blogs,
gossip forums, and cosmetic products’ official networks, create and disseminate
homogeneous fashion and beauty information to a worldwide readership. Fashion
publicity was once restricted to twice-yearly collections and the monthly publica-
tions of magazines, but it is now “a permanent present, a situation the Internet
has fed off and sustained” (Rocamora, 2012, p. 97).
Global Media and the Universal Ideal of Beauty

It has been argued that the growing trade and improved communication technol-
ogy in the globalization process have led to an increasing level of global integration
between cultures (Giddens, 1990). As a social construct, the ideal of beauty and
attractiveness is not immune from the pervasive trend of globalization. Before the
global age, each culture had a unique standard of attractiveness derived from tradi-
tional views about beauty as well as the physical features of the people. For exam-
ple, the traditional Korean image of beauty was average or even overweight in size
because it represented abundance (Han, 2003). In China and Japan, women with
round faces and mild plumpness were seen as beautiful and healthy (Han, 2003;
Jung & Forbes, 2006). Hispanic cultures valued oversized and curvy bodies and
tinned skin as attractive and fertile (Cunningham et al., 1995), while scarification
of the skin was a beauty process in parts of Africa (Frith, 2006). However, a phe-
nomenon of cultural assimilation has been found in that local cultures that are
being integrated into a universal standard of beauty dominated by western ideals
such as round eyes, narrow faces, and pronounced noses (Kim, 2010).
In a cross-cultural study of perceptions of female attractiveness, Cunningham
et al. (1995) found that sexual maturity and/or perceived sexual attractiveness
appeared to be strong predictors of attractiveness evaluations across Asian, His-
panic, and White participants, reflecting a trend of cultural homogeneity toward the
western standards of ideals. This trend was confirmed by Griffin, Viswanath, and
Schwartz (1994), who found that models in Indian news magazines adopted poses
and displays that closely matched those of models in the advertising of western
nations, implying an adoption of western beauty standards in Indian culture. In a
worldwide survey of 32,000 teenaged girls and women from 10 countries, only 13%
of women were “very satisfied with their body weight and shape,” 2% considered
themselves “beautiful,” and more than half of the respondents viewed their bodies
as “disgusting.” For girls aged between 15 and 17, more than 50% of Japanese teen-
aged girls desired to change their weight, body shape, and neck; nearly 40% of Saudi
Arabian and Canadian teenagers as well as nearly 30% of Brazilian girls wanted to
change their hair; and more than 30% of teenagers in Canada and Germany wanted
to change their skin colour (Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, 2004). Asian women
are obsessed with skin whitening via whitening cosmetics and even surgery to
achieve lighter, flawless skin. When asked to identify an ideal mental image of
beauty, a large percentage of US and Korean girls offered US celebrities as examples
or described an imaginary ideal who has mixed Asian and Western appearance, such
as long straight hair, big eyes, and a high nose (Chung & Bissell, 2009). As Isa and
Kramer (2003) stated, “even though they may bemoan the power of the beauty
myth, most women still continually struggle to measure up to the increasingly
mass-mediated, pervasive version of what is beautiful, desirable and acceptable”
(p. 42).
Yet, there are contradictory opinions about the danger of exaggerating the cul-
tural assimilation of fashion and beauty. Demure dress of female models in adver-
tisements was found to be significantly more common in Asian than in American
magazines. This reflected a clear distinction in dress styles which was consistent
with the boundaries between a conservative Asian culture and an open American
culture (Frith, Cheng, & Shaw, 2004). Although Americans sometimes generalize
that Western Europeans have very similar cultures to Americans, an examination
of female models in women’s magazines indicated that American magazines por-
trayed more smiling but less sexual models than their French counterparts (Morris
& Nichols, 2013). Such findings suggest that the presentation of beauty still varies
depending on cultural backgrounds and audience differences.
Identifying “Ideal” Beauty and Related Constructs

