Representation of women in ecuadorian magazines: publicity and non-publicity images of the feminine

Abstract

The present is the report of an exploratory investigation that was carried out around the theme: Representation of women in Ecuadorian magazines, advertising and non-advertising images and the feminine. The analysis of quantitative content was used and, therefore, manifest, with the intention of extracting data in reference to the representations contained in anchor photographs of articles and publicity pieces, published by the Ecuadorian divulgation magazines BG, Fucsia, ¡Hola!, Vistazo and Caras, corresponding to November 2011 and March 2012. It was interesting to analyze the profile of the women and their actors represented in these publications. With the investigation it was evidenced that in the publications brown or mestizo-like women and white or Anglo-Saxon-looking women are privileged, excluding the image of the indigenous or Afro-Ecuadorian woman, a question that reaffirms some type of Westernized identity. In the same way, it is shown that the female actor in Ecuador appears erased and, although it is assimilated to the type of cosmopolitan woman, in the end its representation is objectified and serves to reaffirm machista and social stereotypes where the woman is also the vehicle of social status.