A Critical Discourse Analysis of South Asian Women's Magazines

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Linda McLoughlin

   Pages 1-32

3. Orienting the Reader – The Legacy of Colonialism and Cultural Imperialism

   • Linda McLoughlin

   Pages 33-54

4. The Aesthetics of Beauty – Commodification

   • Linda McLoughlin

   Pages 55-85

5. For the Woman Who Wants the World – Commodified Feminism

   • Linda McLoughlin

   Pages 87-120

6. East Meets West – Cultural Hybridity

   • Linda McLoughlin

   Pages 121-150

7. Men’s Voices in Women’s Magazines

   • Linda McLoughlin

   Pages 151-178

8. Readers’ Responses: Multi-vocal Expressions of Identity

   • Linda McLoughlin

   Pages 179-246

9. Conclusion

   • Linda McLoughlin

   Pages 247-253

10. Back Matter

    Pages 255-263

    PDF

This intriguing book applies Critical Discourse Analysis to a range of South Asian women’s lifestyle magazines, exposing the disconnection between the magazines’ representations of South Asian women and the lived realities of the target audience. The author challenges the notion that discourses of freedom and choice employed by women’s magazines are emancipatory, demonstrating instead that the version of feminism on offer is a commodified form which accords with the commercial aims of the publications. McLoughlin demonstrates that whilst British magazines present women in the East as the exotic and culturally superior ‘Other’, women in India are encouraged to emulate Western women to signify their engagement with globalization and modernity. She uses data from focus groups carried out in both countries to illustrate the interpretive frameworks and multivocality of participants’ attitudes, experiences and beliefs. This thought-provoking book will appeal to students and researchers of Language and Linguistics, Women’s Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Media, Communications and Cultural Studies.

• lifestyle magazines
• poststructuralism
• postfeminism
• postmodernism
• orientalism
• skin lightening
• globalization
• Eurasian
• discourse analysis

• Department of English, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, United Kingdom

  Linda McLoughlin

Linda McLoughlin is a senior lecturer in the English Department at Liverpool Hope University, UK. She specializes in Language, Gender and Sexuality and Critical Discourse Analysis. She is the author of The Language of Magazines (2000) and has appeared on BBC radio talking about her research.

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