Every moment of our lives we have constantly been bombarded with images in the media, billboards, posters, flyers and magazines. All mostly telling us the same thing; Sex sells. After reading Adorno and Hockneimer’s article The Culture Industry we begin to understand how we are influenced by the culture industry. The culture industry is the one that makes these images, films and products that are meant to meet consumer needs. The culture industry manipulates us the consumers into thinking we need the products that are being advertised and sold. In the article there is a sentence that says “The truth that they are just business is made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce” (1) in other words we are being sold things we don’t need and the industry is constantly finding ways to justify our need to purchase these products. Adorno and Hockneimer mention that industries give the illusion that they are in control because there is no need for us, the consumer, to classify our products or our needs because the industry does it for us (3). What all this control does for the consumer is create a sense of obedience we are obliged to purchase and consume regardless of whether we need the product or not. The meaning behind our need is lost with the obedience for products we do not require. We use to feel joy in purchasing a product but now the homogeneity of production eradicates that sense altogether because there is no real joy in things we do not aspire.
In the images above there is a consistency with every cover that cosmopolitan produces. Cosmopolitan is amongst the top selling fashion magazines they, like many others, are meant to provide women with insight on the latest fashion trends, provide some life advice and ideas. What the covers do for most issues is sell sex. If we notice the arrows they are all variations of the word sex some are providing tips that would improve our sex and how we can look sexier or how we can improve so that we meet or excel the standards of men. I used the issues above because most of the women in these covers are the girls my little sister would look up to. Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, and Demi Lovato feature their songs on Radio Disney (information provided by my little sister), these are the girls that in these magazines are promoting their bodies in sexual ways. Sex in magazines becomes homogenous it is needed in order to sell if it is not provided then it will not sell and we obediently permit it.
In the images above there is a consistency with every cover that cosmopolitan produces. Cosmopolitan is amongst the top selling fashion magazines they, like many others, are meant to provide women with insight on the latest fashion trends, provide some life advice and ideas. What the covers do for most issues is sell sex. If we notice the arrows they are all variations of the word sex some are providing tips that would improve our sex and how we can look sexier or how we can improve so that we meet or excel the standards of men. I used the issues above because most of the women in these covers are the girls my little sister would look up to. Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, and Demi Lovato feature their songs on Radio Disney (information provided by my little sister), these are the girls that in these magazines are promoting their bodies in sexual ways. Sex in magazines becomes homogenous it is needed in order to sell if it is not provided then it will not sell and we obediently permit it.