Ms. Magazine (Image Analysis)

Miriam Wosk (1947 – 2010) was an illustrator and multimedia artist that had a knack for creating pictures worth a thousand words. However, she made one work of art that stood out to feminists everywhere. You guessed it, the cover of the first issue of Ms. Magazine. In 1971, Wosk became well known by feminist everywhere because of this cover art. On the cover she has a crying pregnant blue woman with eight arms standing on a hill in the valley next to a cat. In her hands she is holding an iron, steering wheel, mirror, phone, clock, feather duster, frying pan, and type writer.  In each arm she holds what is believed to be the everyday burdens bestowed upon the average woman. I believe the iron represents how a woman must have their family’s clothes prepared at the start of each day. The steering wheel may be there to show that the women of that time had many errands to run. The mirror may be illustrating how a woman must try to look good, along with balancing out everything else that they have going on. The phone could be a way to keep up with her friends and try to maintain a social life without having to ditch her responsibilities. When you have as many obligations to tend to as the woman illustrated on the cover of the magazine, you’re going to need a way to manage your time. This is where the clock she’s holding comes in to place. Obviously the feather duster has to represent the all the cleaning that must be done to maintain the stature of your house holds. Another obvious form of symbolism would be the frying pan, which I believe represent the daily meals that a woman must prepare for her family. Though this is just a guess, I would say that the typewriter is shown to depict the important work or tasks she had to make note of. Not to mention she’s doing all these things while she’s pregnant

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According to the cover women are superheroes. They can do all of these things at once But the tears show otherwise. I would say the message within the picture is that at that time women were secretly being overwhelmed by the expectations placed upon them. The colors and texture of the picture gives a warm feeling about the women. When taken in overall the picture is a representation of how glamorous, understanding, sophisticated, aggressive, powerful, outspoken, and independent women can be. It indicates that the women can have a lot on their plate and still have control; she knows she has responsibilities and is willing to do everything to complete her task. Even though her responsibility may come with a little stress, sweat, and hard times, she has to find the will to get pass these burdens because it’s basically her job. The first issue of Ms. Magazine sent out a powerful message to women when designing these cover, women can still stand up tall, even after she has falling down.