Conception of Beautiful Adolescence girls in Hai!

Magazine
Muhtadin Mustafa
121211231031

Introduction
Magazine has been one of the most influential media for youth in Indonesia. There
are dozens of magazines for youth out there that young people can access easily. These
magazines have been flourishing in early 2000s and still published until now. These
magazines offer many interesting articles for the young people, like review of some events,
how-tos, tips and tricks, stories and many more. They do not only publish the articles in
printed form, but some of the articles can be accessed online so people can get some
information for free.
A youth magazine that is worth mentioned is Hai!. Hai! is one of the magazines in
Indonesia that is published monthly and targeted at young people. The magazine does not
only publish articles offline but also online. This magazine is one of a few magazines that are
supposed to aim at the young men, compared to dozens of girl magazines published in
Indonesia. The magazine offers articles that are usually a trend in young society in
Indonesia. (Hai!)
In the latest edition of the magazine, Hai! magazine published a review of the recent
event from Hai! itself called HaiDay 2015. This event is annual youth event which was held at
10 October 2015 at Jakarta with band performances and guest stars, high school
competitions, booths, and many others. But what is interesting is an article in Hai! Online
with title Deretan Cewek Cantik SMA yang Beredar di HAIDay 2015. This article talks
about beautiful girls interesting to mention in the magazine: Adinda Sekarsari, Astrid Tria
Vany Ayunda, Gabrielle Antoinnete, Losania Vernanda, Izza, and Islamabel QomaraPutri.
The article talks about the girls personality, hobbies and others, with their picture embedded
in the article. (Hai!)
Based on the introduction, the researcher will analyze on how Hai! defines the
concept of beautiful girls by using the content analysis method. First step is the
identification of the girls and coding, after that the articles will be examined by the codes and
will be analyzed on how the media try to conceptualize beauty for youth mind based on the
media standard.
Theoretical Review
There are many studies that discuss about portrayal of girls in magazine. Some
previous researches mostly talk about how the portrayal of beauty in media has changed
adolescents perspective on body images. In Morriss research, the portrayal of women in
advertisements on magazine has given influences for the women of US and France on how to
choose their brand of cosmetics (Morris and Nichols). There are also a difference on US
women with French women perception about beauty, where US women are influenced that
women are placed into decorative roles whereas French women are influenced in the way
that family plays important role to make them more beautiful. (Morris and Nichols)

Achternberg has done his own research on how portrayal of what so called ideal image of
women and men in magazine can affect the perception of young adolescents about body
image. The result of the research has argued that:
When young men and women are constantly, seeing skinny, big breasted, tall, tan,
and sexual women and muscular, tan, tough, trim, and sexy men they begin to think
that those images of the male and female body are the ideal and are the only
acceptable and attractive body types(Achtenberg)

Both of the studies focus on the reception of the portrayal of ideal image of women
and men by the reader of the magazine. However this study will focus more on how the ideal
image was portrayed, especially in the context of Indonesian youth because the magazine is
circulated in Indonesia.
In Indonesian itself there are many researches about the portrayal of beauty in
Indonesia. According to the research done by Desi Prianti there are some characteristics
portrayed in media on women portrayal, which are fair skin, young, and slim (Prianti).
Moreover, a research by Diah Ariani Arimbi mentioned that besides yearning for light
colored skin, interestingly Indonesian young girls are more interested in some concept of
Indonesian beauty rather than mixed race characteristics like black eye color and long hair
(Arimbi), meanwhile this research will elaborate more on how these Indonesian beauty is
conceptualized by the magazine.
The method used will be content analysis, which will focus on representing the data
based on the codes coined by the researcher to serve the idea suggested by the researchers
(Stokes). The codes that will be used here is based on the beauty concept from the previous
research mentioned:
-black eye colour
- pointed nose
- black long hair
- light skin
- feminine
These are the codes that are most possible to be used. The research will be conducted
by looking on the words and the pictures.
Analysis
As mentioned before there are 6 girls: Adinda Sekarsari, Astrid Tria Vany Ayunda,
Gabrielle Antoinnete, Losania Vernanda, Izza, and Islamabel QomaraPutri.
In the article featuring Adinda Sekarsari there are words mentioning about feminine
side of Adinda, namely the hobby of cheerleading which is interested by girls. Adinda herself
has depicted the ideal image of Indonesian girls: fair skin, long hair (ponytail) and black
eyes but with pointy nose with costume, possibly cheerleading costume. Moreover, there is a
word manis which is approximate to cute. (Hai!)