The factors related to perceptions of beauty are quite complex. Saltzberg and
Chrisler (1997) believe that beauty “cannot be quantified or objectively measured;
it is the result of the judgment of others” (p. 135). However, the media may func-
tion in a similar way in other cultures and societies by transmitting norms about
ideal beauty and appearance via mediated content.
Traditionally, studies analysing the identification of beauty rely on research that
specifically examines faces in photographs. Yet, facial beauty is not the only factor
in attractiveness, which also includes grooming, dress, cosmetic use, hairstyle
(Cash, Rissi, & Chapman, 1985), nonverbal behavior, conversation skills, and
humour (Miller, Berg, & Archer, 1983; Purvis, Dabbs, & Hopper, 1984). These
studies uncover the notion that attractiveness involves the combination of expres-
sive, social, and communication skills with “static” beauty. However, while these
earlier studies provide a framework to better understand the way women perceive
beauty in other women, a variety of predictors are still largely undetermined.
Moreover, the numerous cultural interpretations of female beauty make it unlikely
that what makes a woman beautiful can be firmly defined or that an attempt to
produce a “norm” for attractiveness will succeed (Langlois et al., 2000).
Previous studies have identified high cross-cultural agreement in attractiveness
ratings of faces of different ethnicities (Cunningham et al., 1995; Jones, 1996). This
suggests that “if different people can agree on which faces are attractive and which
are not when judging faces of varying ethnic background, then … people
everywhere are using similar criteria in their judgments” (Eisenthal, Dror, &
Ruppin, 2006, p. 120). Some constructs are widely used as standards of attractive-
ness between ages, races, and nationalities, including types of beauty (Frith, 2006),
face attractiveness, body size/shapes (Frith, Shaw, & Cheng, 2005), poses and body
displays (Griffin et al., 1994), and so on. As western media and media content
have become more global, the homogenized representation of beauty and attrac-
tiveness results in more critical assessments of non-western-appearing people.
Furthermore, because of this perceived Americanization of beauty, ethnic stan-
dards of beauty—or any beauty that “deviates from the standard of whiteness—are
displaced for their departure from pure” (Patton, 2006, p. 32). Thus, one question
this study seeks to answer is how appearance and attractiveness are represented
cross-culturally in fashion and beauty magazines published worldwide. Based on
the literature reviewed and the overarching objectives of the present study, the fol-
lowing research questions are posed:

RQ1: How are ideal beauty and its related constructs represented in four fashion
and beauty magazines?
RQ2: How are ideal beauty and its related constructs represented cross-culturally
in fashion and beauty magazines?
RQ3: How are specific beauty/attractiveness characteristics represented cross-cul-
turally?
Methodology
Sample
We examined the primary editorial content of four transnational fashion maga-
zines (Vogue, Elle, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan) in 11 countries (United States,
United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, France, Switzerland, Slovenia, China, Korea,
Japan, and South Africa) and one region (Latin America1). The four magazines
were selected because they are among the most circulated fashion and beauty mag-
azines among young women and girls globally (Frith et al., 2004).
Procedures
Content was coded and analysed from 94 issues of magazines published between
October 2007 and October 2010 across the 12 countries/regions. The stories teased
on each magazine cover were also coded and analysed. The numbers of issues
coded per magazine were not equal as access to internationally published and dis-
tributed magazines proved to be dependent upon what was shipped to bookstores
and distributors in the United States. Nevertheless, even though the numbers are
not equal, the broad representation of issues and countries allows for greater
understanding of the messages communicated to readers about fashion and
beauty.
Coding Categories
For each magazine, the following objective information was recorded: magazine
(Vogue, Elle, Glamour, or Cosmopolitan) and country of publication.
Next, the cover model’s name, nationality, and profession were coded because
cover models usually represent the ideals of appearance and beauty in fashion
magazines.
Frames of cover page stories, that is, stories teased on the magazine cover, were
analyzed because cover page stories mainly illustrate the preference of the editorial
rooms. Story frames were recorded into the following categories: health, beauty,
fitness, entertainment, sex, relationships, fashion, personal/self-improvement, or
other.
Images of female models accompanying each cover story were coded for the fol-
lowing information: femininity (extremely masculine to extremely feminine), sexu-
ality (extremely unsexy to extremely sexy), facial glamorization (very natural to

very glamorous), and facial expression (smiling/laughing, blank expression, sexual
gaze, pout/frown, or can’t tell), body type (conspicuously thin to conspicuously
fat), body shot (total amount of body visible), and clothing (fully clothed, fully
covered but shorter/smaller clothing, underwear/bathing suit, dress, and can’t tell).
Intercoder Reliability
Coders practiced on several issues not included in the final sample to achieve reli-
able agreement on each of these individual coding categories. Seven separate issues
were coded by both coders, and the overall reliability was a .92 using Cohen’s
Kappa. Individual reliability scores for each coding category ranged from a low of
.78 to a high of .99.
Results
A total of 94 magazines published over a 36-month time period from October
2007 to October 2010 were coded. These magazines included 24 issues of Vogue,
21 issues of Elle, 24 issues of Cosmopolitan, and 25 issues of Glamour. Of the 94
magazines, 20 were from North America, 24 from the UK, 23 from other
European countries, 20 from Asia, and 7 from other countries (four from Latin
America and three from South Africa).
The Representation of Ideal Beauty via the Cover Model

The choice of cover model indicated some interesting patterns. In the 36-month
time period, specific models appeared multiple times in publications in several
countries, such as Jennifer Lopez, Kate Moss, Kate Hudson, Victoria Beckham,
and Madonna. This might reflect the fashion agenda, when some celebrities were
the focal point at certain time periods. The frequencies of some cover models’
appearances were also clustered within a limited time window. Particularly, the
same person usually appeared in the same month in different magazines or differ-
ent country editions (e.g. Jennifer Lopez was the February 2008 cover model of
Glamour in France and Spain and of Cosmopolitan in the UK) or appeared in sev-
eral months in different magazines (e.g. Kate Moss on the cover of Vogue France
in February 2008, Vogue UK in March 2008, and Vogue France in April 2008; Lily
Allen on the cover of Cosmopolitan UK in March 2008 and Glamour UK in April
2008). This finding could simply reflect a model’s overall popularity or broader
social and cultural norms about the “type” of model that typifies female beauty. It
might also imply the editing strategy of internationally circulated magazines, which
tend to promote the same model in different country versions either due to cost
considerations or due to keeping the magazine style consistent globally. This phe-
nomenon appeared again in selections of cover page stories.
The nationality of cover models demonstrated the domination of western fash-

