A study of the more than fifty US and International glossy publications for women. This analysis focuses on the strategies by which the commercial structure shapes the cultural content, the magazines' repetitive attempts to secure a consensus about the feminine that is grounded in consumerism, and the contradictory semiotic structures at work within and between purchased ads, covert ads, and editorial features.

Comprising the largest of magazine categories in the United States, nearly fifty glossy publications addressed to women appear monthly on news-stands. They are a multi-million-dollar business and essential to the marketing of commodities in the consumer society. At the same time, they present to readers a master narrative about the world, an ostensibly women-centred account of reality that links the utopian to the everyday. The multiple mini-narratives that begin on the front covers and extend to the ads and features inside combine to offer a highly pleasurable, appealing consensus about the feminine. Decoding Women's Magazines studies the contradictory semiotic structures at work within and between purchased ads, covert ads, and editorial features in such genres as the beauty and fashion magazines, the service and home titles, those aimed at minority audiences, new female workers, and women with special interests and spending power. Whether addressing readers as Mademoiselle or Ms., contemporary women's magazines employ similar textual strategies to conflate commodities and desire, and thereby attain immense circulations and profits.

"Comprising the largest of magazine categories in the United States, nearly fifty glossy publications addressed to women appear monthly on news-stands. They are a multi-million-dollar business and essential to the marketing of commodities in the consumer society. At the same time, they present to readers a master narrative about the world, an ostensibly women-centred account of reality that links the utopian to the everyday. The multiple mini-narratives that begin on the front covers and extend to the ads and features inside combine to offer a highly pleasurable, appealing consensus about the feminine. Decoding Women's Magazines studies the contradictory semiotic structures at work within and between purchased ads, covert ads, and editorial features in such genres as the beauty and fashion magazines, the service and home titles, those aimed at minority audiences, new female workers, and women with special interests and spending power."--Publisher's description.

Challenging assumptions about women's magazines, Currie looks at young readers and how they interpret the message of magazines in their everyday lives. A fascinating, sometimes surprising study of young women and their relationship with print media.

Anna Gough-Yates considers the rapid shift in women's magazines towards titles aimed at newly-identified 'lifestyle' groups of women readers.