Abstract
This chapter presents audience responses to the ideological messages regarding beauty and cultural identity promoted in South Asian women’s magazines. Analysis of the data collected from focus group discussions held in Britain and India allows insights into the subject positions adopted by readers and shows how meanings are negotiated. The comparative analysis considers differences in the ways in which the magazines are consumed in each country and also considers the emancipatory potential of magazines for their readers. Although not originally designed as action research, the chapter discusses the value of focus group research as a means to negotiate the tensions between tradition and modernity and East and West. It also explores ways in which research findings can be disseminated to the general public.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alasuutari, P. (1995) Researching Culture Qualitative Method and Cultural Studies. (London: Sage).
Althusser, L. (1971) Lenin and Philosophy. (London: Verso Books).
Bhimji, F. (2012) British Asian Muslim Women, Multiple Spatialities and Cosmopolitanism. (London: Palgrave Macmillan).
Blumler, J. and McQuail, D. (1970) ‘The Audience for Election Television’ in J. Tunstall (ed.) Media Sociology. (London: Constable).
Bourdieu, P. (1991) Language and Symbolic Power. (Harvard: Harvard University Press).
Brown-Glaude, W. (2007) ‘The Fact of Blackness? The Bleached Body in Contemporary Jamaica’. Small Axe, 11(3), 34–51.
Carey, J. (1975) ‘A Cultural Approach to Communication’. Communication, 2, 1–22.
Chapkis, W. (1986) Beauty Secrets Women and the Politics of Appearance. (London: The Women’s Press).
Coates, J. (1996) Women Talk: Conversation Between Women Friends. (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell).
Contractor, S. (2012) Muslim Women in Britain De-mystifying the Muslimah. (Oxon: Routledge).
Corner, J., Richardson, K. and Fenton, N. (1990) Nuclear Reactions Form and Response in Public Issue Television. Academia Research Monograph 4 (London: John Libbey).
Fiske, J. (1987) Television Culture. (London: Methuen).
Glenn, E. N. (2008) ‘Yearning for Lightness: Transnational Circuits in the Marketing and Consumption of Skin Lighteners’. Gender and Society, 22(3) 281–302.
Goon and Craven (2003) ‘Whose Debt?: Globalisation and Whitefacing in Asia’ Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context, Issue 9, August 2003.
Hall, S. (1980) ‘Encoding/Decoding’ in S. Hall et al. (eds.) Culture, Media, Language. (London: Hutchinson).
Hartley, J. (1987) ‘Invisible Fictions: Television Audiences, Paedocracy, Pleasure’. Textual Practice, 1(2), 121–138.
Hermes, J. (1995) Reading Women’s Magazines. (Cambridge: Polity Press).
Lewis, J. (1991) The Ideological Octopus an Exploration of Television and Its Audience. (London: Routledge).
Lindlof, T. R. (1995) Qualitative Communication Research Methods. (London: Sage).
Marshall, S. and Borill, C. (1984) ‘Understanding the Invisibility of Young Women’. Youth Policy, (9), (Summer), 36–39.
McQuail, D. (1997) Audience Analysis. (London: Sage).
Moores, S. (1993) Interpreting Audiences the Ethnography of Media Consumption. (London: Sage).
Morley, D. (1980) The ‘Nationwide’ Audience. BFI Television Monograph.
Parekh, B. (2000) Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory. (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
Radway, J. (1987) Reading the Romance. (London: Verso).
Richardson, D. (1996) ‘Heterosexuality and Social Theory’ in D. Richards (ed.) Theorising Heterosexuality Telling It Straight. (Buckinghamshire: Open University).
Ruby, T. F. (2006) ‘Listening to the Voices of Hijab’. Women’s Studies International Forum, 29, 54–66.
Tesch, R. (1990) Qualitative Research Analysis Types and Software Tools. (Hampshire: The Falmer Press).
Vasani, A. (Ed.) (2009) Asiana (Winter 2009). London: iandimedia Ltd.
Waldron, J. (1997) ‘Minority Cultures and the Cosmopolitan Alternative’. University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, 25, 751–793.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
McLoughlin, L. (2017). Readers’ Responses: Multi-vocal Expressions of Identity. In: A Critical Discourse Analysis of South Asian Women's Magazines. Palgrave Studies in Language, Gender and Sexuality. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-39878-9_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-39878-9_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-39877-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-39878-9
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)