ion and beauty culture. Some of the magazines preferred using models from the
country publishing the edition of the magazine; however, US and UK models were
most commonly found on the magazine covers. For example, 73.3% of the North
American magazines used US models, UK magazines used 48% UK models and
40% US models, Chinese magazines used one-third Chinese models and one-third
US models, and Spanish magazines used 16.7% Spanish models and 16.7% US
models. Of the French magazines analyzed, 25% used US models and 25% UK
models; only 12.5% had French models on the cover.
Most female models were coded as being highly feminine (M = 4.46, SD = .57),
highly sexual (M = 3.75, SD = .83), conspicuously thin (M = 1.86, SD = .31), and
deliberately glamourized (M = 2.86, SD = .60). Most of the models were wearing
dresses (73.8%), with the facial expression most often coded as smiling (45.2%),
blank expression (36.2%), or representative of a sexual gaze (18.3%).
The Representation of Ideal Beauty by Magazine

RQ1 asked how ideal beauty and its related constructs are represented in the four
fashion and beauty magazines. Fashion, entertainment, and beauty were the three
most frequently identified frames of the cover page stories. Fitness was the least-
used frame. The use of story frames conveys the magazines’ belief about what
aspects of women’s lives should be most valued and strongly recommended to the
readership. The result indicated a primary focus on external beauty (e.g. articles
featuring fashion, entertainment, and beauty frames) over and above internal
beauty (e.g. frames of personal stories, careers, and health).
A chi-square analysis indicated that story frames were significantly differentiated
by magazines (χ2 = 101.48, p < .001). As Table 1 shows, Vogue had the highest per-
centage of fashion and health frames and the second highest percentage of entertain-
ment frames, but ranked the lowest in all the remaining frames among the compared
magazines. In particular, none of the stories in Vogue were coded as having a domi-
nant theme or frame related to sex. Elle also had a huge percentage of fashion and
entertainment frames and the second highest percentage of beauty frames. Glamour
had the highest percentage of entertainment stories and personal/self stories. Cosmo-
politan had the most balanced distribution of frames among the selected magazines,
with most frames comprising from 10 to 15% of the total number of cover stories.
Beauty, sex, relationships, fitness, and other frames in Cosmopolitan were the highest
in percentage among the four sampled magazines (Table 1).
The second unit of analysis was each female model portrayed in the 760 cover
page stories. A total of 5577 female subjects were analyzed. Results of one-way
ANOVA analyses indicated that the overall femininity score was very high, and the
sexuality scores were around the middle of the 1–5 scale. Therefore, although sub-
jects were highly feminine in their appearance, sexuality was not the focal point
for the models portrayed in the fashion and beauty magazine articles overall.
As Table 2 shows, significant differences were found between magazines. For
both femininity and sexuality scores, Cosmopolitan ranked the highest and Elle
ranked the lowest, whereas Vogue and Glamour ranked in the middle on both mea-
surements. The average body type score was lower than 3 (the mid-point of the 5-
point scale), which means the subjects of all magazines were conspicuously thin.
Specifically, models in Elle had the smallest body size and Cosmopolitan had the
largest body size, even though its average score was still less than 2.5 (out of the 5
point scale). The average glamorization score was 2.82 across the magazines, which
means the subjects used for these four magazines analyzed were often made-up for
the shot. Specifically, Elle had the highest glamorization score and Cosmopolitan
had the lowest glamorization score, although models found in these magazines
were by no means represented in a more natural way.
In sum, while differences in the representation of ideal beauty were found across
the magazines, there was an emphasis on femininity, thinness, and glamorization,
although to varying degrees across the magazines.
Table 1 Story Frames Represented by Fashion and Beauty Magazines.

