Advisers on Fashion and Freud:
MCDOWELL, EDWIN
Advisers on Fashion and Freud The Lady Persuaders. By Helen Woodward. Ivan Obolensky. 189 pp. $3.95. Reviewed by Edwin McDowell Contributor, New York "Times Book Review," "Editor &...
...While it is a fact that in 1943, Glamour ran an article by Bertrand Russell entitled "If You Fall In Love With a Married Man," it wasn't until comparatively recently that sex—in the view of editors of women's magazines—assumed its proper role in our society...
...Today's magazines do not purposely avoid contemporary problems...
...But when it comes to presenting a straightforward and reasoned account of basic economic or political problems, they leave a great deal to be desired...
...The women's slicks do not instruct women to disregard the world around them...
...Woodward looks askance at many titles which have graced the pages of women's magazines in recent years: "Chastity and Syphilis" (which surely deserves some sort of prize for reconciling the seemingly irreconcilable...
...There are dozens of other similar titles, usually far more provocative than the articles they describe...
...For the average woman may be increasingly interested in intellectual pursuits, but she would still much rather have beauty than brains...
...What today's women's magazines lack in intellectual stimulation, they make up for with another kind of stimulus—sex, that magic word which, when emblazoned on a magazine cover, virtually assures newsstand success...
...but more often than not they ignore the very problems which most concern both women...
...When the quixotic Bok entered the sanctuary of distaff magazines, he immediately declared war on the nostrums, attacking them with a severity equalled only by his frequent campaigns against immorality...
...and "Teenagers and Sex in Australia...
...This is worth keeping in mind when considering Helen Woodword's The Lady Persuaders...
...It is a safe bet that women's magazines will remain more or less the same in the future...
...Today's women's magazines, with contributors like Daphne du Maurier, Jean Kerr, Phyllis McGinley and John P. Marquand, are a far cry from Ladies' Magazine, born in Boston in 182S under the midwifery of Sarah Josepha Hale, a matriarchal mother of five...
...But until Edward Bok came on the scene...
...Yet, for all their ubiquity, the magazines have generally remained intellectual wastelands, emphasizing entertainment -rather than enlightenment...
...Then, as now, their prime objective was...
...Although many Americans believe their influence is negligible, women's magazines are...
...In 1959, women controlled 70 per cent of this nation's wealth...
...Woodward tells us, the tranquil world of women's magazines was devoted almost entirely to medical nostrums, tips on domesticity and the maintenance of high standards of virtue...
...Woodward believes, to dethrone the man and to elevate the woman, physically and culturally...
...Mrs...
...During Bok's reign, women's magazines caught on, and soon numerous competitors joined in a frantic search for subjects of female interest...
...But Packard overlooked the most subtle and the most effective persuaders of all—the women's magazines...
...in fact, an integral part of the lives of millions, acting as confidential advisors on dozens of subjects ranging from fashion to Freud...
...Reviewed by Edwin McDowell Contributor, New York "Times Book Review," "Editor & Publisher" In 1957, Vance Packard's The Hidden Persuaders burst upon the American scene with all the force of a literary nuclear explosion...
...and the influence of the female consumer continues to grow...
...Packard attacked the advertising industry for having hypnotized a tractable public and for using questionable psychological techniques to force unsuspecting consumers to purchase unnecessary and unwanted products...
...For some inexplicable reason, Bok equated immorality not only with concupiscence, but with bad bathing habits and with the works of Tolstoy...
...And though most of their readers are aware that treatment of these subjects is only skin deep., they seem to be perfectly willing to confine their attention strictly to the epidermis...
...Serious intellectual fare will be sacrificed to reports on the latest chic wardrobes...
...Though it may be coincidental that the founding of the magazine and the election of Andrew Jackson occurred the same year, these seemingly disparate events effected two American revolutions: in politics and in the area of women's suffrage...
...On the contrary, they proclaim that any red-blooded woman ought not be satisfied to rule merely her husband and children, but should seek to run the world as well...
...It had particular impact on Madison Avenue, where it was as welcome as Linus Pauling at Los Alamos...
...Issues will continue to be loaded with advice to the lovelorn, cooking tips for the harried housewife and crash diets for the self-consciously overweight...
...I'm Tempted To Have an Affair...
...While the nation quickly recovered from Jackson's inaugural bacchanalia, it is debatable whether even to this day it has completely recovered from Miss Hale's innovation...
...They allow Eleanor Roosevelt to describe her latest eventful day, or encourage Clare Boothe Luce to discuss the nature of the political woman...
Vol. 44 • May 1961 • No. 19
