First Name:
Emily
Last Name:
Jacobs
Major Department:
Psychology
Thesis Director:
Lisa Curtin
Date of Thesis:
May 2014
Older individuals are often underrepresented in media portrayals despite an aging population in the United States. In addition, aging women are often judged more harshly than aging men particularly relative to physical appearance. The present study examines the 2009 to 2011 Women's Health and Men's Health covers to assess the relationship between age, gender, and cover model depiction. Consistent with the hypothesis and previous research, male cover models were significantly older than female models. In addition, models depicted as fully clothed tended to be older than those shown as partially clothed, although this finding did not differ as a function of gender. The present results suggest that magazines utilize younger models to portray beauty ideals more so for women than for men. Future research should examine the relationship between age and gender across various media sources and cultures.