UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS
Body shaming ideologies in Women’s Health magazine covers in the
Philippines
A Paper presented to the Faculty of Arts and Letters University of Santo Tomas
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE In partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree Bachelor of Arts and Letters in English Language Studies
By Francis Beatta M. Ramirez [email protected]
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Tables vii List of Figure xi List of Appendices xii Acknowledgments xiii Abstract xv
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
1.1 Research Objectives 8
1.2 Theoretical Framework 8
1.3 Conceptual Framework 12
Chapter 2: Method 16 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE 2.1 Research Design 16
2.2 Research Corpus 16
2.3 Data Analysis 17
2.4 Intercoding 18
2.5 Research Procedure 19
Chapter 3: Findings 21
3.1 Overwording 22
3.2 Lexical Choice and Semantic Prosody 25
3.2.1 The Lexeme “sexy” 25
3.2.2 “Fat” Body Connotation 28
3.3 Body Shaming Euphemisms 30
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3.4 “Real Women” and “Weight loss” Connotation 33
3.5 Building Relations: Synthetic Personalization 34
3.6 Ideal Body Type Defined 36
3.6.1 Assertive Speech Acts 37
3.6.2 Directive Speech Acts 39
3.7 Personality of the Magazine Covers 43
3.7.1 Placement of Images 44
3.7.2 Image Act, Gaze, Gestures 45
3.8 Women’s Health: The Brand 46 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE 3.8.1 Confidence in sexy, slim, fit body type 49
3.8.2 Sexy and Slim Culture 52
4.0 Intercoding 54
4.1 Ovewording 55
4.2 The Lexeme “sexy” 55
4.3 “Fat” body Connotation 56
4.4 Body Shaming Euphemism 57
4.5 “Real Women” and “Weight loss” Connotations 58
4.6 Assertive Speech Acts 59
4.7 Directive Speech Acts 60
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Chapter 4: Conclusion 61
4.1 Implications 62
4.2 Recommendations 63
References 64
Appendices 69
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Frequency of overwording 23
Table 2: Frequency of overwording 54
Table 3: Connotations of sexy 55
Table 4: Connotations of fat 56
Table 5: Body Shaming euphemisms 57
Table 6: “Real Women” and “Weight loss” connotation 58
Table 7: Assertive Speech Acts 59
Table 8: Directive Speech Acts 60
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LIST OF FIGURE
Figure 1: A Schematic diagram of the Conceptual Framework of the Study as Adopted from Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (1996) 13 incorporating Searle’s (1969) Speech Act Theory and Cook’s (2001) model in language and advertising
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LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix A: Sample Coding Sheets 69
Appendix B: Women’s Health Magazine covers (research corpus) 75
Appendix C: Coder 1 Coding Sheet 81
Appendix D: Coder 2 Coding Sheet 85
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UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE xiii
Acknowledgments
The writer is sincerely grateful to the following for their invaluable contribution and very kind assistance:
The University of Santo Tomas – Faculty of Arts and Letters for being the home of the researcher for the past four years and instilling Christian values and virtues; Dr. Alejandro Bernardo for being a diligent ELS Thesis Coordinator; The researcher’s thesis adviser, Ms. Josephine B. Alarcon, her immeasurable support, unwavering patience and understanding, commendable knowledge, and for providing the researcher with all the necessary factors to successfully finish this paper; The researcher’s fellow thesis advisee, Laiza Ysabelle Rodriguez, for being the best buddy in every thesis undertakings and struggles, through the library- searching adventures just to have enough sources and references and unending chat and encouragement just to overcome each other’s anxiety. The researcher’s interraters, Ayn Bernos and Chia Castro, for imparting UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE their commendable knowledge to validate the research findings; The researcher’s forever Best friends (Som, Chi, Dan, Cam, Justin, Ika, Ina, Angge, Ven, Joma) for keeping the researcher ecstatic while writing the paper through late night chats, corny jokes and stories, and witty debates about presidentiables and politics; The researcher’s College friends (Pearl, Lae, Abi, Patti, Cath) for keeping the thesis writing more fun through unforgettable sleepovers and food adventures; The researcher’s friends (Amos, Chelsea, Marion, Aaron) for patiently listening to the researcher’s sentiments, for tagging anything about body shaming issues, and for supporting whatever the researcher’s decisions are; The researcher’s family (Mama, Papa, Mico, Igui) for being best of the best support system, motivation, inspiration and for giving care and love to the researcher while writing the paper; Most importantly, the Lord Almighty, for His unending grace and spiritual guidance in everyday undertaking.
