The History of Magazines
Magazines Targeting Women:
One of the first romance fiction magazine to ever, being published weekly, was Peg's Paper in 1926, that was specifically targeted at a young working-class female readership.
As you can see from the image on the left, most early magazines targeted at women either refered to homes, housewifery and how to look good or improve your appearance. Periodically, most magazines targeting women came about during the second world war, or pre-war encouraging women to do their best to help their husbands who go to work or to war. Womens duties during that time were to lok after the house and to everything in their power to help their men, in a sexist society their roles were maily house labour such as sewing, refereing to the "clever needlework inside" on this magazine cover, and so magazines for women focused on what society told them to focus on, following societal norms. The use of bright colours on a plain backdrop was popular in this time as well to appeal to the target audience with fashion and make up being a huge pleasure and form of entertainment for women. Cooking was also targeted at women so by using sweet foods on the front covers of magazines would again appeal to women as then it would be percieved as they would be able to to have fun cooking for their husbands and family when it fact this was a labour and duty of women that wasn't all that entertaining - along with cleaning the house.
The first ever British magazine targeted at men was published in 1731, being the Gentleman's Magazine and lasted for over 200 years, outrunning the first ever women's magazine. The name "magazine" was used for the first time ever by editor Edward Cave which meant "storehouse". It's original content was provided by regular controbutors and even enveloped books quotes. This differs massively to the womens magazines as historically, men's magazines encouraged them to go to Universitry to become highly educated for good employment and eventually be strong providers for their family. However, unlike womens magazines they included much more excited topics making them more of a pleasure to read and less of a guide and chore.
One of the first romance fiction magazine to ever, being published weekly, was Peg's Paper in 1926, that was specifically targeted at a young working-class female readership.
As you can see from the image on the left, most early magazines targeted at women either refered to homes, housewifery and how to look good or improve your appearance. Periodically, most magazines targeting women came about during the second world war, or pre-war encouraging women to do their best to help their husbands who go to work or to war. Womens duties during that time were to lok after the house and to everything in their power to help their men, in a sexist society their roles were maily house labour such as sewing, refereing to the "clever needlework inside" on this magazine cover, and so magazines for women focused on what society told them to focus on, following societal norms. The use of bright colours on a plain backdrop was popular in this time as well to appeal to the target audience with fashion and make up being a huge pleasure and form of entertainment for women. Cooking was also targeted at women so by using sweet foods on the front covers of magazines would again appeal to women as then it would be percieved as they would be able to to have fun cooking for their husbands and family when it fact this was a labour and duty of women that wasn't all that entertaining - along with cleaning the house.
Magazines Targeting Men:
The first ever British magazine targeted at men was published in 1731, being the Gentleman's Magazine and lasted for over 200 years, outrunning the first ever women's magazine. The name "magazine" was used for the first time ever by editor Edward Cave which meant "storehouse". It's original content was provided by regular controbutors and even enveloped books quotes. This differs massively to the womens magazines as historically, men's magazines encouraged them to go to Universitry to become highly educated for good employment and eventually be strong providers for their family. However, unlike womens magazines they included much more excited topics making them more of a pleasure to read and less of a guide and chore.
