An investigation of the representation of females in a popular magazine directed at teenagers.
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Date
2002
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Abstract
In this study I investigate gender representations in a South African magazine
directed at a teenage female readership. It begins with a survey of sociolinguistic
understandings of the relationship between language and gender, and of critical
linguistic insights into how gender and gender relations are constructed through
discourse. This is followed by the Critical Discourse Analysis of selected texts
from the magazine. These analyses reveal that the writers draw on conventional
representations of women and conventional social relations between men and
women to perpetuate subordinate roles for woman in a male-dominated society.
On the basis of this evidence I suggest that such magazines serve as instruments
of social control in a patriarchal society by positioning women as being
overwhelmingly concerned with their personal appearance and with developing
and sustaining relationships with the opposite sex. I also point to the ways in
which the writers have drawn on representations of femininity to position the
readership as consumers, thereby serving the interests of the capitalist modes of
production. This study concludes with suggestions on how the findings can be
used to implement Critical Language Awareness in the classroom.
Description
Theses (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.
Keywords
Language and sex., Women's magazines--South Africa., Language awareness--South Africa., Theses--Linguistics.