Constructions of self and the pursuit of ‘authenticity’ in women’s magazines: A study of British and Greek discourses

Abstract

This article examines discourses of authenticity embedded in European popular culture based on an empirical study of British and Greek women’s magazines. After a quantitative content analysis of 575 articles published in Greek and British editions of Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire during 2012–2016, we conducted a qualitative repertoire analysis of 80 articles and identified a shared discursive repertoire, that of women’s ‘authentic self’. Our analysis suggests that discourses of authenticity in women’s magazines contain contradictory elements. First, they are characterised by a ‘can do’ philosophy, an emphasis on ‘body-positivity’, ‘self-acceptance’ and self-help advice, which suggests women’s agency as well as a normalisation of postfeminist gender anxieties. Second, the discourses encourage women to accept their bodies, ‘internal selves’ and current circumstances through self-monitoring and self-surveillance, while silencing societal barriers that form obstacles to achieving ‘an authentic self’. These authenticity discourses rely on a triple entanglement of notions derived from third-wave feminism, post-feminism and neoliberal discourse.

Introduction

The idea of ‘authenticity’ increasingly saturates contemporary popular culture. From the advertising of authenticity by capitalist consumer brands (Banet-Weiser, 2012) to social media users speaking from positions of ‘authenticity’ in various contexts (Leppänen et al., 2015) such as mobile dating (Duguay, 2017), influencer accounts (Abidin, 2018) and fitness cultures (Reade, 2021), the pursuit of authenticity has become a ubiquitous feature of contemporary European popular culture. Yet, what is represented as ‘authentic’ is contested and changeable and must be studied in context. Responding to a gap in scholarly literature on the ways in which the pursuit of authenticity is embedded in classic forms of popular culture, this article identifies discourses of authenticity circulating in women’s glossy magazines produced in two European contexts (Greece and the United Kingdom) and examines the ways in which they urge women to pursue authenticity. In doing so, this article aims to demonstrate the complex and contradictory discursive constructions of women’s ‘authentic self’.

Women’s magazines have a long and rich history, providing ample empirical material for the exploration of cultural constructions of gender (see, for example, Gill, 2010). Studies from the last two decades suggest that contemporary representations of femininity in popular culture outlets including women’s magazines reflect broader social transformations (Gough-Yates, 2003; Whelehan, 2000). We approach women’s magazines as symbolic cultural landscapes with a propensity to adapt their content according to the context in which they are produced, with a dual ability to selectively mirror aspects of social life and normalise certain discourses through their recurrent circulation (Gauntlett, 2008; Gill, 2007). Through this function of normalisation, women’s magazines can influence the construction of social norms and reinforce ideas about what is perceived as desirable and ‘authentic’ feminine behaviour.

Below, we first engage with a critical understanding of the notion of ‘authenticity’, review relevant literature on how authenticity is negotiated in popular culture, and discuss connections between women’s magazines and the politics of gender. Next, we outline our research methods, followed by the data analysis, which identifies the ‘authentic self’ discursive repertoire as central to how women’s magazines encourage the pursuit of authenticity via contradictory messages. This repertoire prompts women to become their authentic selves through creating their own opportunities, which is mainly articulated through the utilisation of discourses which embed the ‘can do’ (Harris, 2004) philosophy. At the same time, these discourses erase institutional and structural barriers to women’s achievements. The ‘authentic self’ repertoire thus forwards a contradictory message that urges women to become their authentic selves through accepting their current circumstances. This is usually articulated by prompting women to accept their internal psychological and external bodily characteristics, including perceived ‘flaws’, through adopting the magazines’ self-help advice. Together, these discursive strategies indicate the disciplinary functions of self-monitoring and self-surveillance, and suggest the triple entanglement of third-wave feminism, post-feminism and neoliberal discourse.

Gender, authenticity and popular culture

The notion of authenticity is becoming ‘a pervasive part of our culture, our institutions, and our individual selves’ (Erickson, 1995: 121), increasingly saturating diverse aspects of everyday life including personal identity, relationships, food and architecture. Yet, any claim to authenticity involves a paradox: what is deemed ‘authentic’ in any context is a socially constructed ideal, open to contestations and change, making authenticity a non- achievable end state. Commodified representations of authenticity in popular culture are imbued with power to define what is ‘authentic’, and have variously been described by scholars as ‘mediated authenticity’ (Enli, 2015) or the ‘manufacturing’ (Duffy, 2013: 137) and ‘branding’ (Banet-Weiser, 2012) of authenticity. Although the concept of ‘authenticity’ does not have a fixed meaning (Schwarz and Williams, 2021), articulations of authenticity tend to carry positive value and are commonly associated with attributes such as being ‘genuine’ and ‘real’ (Lindholm, 2013). Discourses that promote the pursuit of authenticity represent a quest for ‘free’ self-expression and ‘realness’ rooted in an alleged ‘true inner self’. While media producers increasingly construct and commodify authenticity (Banet-Weiser, 2012) in popular culture outlets, audiences are also involved in the co-construction and negotiation of authenticity (Enli, 2015) through ‘shared beliefs and interactions with others’ (Duguay, 2017: 353), including as readers of glossy magazines. However, as our analysis will show, while the pursuit of authenticity is employed as an empowering discourse to inspire and motivate readers of women’s magazines, it also invites readers ‘on an endless journey of selfhood, in which authenticity is always just out of reach’ (Fordahl, 2018: 305). Paradoxically, ‘authenticity’ also becomes a restrictive, self-disciplinary term.

