Teen magazines: Getting a dumbing down for the times

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Pick up two or three glossy teen magazines from a newsstand, and start browsing. Before long, you will be surprised by the striking similarities between them.

By the time you read the last page and close the magazines, you will be hard put to tell any difference between them all.

Teen magazines these days -- for boys or girls alike -- offer universal themes; how to look hip like your favorite singers or movie stars, what is going on with your favorite singers or movie stars, how to act like your favorite singers or movie stars and the latest outings of those very same favorite singers or movie.

They may touch on more substantial advice, such as how to respect parents or teachers, but it will be buried amid all the celebrity fluff, entertaining though it is.

With tabloid-style gossip shows dominating the airwaves, teen magazines are following suit. Their content runs the entertainment gamut of gossip, movies, fashion and favorite hangouts.

So, what's wrong with that? After all, better quality magazines like Kerrang or Spin also examine the same subjects.

The issue is that in years past teen magazines like Hai and Gadis were a training ground for young, talented writers, such as Hilman Hariwijaya and Gito Gilas.

In a time when teenagers were not yet herded into worshiping bubble-gum pop and cheesy TV soap operas, magazines offered balanced reviews on records and enlightening short stories.

These days, teen magazines focus on teen queens and cover girls who will probably graduate to become TV soap stars. Teen magazines educate girls about how to be beautiful in their quest to be lead a shiny happy life, as if that is all that young women aspire to.

Even the once well-respected Hai magazine could not resist the temptation to jump up on the "beautiful is where it's at" bandwagon and run a 50 sexiest celebrities issue.

The managing editor of the oldest and highest circulation magazine for young women Gadis, Didin P. Ambardini, argued that the glossy content reflected the tastes of the readers.

"Our magazine runs images that girls are smart, vibrant, beautiful and in keeping with the latest trends," she told The Jakarta Post.

It runs stories on celebrities like Britney Spears, Stacie Orrico, Christina Aguilera and Westlife because they were what girls wanted, she said. The magazine holds focus group discussions of its readers, regular polling and a greet-the- readers program to gauge what its audience wants.

"U2 or REM are out of the question because they are too heavy and don't look bright for most girls," she said, adding that target audience for the magazine was young women aged between 20 and 24, from middle to upper income brackets.

However, from the inception of the magazine, it has relentlessly promoted local values. "We provide considerable space on manners, education and psychology for our young readers," she said.

Deputy chief editor of Seventeen magazine Tenik Hartono strongly disagreed that her magazine promoted mainstream banality among readers.

"We know what it is like to be young and what it is all about -- movies, pop stars and fashion. We are only capitalizing on what is already there," she told the Post.

An observer of youth matters, Robby Chandra, said that most of teen magazine available in the market reflected the prevailing urban lifestyle and values.

"Most of them talk about lifestyle, fashion and all the things that are offered in the city's malls. All in all, they depict materialistic values," he said.

There is also the trend for teen magazines to ape adult lifestyle publications in the discussion of how to boost one's sex appeal.

"This isn't surprising because media outlets depend heavily on advertisements for their survival, whereas advertisers are business entities which offer up costly lifestyles to reap maximum benefit (for them)."

The most worrying trend is the presentation of a superficial view of the world, centered on the current youth enchantments of malls and TV.

No consideration is given to the fact that, amid the gleaming shopping malls, beautiful boutiques and the quest to be beautiful, a lot of people are just scraping by.

"The teen magazines give no time for their young readers to contemplate. There is no food for thought, since what matters for the youth now is how to become their favorite idols," Robby said.