Girlish Images Across Cultures: Analyzing Japanese versus U.S. 'Seventeen' Magazine Ads

A casual skimming of Japanese magazines targeted to teenage girls reveals many smiling faces, especially in the advertisements. A quick glance through similar U.S. magazines, however, shows fewer smiling faces. Although some of the American girls smile brightly, many do not. The June 1995 issues of the Japanese and American versions of the teen magazine Seventeen provide a good example of the way that the portrayal of young females differs by country. The model pictured on the cover of the Japanese Seventeen is wearing a red knit cap, short blouse, and shorts, and she sits with her legs draped over the armrest of a bright yellow wicker chair. She smiles broadly, looking directly into the camera, appearing relaxed and happy. In contrast, the model on the cover of the American Seventeen is clad in a short, tight, blue blouse and bikini bottom and she strikes an almost defiant pose. Standing, she offers a sultry expression, neither smiling nor frowning as she looks straight into the camera. Although her lips are closed, her eyes hint at a smile and her head is tilted in the direction toward which her long hair drifts.

Such differences between Japanese and U.S. advertising images suggest that aspects of culture may influence the way in which teenage girls are portrayed. As noted by Pollay (1986), advertising works within a cultural context, selectively reinforcing the styles, roles, and values of the culture. In terms of societal standards of style and beauty, the idealized images portrayed in advertising help shape a person's self-image, contributing to the way one's identity is defined in society (Richins 1991; Solomon, Ashmore, and Longo 1992). Therefore, examining advertisements can illuminate how assumptions about and understandings of self are culturally constrained. We examine female adolescent images in Japanese and American mass media by investigating the extent to which visual and verbal portrayals of "girlish images" are used in magazine ads.

Many recent studies have examined the accuracy and fairness of portrayals of women (see, e.g., Baldwin 1996; Peirce 1993; Snyder 1996). In our study, however, we analyzed the prevalence of girlish images in a magazine representative of those targeted to teenage girls in Japan and the United States without positioning "girlish" within a political context. In general, when analyzing a phenomenon in a cross-cultural context, researchers must avoid the natural, unconscious tendency to refer to their own value system (the "self-reference criterion" in the international marketing literature, Cateora 1997; Keegan 1997) and assess each culture as objectively as possible. We therefore hold in abeyance any judgment on the appropriateness of "girlishness." The primary goals of our study were (1) to use content analysis to compare the prevalence of girlish images in U.S. and Japanese ads aimed at teenage girls and (2) to examine the cultural factors that underlie differences in the portrayal of young women in the two countries by drawing on prior literature and experience.