Average (%) Vogue (%) Elle (%) Cosmo (%) Glamour (%) χ2
101.48***
Fashion 30.8 50.6 40.4 15.8 25.9
Entertainment 17.1 18.8 16.6 12.5 21.1
Beauty 13.2 9.6 15.1 16.7 10.8
Personal/self 9.2 6.4 8.8 9.2 11.4
Other 8.1 3.1 7.0 10.7 9.2
Relationship 6.4 1.7 2.5 11.4 7.6
Health 6.2 7.3 5.7 6.0 5.9
Sex 5.8 0 0.8 14.4 4.9
Fitness 3.1 2.5 3.1 3.3 3.2
*
p < .05; **p < .01; ***
p < .001.
Table 2 Ideal Beauty and Its Related Constructs Represented by Fashion and Beauty
Magazines.
Average Vogue Elle Cosmo Glamour
ANOVA(F)
Femininity 3.87 (.82) 4.02 (.73) 3.46 (.84) 4.07 (.70) 3.97 (.78) 168.82***
Sexuality 2.48 (1.18) 2.53 (1.20) 2.01 (1.02) 2.91 (1.23) 2.52 (1.12) 102.66***
Body type 1.67 (.57) 1.50 (.50) 1.46 (.50) 2.02 (.52) 1.75 (.54) 183.27***
Glamorization 2.82 (.74) 2.94 (.84) 2.96 (.68) 2.66 (.75) 2.72 (.72) 39.72***
χ2
Body shot 140.08***
Full body 66.7% 76.6% 66.7% 56.3% 65.8%
Waist up 11.9% 10.1% 9.4% 16.3% 12.8%
Chest up 7.6% 5.5% 6.7% 9.5% 8.4%
Head or head and 13.7% 7.8% 17.2% 17.9% 13%
shoulders
Clothing 218.81***
Fully clothed 32.5% 27.4% 29.7% 27.9% 40.5%
Fully covered but 9.2% 7.1% 7.8% 8.2% 11.7%
shorter clothing
Underwear/bathing 6.3% 6.1% 5.6% 10.6% 4.5%
suit
Dress 46.3% 56.4% 51.2% 45.2% 36.6%
Can’t tell 5.7% 3.0% 5.6% 8.1% 6.7%
Facial expression 295.90***

Smiling/laughing 33.0% 23.8% 25.6% 45.9% 38.2%
Blank expression 54.7% 63.6% 63.7% 36.7% 51.9%
Sexual gaze 8.3% 9.2% 7.1% 12.7% 6.4%
Pout/Frown 2.5% 2.8% 3.1% 2.1% 1.7%
Can’t tell 1.4% 0.5% 0.6% 2.5% 1.7%
*
p < .05; **p < .01; ***
p < .001.
Two sets of chi-square analyses were run to test the variances of specific charac-
teristics of ideal beauty by frames and by magazines. As Table 2 indicates, body shot
was closely related to story frames (χ2 = 160.53, p < .001). Full-body shots were usu-
ally associated with fashion and entertainment frames, whereas waist up and chest
up shots usually appeared in health, fitness, sex, relationship, and personal stories.
Head (and shoulders) shots were mostly associated with beauty frames.
Significant differences of body shot were observed among magazines (χ2 =
140.08, p < .001). In particular, Vogue had the highest percentage of full-body
shots, which might result from the large percentage of full-page photos in its fash-
ion and/or entertainment stories. In contrast, Cosmopolitan had the lowest percent-
age of full-body shots partially due to their decreasing emphasis on fashion frames
and increasing emphasis on beauty frames, which usually depicted only the head
and face of the model. Cosmopolitan had the most balanced body shot distribu-
tions, partially due to its balanced story frame distributions.
Clothing was significantly associated with frames (χ2 = 241.42, p < .001). Dresses
and fully clothed models were closely related to fashion and entertainment frames,
whereas underwear/bathing suit was usually associated with health, sex and rela-
tionships frames. Significant differences in clothing were found across magazines
(χ2 = 218.81, p < .001). Vogue ranked the highest in dresses and the lowest in
shorter clothing and cannot tell clothes (because the photo was of the face or
head). Elle also had over 50% dresses and nearly 30% fully clothed models. Glam-
our ranked the highest in fully and shorter clothed models and had the lowest in
percentage of underwear/bathing suit shots. Cosmopolitan, again, had the most bal-
anced clothing distributions among all magazines.
Facial expression was also closely related to story frames (χ2 = 94.43, p < .001).
Models with blank expressions appeared most frequently in beauty, fashion, and per-
sonal/self frames, whereas models with a pout, frown, or sexual gaze often appeared
in stories coded with a sex frame. Models that were smiling/laughing were often
found in stories associated with health, fitness, relationships, and other frames.
Significant differences of facial expression were observed by magazine
(χ2 = 295.90, p < .001). Specifically, Vogue had the highest percentage of blank
expressions, which might be closely related to its large percentage of fashion
frames. Glamour had the lowest percentage of sexual gaze and pout/frown, whereas
Cosmopolitan had the highest percentage of smiling/laughing and sexual gaze
models.
The Representation of Ideal Beauty by Country

