Cover Photos in Women’s Magazines
Marjorie Ferguson (1980, 227) identified four types of facial expression in the cover photos of British women’s magazines.
1. ‘Chocolate Box’: half or full smile, lips together or slightly parted, teeth barely visible, full or three-quarter face to camera. Projected mood: blandly pleasing, warm bath warmth, where uniformity of features in their smooth perfection is devoid of uniqueness or of individuality.
2. ‘Invitational’: emphasis on the eyes, mouth shut or with only a hint of a smile, head to one side or looking back to camera. Projected mood: suggestive of mischief or mystery, the hint of contact potential rather than sexual promise, the cover equivalent of advertising’s soft sell.
3. ‘Super-smiler’: full face, wide open toothy smile, head thrust forward or chin thrown back, hair often wind-blown. Projected mood; aggressive, ‘look-at-me’ demanding, the hard sell, ‘big come-on’ approach.
4. ‘Romantic or Sexual’: a fourth and more general classification devised to include male and female ‘two-somes’; or the dreamy, heavy-lidded, unsmiling big-heads, or the overtly sensual or sexual. Projected moods: possibly ‘available’ and definitely ‘available’.
5.
Source: Marjorie Ferguson, ‘The Woman’s Magazine Cover Photograph’. In Harry Christian (Ed.) (1980): The Sociology of Journalism and the Press (Sociological Review Monograph 29). Keele: University of Keele, pp. 219-38