Article featuring Astrid talks much more on her hobbies which are playing softball
and watching movies. The word manis has appeared again in this article, adding more to
the feminine categories. The picture describes her as having long hair, big, black eyes, with
fair skin but not with pointy nose like Adinda. (Hai!)
Gabrielle Antoinette is depicted not much different to Astrid with casual style clothes,
round nose, black eye color and long hair. What is different is that instead of the word
manis, the word cantik appeared, with her picture serving as the detail. Moreover, her
hobby is a bit different with some desired hobbies by girls: playing drum. (Hai!)
The article featuring Losania Vernanda describes her physical appearance clearly.
The article describes her as fair skin, long straight hair and chubby cheeks. In the article
she has a talent in visual art and dance (more feminine) and is a fan of Adam Levine, the
vocalist of Maroon Five. The physical appearance described in the article match with the
picture but not with the big eyes, pointy nose. (Hai!)
Izza is described in the article with her slim body and manis appearance. She is also
described as talented in singing, which can relate more on feminine side. The word manis
reappeared here. There is no big difference on her physical appearances in the photo with the
other pictures. (Hai!)
The last one is Islamabel. She is coined as cantik and described as having an interest
in cheerleading. This is shown also by her costume. The pointy nose, but black long hair, fair
skin and big eyes just keep reappearing on the picture. (Hai!)
Discussion
As we can see that the most interesting and important thing here is that there are
some elements that are reappearing in the articles, mainly fair skin, black, big eyes, long hair
and some feminine traits like hobbies and talents. From the explanation we can actually
conclude that main characteristic of the portrayal of girls in this magazine is that the girls
must have long black hair, fair skin, and big eyes. These categories dominated the portrayal
of beautiful girls in this article (5 occurences). Moreover, there are 2 cases where the girls are
mentioned as cantik or beautiful, meanwhile there are three occurrences of the word manis
or cute reappearing in the articles. The round nose are depicted in 4 girls, Astrid, Gabrielle,
Losania and Izza, meanwhile Adinda and Islamabel described as having the pointy nose.
Two girls which are Adinda and Islamabel are interested in cheerleading, a very
feminine hobby. Besides, two of them love sport, two love watching movies and there are two
og them loves music and arts, which are much more common than what is expected as
having more feminine hobbies.
The comparison has shown clearly on how actually media are trying to construct the
ideal image of women into the mind of the readers. No occurrences of girls having short hair
means that girls are still preferred to have long, black hair. It also support Arimbis research
results that Indonesian portrayal of beauty prefers more to the characteristic of Indonesian
physical appearance. However, some aspects of the concept of beauty is still based on
American aspects in the magazine. Having pointy nose is also considered as the point of
beauty in the article.

Conclusion
It is clear that the conception of Indonesian beauty is just a one type portrayal. The
long hair keeps reappearing, having feminine side is a must, word manis and cantik is still
associated strongly with the girls in the article. It shows that Hai! is also trying to build a
hegemony of beauty for giving the ideal image of the young girls with its media power.

References

Achtenberg, Benjie. "Mass Media and Its Influence on the Adolescent Mind."
2006.
Arimbi, Diah Ariani. "The Globalization of Beauty: The Face of Indonesian Girls in
Contemporary Indonesian Teen Magazine." The Second Asian Conference
on Media & Mass Communication. Osaka: The International Academic
Forum, 2011. 217-230.
Hai! Deretan Cewek Cantik SMA yang Beredar di HAIDay 2015. 25 October 2015.
26 October 2015.
http://hai-online.com/On-Magz/Articles/Deretan-Cewek-Cantik-Sma-Yang-BeredarDi-Haiday-2015
Morris, Pamela K. and Katharine Nichols. "Conceptualizing Beauty: A Content
Analysis of U.S. and French Womens Fashion Magazine Advertisements."
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies (2013): 49-74.
Prianti, Desi. "Indonesian female beauty concept: Does it take into account the
traditional values?" The Asian Conference on Media and Mass
Communication 2013. Osaka: The International Academic Forum , 2013.
Stokes, Jane. How To Do Media and Cultural Studies. London: Sage Publications
Ltd., 2003. eBook.