Studies which explore authenticity discourses have often focused on the advertising industry and on what Schwyzer (2011) refers to as ‘authenticity advertising’. Notions of authenticity are embedded in advertising either through the portrayal of so-called ‘real people’ or through collaborations with ‘real people’ in the creation of product content and their appointment as brands’ spokespersons. An example of the former is the ‘Real Beauty’ campaign, which since 2004 has been Dove’s main advertising campaign (Murray, 2013). Through incorporating ‘real women’ of different ages, body types and ethnic backgrounds in adverts, Dove emphasise diversity and inclusivity through proclaiming that ‘Beauty comes in a million different shapes and sizes’ (Dove UK, 2021, para1). Consumers are thus prompted to accept, love, and flaunt their own bodies, which in turn reinforces the notion that women’s appearance and self-esteem are central to female identity (Murray, 2013). Brands like Nike and Adidas use ‘authenticity advertising’ when they appoint ‘real people’ with a high number of social media followers (also known as influencers) as their spokespeople, paying them to create content for branded products and to voice their ‘genuine’ opinions (Driel and Dumitrica, 2020). As Abidin (2018) has argued, claiming authenticity is a deliberative, performative strategy that influencers use to entice their followers. Through advertising, authenticity is commercialised as a commodity that can increase sales (Banet-Weiser, 2012). The representations of ‘authenticity’ circulated in contemporary popular culture outlets and their relation to notions of ‘realness’ in advertisements follow earlier waves of advertisements from the 1960s to the 1980s, inspired by the ‘hippy’ countercultural movement of the 1960s and 1970s, where authenticity was sold via an emphasis on personal freedom, realness, and naturalness (Frank, 1998).

A growing research literature explores authenticity discourses in popular culture outlets, but only a few studies have hitherto examined the dissemination of such discourses in classic cultural outlets targeted at women and produced in different socio-cultural contexts. In a study based on interviews with female producers of British and Spanish online women’s magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Elle and Glamour, Favaro (2017) found that magazine journalists praised the ‘realness’ of magazine content, describing it as ‘honest’, ‘real’ and ‘relatable’ to readers. The producers emphasised the importance of offering ‘genuine’ content to avoid alienating audiences ‘who are “discerning,” “Internet literate,” “very sophisticated consumers of digital media”’ (p. 329). Favaro (2017) also observed that ‘femininity industries’ have developed ‘branding strategies revolving around [. . .] notions about relationship building, intimacy and authenticity’ (p. 332). This emphasis on ‘realness’ reflects the contemporary narrative that brands should ‘embrace the age of authenticity or risk being left behind’ (Cohn & Wolfe, 2014, as cited in Favaro 2017: 332). While Favaro’s study discusses magazine producers’ views on authenticity discourses in women’s magazines, it does not directly engage with magazine discourses themselves. Duffy (2013), however, has conducted a single-country study of authenticity discourses in women’s magazines, focusing on the advertising and editorial content of the British Glamour and Cosmopolitan magazines. Duffy found that women’s magazines construct authenticity through the promotion of natural organic products, the celebration of ‘ordinary looking’ women and the encouragement of self-discovery. Our study adds significantly to this body of literature by providing an analysis of authenticity discourses in leading Greek and British women’s magazines, focusing on feature articles and editorial content which prompts audiences to pursue authenticity. As such, our dual country focus enables us to suggest a wider circulation of authenticity discourses in European popular culture.

Most contemporary research on women’s magazines has focused on the shift from representations of women as weak and passive, to discourses which underscore women’s self-reliance and power (Favaro and Gill, 2018; Ritchie et al., 2016). Some scholars argue that contemporary glossy magazines often include a feminist (although ambiguously so) perspective through the inclusion of ‘images’ of assertive, independent and sexually confident women which align with ‘new’ femininities (Gill and Scharff, 2011). Scholars are, however, divided on whether women’s magazines articulate a ‘feminist’ alignment. On one hand, these mediated representations are coherent with the contemporary ‘re-popularisation’ of feminism in popular culture (Banet-Weiser, 2015; Rottenberg, 2014) and as such indicate that feminism has become part of a broader cultural field (Favaro and Gill, 2018; Gill, 2016). On the other hand, they promote a postfeminist discourse that presents feminism as irrelevant to today’s social struggles (Gill, 2016; Gill and Elias, 2014; McRobbie, 2009, 2015). Through the circulation of an ‘emancipation has been completed’ discourse (Winship, 1989), readers are encouraged to develop a belief in (and thus legitimise) the idea that a new, transformative era of gender relations has already been reached (Gauntlett, 2008). Moreover, despite the noted shift in representations of women from passive subjects to active agents, scholars assert that an emphasis on women being beautiful (Gill, 2007; Murphy, 2013) and pleasing to men (Machin and Thornborrow, 2003) remains. European women’s magazines have also started to make visible attempts to become more inclusive in terms of ‘race’, body type and age. Examples include Vogue’s UK November 2016 issue, where women depicted in the fashion editorial were referred to as ‘real women’ (but nonetheless included a group of mostly white, younger than 50, ‘ideal-sized’ (thin) women), and Vogue’s UK February 2022 issue, which featured nine black women models. Research suggests, however, the persistence of a hegemony of ‘white’ beauty norms in women’s magazines (Akinro and Mbunyuza-Memani, 2019; Duan, 2017).