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Body Shaming Ideologies in Women’s Health magazine covers in the Philippines
Francis Beatta M. Ramirez
Abstract
Advertising is the most influential institution of socialization in modern society such that it has brought into perspectives on how people who are in control of business in advertising manage to exercise their power and manipulate certain beliefs. These instances opened an area of studies on language and power and ideologies. Thus, this study is focused on body shaming ideologies and controversies observed in Women’s Health magazine covers in the Philippines through Fairclough’s (1996) Critical Discourse Analysis framework and Searle’s (1962) Speech Act Theory for an intertextual and interdiscursive analysis of texts and events, and Cook’s (2001) Language and Advertising model for the analysis UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE of visual texts that includes discourse strategies present in magazine covers. The synthesis of these theories allows a comprehensive and a qualitative analysis of all linguistic, visual, textual, and social factors to the depiction of body shaming ideologies in the magazine covers. The use of overwording, lexical choice and semantic prosody, synthetic personalization, directive and assertive speech acts, image act, gaze, gestures, and facial expression in the magazine covers greatly show the unfavorable and biased portrayal of “fat body” and partiality and confidence for “sexy”, “slim”, “flat” body type, inducing body shaming ideologies. Hence, this paper contributes to the growing literature on body shaming ideologies and raises awareness to the Filipino community on how body shaming is presented in magazines exercising the power of advertising to manipulate women’s cultural beliefs.
Keywords: Critical discourse analysis, body shaming ideology, beauty ideology, magazine advertising, speech acts
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1. Introduction
Advertisements are skillful and amusing in promoting various products across a variety of categories. Cook (2001) explains that advertising is a topic which both causes and reveals existing social divisions due to the growing effectiveness of its persuasion techniques. It has elevated beyond the use of basic techniques in promoting products and services such that it has entrenched into social discourse and permeated the cultural landscape of the people by virtue of its widespread diffusion throughout the society. Intense large-scale advertising has a history now. Since people grow up with it and grow used to it, it UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE is perceived as evil and ambiguous, and it is also seen as inevitable and remarkable. Thus, in its strongest form, it can be argued that a growth economy, social exploitation and inequality, violence and destructions are all inextricably linked to each other, and that advertising is both an expression of this apocalyptic unity and dependent upon it (Cook, 2001).
In recent years, a number of studies have been conducted as to language and power, body image, and body shaming controversies and ideologies. The expanding awareness of body image and body type has become the main elements of research especially in discourse advertising. Andrew (2012) even argues that body shaming issues are growing; hence most women are being
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deprived of their body type and image based on how social media portrays the ideal and perfect body of women.
Body shaming happens when someone is made to feel shame for his/her body image and/or body size. Usually, this incident is associated with being overweight or not, being pretty and handsome enough versus the ideal image of a certain individual that has been set and portrayed by the social media.
However, psychologists explain that body shaming is not a one-sided issue; rather it includes being made to feel shame for being too skinny. But predominantly, being overweight has a greater impact when it comes to this issue since a large number of women often do self-starvation to lose weight and UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE to achieve their ideal body type leading them to be bulimic and anorexic.
Due to this, the growing number of self-starvation is uncontrollable among women; such that self-starvation to slenderness and its hypothesized relation to the media image, suggests food use/abuse is just a range of technologies working on women’s bodies to alter shape, weight, and attributes.
Hence, blaming the media for reproducing and extolling representations of unrealistic female bodies that encourage young women to starve themselves has almost become a popular truism (Wykes & Gunter, 2005).
It can be observed that magazines have been a way to disseminate such ideas since this medium is efficient and accessible enough in influencing people’s
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lifestyle. There are certain kinds of magazines based on what they are trying to campaign. One of these magazines is health and lifestyle magazines that obviously aim to promote healthy living among people since the primary concern of the majority at the moment is to be physically fit; by eating such food that is less fatty and less in calorie content and exercising. Mckay’s (2013) study on
Female Self-Objectification: Causes, consequences, and prevention reveals that women are more self-conscious as to what they wear and how they look. Hence, many advertisements especially in magazines advertise beauty products influencing women and beauty and have become an absolute religious imperative for women and subsequently pressuring them to do their best to hold UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE their beauty (Baudrillard, 2005). Thus, certain magazine advertisements incorporate the idea of women being self and beauty conscious making them as the target audience of most magazines.
