(Non) value in women`s magazines

Dedicated to a specific audience, women willing to be professionally successful and financially independent, the current magazines for women tend to alter the feminism`s mission stated at the beginning of the XXth century. It seems that the “new woman”, promoted by those magazines, has a single purpose: not to hide anymore her sexuality. The pages dedicated to this „liberation” abound in diets, pieces of advice, testimonials of a “more exciting sex”1, daily sensuality, leading towards a new point of view. Does the feminism exposed by nowadays stars drag the attention of potential readers? Which are the basics of this new type of feminism? A potential answer can be obtained by analyzing the main glossy and mass-market magazines published in Romania. Despite the change of direction, the women`s magazines preserved their main utilitarian function, of informing readers. Browsing a thematic magazine, a woman finds out which cooking style is healthy or not, which make-up and outfit suits her best, which stores offer substantial discounts and what are the recommendations for leisure activities. One perennial value of those magazines is the woman`s performance as business woman or just a woman excelling in any field of activity. Leaving aside the international or local brand, any magazine for women attempts to change features of the collective mentality, regarding both the loyal female readers and the secondary audience, represented by men.