Women’s magazines are excellent sites for examining the social construction of discourses about the pursuit of female authenticity. As ‘symbolic landscapes’, women’s magazines can be seen as cultural forms, which mirror aspects of lived realities, and it is reasonable to expect that the pursuit of authenticity embedded in different forms of popular culture is, at least to some extent, also reflected in these magazines. As platforms which act as purveyors of ideologies (Gill, 2010; Ytre-Arne, 2011) about contemporary womanhood, they are ideal for identifying and analysing authenticity discourses and incitements to pursue authenticity. Furthermore, the international reach of magazine brands and their adaptations to specific geographical and socio-cultural contexts allow us to observe authenticity discourses across different countries.

Research design and methods

This article examines discourses of authenticity in printed and digital versions of leading women’s magazines circulated in the United Kingdom and Greece: Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire, which are two of the highest selling magazines in both countries. While the magazines have opted to also publish their content online, they are still consumed by a significant and noteworthy portion of women, including sales of printed versions that are widely available from shops and consumed in public and private spaces. Cosmopolitan is the world’s number one women’s magazines brand, published in 60 editions worldwide. With a combined print and digital circulation of more than 258,000 readers in the United Kingdom, Cosmopolitan’s website and social media engages more than 6.5 m unique users per month (Readly.com, 2021). Marie Claire, another global brand, is published in 36 countries and reaches 2.2 million women via its 15 brand platforms (Readly.com, 2020), with a total reach (print, digital readership and social media users combined) of 806,000 readers in Greece alone (GMC Media, 2017). While Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire are both widely read, their target age groups differ somewhat, with Cosmopolitan primarily targeting women between 18 and 34 years and Marie Claire targeting women between 18 and 44 years.

To enable the identification and analysis of discourses about the ‘pursuit of authenticity’ in magazines, we conducted a quantitative content analysis followed by a qualitative repertoire analysis. For the quantitative content analysis of a total of 575 featured and editorial articles appearing in printed and digital versions of British and Greek versions of Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire produced during 2012–2016, we gathered the corpus of material and developed a coding schedule to conduct a thematic content analysis. The main themes identified included relationship advice, lifestyle advice, career advice, gender equality, fashion and beauty, health and violence. Having assigned the magazine articles to main and sub-thematic groups, a stratified sampling technique was used to select a smaller set of articles for the qualitative repertoire analysis. The initial quantitative content analysis was essential to ensure that the smaller sample of 80 articles (20 each from British Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire and Greek Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire) used in the qualitative repertoire analysis was representative of the magazines. The method of repertoire analysis was chosen as it enables researchers to make sense of large amounts of cultural texts through the identification of recurring textual patterns and relating them to wider social formations (Wetherell and Potter, 1988). A repertoire is a discursive theme that ‘sets up contained subject positions or voices sometimes in opposition to each other. . .and which develops recognizable and bounded links or arguments’ (Wetherell, 1998: 38). Following Hermes (1995) and Gill (2010), who employed repertoire analysis to explore magazine audiences’ understanding of women’s magazines and gender discourses circulated in women’s magazines respectively, we employed repertoire analysis to identify how the ‘pursuit of authenticity’ is discursively constructed in the sampled magazines. This analysis involved the identification of recurrent patterns of discourses of authenticity in the magazines including those relating to ‘self-acceptance’, ‘internalisation of flaws’, ‘body-positivity’ and the ‘can do’ philosophy. These were subsequently organised into a repertoire, that of ‘the authentic self’.

The socio-cultural contexts of the United Kingdom and Greece

Larger socio-cultural patterns of gender relations are relevant to discourses about authenticity, including the ways in which women’s magazines construct notions of authenticity and admonish women to become their ‘authentic selves’ with regard to motherhood and paid employment. In 2019, the Gender Equality Index which assesses the state of gender equality in European Union member states, ranked the United Kingdom fifth (European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), 2019b), while Greece ranked last (EIGE, 2019a). ¹ The index highlighted persisting barriers to gender equality in both countries, including the gender pay gap and women’s limited representation in managerial and leadership positions. While both Britain and Greece have been shaped by Christian traditions that have regarded the heterosexual family as ‘the only socially acceptable setting for childbearing’ (Gavalas et al., 2013: 250), there are notable differences between the two countries. For example, the relatively high rates of single-parent families (Nieuwenhuis and Maldonado, 2018) and births occurring outside of marriage in the United Kingdom (Eurostat, 2020) are viewed as evidence of social norms that disentangle childbearing from marriage (Garrett et al., 2006). In contrast, Greece has the lowest rates of one-parent families and children born outside of marriage in Europe (Gavalas et al., 2013). Such differences and similarities, however, seem to have little influence on discourses about the pursuit of ‘authenticity’ in women’s magazines. We find that such discourses are notably similar across British and Greek editions of Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire, supporting the transnational circulation of gendered discourses and ideologies directed towards female consumers (Gough-Yates, 2003; Machin and Thornborrow, 2003).

