Media- Sugar

Jaspreet Kalsing.
Media Coursework: Sugar.

The cover of "Sugar" Magazine is heavily decorated with colourful slogans, a dominating image of a celebrity and, of course, the huge masthead reading "Sugar". We of "Parental Guidance (PG)" feel that the magazine is jam packed with inappropriate information that, frankly, should not be released on teenage girls as it has the power to influence them.

On the December 2009 issue a huge overpowering image of X factor winner Leona Lewis covers the front page in a suggestive pose, her face airbrushed to perfection. It is this idea of the perfect face, body and skin which encourages young girls to diet to obtain the unobtainable. There are headings such as "Skin and Hair secrets of our Beauty Editor". It seems innocent enough but in the article itself the images they use of a flawless young girl can damage a teenage girl's confidence. Because when young girls realize that they cannot look like celebrities and models, whose flaws are smoothed away, their self esteem plummets. In the UK 56% of young girls suffer from eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia which can be worsened by the images of women who are skinny in the extreme and carefully masked beneath layers of make-up. The magazine contains information that puts pressure on girls who feel the need to mature early and start wearing make-up in order to become "perfect". However, in truth there is no actual definition of "perfect", it simply does not exist; yet almost all young girls strive to achieve this image, unaware that they will only damage themselves in the process.

The views put forward in the magazine are very stereo-typical and controversial, it is a recurring idea in all magazines that all teenage girls are interested in is fashion, make-up and boys. They offer no articles for the more tomboyish girl; the magazine is reserved only for girls who want to be "pretty" and "perfect". However the magazine promotes this behavior in such a way that it is...