Victorian Gendered Photography in the Boy's Own Paper and the Girl's Own Paper

Although Boy's Own Paper and Girl's Own Paper were both published by the Religious Tract Society, the two magazines featured very different content. Photography is an exception, since both magazines published practical instructions in the 1880s and offered their readers photographic competitions in the 1890s. However, this case study shows that the topic of photography was gendered and presented in distinctly different ways. While Boy's Own Paper focused on the practical side of photography (including the construction of various apparatuses), Girl's Own Paper emphasised its aesthetic aspects and the role photographs played as objects of display or exchange.