We now turn to our analysis of discourses about the ‘pursuit of authenticity’ embedded in British and Greek women’s magazines. We identify the existence of an ‘authentic self’ repertoire which relies on a triple entanglement of notions derived from third-wave feminism, post-feminism, and neoliberal discourse.

The repertoire of an ‘authentic self’

The ‘authentic self’ repertoire is primarily found in British and Greek magazine articles which have romantic and sexual relationships, well-being and career as primary topics. ² A main feature of the repertoire is the integration of key elements of third-wave feminism, emphasising each woman’s individuality and sexual liberation (Budgeon, 2011). At the same time, the overall discourse of authenticity relies on the principle that women must consistently work to recognise and perform a ‘true’ or ‘essential’ identity, which, in turn, invites women onto an eternal journey of becoming.

Our analysis suggests that the ‘authentic self’ repertoire accommodates two contradictory elements within a discourse of authenticity. The first element, which urges women to create opportunities that can serve their ‘authentic self’, is realised through the means of positive language and an emphasis on women’s agency which prompts readers to outwardly express their alleged ‘inner’, ‘authentic’ selves. The second element, which encourages women to accept their current situation rather than to challenge it, is articulated through discourses of self-acceptance accompanied by self-help advice that also prompts readers to pursue their so-called authentic selves. This self-help advice admonishes women to accept their bodily characteristics and perceived internal ‘flaws’. It also engages a discourse of normalisation of gender anxieties that women might experience due to loneliness caused by the lack of a partner and/or an inability to fulfil socio-cultural expectations about motherhood. The latter accentuates McRobbie’s (2009) argument that postfeminist anxieties are legitimated in popular discourse. Rather than tackling the perpetuation of such anxieties in contemporary European societies, women’s magazines re-circulate and normalise anxieties and expectations about contemporary womanhood by encouraging women to accept their circumstances. Moreover, an ongoing proliferation of authenticity discourses relies on the idea that ‘authenticity’ is an eternal project of ‘pursuing’ and ‘becoming’, rather than an achievable end-status. Concomitantly, through the promotion of self-governing techniques that act as mechanisms for self-surveillance and self-monitoring, women’s magazines also articulate support for traditional forms of femininity which align with broader, socio-cultural norms and expectations about womanhood. Below, we discuss the discursive constructions that comprise these contradictory elements of the ‘authentic self’ repertoire.

‘Can do’ philosophy and individualism

The primary way in which women’s magazines prompt their readers to pursue authenticity is by employing the ‘can do’ philosophy (Harris, 2004) to create their own opportunities. This philosophy positions women as subjects of infinite capacity; women are perceived as able to achieve anything if they are sufficiently determined, work hard and believe in themselves (Harris, 2004). In both British and Greek women’s magazines, articles are pervaded by a language of confidence and determination. With reference to women’s personal choice and freedom, articles invoking the ‘authentic self’ repertoire instruct women that they can become their authentic selves by being ‘confident’ (p. 97), ‘don’t change’ (p. 98) and believe in themselves (‘believe in you’ p. 97) (Cosmopolitan UK, May 2012, pp. 97–98).

The article ‘Confidence tricks’ (Cosmopolitan UK, May 2012) illustrates the accentuation of women’s personal choice and decision to pursue their authentic selves. The articulation of discourses such as ‘Believe in you’ (p. 97) and ‘make your own opportunities. . .if an opportunity isn’t there for you, make it’ (p. 97) emphasise each woman’s self-reliance and ability to create their own opportunities. The articles suggest that women should not constrain themselves to prescribed versions of femininities; instead, they should express their authentic selves. Such representations of women’s authenticity describe women as being in control of their own ‘destiny’, thus resonating with what McRobbie (2015) has described as the ‘illusion of control’ (p. 4). Similarly, through appeals to individual freedom, women are prompted to embrace and freely express themselves. Articles such as ‘Go with the flaws’ (Cosmopolitan Greece, October 2014), where the author urges readers to ‘free yourself’ (p. 123), and ‘Sense of attraction’ (Cosmopolitan Greece, January 2016), where the author admonishes readers ‘don’t hide your true self’ (p. 137), illustrate how discourses comprising the ‘authentic self’ repertoire highlight women’s capacity and entitlement to express their individuality.

