Social Connections and the Commodity of the Celebrity

As a women's magazine, People intends to address the issues important to the "fairer sex". You can see in the beginning that People was less interested in being scandalous than wanting to provide a service to its readership, a good quality read. Of course, that started to change in the 80s when the juicy details of the glamorous life came in high demand. People had begun to establish itself as a leading resource into the lives of the rich and the famous, but with a different sort of twist than we see today. They were set up more like human interest pieces, exploring the intimate lives of the inaccessible.

Unlike fashion magazines, People decided to commodify images, not just faces. When the occasional model did grace its covers during the first 20 years, we only heard about them at a personal level. They were not shot in artistically posed shoots with outstanding hair and makeup. Instead People recast these beautiful women as human beings.

The best way to do this was to place them in normal social situations. All three of the models that appeared on the covers of People Magazine during the 70s had headlines talking about their relationships with boyfriends:

Hutton - May 12, 1975

Bergen - July 28, 1975

Teagues - June 19, 1978


In this way, the magazine was able to effectively mold the public image of these women and the public image of women in general. These are the women everyone was to look up to, the epitome of beauty and happiness. This is what you should strive to be.