Appendixes
Excerpt from Hai Online

Selama dua hari, kerumunan cewek-cewek cantik di gelaran HAIDay 2015 kemarin nggak
pernah sepi. Ke mana mata melirik, pasti di situ ada si cantik. Cowok yang bernyali langsung
ngajak kenalan. Nah, untuk yang kemarin malu-malu dan cuma bisa mandang dari kejauhan
sambil mendem perasaan, nih, HAI kenalin sama beberapa di antaranya. Berani ngajak
kenalan? (Kiram/Jeanett)

Adinda Sekarsari, SMAN 6 Jakarta

@adindasekarsari
Cewek mungil dari sekolah bilangan Mahakam yang ikut kompetisi Cheersleader HAIDay
2015 ini sering banget dilempar-lempar. Kita tau, pasti adegan itu bikin dia tegang. Tapi,
asiknya, muka manisnya itu nggak pernah melepas senyum. Bikin kita yang nonton pun jadi
nggak pernah bisa lepas ngeliatin dia.
Nah, selidik punya selidik, ternyata doi udah lama berkecimpung di cheerleading. "Sejak
kelas 1 SMP," ucapnya ringan.
Nggak heran sih kalau timnya, terpilih sebagai juara satu di HAIDay 2015 kemarin. Untuk
ngerayainnya, kita traktir, yuk!

Astrid Tria Vany Ayunda

@astridayunda
Yang bikin cewek asal SMAN 70 getol datang ke HAIDay 2015 adalah hadirnya band pop

retro Naif di main stage. Excited banget saat tau ada Naif main. Udah lama nggak nonton
mereka, katanya.
Kini,sambil tetap rajin datang ke tempat bimbel untuk persiapan ujian akhir, pemain softball
ini ternyata masih sempetin nonton film terbaru, nggak mesti di bioskop, streaming film juga
udah cukup bikin Astrid duduk manis didepan laptop berjam-jam. Mau ditemenin, nggak
sama kita? Hehe.

Gabrielle Antoinnete
@Gbrllantoinnete
Cewek cantik satu ini HAI temui di hari kedua HAIDay 2015. Dia datang demi menonton
idolanya, Isyana Sarasawati, Aku ngefans banget sama dia, akunya singkat.
Di sekolah Gabrielle, SMA Serumi Don Bosco Pondok Indah, dia aktif di ekskul basket,
bahkan udah dari SMP dia gabung di tim basket sekolah dan ikutngebela timnya di berbagai
kompetisi. Di luar sekolah, sekarang dia lagi menggiati hobi barunya, yaitu main drum. Ya,
dia bahkan sampai ikut lesnya loh. Bisa banget nih diajak ngeband bareng.

Losania Vernanda
@losaniavh
Kulit cerah, rambut lurus panjang,dengan pipi agak chubby pasti bikin siapa aja yang ngeliat
cewek ini jatuh hati. Apalagi ketika di HAIDay 2015 kemaren, dia datang sebagai salah satu
Duta Seni dari gelaran seni rupa Jakarta Biennale. Maklum, cewek yang duduk di kelas XII
SMAN 8 Jakarta ini ternyata punya bakat menggambar dan bikin kolase yang kece.
Di waktu luangnya, Oca biasanya suka nari atau movie marathon. Anyway, dia juga salah
satu penggemar Adam Levine, lho. Nambah iri kan lo sama si vokalis Maroon 5 itu?

Izza
@Izzamr
Nggak di hari pertama, nggak hari kedua, cewek ramping nan manis ini selalu terlihat warawiri di HAIDay 2015 di Plaza Timur Senayan. Tenryata, dia ikut aktivitas sebuah stasiun
radio yang buka booth di sana, sambil nunggu band idolanya, Naif,tampil di main stage.
Cewek yang juga charming ini ternyata hobi banget nyanyi, lho. Selain ngisi hari-hari
sepulang sekolahnya untuk les, les, dan les, suaranya itu indah, bung!
Les menghiasi hari ku selalu sampai hari Sabtu, katanya.
Mau juga dong menghiasi hari dan hatimu, Izza.

Islamabel QomaraPutri
@islamabell
Last but not least, cewek cantik asal SMA 47 Jakarta yang punya senyuman manis ini biasa
dipanggil Mabel mengaku datang ke HAIDay demi ikut membela tim Cheerleaders-nya. Dia
cerita kalau dia udah jadi anak cheers sejak kelas 1 SMA dan enjoy banget sama ekskul satu
ini.
Cewek kelahiran 24 Desember 1999 ini punya hobi baca buku dan penulis favoritnya adalah
Tere Liye dan R. L Stine. Kabar gembiranya, dia masih single, lho! gede lagi, nyalinya
hehehe