Nonetheless, while the British and Greek articles invoking the ‘authentic self’ repertoire underscore women’s agency and urge women to create their own opportunities, they also promote an individualistic, self-focused way of thinking. This is illustrated by the article ‘Angry Birds’ featured in British Cosmopolitan, May 2012, where author Sophie Goddard advises the readers to ‘Be selfish . . . don’t put everyone else’s needs before your own’ (p. 106). Similarly, Thetida Pexlivanidi, author of ‘Ego-friendly’ (Cosmopolitan Greece, January 2015) argues,

Putting yourself first and above everything is the best thing you can do. Not just for you, but your relationships with everyone else too. (p. 143)

Thus, while discourses which prompt women to be their authentic selves can be seen as a celebration of women’s agency via an emphasis on the agentic self and women’s aspirations and goals, they are also highly individualistic. This resonates with research suggesting that, for young adults, ‘external markers’ such as university education, marriage and independent housing are replaced by ‘individualistic or psychological attributes as indicators of achieving adulthood’ (Silva, 2014: 1388). While these indicators may suggest resistance towards materialism and consumerism, they also align with a broader ‘cultural discourse that promotes self-interest over collective well-being’ (Silva, 2014: 1396) within a context of increased precarity and risk. The individualism which underpins the ‘authentic self’ discourse in women’s magazines is problematic for two main reasons. First, structural barriers women might face in their attempts to express authenticity are not acknowledged, whether these are social norms dictating women to behave in certain ways (e.g. becoming a mother) or social structures which hinder women in reaching managerial and leadership positions. This is intimately linked with the postfeminist notion that gender equality has already been achieved and diminishes the need for collective agency in tackling persisting inequalities. Second, this discourse assumes that all women are equally resourceful and have the same opportunities, thus erasing structural inequalities (e.g. due to ‘race’, ethnicity, sexualities, age and class) faced by different groups of women. The discursive silencing of these structural issues actively shapes the construction of the postfeminist narrative that gender equality has already been achieved, where any need for feminist activism is relegated to the past (McRobbie, 2009), thus making authenticity a narrow and restrictive, individualistic term.

Self-acceptance

Articles which prompt women to pursue authenticity by accepting their current circumstances mainly do this through an emphasis on self-acceptance. Our analysis of British and Greek women’s magazine discourses about authenticity shows that they are notably similar across the two country contexts. Both British and Greek magazine articles prompt readers to accept their bodies and identities, suggesting that they should be confident in be(coming) their authentic selves. The notion of women’s self-acceptance is articulated via three elements. First, body-positive discourses prompt women to accept and feel confident in their own bodies. Second, women are encouraged to love their ‘internal selves’ and embrace their so-called ‘flaws’. Third, an attempt is made to normalise ‘the fear of loneliness, the stigma of remaining single and the risks and uncertainties of not finding the right partner to be a father to children’ (McRobbie, 2009: 20), which McRobbie refers to as postfeminist gender anxieties. These three elements are infused by a self-help disposition, as readers are expected to follow the magazines’ advice to become their authentic selves.

Self-acceptance is encouraged in both British and Greek articles via the dissemination of body-positive discourses. Previous studies of women’s magazines have demonstrated their reliance on idealised images of ‘the perfect body’, representative of a beauty standard often described as the ‘thin ideal’ (Swiatkowski, 2016). During the 2000s, however, a new type of advertising known as ‘Love Your Body’ (LYB) emerged as a response to feminist critiques against the tendency of commercial brands to promote unhealthily thin body types (Gill and Kanai, 2019). LYB advertising, led by global brands like Dove and Always, has broadened the body-type representations circulated in popular culture by showcasing a more diverse range of women’s bodies, while at the same attempting to shift the emphasis from reinforcing dominant Western beauty ideals to ‘feeling good’ and building confidence (McRobbie, 2004). The body-positive discourses found in the magazines resonate with the underlying LYB advertising philosophy due to their emphasis on authenticity, diversity and self-acceptance.

Positive language, a main feature of body-positive discourses in women’s magazines, is used as a tool to encourage women to accept and embrace their physical features. The use of such language resonates with everyday neoliberalism expressed as ‘a technology that increasingly operates through forms of intimate psychological governance such as the promotion of self-esteem, happiness, positive mental attitude, etc.’ (Gill and Kanai, 2018: 319). A typical example is the article ‘I’ve got bikini confidence’ in which Melita, one of its authors, asserts:

Like all girls, there were times when I hated my body. As a teenager, big hips, full thighs, pimples and awkward features all took a toll on my self-esteem . . . if you hang around with awesome people and have a fun life, you just don’t think about your body that much. Now I feel more womanly. I feel healthy, energetic, and proud. (Cosmopolitan UK, May 2012, p. 101)

In referring to her past, Melita notes how feeling insecure about her appearance affected her self-esteem and perceived self-worth. The body-positive discourse is accentuated through a reference to how being surrounded by ‘awesome people’ (p. 101), ‘having fun’ (p. 101) and being satisfied with her current lifestyle helped Melita to overcome her former body insecurities and to accept herself as a ‘womanly’, ‘healthy’, ‘energetic’ and ‘proud’ (p. 101) individual. Suggestions about how to overcome negative thought patterns regarding body image share the same philosophy as the ‘transforming the self’ repertoire identified by Gill (2010) within her analysis of sex and relationship advice in the British Glamour magazine, as they encourage women to construct a confident, self-reliant self by changing the way(s) they perceive themselves. However, in contrast to Gill’s (2010) repertoire, which prompts readers to transform themselves through breaking ‘(self) destructive patterns of thinking’ (p. 358) and generating positive thoughts, the body-positive articles we have analysed urges readers to engage in a process of self-acceptance, mobilised by their engagement in self-fulfilling activities and surrounding themselves by ‘awesome people’ (p. 101).

