Abstract
This study investigates the way sex and relationship advice articles are structured in four English language women’s magazines. Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire were selected from the US, and Female and Her World from Malaysia. Forty articles were selected for the analysis. The study adopts Machin and Van Leeuwen’s (2003) problem-solution structure, besides using discourse pragmatic analysis. By studying this genre in the two different contexts, one of the main things that emerged is that this particular genre is more complex and diverse than what other researchers have found. The writers of the advice resort to various strategies and techniques to attract women to read these articles. They also have to balance social and cultural sensitivities with their message of freedom and liberation for women as appeared in the Malaysian data. Thus, studying this genre gives useful insights on how culture affects the texts and vice-versa.
Highlights
Women’s magazines have been internationally recognized as one of the most popular media forms for women since they have played a significant role in the production, reproduction of hegemonic cultural norms around class, sexuality, race and gender, in addition to challenges to such norms (Kitsa and Mudra, 2018)
There are few studies done on how advice articles are constructed in women’s magazines such as Erjavec’s (2006) who states that the structure of sex and relationship advice articles includes the following: ‘the headline’; ‘the lead’; ‘steps/solutions’ and ‘the conclusion’
‘Get in touch with yourself’: The Structure of Relationship Advice in Women’s Magazines – Reem Adib Lulu 30 be noted that her study is based on one context only which is the Cosmopolitan’s Slovenian edition, while our study looks at two different contexts, namely, the US and Malaysia, where the advice articles may be varied in terms of their structure due to cross-cultural differences
Summary
Women’s magazines have been internationally recognized as one of the most popular media forms for women since they have played a significant role in the production, reproduction of hegemonic cultural norms around class, sexuality, race and gender, in addition to challenges to such norms (Kitsa and Mudra, 2018). There are few studies done on how advice articles are constructed in women’s magazines such as Erjavec’s (2006) who states that the structure of sex and relationship advice articles includes the following: ‘the headline’; ‘the lead’; ‘steps/solutions’ and ‘the conclusion’. She points out that the structure of advice articles helps to ‘reduce the complexity of the sexual ‘solution’ to simple advice and create the illusion that Cosmopolitan can help its readers change their sexual life, if only women follow its advice” It should ‘Get in touch with yourself’: The Structure of Relationship Advice in Women’s Magazines – Reem Adib Lulu (page.29-46) 30 be noted that her study is based on one context only which is the Cosmopolitan’s Slovenian edition, while our study looks at two different contexts, namely, the US and Malaysia, where the advice articles may be varied in terms of their structure due to cross-cultural differences
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