RQ2 asked whether culture influenced the stories and their related constructs rep-
resented in fashion and beauty magazines. Magazines from 12 countries/regions
were re-categorized into four regions according to the race of the readership:
North American, European, Asian, and other countries.2 A chi-square analysis
found that country affiliations influenced the story frames slightly (χ2 = 39.88, p
< .05). Magazines published in different countries tended to have roughly similar
percentages of cover story frames: fashion and entertainment frames were used
most frequently across countries. This might be a product of a consistent editorial
principle of each magazine across countries, or possibly other factors. For example,
the same article (with the same models) sometimes appeared in the same maga-
zines in different country versions in the same months (e.g. “sex do’s and don’ts”
in Glamour US, December 2007 and UK, April 2008; “10 success secrets your boss
will never tell you” in Cosmopolitan Spain, January 2008 and UK, April 2008),
which might reflect the consideration of publishing effectiveness (to save extra
effort in writing, editing, and photographing), or to keep a consistent image of a
specific magazine across countries.
Minor frames were significantly different across countries. Despite a similar use
of major frames, US and UK articles were different in almost all the other story
frame categories. US magazines were more likely to discuss sex, relationships,
health, and fitness and less likely to use personal/self stories than the UK maga-
zines. This finding challenges the notion that there is a uniform cultural status
between North America and Europe. Magazines from Latin America and South
Africa had the highest percentage of sex, relationship, and other frames and no
cover page stories about health and fitness. This is very different from Asian maga-
zines, which had the highest percentage of personal/self stories, but ranked the
lowest in sex, relationship, and other frames. This reflects an eastern tradition
which is conservative about sex and highly concerned about integrating personal
experience into the community.
The types of story frames were examined by each of the magazines cross-cultur-
ally. Culture significantly influenced the story frames in Vogue (χ2 = 30.26, p < .01)
and Cosmopolitan (χ2 = 29.26, p < .05), but not in Glamour (χ2 = 17.59, p = .35)
and Elle (χ2 = 12.13, p = .09). This indicated an interaction of the magazine features
and cultural traditions about which aspects of women should be most valued and
preferred. It seems that Cosmopolitan and Vogue have developed an approach that
maintains their uniqueness as well as targets their readerships. For Elle and Glam-
our, on the contrary, the preference seemed to be communicating a universal stan-
dard of beauty to their audience. It is hard to forecast which editing strategy will
be more prevalent in the future. The current results could only indicate a mixed
future: a swing between homogeneity, which was represented by the editing strate-
gies of Elle and Glamour that permeated issues across various countries, and heter-
ogeneity, which was represented by the editing strategies of Vogue and
Cosmopolitan which were distinctive cross-culturally.
Another objective of the current research was to identify whether the specific
beauty/attractiveness characteristics of models were more representative or reflec-
tive of their target audience cross-culturally. A one-way ANOVA was run to test
RQ3. As Table 3 shows, femininity, sexuality, body size, and glamorization varied
by country. In particular, North American magazines used the most feminine and
sexualized models, whereas Asian models were the least sexual and glamorized.
South African and Latin American magazines were similar to US and European
magazines in terms of all indexes.
However, although the differences were statistically significant, the effect size
was relatively small given the large sample size. A series of one-sample t-tests were
performed to compare the scores of beauty-related constructs in each region with
the overall average score. Results showed that only Asian sexuality score and
glamorization score were significantly lower than average, t(1139) = 26.00, p < .01
and t(1139) = 38.29, p < .01, respectively. This demonstrated that South African
and Latin American countries have adopted the western standard of beauty, but
Asian magazines kept a relatively independent view in selecting models and there-
fore in defining beauty.
Table 3 Story Frames and Ideal Beauty-related Constructs Represented by Countries.
North Other
America Europe Asia countries
χ2
Story frame 39.88*
Fashion 23.9% 33.5% 30.4% 24.8%
Entertainment 17.1% 14.2% 19.6% 29.9%
Beauty 12.0% 14.6% 25.0% 10.1%
Personal/self 6.0% 9.8% 12.5% 5.1%
Other 5.1% 9.4% 3.6% 14.9%
Relationship 11.1% 3.9% 3.6% 5.1%
Health 9.4% 6.3% 1.8% 0%
Sex 8.5% 5.5% 3.6% 10.1%
Fitness 6.8% 2.8% 0% 0%
Beauty-related ANOVA
constructs (F)
Femininity 4.08 (.69) 3.77 (.95) 3.85 (.72) 3.62 (.75) 30.17***
Sexuality 2.56 (1.08) 2.50 (1.26) 2.13 (.92) 2.37 (1.07) 17.41***
Body type 1.73 (.50) 1.65 (.61) 1.76 (.60) 1.81 (.38) 10.04***
Glamorization 2.73 (.62) 2.89 (.70) 2.67 (.74) 2.88 (.69) 17.41***
*
p < .05; **p < .01; ***
p < .001.
Discussion
As the top fashion and beauty magazines, Vogue, Elle, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan
are published worldwide and have hundreds of thousands of readers. These maga-
zines bridge the gap between the high-fashion world in Milan, Paris, and New
York and small villages in South Africa or Slovenia. They also construct images of
ideal beauty and attractiveness by deliberately narrating stories and intentionally
selecting models that represent what they feel is ideal beauty. At the same time,
these fashion and beauty magazines constantly shape beliefs, attitudes, and values
of “ideal beauty” in the real world.
In this study, we examined four fashion and beauty magazines cross-culturally.
The results indicate that different magazines highlighted different frames in their
cover stories as well as different preferred images of “ideal beauty,” resulting in
multiple norms of fashion and beauty across magazines. In addition, the westerni-
zation of fashion culture was evident in terms of the cover page story selection, as
the stories teased on each magazine’s cover seemed indicative of a fairly narrow
story-telling device that limited the ideal images to external rather than internal
beauty. Finally, culture emerged as a crucial factor in influencing model selection
even without the impact of frames.
Cover-Page Models as Being Dominated by Western Faces