Magazines, therefore, are more focused on body features and appearances on how to look good and act glamorously rather than just accepting their body image and natural beauty at the same time. Since Eldaly (2011) claims that advertising is referred to as form of discourse in the sense that it has influenced not only the structure of language and the modality of lifestyle, but also the content daily acts of communicative exchanges. Due to the unique and diverse components of advertisements, it is inevitable that it provokes
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underlying issues and controversies since advertisements express opinions of a certain individual (Cook, 2001). Hence, advertisers use visual and linguistics means to persuade their audience that help to create awareness, identities, and attitude. And, a crucial point is that assumptions embedded in the forms of language that are used are said to be ideologies (Fairclough, 1996).
Fairclough (1996) explains that ideologies are closely linked to language and power considering that language is the most usual form of social behavior and has become perhaps the primary medium of social control and power. In examining these ideologies, Critical Discourse Analaysis (CDA) by Fairclough
(1996) is probably the best framework to examine certain ideologies since its UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE central idea is to show the link between the nature of social practice and the properties of language “texts”. Hence, ideologies can be strongly recognized in discourse advertising given that ideologies are pervasively present in language
(Bloom, 1996).
Different cases upon showing these certain products and processes have set an ideal and perfect beauty and body type that touch the idea of health, beauty, body shaming issues and ideologies present in magazines as a great influencer of the majority. Due to these cases, a number of studies is now frequent regarding this controversial issue especially on magazine advertisements. Garner and Adams (1998) researched how sexual etiquette was
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being developed in advice columns in magazines popular among teenage women. It appears that the rhetoric of sexual etiquette encourages young women to be sex objects and teachers for interpersonal communication rather than lovers, friends, and partners; and young women are being taught to subordinate self for others and to be contained.
Tianen (2009) examined Women’s representation on Cosmopolitan magazine advertisements through investigating and comparing the way the magazine’s articles depict women to the image Cosmopolitan publicly declares to convey of the female sex. The findings reveal that the femininity advocated in the magazine is actually not even depicted that desirable in the end. Also, the UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE model women are expected to take as an ideal is not being depicted very respectfully, thus indicating that women ought to idolize passivity and find comments usually considered as derogatory flattering. She found that women are also expected to be insecure because of their inability to reach this objectified position.
In most of the related literature discussed, magazines play a significant role in the portrayal of women and imply instances like objectification of women in the society instead of empowering them. Morno and Huon (2009) delves into the effects of media-portrayed idealized images in local magazines on young women’s body shame and appearance anxiety to establish whether the effects
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depend on advertisement type and on participant self-objectification through a mixed method approach. The study showed that appearance anxiety increased after viewing the advertisements featuring idealized images. There was also a significant interaction between self-objectification level and idealized body
(presence vs. absence) and no differences emerged for body-related compared with non–body-related product advertisements. The only result for body shame was a main effect for time such that participants’ body shame increased after exposure to idealized images, irrespective of advertisement type.
According to Kaur, Arumugam, and Yunus (2013), advertisers used various strategies to manipulate women; and that the advertisements promote UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE an idealized lifestyle and manipulate readers to a certain extent into believing whatever that is advertised is indeed true. Based on Fairclough’s three dimensional framework, their study on beauty advertisements in local English magazines that is mainly focused on the use of language in beauty advertisements and strategies such as positive and negative adjectives, celebrity endorsement, scientific evidence/clinical test proof, puffery, irrealisis representation, and emotive words are employed by advertisers to manipulate and influence costumers, reveals how the ideology of beauty is constructed and reconstructed through magazines by stereotyping how beauty products are synonymous with a better life and advertising language is used to control
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people’s minds. Thus, people in power (advertisers) use language as a means to exercise control over others.
On the other hand, Noriega (2012) examined the conflation of health and beauty in advertising through a critical multimodal discourse analysis of three television commercials. She mainly focused on how advertising discourse plays a vital role to shaping body image ideologies by investigating television commercials that make up connections on health and beauty through the analysis of both the visual and verbal modes employing Systematic Functional
Linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis, Multimodal Disccourse Analysis, and Inter- mode Relations. Through the critical multimodal discourse analysis, its findings UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE highlighted the colonization of advertising non-health related products dismantling the discourse which represent beauty in an unhealthy manner.
Although television commercials and magazines are worthy of such kind of researches, it appears that there is a little attention given to body shaming ideologies in the Philippines specifically in health and lifestyle magazines and more focused on beauty products.
