Discourse analysis of two magazines intended for young girls

As we study a language, we unconsciously internalize the value judgments, interpersonal communication methods, hierarchical order and roles that different individual play within a speech community. Post-structural feminists, who claim that gender is constructed by language, often determine that language is phallocentrically constructed. As a result, it is more difficult for women to construct themselves as a subject within a language system than it is for men. Discourse analysis examines the ways in which hierarchy is constructed through language; who claims the power, and the various ways in which constructions such as “us” versus “the other” or “subject” versus “object” are coded. In view of this theory, in this study two bimonthly magazines (Hey Girl and Cosmo Girl) intended for a readership of young girls are subjected to discourse analysis. The study examines the issues of the magazines published between January and June 2004. Although the two journals seem at first to promote a liberal and liberated identity for the readers, the analysis in the study will show that they in fact encourage the readers to internalize a patriarchic discourse within a consumer's society.

Young Girls\' Magazines ,

Discourse Analysis ,

Identity ,

Gender ,

Language ,

Ideology ,

Culture ,