Magazines try to attract readers and potential readers by carefully selecting cover
subjects and interesting cover stories. In all of the magazines included in this anal-
ysis, cover models were all high on femininity, glamorization, and sexuality. An
overwhelmingly large percentage of US and UK models clearly indicated a domina-
tion of westernization in fashion and beauty culture.
European magazines featured a relative balance between international (mainly
US and UK models) and location models, whereas Asia, Latin America, and South
Africa clearly indicated a preference for western ideals over local models. While
female celebrities outside of the US and UK compete for the opportunity to be on
the cover pages of top magazines, non-US and UK models (particularly Asian, East
European, and South African models) have around one-third of the space of their
US and UK counterparts in the local version of international magazines, and
almost no opportunity to appear on the cover of US or UK magazines. In other
words, fashion and beauty magazines do not view the non-US or UK models as
the ideal image. Celebrities from these regions have few opportunities to be fea-
tured in US or UK editions of international circulated magazines. To make things

worse, they are also somewhat discriminated against in local editions. In addition,
unlike the cover page stories, whose similar frames or content might be based on
cost considerations (which will be addressed below), cover-page photos for foreign
celebrities usually take more time, money, and space than those for local models.
Nevertheless fashion and beauty magazines still prefer western faces on their cover
pages to make the magazine look high-fashion- and internationally oriented.
Standards of Beauty Defined Differently by Magazine