While previous studies have argued that body-positive discourses in women’s magazines suggest that an increased body confidence will make women more appealing to men (Swiatkowski, 2016), this is not the case for Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire articles in our study. Instead, articles which invoke the ‘authentic self’ repertoire depict women’s acceptance of their physical features as a crucial step towards pursuing their authentic selves. This emphasis on women’s acceptance of their physical characteristics for their own benefit, resonates strongly with what Gill (2007) has described as a shift from women’s objectification to women’s subjectification, since a positive body-image is suggested for women’s own benefit rather than for making them more appealing to the male gaze.

Nonetheless, the above ‘I’ve got bikini confidence’ article in Cosmopolitan UK does not challenge the basic premise of the ‘importance of being bikini-ready’; instead, it is argued that women can be bikini ready without undergoing any physical changes, urging women to accept their current features rather than trying to change them to conform to ideals about thinness. Thus, while the normative ideal that women should be ‘bikini ready’ is reinforced, women’s magazines attempt to do this without alienating women by accusing them of falling short of being bikini ready. This feature underlines the ‘authentic self’ repertoire’s ability to establish and reinforce seemingly ‘new’ norms without inviting women to challenge underlying gendered assumptions.

Magazine articles which emphasise self-acceptance do not merely focus on the body but also incorporate references to women’s understanding of their inner world and the acceptance of what is described by magazines as ‘flaws’. By engaging in a process of accepting ‘flaws’ and anxieties, women are urged to pursue their authentic selves. This is illustrated in the article ‘What’s wrong with being average’ (Cosmopolitan UK, October 2013), where the author, Lorna, asserts:

Is there anything wrong with settling for a ‘norm’, such as having a steady 9–5 job and going to the same bar with your girlfriends every Saturday night? Of course not. And neither does it matter if you don’t want to fit in with any of these things. (p. 82)

In this extract, readers are encouraged to understand and accept their current life situations, whatever they may be. Women’s desires to either accept or reject societal norms and everyday routines are both normalised and accepted. The article also cites figures for UK women’s average weight, marital and birth-giving ages, and discusses how women who either adapt or don’t adapt to these ‘norms’ are considered ‘flawed’: women who adapt are perceived (mainly by themselves) as not trying hard enough, while women who don’t adapt are described as putting pressure on themselves ‘to match up to a supposed ideal’ (p. 82). The article thus foregrounds the internal struggles that a woman experiences in her quest to adapt/not adapt to societal norms, while the societal expectations towards contemporary womanhood that heightens these internal struggles are silenced. The article’s expert-psychotherapist Kathy Caprino highlights women’s tendency to compare themselves with other women, asserting that ‘it generally makes you unhappy either way. You’ll either feel inferior, which makes you insecure, or superior, which risks alienating you from your friends’ (p. 82). Caprino also suggests that women want to ‘be above average’, which she refers to as ‘perfectionist overfunctioning’ (p. 82). The article urges women to embrace ‘average’ by internalising and accepting their personal conditions and as such express their ‘authenticity’.

Similarly, Ksenia, the author of ‘Go with the flaws’ (Cosmopolitan Greece, October 2014), urges women to accept their ‘flaws’ via a positive mental attitude. She asserts that ‘What makes you perfect is nothing else than your flaws’ (p. 122). This article also introduces neologisms such as ‘flawthenticity’ in the context of ‘being true and not perfect’ (p. 122). Ksenia notes that ‘the absence of authenticity is a significant part of being stressed and confused in our everyday lives’ (p. 123). Being ‘authentic’ is thus depicted as more important than being ‘perfect’. The author concludes,

We all have our flaws and failures. Every individual has mental, physical, and emotional flaws . . . think of how charming people who love their flaws are. . . . Once you accept what you consider a flaw as a part of yourself, your confidence will rise. Because our insecurities and anxieties are like our childhood’s evil monster living under our bed. Once you turn on the light and look under the bed, they disappear. (p. 123)