Body shaming ideologies in Philippine magazines particularly in Health and Lifestyle magazines are therefore worthy of study since this can be an open ground to give additional knowledge and raise awareness to the Filipino community on how body shaming is observed in magazines; exercising the
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power of advertising to manipulate women’s cultural beliefs given that advertising is the most influential institution of socialization in modern society
(Jhally, 1995). Based on the foregoing discussion, this paper sought to offer how body shaming ideologies are being presented in Women’s Health magazine covers. Specifically, this study addressed the following questions: (1) What are the discursive techniques/discourse strategies employed in Women’s Health magazine covers that constitute connections between ideologies of health, beauty, and body shaming? (2) What do these discourse strategies try to show with regard to underlying issues on ‘ideal’ body type in the Philippines?; and (3)
How do visual texts in Women’s Health magazine covers promote body UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE shaming?
1.1 Theoretical Framework
Language is a powerful tool to influence one’s perspectives. Thus, dominance and power are developed. As Fairclough (1996) puts it, language is therefore essential enough to merit the attention of the norm; and so certain ideologies are formed. Body shaming ideologies through texts in magazines are not given much attention since the social media has already served as a tool to promote and accept the ideal and perfect images present in such mediums throughout the years. Through Critical Discourse Analysis framework by
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Fairclough (1996), Cook’s (2001) language and advertising model, and Searle’s
(1969) Speech Act Theory, body shaming ideologies shall be easier to examine in this study. This paper therefore addressed the concerns and uncertainties present in Women’s Health magazine covers that specifically pertain to beauty and body shaming ideologies.
According to Fairclough’s CDA, the central idea of this framework is change. Hence, this framework is designed to examine a concrete language that draws discursive structures as language users build on established specific meanings (Fairclough, 2001). He focuses on this through the concept of intertextuality pertaining to the historical view of texts as transforming the past UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE from the existing conventions or prior text into the present; and interdiscursivity highlighting the normal heterogeneity of texts in being constituted by combinations of diverse genres and discourses through the visual, verbal, and linguistic means. Discourses, on the other hand, are standard tools to represent certain objects and incidents; they are inevitable sources and carriers of ideologies (Tianen, 2009). Fairclough (1996) adds that CDA brings the critical tradition in social analysis which contributes to such studies that focus on discourse, and on relations between discourse and other social elements. Wodak
(2002) supports this claim by elaborating its main perspectives in relation to the notion of ‘power’ in which texts have discursive differences and therefore
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negotiated such that texts are governed in power which is in part encoded in and determined by discourse and genre. Fairclough (2001) even emphasizes the significance of the relationship between texts, processes, and social conditions; such that both of them are immediate conditions of the situational context and the remote conditions of social structures (as cited in Bernos, 2015). Thus, texts are often tools and/or sites of struggle such that show patterns of differing discourses and ideologies all contending for dominance.
There are three dimensions and stages in CDA namely: description, interpretation, and explanation (Fairclough, 1996). Linguistic properties of texts are described (text analysis), the relationship between the productive and UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE interpretative processes of discursive practice and the relationship between the discursive practice and social practice is explained. Hence, Fairclough (1995) attempts to establish a systematic method for exploring the relationship between texts and social context. Meanwhile, a massive number of researches on body image and beauty are expanding using critical discourse analysis as pointed out in the previous discussion. Thus, factors such as verbal, textual as well as visual texts are essential in CDA. Furthermore, he emphasizes the dramatically increasing social significance of visual imagery in discourse, and the essential role it plays in the production and interpretation processes of discourse
(Fairclough, 1996 as cited in Bernos, 2015).
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CDA and Speech Act Theory (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969) seem to be interrelated when it comes to the main purpose of the theory. As Searle (1969) puts it, speech acts constitute an initial step in a long and still unfinished business embracing not only the language but also the realms of mental consciousness of social and institutional reality, and most recently, of rationality, the self, and free will. According to Searle (1969), speaking a language is performing speech acts, acts such as making statements, giving commands, asking questions or making promises. He states that all linguistic communication involves linguistic (speech) acts. In other words, speech acts are the basic or minimal units of linguistic communication (Searle, 1976). They are not mere UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE artificial linguistic constructs as they may seem, their understanding together with the acquaintance of context in which they are performed are often essential for decoding the whole utterance and its proper meaning.
The theory attempts to analyze the facts of the language in which utterances with referrings and predicatings, and with acts of stating, questioning, commanding, and promising. Searle (1962) then explains further by the concept of intentionality in which each speech act can be abstractly distinguished in two components namely the type of quality of the act (sometimes called illocutionary force) and the (normally propositional) content of the act.
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Searle (1969) further categorizes illocutionary forces present in utterances into assertive acts that claim, assure, suggest, argue, inform, and swear; directive acts that demand, order, instruct, and require; commissive acts that promise, consent, and refuse; expressive acts tend to condole, apologize, congratulate; and declarations.
