Cover photos in Women's Magazines

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’.

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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