BUST-ed.

I thought I'd start off my reviews with a little pop quiz called "Which is Which?" It goes like this:

Which one is Elle, and which one is Bust, the positive image magazine? Have your guess yet?

...

 

A+ for you if you guessed right! As you can see, Bust looks pretty much like any other women's magazine. There's a pretty, skinny, youngish, female celebrity on the front. The front also says "SEX" in giant letters. So...does Bust live up to its positive reputation? To make the task easier, I decided to divide both my magazine reviews into three sections: Cover, Content, and Advertising. 

Cover: Yeah, Bust's cover has similar features to other women's magazines, as mentioned. But let's look at what ISN'T there: headlines about dieting, fashion, or beauty. Instead, the cover promises articles on sex bloggers, the top 10 adultresses of all time, DIY depression remedies, and tapping your own maple syrup, among other things. I liked the balance between the familiar "magazine-y" look and the unconventional headlines. It was nice that the cover designers didn't immediately assume I want to look pretty and lose weight. Also, the person on the cover, Portia de Rossi, may be similar to other "covergirls" in that she's attractive, blond, and has perfect hair, but she's also a lesbian. The cover isn't showing an image of women that screams "I want to attract men!" and I found that refreshing, too.

Content: Though the cover may look traditional, the stories inside Bust are not.This issue (Feb/March: the sex issue) featured stories on subjects ranging from the sexual politics of shaving to a pattern for a plaid cloak to Portia de Rossi to Christian anti-porn support groups for women. Very diverse, and very interesting. I read all of the articles and never once felt like the authors were intending that I behave in any certain way. I liked a lot of the regular features, too: lots of DIY projects, some recipes (none were for dieters), reviews of books and movies showing women in a positive or at least not submissive light. My favorite may have been the feature called "museum of femoribilia," which this issue explained "how bespectacled lasses got stereotypes for their glasses." Here's a peek at the table of contents and a few articles:

I love the hand-drawn illustrations for this article.

However, I did have an issue with some of the photographs accompanying the articles, like this one:

This is Swedish artist Lykke Li, shown half undressed in a submissive position. Some of the pictures of Portia De Rossi were similar. For a magazine that aims to show women as strong, independent, and confident, I thought the images could have been a lot less sexualized and submissive. Which brings me to...

Advertising: Let's talk about this in two ways: what's in the ads and who's in them. A variety of "whats" are advertised, mostly crafted accessories, menstrual products, clothing, and sex toys. LOTS of sex toys (but this is the sex issue). So, a mix of typical and not-so-typical products advertised to women. Though, generally the menstrual products advertised in women's magazines are not these:

Unfortunately, the women in the advertisements look like women in advertisements everywhere: skinny, white, and young. This one particularly evoked the little-girl/come-hither dichotomy we've discussed in class:

Overall, I enjoyed reading Bust and thought it walked it a fine line between a "regular" women's magazine and a completely feminist publication. I think the balance may allow Bust to reach a wider variety of women than the latter. I would read it again, but I would hope to see better physical representations of women next time.

Want to read Bust for yourself? Check out their website! 

Coming up next: my review of Elle.

~Jennielee