Elle magazine in Russia: 20 years of brainwashing

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Elle and similar glossy publications are sold in all newsstands in our country and they are aimed primarily at young people, a significant part of whom do not have sufficient experience and knowledge to understand the harmfulness of such magazines.

In the spring of 2016, Elle magazine celebrates its 20th anniversary in Russia. On this occasion, the editors even created a special flash page, on which they posted all the brightest covers and articles for two decades. It is quite symbolic that the final page begins with a naked priests on the whole screen, articles about breasts, betrayal and erotic dreams, published back in 1996, and ends with the material of 2016 - a real hymn to feminism in Russia. But we'll come back to this article later. First, a few words about the publication itself.

Elle magazine is published in Russia by Hearst Shkulev Media, a subsidiary of the American corporation Hearst. Initially, the magazine appeared in France in 1945, and today it is published in 60 countries and is considered the world's largest publication about fashion. Well, let's take a look at what ideas and meanings this magazine has been delivering to Russian readers for 20 years, and what does it teach? Here are the first 50 pages of the March issue.

There are 53 pages of ads in total, and here it is. Let's say right away that there are 468 pages in the issue, but don't worry, we won't show you all the ads. Just to note that advertising takes up 90 percent of the magazine's content and is divided into 3 types: cheap, medium and expensive. The cheap one you just looked at.

The middle one is not only a picture with the name of the brand and an attractive girl, but also a short text, sometimes even a subject as a small article, for example, recommendations on how to take care of your skin with the help of this or that cream. Most of such advertisements are here - about 200 pages.

But there are also expensive advertisements. This is when the employees of the publication try out certain goods and services on themselves, and then all this is drawn up in a detailed article. It is worth paying tribute to the female employees of the magazine - the women there are truly selfless. For example, in this March issue, three employees underwent plastic surgery for themselves in one of the Moscow medical centers - some of them adjusted their breasts, some reduced their legs. As you can imagine, everything went very well, and all the girls were satisfied with the results, the website and the name of the clinic are naturally indicated in the article.

In all this heap of clothes, cosmetics and body care services, you can find several articles that are not directly related to the fashion industry. In general, they occupy no more than 10-15 percent of the magazine's content. We will study them in more detail in order to understand what other ideas, besides the cult of appearance and consumerism, the publication imposes on its readers. First, there are a couple of articles that everyone around you is sure to discuss your appearance. But here it is clear - the ideological pumping of the importance and the need for every woman to use all this rubbish advertised in the magazine.

Secondly, this is a rather long article about the fact that if you suddenly feel sad, then it means that you have depression, and you urgently need to go to a psychologist, otherwise everything will end as sadly as in the story of the heroine of the article. This point is also understandable. It's just that Hirst Shkulev Media also publishes PSYCHOLOGIES magazine in Russia - we have already done a video review on it, we recommend you watch it. Psychology from the Russian daughter of our overseas partners is something in general.

Thirdly, it is advertising for films. The situation here is curious. In addition to one page, which briefly tells about the main premieres of the month, some films have a special place. In particular, two actresses in the magazine received increased attention - they were interviewed, and even made a photo session. They are Alicia Vikander, the Oscar-nominated Danish Girl, and Carol star Rooney Mara.

Since cinematography is, one might say, the profile theme of the Teach Good project, let's take a look for the sake of interest, what kind of pictures have received close attention from Elle magazine. “A Girl from Denmark” is about the world's first transgender, or rather about a man who turns himself into a woman, and the film “Carol” is about two lesbians from high society. We do not recommend watching the pictures, just believe that in them sodomites are shown by such refined and sophisticated people that most of the viewers will involuntarily fall in love with them. If we call a spade a spade, then this is propaganda of perversions.

And finally, there are two articles left, which are so important that the editors placed them even on the website of the publication. They are very indicative - so let's get to know them in more detail. One is called "I understood a hint" or "Why do we need flirting." In principle, everything is simple in it - the reader is convinced that flirting, dating and courtship is the lot of grandmothers and the last century, and modern young people can immediately jump into bed so as not to waste extra time. And the second article is called "The Right of Sex" or "What is Feminism." At first, the author complains about the careless Russian women, through whose fault this phenomenon cannot take root in our country. Then he explains all the charms of feminism, actively substituting concepts and manipulating statistics and meanings. Well, he ends in general on a positive note that today in Russia every woman, if she wants to be happy, must definitely become a feminist.

To summarize, Elle magazine aims to:

• promotion of the cult of appearance
• promoting consumerism
• promoting free relationships
• perversion propaganda
• propaganda of feminism

We are well aware that for the overwhelming majority of our viewers and readers, everything that we have voiced here is obvious. Nevertheless, Elle and similar glossy publications are sold in all newsstands in our country and they are aimed primarily at young people, a significant part of whom do not have sufficient experience and knowledge to understand the harmfulness of such magazines.

Therefore, we urge, despite the transparency of the voiced conclusions, to spread the video review as much as possible and recommend it every time you see an Elle magazine or a similar gloss in someone's hands.