Visual representation of the menopause in Iran

Abstract

This study investigates the visual representation of menopause in Iranian health promotion resources. The author uses Kress and Van Leeuwen’s approach to visual analysis (Kress G and Van Leeuwen T (2002) Colour as a semiotic mode: Notes for a grammar of colour. Visual Communication 2(3): 343–368 and Kress G and Van Leeuwen T (2006) Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, 2nd edn. London: Routledge.) to study publications about the menopause by the Iranian Government and two major medical universities. Two research questions guide the investigation: How do Iranian health promotion resources visually represent the menopause? How do these representations reflect and reproduce cultural values and religious beliefs? Findings reveal that: the publications address both men and women, but exclude widows, single and divorced women; the publications encourage women to stay healthy and lead a fulfilling post-menopausal life; and that they have a distinctly Iranian approach to the use of visual communication, characterized by abstract modality, visual symbolism and the emotive expressivity of a vivid use of colour. However, the publications have not been updated since 2008 and are currently not distributed so that their generally positive message cannot, at present, challenge some traditional masculine beliefs which restrict women to the roles of wife and mother.