In line with Fairclough’s (2001) CDA and Searle’s (1969) Speech Act
Theory, Cook’s (2001) concept on discourse advertising presents common beliefs when it comes to social practice especially in advertisements. It merely includes verbal and visual texts (color, design, layout, body language, and gestures of the subject) that make an advertisement be more persuasive enough and at the UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE same time easier to analyze and distinguish the points of persuasion itself.
1.2 Conceptual Framework
This research study is focused on body shaming ideologies in Women’s
Health magazine covers employing Fairclough’s (2001) CDA as the main framework for analysis. Since CDA is a transdisciplinary research methodolody, it can be integrated with various frameworks as well (Chouliaraki and Fairclough,
1999). Thus, Cook’s (2001) model in language and advertising and Searle’s (1969)
Speech Act Theory were also incorporated. The synthesis of these theories and approaches allowed comprehensive intertextual and interdiscursive analysis of
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all linguistic, visual, and social factors to the depiction of body shaming ideologies in magazine covers.
Description Member Resource
(Fairclough 2001)
Interpretation (SpeechF Act Visual Texts Theory) (Cook 2001)
Explanation Recontextualization (Interaction & (Fairclough, 2001) Social Context) UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE
Figure 1. A Schematic diagram of the Conceptual Framework of the Study as Adopted from Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (1996) incorporating Searle’s (1969) Speech Act Theory and Cook’s (2001) model in language and advertising
Figure 1 shows the integration of three concepts and theories. CDA has three main dimensions and stages namely description, interpretation, and explanation (Fairclough, 1996) and this can be seen on the initial phase of the framework. Under the description process, it highlights the vocabulary features, grammar, and textual structures concerning the experiential, relational, and expressive values of each (Fairclough, 1996). Experiential values deal with the forms of language code happenings or relationship in the world, the people,
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animals, or things involved, their spatial and temporal circumstance, and manner of occurrence through the presence of rewording or overwording defined as unusually high degree of wording. This may show preoccupation with some aspect of reality. Relational values focus on how a text’s choice of wordings depends on, and helps create, social relationships between participants concerning nominalizations, modalities, and use of personal pronouns we, you, and yours known as synthetic personalization; and expressive values that give a clue to how texts relate to the reality it is discussing creating social identities. As to interpretation, this stage is concerned with the relationship between text, interaction, and social structures with seeing the text as the product of a process UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE of production considering the situational context and discourse types
(Fairclough, 1996) in which textual features, speech act values, and meanings are the highlights of this stage. According to Fairclough (1996), it is essential to characterize what the text producer is doing by virtue of producing in a way of making a statement, a promise, threatening, warning, asking questions, giving an order and so on. Hence, referring to Searle’s (1969) Speech Act Theory that involve illocutionary forces in an utterance namely assertives (assert, suggest, inform, argue, predict, insist), directives (direct, order, command, instruct, entreat), expressives (apologize, thanks, praise), and declaratives (declare). With regard to explanation, this stage deals with the relationship of the text,
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interaction, social contexts and processes involving the level of the society as a whole; its objective is to clearly portray a discourse as part of a social process, as a social practice, showing how it is determined by social structures, and what reproductive effects are present in the social structure, by sustaining or changing them (Fairclough, 1996). Through these phrases, intertextuality (historical view of texts) and interdiscursivity (combinations of genres and discourses) are observed considering that these concepts are also the highlight of Fairclough’s
CDA framework.
Cook’s (2001) model in advertising discourse was also adapted in the second phase. It pertains to the placement of images, the image act, gaze, and UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE gestures of the main subjects present in the magazine covers.
For the final phase, Fairclough’s (2001) CDA main components, Member’s
Resource and recontextualization are observed. Member Resource (MR) pertains to the speaker/listener/audience’s knowledge of the language, representation of ideas inhabiting their social context and/or social practice, assumptions, beliefs, and certain ideologies that may serve as the “resources” to have enough interpretations and explanation of the texts. While recontextualization involves the idea of the MR, the researcher, and the overall intertextual and interdiscursive analysis of the magazine covers. By combining these concepts
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and frameworks, the underlying ideologies are easier to determine throughout the process of the study.
2. Method
2.1 Research Design
A qualitative analysis was used to investigate how the visual, textual, and overall linguistic elements of the magazine covers constitute connections between ideologies of beauty and body shaming involving different discursive/discourse strategies in advertising.
