See the Fascinating Evolution of Magazine Covers Over 100 Years
A trend towards more minorities and less clothes.
Magazines have long acted as a barometer of social mores and issues, with their covers often going down in history for powerfully portraying the spirit of the times. Currently making the rounds on Reddit and Medium is this post by Karen X. Cheng and Jerry Gabra examining the ways in which some of the most prominent magazine publications have changed with the times (or not) over the course of the past century. Along with the convergence towards featuring partially dressed women and the gradual cluttering of the cover with garish text — techniques refined and employed to sell more copies — we also observe some societal trends such as the increasing sexualization of women with increased women’s rights, the appearance of more minorities, as well as sexual minorities represented by Vanity Fair‘s cover of Caitlyn Jenner. Scroll through some highlights in the gallery above, and find the entire post here.
