Why are women's magazines still sexist?

In my concluding remarks, I will try to answer to the question proposed above - why is there still so much magazines in women's magazines? Women magazines, in theory, are made for women and (in theory) should be led by women. The US Vogue's Editor-in-chief, as most of you probably know, is a woman called Anna Wintour. Why does she, as a supposedly educated woman, allow for so much sexism to appear on the pages of her magazine? And it's not only her - editors of all 23 Vogue editions are women. Firstly, Vogue magazine is not Wintour's; she and all other women editors and journalists are just employees at the company. What kind of company, you're asking? A multinational, mass media corporation called Condé Nast. This MNC issues around twenty print and digital media brands, including Vogue, but also men's magazines such as GQ and Golf Digest. The company is, as a large percent of all MNCs, owned by men. While women are given important position in different women's magazines in order to increase the legitimacy and prestige of the magazine (and the company), deluding people into thinking that the magazine is all about women's rights and gender equality, people who really stand behind everything are insanely rich businessmen. This is closely related to the lack of female leadership in all spheres. As a notable documentary Miss Representation suggests, in the US, only 3% of clout positions in mainstream media are held by women; needless to say how few women hold high positions in governments and companies worldwide. This is one of the reasons why I believe sexism is still present in women's magazines - magazines are still controled by men, which proves the lack of true female leadership in huge businesses. Secondly, the main aim of these powerful men is to sell; make more money. And what sells better than sex? Nothing I could think of. In my opinion, large amounts of objectification of women in women's magazines (and generally in the media) come from the fact that "the exploitation of women's bodies sells products, magazines etc" (Miss Representation, 2012). So making it all about the body is, in a nutshell, all because of capitalism, increasing profits and human greed. Consequently, a vicious circle is created - the media shapes our opinions by emphasising the importance of the body, making us feel insecure about ourselves, leading us into buying women's magazines that give advice on how to feel more secure about ourselves, and then, when they are asked why they emphasise the body so much, they will respond that it is because the audience wants it. Well it is not. It is just that the audience cannot easily access other choices, because other, non-sexist choices are not mass media, but more alternative, more hidden (more about the alternative feminist media in my next post). 

Check out the link below - it is the extended trailer of the already-mentioned documentary Miss Representation that talks about the media as a tool of dictating gender expression. I highly recommend.