The Relationship Between Beauty and Happiness

Imagine this image displayed on a newsstand shelf, staring you down as you approach or pass by. What message does this specific image convey? The cover image of a magazine crucially defines the theme and content of the magazine. 

The cover of the October 1956 edition of True Confessions shows a woman looking over her shoulder at consumers. Her perfectly styled hair, makeup, and wide smile all stand out as central components to the cover image. This image of the woman on the cover of a magazine geared toward working class women [1] works to imply that this specific type of woman is the ideal. In order to achieve happiness, women simply have to wear red lipstick, stylish clothes, and a fashionable hairstyle to finish the look. 

On another level, True Confessions contains mainly romance stories written by women for women. This cover image sends the message that women who are meant to engage in romantic relationships look like the woman in the image. 

Therefore, consumers of this magazine automatically link beauty and happiness with each other. The magazine perpetuates the idea that in order to find happiness women must find love, and in order to find love women must look like the woman on the cover page. Of course, though, not every woman looks like that, so they look to the internal content of the magazine to find ways in which they may change their appearance to look more like that woman, and as a result deserve to achieve happiness by finding love.