ABSTRACT
How can we ‘understand’ women’s magazines? Previous scholars in this field have offered contrasting accounts of how women’s magazines might be ‘understood’, and how they should be studied. Many have focused on women’s magazines at a textual level, and analysed them for their ideological content. Others have argued that women’s magazines can be understood by exploring the ways in which their readers consume them. A few studies have maintained that women’s magazines are best approached through an analysis of their conditions of production. In this chapter I explore and unpack these various approaches, clarifying exactly what is at stake when we talk about ‘understanding’ women’s magazines.
