Abstract
M.A. (Clinical Psychology)
In contemporary society motherhood discourses are disseminated by the media through prevalent representations of women. Advertisements placed in media channels, such as magazines, are targeted, segmented, and specialised forms of communication. Print advertisements targeted at women both represent and perpetuate social discourses regarding mothers, in that advertisements promote a cultural ideal of motherhood. This study analysed discourses in magazine advertisements. It employed a social constructionist paradigm, and applied critical discourse analysis to advertisements in two South African parenting magazines in order to examine the current construction of motherhood. From a Foucauldian theoretical perspective, analysis revealed that advertisements in parenting magazines publish experiences of ‘being a mother’ as a socially acceptable discursive object for women, and that grooming, nursing, and affectionate mothers are circulated as conventional subject-positions that mothers assume. Consequently, it was found that an appearances discourse, a medical discourse, and an ideal mother discourse propagate a hegemonic ‘good mother’ ideology in society.