Bust-ed: What Bust Magazine Says about the 'Health' of Third Wave Feminism

• In Event: Empowering Media?: Perspectives on Blogs, Self-Help, "Playboy," and "Bust"

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that Bust magazine negotiates between dismantling controlling female images, and the need to play into these images in order to cater to its young female demographic. I will examine this negotiation of contradictory ideals at two levels: at the level of content, through textual analysis, where I explore themes of domesticity, consumption, and beauty. In this analysis, I examined Bust’s quarterly issues from Spring 2003 to Fall 2004. The first part of the paper focuses at the production level, by considering how this negotiated stance is inherent in the shift from producing a more underground, feminist ‘zine, to the production of a glossy, more mainstream women’s magazine.

Author

• Taylor Rifkin, University of Southern California