With a constantly evolving social climate, there is no doubt the media has definitely transformed over time. Things that were seen as taboo or scandalous in the past might now be widely accepted. The female gender in particular has enjoyed the benefits of this sexual revolution, and a new project by creative director Karen X. Cheng shows just how much things have changed.
Cheng decided to focus on one culturally significant visual medium: magazines. Looking at various top publications and comparing issues from 50 and 100 years ago with those in the present, it became quite apparent just how liberal our culture has become. Just take a look at a Cosmo cover from 1937 (a time when most of the country was embroiled in a debilitating depression) and contrast it with a cover from this year.
Going from “Fables From Filmland” to “Wild Summer Sex” we can pretty much deduce that a complete reversal of ideals has occurred. In 1935, a person of color on a cover would be national news, and maybe even cause public outrage. And a person of color wearing a skimpy glittery swimsuit posing in a sexy way? Forget about it! As Cheng notes, women have definitely experienced a liberation—they can wear what they want, expose as much or little of themselves as they wish and basically do with their bodies what they choose. Of course, Cheng explains, an alternate theory to all that skin might be more about the media’s tendency to objectify women for monetary gains. As Kim Kardashian has proven time and time again, sex sells. People are more likely to pick up an issue with Nicki Minaj flaunting her curves than one with a stuffily dressed woman and her horse. And with magazine editors’ tendencies to overuse Photoshop to create impossible standards of beauty, this can be really bad news for the feminist movement.
A solid case can be made on both ends, but regardless, the results speak volumes about how far we’ve come. For example, check out this year’s most talked about Vanity Fair cover and one from 100 years ago.
Magazine editors wouldn’t have dared putting a transgender woman on the cover of a nationally recognized publication even a few years ago. Yet here we are in 2015, and Caitlyn Jenner is not only accepted by her peers but widely celebrated as a hero by the media and the public. Both women (and other historical minorities) are reaping the benefits of a more welcoming and accomodating society that is shedding archaic notions of the past and moving towards a more colorful future. As Cheng concludes, “Sure, we’ve gotten more sexualized. More superficial. We read less. We have shorter attention spans. But we’ve also gotten more open-minded. At each step along the way, society has pushed the limits of what’s considered acceptable.”
So, yes—women still have far to go before they’re considered equal (in everything from sports to film). But we think this is an encouraging sign of progress nonetheless!