Abstract
This paper reports on a quantitative content analysis of 2,699 images of women present in oneyear’s worth of the South African edition of Glamour magazine. Motivated by critical race theory,black feminist thought and critical consumption studies, the aim of the study was to determine howoften black women were represented in the sample and, further, to examine the particular bodytypes and hairstyles preferred in the aesthetic of black women featured. The findings showed thateven though Glamour magazine claims that 65% of its readership is comprised of black women,they feature in only 30% of images, and when present, have hairstyles and body types mostcommonly associated with white supremacist ideas of beauty. The (albeit unsurprising) failureof Glamour magazine to adequately represent a diversity of black femininities is theorised as aresult of pervasive neo-liberal, racist and patriarchal structures of power in post-apartheid SouthAfrica. We argue that the case study illuminates a racially charged post-feminist moment, in whichblack women are represented as valuable only in terms of their proximity to a white ideal, andvalued only in terms of their lucrative potential as an aspirant, compliant mass market.
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