To some extent, the cover model represented the “ideal beauty” that all readers
should aspire to and desire to be like, and the cover stories around the model
resembled “follow me” instructions, telling people what to read within this issue
and what to do to become the next “her.” Although all kinds of story frames
appear in various articles in all of the magazines, some were more likely to stand
out by way of being recommended on the cover page. Thus, cover stories represent
an indirect attempt on the part of the magazine’s editors to emphasis specific
themes, models, or topics. Vogue used the most fashion frames and no sex frames,
which is sharply contrasted with Cosmopolitan, which had the lowest percentage of
fashion frames and the highest percentage of beauty, sex, and relationship frames.
It seems that Vogue is more concerned with telling readers what is fashionable than
with telling them how to act in their sex lives or relationships. On the contrary,
Cosmopolitan preferred to label itself as a “neighborhood friend” who shared
secrets of relationships, gave suggestions on dating and sex, and provided “step by
step” tips on fashion and beauty issues. Glamour was similar in the distribution of
frames or themes with Cosmopolitan, except it had a higher percentage of personal
and self-help stories. Most of Elle’s frame distribution was very close to that of
Vogue, with the only exception being its characteristics of article, model, and appa-
rel selection. Based on the analysis of cover-page story frames, Elle issues were in
the middle rank between Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Vogue, which might target a
readership in the process of transition from teenage girls to mature women.
Based on the different self-positioning, the four magazines are significantly dif-
ferent in their constructions of “ideal beauty.” Generally, all magazines preferred
highly feminine models, but all except Cosmopolitan were low in the sexuality
score. This is contrary to the common assumption that fashion and beauty maga-
zines use sexuality as a key point to attract readers. Next, the body sizes of female
models were conspicuously thin across magazines, which confirmed previous
research that fashion and beauty magazines tend to use conspicuously thin models
at the expense of models of average or overweight size. This finding ties into one
of the main criticisms of western culture’s narrow definition of ideal beauty as
including only very thin body types. In addition, the glamorization scores were
overwhelmingly high across magazines, which further exemplifies another “beauty
myth”—the more glamour, the better. This narrow representation of body type
and made-up appearance presented by leading fashion magazines constructed the
power of the beauty myth, which in turn drives most readers to feel as if they do
not measure up.
The paradox of the beauty myths lies in that the magazines which presented the
beauty myths broke down their constructs constantly. For example, Elle models
had the smallest body size and the highest glamorization scores, but also the lowest
sexuality scores. While there is no mathematical formula which states that the rep-
resentation of ideal beauty must include thin body shapes, high glamorization, and
high sexuality, previous research in the area of advertising seems to suggest that
this is often the case. Models in Cosmopolitan had the largest average body size,
comparatively, and the lowest glamorization scores, but ranked the highest in both
femininity and sexuality scores. These comparisons across the four fashion and
beauty magazines, therefore, cast doubt on the false assumptions of “ideal
beauty”—neither the thinner the better, nor the more glamorous the better.
As it relates to beauty constructs, the models in Vogue and Elle subtly display an
air of affluence, superiority, and separation from their readers. Both magazines
used the highest percentage of full-body shots of models, the majority of which
wore very expensive dresses or suits, were professionally posed, and gazed at the
reader with a blank expression. It seems that Vogue and Elle tried to define a high-
fashion oriented beauty. On the other hand, Cosmopolitan and Glamour reinforce
their roles as “neighborhood friends” by using a larger percentage of smiling/
laughing models wearing what could be considered “more accessible” clothing
(shorter clothes, underwear, or bathing suits). The differences of model selection
were consistent with each magazine’s marketing positions: Vogue preferred a
higher-end market which targets mature, upper-class readers whose daily life is
more related with self-styled looks and professional work. Cosmopolitan and Glam-
our, on the other hand, seem to be targeted to girls and young women who need
fashion advice and more guidance in their relationships with others.
Agendas of Beauty Vary by Country Only in Minor Frames
Culture influences the frames of cover-page stories; however, this influence is only
found in the less dominant frames. In other words, the most salient topics (i.e.
fashion and beauty) were homogeneous across cultures, as represented in maga-
zines published worldwide. This might be due to the consideration of economic
effectiveness, as using the same or similar articles across different country versions
saves costs, improves publishing effectiveness, and keeps a consistent image of the
particular magazine across countries. This might also be due to the very nature of
international magazines, which are predisposed to carry western ideals to the glo-
bal market. In other words, the primary goal of international magazines might not
be to discover indigenous beauty in every country, but to disseminate the ideals of
beauty which they were familiar with and originated from. Standardized editing
principles are created in the head offices of international magazines in the US
(Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Glamour) and Europe (Elle) and run in branch offices
overseas. Journalists, photographers, and editors in these branch offices receive
western-oriented culture throughout their careers and sometimes even get their
training at the magazine headquarters. Intentionally or not, a homogeneous beauty
norm is communicated to women and girls worldwide, blurring or even erasing
the cultural boundaries that are supposed to be diverse and broad. The traditional
images of beauty that may be based on local and indigenous evaluations are sub-
ject to assimilation by a westernized, global standard.
However, for the minor frames, significant differences emerged across countries.
Asian magazines were least likely to discuss sex and relationship topics. This is
consistent with the conservative culture in Asia, which regards sex as a private,
taboo topic that is not appropriate for public conversation. In contrast, Asian
magazines used beauty frames the most. This is reflective of eastern traditions
which primarily define beauty in terms of a “pretty face” rather than “lovely body”
(Frith et al., 2005).
In contrast, magazines published in South Africa and Latin America used the
highest percentage of sexual frames and the lowest percentage of frames about per-
sonal stories, health, and fitness. The preference for sexual frames might reflect
Latin American culture which is relatively open-minded about sex and relation-
ships. Furthermore, magazines in these two regions had the highest percentage of
“other” frames, including shopping recommendations, business suggestions, and
daily horoscopes. This may reflect the situation that in Latin America and South
Africa, the fashion and beauty market is not mature enough to engage in segment
marketing. In the US, UK and Asian markets, specialized information such as
shopping recommendations, discount messages, and career suggestions are covered
by other, readily available types of magazines, so Vogue and Elle mainly focus on
fashion and beauty topics. In Latin America and South Africa, Vogue and Cosmo-
politan play wider roles, instructing their readers about diverse aspects of their
lives. These functions may be replaced by other professional magazines once the
fashion and beauty market matures.
Generally, western culture has indicated its power in dominating story frames
across the world. The most salient frames were not differentiated by countries;
South African and Latin American frames have been highly homogenized into the
dominant frame, and only the minor frames in Asian magazines reflected tradi-
tional cultural values such as respecting conservative, moderate, and private princi-
ples. Moreover, minor frames in Latin American and South African magazines
were less influenced by western themes, probably due to the immature fashion and
beauty markets there.
Visual Image of Ideals as Relatively Independent across Cultures

