This dissertation focuses on the construction and framing of femininity in Marie-Claire magazine since its first publication in 1937. The title reflects the choice to break down this history of gender narratives with three chronological landmarks. The use and development of femininity as a concept begins in 1937 with narratives focusing on the notion of beauty, and visually embodied in pictures of smiling women. In 1954, these narratives shift their focus to the household, and femininity starts being typically represented by a woman wearing an apron. Finally, in 1968, narratives of women emancipation appear. The former two framings correspond to the emergence of an innovative industrial production specifically tailored to women, including cosmetics and household appliances. They also proceed from changes in relationships between genders in society at large, and from the effect of scientific and technical progress on daily life. The use and reliance on the analysis of pictures and other visual representations throughout this study serves to highlight several characteristics of the development of media narratives: they are co-constructed between editorial and advertising contents, between images and speech, and between industrials and readers stories. In this dissertation, I argue that the generalized use of this visual imagery specific to each of the three aforementioned narratives is both a sign of that these models are being constructed into norms by the magazine and a sign that these proposed norms are in turn favorably received by their readership. This argument, in turn, calls into question the commonly held notion that the content of women's press is alienating to its readership.
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