2.2 Research Corpus UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE
Women’s Health Philippines was selected as a corpus because of its evident popularity when it comes to health and fitness, beauty, and weight loss tips among women. Forty Women’s Health magazine covers issued from 2011-
2015 were collected for said magazine utilizes a number of popular celebrity endorsers. Interestingly, Women’s Health is the only magazine in the Philippines that has a specific section for weight-loss.
2.3 Data Analysis
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The qualitative analysis of the study is based on the integration of
Fairclough’s (1996) Critical Discourse Analysis, Searle’s (1969) Speech Act Theory, and Cook’s (2001) model in language and advertising.
Fairclough’s (1996) CDA help to show the link between the nature of social practice and properties of language “texts” present in the magazine covers through its three stages namely description, interpretation, and explanation. A micro level of analysis that includes vocabulary features and grammar concerning the experiential, relational, and expressive value of each sums up the description process. Hence, overwordings, lexical choice, semantic prosody, euphemisms, and synthetic personalizations are observed. Visual images are also UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE considered in this phase through Cook’s (2001) advertising model that concludes the placement of the image, image act, gaze, and gestures. Since Fairclough
(1996) and Cook (2001) explains that images are essential in understanding and conveying language “texts.” Hence, pre-ideologies are established. Further, the interpretation phase helped to distinguish the different schemes and ideologies present in the magazine covers since this stage deals with the meso level or the sociocultural practices and events hence, speech acts theory is employed.
Through the presence of directive and assertive speech acts (Searle, 1969), the disparity between the ideal body type and the unfavorable body type was clearly observed in the magazine covers imposing body shaming ideologies. The last
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stage, explanation, deals with the macro level of analysis that considers the view and the level of society as a whole that include the member resource described as the speaker/audience’s knowledge, assumptions and beliefs that may serve as additional “resources” to explain the ideologies embedded in language.
2.4 Intercoding
Since ideologies are embedded in texts and considered as common-sense assumptions, meanings are therefore highly dependent on each individual’s interpretation. Fairclough (2001) suggests the use of member resource described as speaker/audience’s knowledge of the language, representation of ideas UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE inhabiting their social practice, assumptions and beliefs to provide enough interpretation and explanation of texts.
Hence, two interraters who are knowledgeable enough on Fairclough’s
Critical Discourse Analysis and on the idea of body shaming were invited to provide sufficient validation to the research findings through coding sheets (see
Appendix A). Coder 1 is a graduate of UST-English Language Studies who has a paper on Language and Colorism employing Critical Discourse Analysis by
Fairclough while Coder 2 is a graduating student from the University of the
Philippines taking-up Linguistics Major in Bahasa.
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The coding sheet was based on the qualitative findings of the study. It consists of seven significant findings. The first is overwording in which the interraters were requested to account for the frequency/occurrence of the words that are overused. They were also asked to examine the underlying connotations attached to the lexemes “sexy”, “fat”, “real women”, and “weight loss”, the validity of body shaming euphemisms, the directive and assertive speech acts present in the magazine covers inducing body shaming ideologies.
2.5 Research Procedure
Forty Women’s Health Magazine covers issued from 2011-2015 were UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE retrieved from its official Facebook page account, Women’s Health Philippines. A qualitative analysis of the magazine covers was examined simultaneously through textual and visual aspects. In the proceeding stage, CDA’s interpretation and explanation were employed to give meanings and relationships between the text production, interaction, social process, and the level of society as a whole.
Hence, a coding sheet consists of seven significant findings was validated by two interraters that serve as the member resource. In the process of intercoding, both the interraters and researcher have almost perfect agreement in relation to the body shaming ideologies present in the magazine covers. Hence, for the final phase, through these essential phases, discourse/discursive strategies and
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ideologies on beauty and body shaming in the magazine covers were determined, interpreted, and explained.
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3. Findings
The magazine covers were examined at the textual (micro), discursive practice (meso) and social practice (macro) level based on Fairclough’s (2001) framework. Since it is believed that texts serve as an evidence for the existence of discourses, a concrete realization of abstract forms of knowledge, and at the same time, texts are interactive and influenced by sociolinguistic factors.
Fairclough’s (1996) asserts that as people read and interpret texts, they do so form a subject position that is created for us, participants, by the text producer. Hence, the visual features (facial expressions and gestures) and textual features such as vocabulary, grammar, and textual structures concerning the UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE experiential, relational, and expressive values of each serve a great part of the analysis process under Fairclough’s CDA model first stage, description. To identify the different linguistic and non-linguistic features used in magazine covers constituting health, beauty, and body shaming ideologies, the visual and textual features were thoroughly examined and in conjunction with one another.