This extract addresses the fallacy of ‘perfection’ as achievable by normalising so-called ‘flaws’. The author recommends that once ‘flaws’ are accepted as part of oneself they are transformed into charming attributes. Readers are invited to move on from a type of womanhood characterised by ‘shame, secrecy, and ‘hang-ups’’ (Gill, 2010: 363) to a more confident, authentic self. Paradoxically, through the utilisation of terms such as ‘flaw’ and ‘failure’, women’s magazines actively participate in the construction of specific bodily and psychological traits as negative, via the perpetuation of women’s alleged ‘flaws’ and prescriptive notions of femininity. These pre-established ideas about ‘flaws’, which are built upon an economy of fear and anxiety (Blackman, 2004), form the foundation of the production of the ‘authentic self’. The contradictory nature of women’s magazines (Gauntlett, 2008; McRobbie, 2009) is evidenced here, as it becomes apparent that they often work ‘in conjunction with . . . “already-constituted” fears and desires’ (Reed and Saukko, 2010: 36) held by contemporary women. On one hand, they define and participate in the articulation of ‘flaws’, and on the other, suggest that their internalisation and acceptance will serve the pursuit of an authentic self. By urging women to accept their ‘flaws’, these discourses seek to refrain from alienating women by suggesting that women don’t have to worry about falling short of dominant societal constructions of femininity. This discourse is also built on the assumption that all women are equally resourceful, and any structural barriers, including those pertaining to ‘race’, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and age, which may prevent women from realising their ‘authentic selves’, are erased. In turn, this silencing makes ‘authenticity’ a restricted term which engages women in an eternal, individual journey of becoming.

This attempt by women’s magazines to encourage women to pursue their ‘authenticity’ through accepting and embracing their bodily features and perceived ‘flaws’ illustrates the balancing act that the magazines engage in between empowering women readers and keeping advertisers happy. As the existence of women’s magazines depend on the attraction and retainment of advertisers (McRobbie, 2008; Ytre-Arne, 2011), it is unsurprising that they partake in the commodification of women’s empowerment via individualising notions of ‘the authentic self’ rather than through collective aspirations of political mobilisation and change.

Magazine discourses about ‘authenticity’ can be described as postfeminist (McRobbie, 2009), as women are depicted as having benefitted from feminism’s successes including educational access, rights, and opportunities in the public sphere (Gill, 2010; McRobbie, 2008). While women may be emancipated from traditional expectations and able to become financially self-sufficient, magazine discourses also contribute to what McRobbie (2009: 20) refers to as postfeminist gender anxieties. Women’s magazines do not merely provide visibility to these gender anxieties; they also attempt to renegotiate and normalise them through the means of personal choice, such as that of being single (McRobbie, 2004: 262). Women depicted in this type of magazine articles are confident in talking about their anxieties and fears. A typical article providing visibility to the stigma of being single is ‘Hola my loneliness’, where the author Alexandra claims that ‘frequently you are accused of not trying hard enough [to find a suitable partner] even if that’s something you don’t really wish for’ (Cosmopolitan Greece, May 2015, p. 12). Alexandra is confident enough to discuss the social expectations which reinforce the stigma of being alone through statements such as ‘is it so bad I want to be single?’ (p. 12), and ‘I’m better on my own’ (p. 13). This postfeminist anxiety thus becomes normalised through the means of personal choice, with Alexandra writing that: ‘when a person chooses to stay single and genuinely wishes that it means that she or he has fun on her or his own and finds this “freedom” more charming than any other relationship’ and ‘it would be good if we could meet up at some point and organise a demonstration titled “stop the glorification of being in a relationship”’ (Cosmopolitan Greece, May 2015, p. 13). This magazine article is illustrative of attempts to normalise fears relating to loneliness, singledom and childlessness, which McRobbie (2009: 20) labels postfeminist gender anxieties.

The article ‘All the single ladies’ imparts the same postfeminist anxiety: ‘In a world which insists on categorising people according to whether they have found their “other halves” . . . being single makes you wonder if you come from a different planet’ (Cosmopolitan Greece, January 2012, p. 171). The quote ‘There’s nothing wrong with me, I just don’t want kids’ (Marie Claire, UK, pp. 139–140) is also illustrative of how women’s magazines use the trope of personal choice to normalise the social expectation that all women desire to become mothers. Through a recommended process of self-acceptance, women’s authenticity is not associated with ‘acting or performing’ (Gill, 2010: 360); instead, it involves understanding, accepting and expressing one’s ‘true’ sense of self. Women’s choice to be single and childless is thus legitimated as an individual lifestyle choice through a discourse about authenticity.

An observable self-help element is also embedded in self-acceptance articles, as women are encouraged to use the articles’ advice as tools to aid the acceptance of conflicts, dilemmas and perceived ‘flaws’. The inclusion of self-help discourses fits with the magazines’ entertaining nature and commodification of ‘thin culture’ (Lichterman, 1992). Lichterman (1992), who coined the term ‘thin culture’ to describe self-help advice, argued that ‘the words and concepts put forth in . . . [self-help advice] can be read and adopted loosely, tentatively, sometimes interchangeably, without enduring conviction’ (p. 426). At the same time, however, magazine readers are encouraged to internalise individual solutions and to ‘redo’ themselves through a continuous transformation of their thoughts and behaviours which ultimately expresses ‘authenticity’.

While self-help advice is generally signalled by a ‘lighter’ culture, as Barker et al. (2018) noted, it tends to locate ‘problems within the individual. . .rather than within wider cultural messages or structural inequalities’ (p. 1340), as readers are made responsible for addressing ‘issues’ by following the help of the ‘expert’ or author of a given article. In articles that invoke the self-acceptance discourse, women’s duty to become their authentic self is demonstrated in the depiction of each woman as responsible for overcoming her ‘problems’ (e.g. perceived ‘flaws’ and anxieties) by following the magazines’ advice. By making women responsible for expressing their authentic selves and achieving this via adopting the magazines’ advice, authenticity is formulated as an individual project focused on becoming. Similarly, responsibility is shifted from societal discourses which perpetuate ‘flaws’ and anxieties associated with contemporary womanhood, to women themselves, which aligns with what Banet-Weiser (2015) refers to as ‘popular misogyny’. Women are thus held responsible not merely for the internalisation of the so-called ‘flaws’ and anxieties, but also for overcoming them.