Visual images of female models in cover page stories were not as homogeneous as
the story frames. Culture emerged as a crucially influential factor in the portrayal
of “ideal beauty” when all magazines were considered. Overall, North American
and “other countries” preferred models who were highly feminine, seductive, and
natural, whereas European countries used a higher percentage of neutral models
who were less feminine, conspicuously thin, and scored as very glamorous. The
results cast doubt on the assumption of homogeneous fashion cultures between
North America and Europe. In this study, American magazines were more likely to
portray “ideal beauty” as sexy, healthy, and easy going, whereas the European mag-
azines preferred models to be neutral, indifferent, and distant from ordinary life.
It is a dangerous trend for the “other countries” (i.e. Latin America and South
Africa) to adopt a similar standard of beauty with the North American magazines
on certain indicators. It might be not very surprising to find cultural assimilation
between Latin America and North America, given the geographic proximity and
cultural communications between the two regions. However, it might be the seem-
ing similarities between South and North American cultures that rendered the pro-
cess of cultural assimilation less obvious. Although Latin American magazines kept
certain unique features, such as a relatively larger body size and higher sexuality
score than all the other countries, the models were still significantly thinner than
the average body size of the target readership. The once-valued oversized S-shape
Latin American body is being replaced by the North American standard.
It is surprising to find the obviously westernized trend in South African maga-
zines. US and European models were much more common than native African
models even though the Caucasian ideals have few physical similarities with the
readership. A majority of pictures in the fashion frames were snapshots from New
York or Milan fashion collections, portraying models with typical western features,
such as blonde hair and slim, tall bodies. Appearance, make-up, and dress styles of
African American Hollywood celebrities were occasionally portrayed as beauty ide-
als for readers to imitate. It seems that South African fashion and beauty maga-
zines are presenting the mainstream Caucasian standard of beauty as the paragon
of attractiveness on the one hand and showing westernized African American
celebrities as achievable goals for the readers to pursue on the other hand.
Asian magazines kept a relative independence from western standards. This
might be mainly due to the maturity of the fashion and beauty markets in Asia. In
particular, Japan, Korea, and China are important economic entities in the global
market, and Japanese and Korean beauty-related products are exported worldwide
along with the Asian standard of beauty. This might help to resist the westernizing
trend. Secondly, because eastern culture is so different from western culture, cer-
tain traditions have preserved the Asian beauty standard from being assimilated
into universal norms. For example, Asian models showed the lowest sexuality,
which was consistent with the traditional Asian cultural emphasis on conservative
values about both oneself and interpersonal relationships. In addition, the obvious
differences in body, face, hair, and so forth between the Western standard and
Asian reality might be another driving force underlying the independence of the
Asian beauty standards. However, other studies have showed that such indepen-
dence is relative. In fact, the Asian ideal has adopted some western standards of
beauty in that high noses, round eyes, and narrow faces are becoming the ideal
images of Asian girls (Chung & Bissell, 2009; Kim, 2010). Although models in
Asian magazines still have eastern faces, the nuances of their appearance, makeup,
and gestures of body poses all reflect western ideals.
Finally, it should be pointed out that the sample of this research was very large:
94 issues, 760 stories, and 5577 female models. Statistically, the huge sample may
make insignificant differences significant. Thus, the finding of relative indepen-
dence among magazines and across cultures might be less positive than it looks.
Taking this into consideration, we still believe that since the westernization of fash-
ion and beauty are being communicated worldwide, minority cultures are con-
fronted with the possibility of losing their independence in setting up standards of
ideal beauty. This loss of cultural identity may ultimately lead to more pressure for
non-western women, who may feel that it is impossible to match the Anglo-Saxon
definitions of beauty.
Limitations and Further Research

While we believe the present study sheds light on the way ideal beauty is con-
structed by fashion and beauty magazines cross-culturally, we acknowledge that
the results presented here are not entirely generalizable to all magazines or to all
countries. Particularly for magazines from Asian, African, and Latin American
countries, the numbers and countries are too few to be representative. Further
studies should include more magazines from more countries. Secondly, the current
research analysed only cover page stories. Although it was deemed easier and more
convenient to examine the editorial intentions of specific magazines, it cannot be
said that cover page stories are representative of each magazine’s editorial philoso-
phy. Further research with different story-selecting methods might lead to different
results. Lastly, coding visual images relies more on affective judgments than does
coding textual information. One coding category, the femininity score, had an
intercoder reliability of α = .78. Although the overall reliability of α = .92 is accept-
able, the coding book should be refined more in the future. We also recognize that
a broader, more comprehensive selection of variables might have yielded a more
detailed picture of the way that ideal beauty and its related constructs are por-
trayed, represented, and shaped.
Funding
This work was supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [grant number
2013M540595].
Notes
1. Vogue Latinoamérica was analyzed rather than Vogue in different Latin American countries.
2. North America is the region representing the mainstream of western culture, with a majority
readership of Anglo-Saxon persons. Europe represents another mainstream of Western cul-
ture and also mainly targets Anglo-Saxon readership. Asia is the region with primarily yel-
low race readership. The “other countries” category included Latin America and South
Africa, representing Latin Americans and Africans, respectively. Issues from the two regions
were so few that the investigator combined them together into an “other region” category,
with a readership that was distinguished from Anglo-Saxons and Asians.
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The Globalization of Beauty How Is Ideal Beauty in

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The Globalization of Beauty: How is Ideal Beauty Inﬂuenced by Globally

Article in Journal of Intercultural Communication Research · May 2014

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The Globalization of Beauty: How is

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To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17475759.2014.917432

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The Globalization of Beauty: How is

(Received 14 January 2014; accepted 20 April 2014)

Ó 2014 World Communication Association

to the magazine’s readership?

toward ideal-beauty uniformity. Although people tend to avoid comparisons with

Global Media and the Universal Ideal of Beauty

Identifying “Ideal” Beauty and Related Constructs

lowing research questions are posed:

ality (extremely unsexy to extremely sexy), facial glamorization (very natural to

The Representation of Ideal Beauty via the Cover Model

The nationality of cover models demonstrated the domination of western fash-

The Representation of Ideal Beauty by Magazine

Table 1 Story Frames Represented by Fashion and Beauty Magazines.

Facial expression 295.90***

The Representation of Ideal Beauty by Country

Cover-Page Models as Being Dominated by Western Faces

tured in US or UK editions of international circulated magazines. To make things

Standards of Beauty Defined Differently by Magazine

Visual Image of Ideals as Relatively Independent across Cultures

Limitations and Further Research

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