In depth evaluation of the magazine covers was employed in the second stage of the framework, interpretation. This deals with the significant role of member resource in the production and reception of texts constructing ideologies present in the magazine covers. In the final stage of the analysis, explanation, the state of the society as a whole was incorporated concerning
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beliefs, social practices, current events, and issues; this also includes advertising strategies employed in magazine covers.
3.1 Overwording
Fairclough (1996) relates overwording with the term overlexicalization
(Fowler, 1979), where an unusually high degree of wording, often involving clusters of related terms that are near synonyms occurs. Overwording or overlexicalization often indicates a key concept or particular preoccupation that gives certain meanings the producer of texts intends to convey. Fairclough
(1996) opts for the term overwording to refer to the relative density of the number of words used to name the concepts from a particular domain, which UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE may be a sign or intense preoccupation: pointing to peculiarities in the ideology of the group responsible for it. Thus, this aspect deals with the frequently used words in the magazine covers that draw different classification of schemes and ideologies (Fairclough, 1996; Fowler, 19 79).
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Table 1. Frequency of Overwording
Content Word Frequency % Health 51 22% Women 43 18% Sex 28 12% Sexy 27 11% weight loss/lose 25 11% weight/weigh less Slim 19 8% Fit 15 6% Healthy 12 5% Beauty 11 5% real women 5 2% Total 236 100%
Of forty magazine covers analyzed, the highest occurrence of UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE overwording was observed in terms of nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs.
Table 1 shows the most used content words in the magazine covers that greatly constitute the portrayal of women and women’s body given that one of the objectives of this study is to show connections between health and beauty.
Surprisingly, “sex” appeared 28 times of the magazine covers next to “women” and “health”. Given that the magazine’s main objective is to promote healthy lifestyle among women (womenshealthmagazine.com), it seems that the idea of sex is also evident concerning health and beauty ideologies.
In the magazine covers, “women” is explicitly described as “real”,
“gorgeous”, “charming”, “confident”, “young”, “strong”, “sexy”, “steady”,
“lean”, “smart”, “fit”, “fabulous”, “trim”, “slim”, “healthy”, “toned”, and
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“happy”. While, the body is also highly modified as “healthy”, “hot”, “lean”,
“sexy”, “slim”, “toned”, “fit”, “bum”, “flat”, “bikini-body”, “thin”, “best”, “trim”, and “calm”. The different parts of the body like belly, abs, arm, legs, butt, breasts, and skin are described as “flat”, “superflat”, “firm”, “tight”, “lean”,
“sexy”, and “toned” as well. And of these descriptions, it appears that most of the magazine covers use adjectives that create a typical scheme on beauty and body type of a woman such that sexy was used 27 times in the magazine covers.
Though real women only appeared five times of the magazine covers, it is important to note its connotation such that it implies a question as to what constitutes a real woman. UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE
According to Fairclough (1996), overwording implies ideologically significant meaning relations (synonymy, hyponymy, antonymy). He strongly asserts that overwording shows certain preoccupation with some reality which may indicate that it is a focus of ideological struggle such that the relation of the synonymy in the examples above are ideologically predetermined as to ideologies of health and beauty.
While Women’s Health magazine is positioned to promote healthy living, it is expected that it uses “healthy”, however it only appeared eight times in the magazine covers inclusive of its variations “healthier” and “healthiest”.
According to Cawford (2006), the 21st century has brought about new health
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practices and a greater health consciousness that has been greatly informed by advertising. Lupton (1995) also states that most social issues have become subsumed under the rubric of health and this idea of a rubric may help to conceptualize the expansion of health perspectives into traditionally non-health related social platforms such as consumer culture. Thus, it can be deduced that
Women’s Health magazine views healthy as near-synonymous to sexy, slim, and fit; or the magazine’s objective implicitly promotes a different angle of healthiness such that new definitions of being healthy are established.
3.2 Lexical Choice and Semantic Prosody UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE Given that Fairclough’s (1996) overwording is related to overlexicalization
(Fowler, 1999), it is essential to note lexical choice defines as choosing lexemes to highlight what information is trying to convey based on a particular context and semantic prosody to determine the “favorable and unfavorable connotations” of each lexeme.
3.2.1 The Lexeme “Sexy”
Given that one of the most frequently used content words in Women’s
Health magazine covers is the lexeme “sexy” that appeared 25 times, it is still crucial to examine how it was used and described in the context of health and beauty.
