Competing gender discourses: A multi-modal analysis of gender representations and femininity in a philippine magazine

Abstract

Recent studies in gender representation tackle issues that no longer deal with the under representation, invisibility, powerlessness, and silence of women in the media. Hence, it is aim of this study to analyze women's representation in a new light following the principles of feminism of difference. This study sought to prove that competing gender discourses and the notion of varying femininities are discursive practices that can be observed as strategies in representation in modern magazines. To prove this, multimodal analysis was used to analyze the verbal and non-verbal text of the magazine in question. Moreover, feminist critical analysis was applied to see how the use of diverse and competing discourses in the magazine are intertwined with the text producer's consumerist agenda. The analysis also shows how seemingly neutral or harmless discussions about feminine activities are actually embedded with biased ideologies about gender. A critical discourse analysis is deemed important in raising the awareness of readers regarding this manipulative process. It is through a critical look into language and discourse that one may find how unequal power relations do exist in social discourse.