Representations of gender, race and sexuality in selected English-medium South African magazines, 2003-2005
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Date
2007
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of the Western Cape
Abstract
In this thesis, I explore representations of gender, race and sexuality in a select
group of South African magazines - Men's Health, FHM, Blink, True Love,
Femina and Fair Lady - between 2003 and 2005. From a feminist
poststructuralist perspective, I argue that these magazines present particular
subjectivities as normative; privileging and centering one pole within dichotomies
of gender, race and sexuality. The exploration considers ideas of social
responsibility in the discourses of magazine editors, and how these are linked to
subjective representations of gender, race and sexuality. I focus on the
magazines' presentations of racialised heteromasculinities, and its connections
to presentations of women as particular kinds of sex objects. I explore the
hyper(hetero)sexual presentation of black and white femininities in women's
magazines, attempting to illustrate how these presentations translate into efforts
to remain or become heterosexually desirable to an unnamed and unmarked, but
clearly masculine audience.
Description
Philosophiae Doctor - PhD
Keywords
Heteromasculinities, Heterofemininities, South-African magazines, Binaries, Identities, Representations, Sexuality, Race, Gender