Abstract
M.A. (Counselling Psychology)
The aim of this study was to determine how selected health and fitness magazines create certain representations of the women’s body through the use of various discourses. The covers of three different magazines were analysed as this section of the print media reaches large and diverse audiences including those that do not read the actual content of the magazine. A critical discourse analysis, social representation theory and feminist theory, was used to analyse the covers. One cover for each month of the 2015 and 2016 issues was selected. This study delineated the creation of the representation of the women’s body through the language used on the covers of such health and fitness magazines. This representation was seen to be formulated by the ideals of a patriarchal society thereby perpetuating the role of women in society as inferior to men and thus dependant on men. Furthermore, the representations were seen to be widespread and found to be adopted by many institutions and industries, not just the health and fitness sphere. It is evident that the language used on covers of magazines can create a discourse and representation of women’s bodies that may have an influence on the audiences of these magazines. It is recommended that the research is taken further by collecting data from actual women who read these magazines to decipher the reality of the representations and discourses.