Drawing on Foucault (1998), who suggested that power manifests itself in everyday practices in which individuals engage in self-governing techniques and thereby ‘discipline’ themselves, we argue that women’s magazines signal available permutations of authenticity through the suggestion of self-monitoring techniques. Such techniques include encouraging readers to identify the invisible constraints of pre-established femininities and social expectations and to monitor themselves in relation to these. Paradoxically, the self-surveillance discourse, which coexists with discourses about women’s personal empowerment and urging them to follow the magazines’ self-help advice (Rimke, 2000), encourages women to accept and stay within ‘normalised’ pre-established constraints. Thus, the self-monitoring and self-surveillance functions are the primary tools each woman must rely on to identify the ‘invisible’ social and cultural constraints that women are unable to surpass while being on a quest to pursue authenticity. This leads to the construction of a woman who, while being true to herself and considering her own personal aspirations, still needs to abide by limited constructions of womanhood.

Conclusion

This article has examined the ways in which the pursuit of authenticity is articulated in the traditional popular culture form of women’s magazines, focusing on contemporary British and Greek versions of Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire. Our analysis identified an original repertoire: that of the ‘authentic self’, which is constructed and communicated in similar ways in both the British and Greek versions of these magazines, suggesting that women’s magazines follow similar ‘scripts’. This finding resonates with Machin and Thornborrow’s (2003) conclusion that women’s magazines’ discourse ‘constitutes a set of values that works worldwide, in spite of local variations’ in content and in the socio-cultural contexts in which they circulate (p. 462). Magazine articles that express the ‘authentic self’ repertoire are comprised of complex discourses which encourage women to pursue their ‘inner’ or ‘authentic’ selves. This repertoire accommodates two contradictory positions, where one urges women to create their own opportunities, while the other prompts women to accept their current circumstances. By emphasising personal choice and the freedom to express one’s ‘authentic self’, the discourse articulates a ‘can do’ (Harris, 2004) philosophy for women. This discourse is reflective of the third wave of feminism and its emphasis on women’s agency and individuality (Budgeon, 2011). Moreover, exhortations about authenticity are also representative of a sense of individualism embedded within contemporary neoliberal societies, as the discourse prompt readers to prioritise their personal aspirations and needs above those of others. Importantly, this discourse overlooks structural barriers faced by women and potential grounds for collective mobilisation and solidarity between women. Through the means of a positive language, the discourse of authenticity also urges women to understand and accept their bodily, psychological, and emotional characteristics through self-acceptance. This discursive position encourages women to accept what is referred to in the magazine articles as personal ‘flaws’. Similarly, an attempt is made to normalise the postfeminist gender anxieties that contemporary women might share. These include the fears of loneliness, singledom and childlessness. Self-help discourses, which are presented as tools for women’s self-acceptance, are also eminent in these ‘authentic self’ articles. Such self-help discourses perpetuate women’s individual responsibility for ‘becoming authentic’.

In conclusion, the ‘authentic self’ repertoire is comprised of contradictory discursive features, reconciling exhortations to pursue authenticity with a delineation and reinforcement of societal norms and boundaries, which characterise women’s experiences. It does so by erasing social and institutional barriers that contemporary women encounter in their attempts to live ‘authentically’. Common structural barriers (e.g. gendered career patterns and glass ceilings) that diverse groups of British and Greek women face, as well as intersections between gender-based and other social identities and inequalities, are silenced in magazine articles. Instead, discourses which promote third-wave feminist ideas that forefront women’s agency and individuality are accompanied by a postfeminist stance, as the silencing of social and institutional obstacles on women’s path to authenticity suggests that gender equality has already been achieved. Rather than forming a collective cultural resource that could potentially aid progressive social and cultural change, these magazines represent a gender conservative repository of discourses for and about women.

While self-acceptance is one of the main positions accommodated within the ‘authentic self’ repertoire, the language utilised in magazine content actively engages in the valuation of women’s bodies and identities, by characterising women’s bodily, psychological and emotional features as ‘flaws’. While the magazines promote positive valuations of women, they do not challenge the premise that the female body and feminine identities are available for valuations of this kind in the first place. The magazines actively promote self-governing mechanisms, which are intimately aligned with the disciplined neoliberal self. Through this discursive strategy, women are held responsible for enabling and managing their own pursuit of ‘authenticity’. The contradictory nature of magazine discourses which invoke the ‘authentic self’ repertoire is thereby reconciled through a triple entanglement of feminist, postfeminist and neoliberal discourses which work to promote individualism through exhortations of authenticity, as well as to constrain the possibilities of achieving ‘authenticity’ since the pursuit of authenticity becomes an eternal project.