Constructing femininity: A critical discourse analysis of Cosmo

Abstract

This article reports on a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of the lifestyle magazine Cosmopolitan. It aims to demonstrate how a CDA framework was used to investigate the linguistic construction of gender ideology. In order to pursue this goal, an appropriate analytic framework was derived by combining methodologies from Fairclough (2003) with Kitis and Milapides (1997). The results draw attention to the manner in which magazines like Cosmo attempt to balance the interests of readers with the ability to draw advertisers. Consequently, the magazine takes an ideological stance which allows it to address this challenge.

Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 2011, 29(4): 401–417