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“Lean, sexy, confident” (Mag13)
“Strong, sexy, slim” (Mag18)
“Healthy, sexy breasts” (Mag3)
The placement of the adjectives affects the meaning and the thought of what it is trying to modify such that two or more adjectives are used to fully describe a noun. Hence, coordinating adjectives take place (Sherman and
Slawson, 2010) that provide subjective evaluations and opinions. A combination of adjectives of opinion or judgment and size are observed in the examples given above. Through this, the extracts illustrate how favorable connotations are attached to “sexy” using positive adjectives “strong”, “confident”, and “healthy”. UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE
Therefore, the lexical choice suggests that sexy body can be described as healthy, strong, and confident; hence disregarding other kinds of body types, thus portraying an ideal body type. This can also be seen in the examples below:
“New shortcuts to a slim, sexy body” (Mag15)
“Sculpt sexy legs and a tight butt.” (Mag24)
“Lean, sexy legs” (Mag14)
“Fast-track to a lean body and a sexy belly” (Mag34)
Although it is not explicitly stated similar to the previous example, the favorable portrayal of sexy body is still evident. Given that both sentences are assertive and directive, it directly addresses the readers to inform and do
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something by stating “new shortcuts” “fast-track” which can be considered as factors of urgency and the verb “sculpt” that requires the readers to have a
“sexier” body type considering that it is attached to “sexy legs” and a “tight butt”. Notice that “lean” is often affixed with “sexy” whereas it appeared six times in the magazine covers. According to Noriega (2012) in her study on conflation of health and beauty in advertising, the body is considered a site where people’s values can not only be displayed but also assessed by others such that the lean, toned physique displays control over what the body consumes, and the self-discipline to sculpt the body. By strongly stating these certain qualities as to being sexy, lean, and slim, having an excess weight is UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE therefore reflected as abomination of the body as it displays lack of self-control.
Hence, schemes and ideologies of body shaming are clearly produced and established.
Surprisingly, among the variations and modifications of “sexy”, it was also extensively used not only to describe women and women’s body, but yoga, swimsuits, ideas, and even sex as well. Examples are shown below:
“Slim, calm, and sexy yoga” (Mag7)
“Sexy swimsuits for every body type” (Mag10)
“Sexy ways to dress-up for your workout” (Mag12)
“25+ crazy, sexy, summer ideas to keep cool” (Mag33)
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“Sexier sex” (Mag33, Mag18)
Leech (1966) says that the language of advertising greatly uses poetic language in many ways having poetic functions of reiterated elements because of its intention to influence and change the will and the attitude of the receivers or the audience. Thus, this explains that the extensive use of “sexy” in diverse manner is noteworthy given that it plays as an advertising discourse strategy of the Women’s Health magazine to promote healthy as sexy. And it reveals that
“sexy” is an adjective that is usually used to describe a body but is becoming an expression as well to describe and promote an ideology.
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE 3.2.2 “Fat” Body Connotation
Given that healthy is synonymously describe as sexy as discussed in the previous section, the portrayal of “sexy” body through overwording, its modifications, and connotations, “sexy” body representations are evidently more favorable. However, unlike the lexeme “sexy”, “fat” was not used often and that “slim”, “flat”, and “fit” co-occurred more in the magazine covers. In fact, there were only four magazine covers that included the said lexeme:
“Eat out and still lose weight: Avoid holiday fat traps” (Mag1)
“Burn more fat” (Mag8)
“Eat up and slim down: fat burning meals, low-cal cocktails” (Mag14)
“Healthy in a hurry: fast, tasty, low-fat recipes to try” (Mag9)
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The sentences show assertiveness and directness in depicting a sexy and a slim body type; irony and sarcasm are also observed given that a person would still “lose weight” (not gaining weight) and “slim down” by eating out. As
Lagerwerf (2007) points out, the effect of advertisements when irony (and sarcasm) is used leads to positive reactions and sometimes to negative reactions and repercussions in a sense that people are in position to assert that irony is used in advertisements to put forth a tacit message, triggering the reader have pre-judgment (Alrasheedi, 2010). Through this, readers of advertisements may pause to read, assimilate, interpret and then take an action. This use renders irony useful in shaping the main function of media in general and advertisement UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE in particular. Hence, irony is best categorized as a persuasive strategy in advertising (Gibbs and Izett, 2005).
In the first example above, “fat” is implicitly portrayed in a negative manner through semantic prosody because the general impression of the sentence is also negative with the use of “avoid” linked to “fat traps”. It is clear that the objective of the sentences shown is to avoid being fat for it uses compound adjectives like “fat-burning” and “low-fat” for meals, and the directive statement “burn more fat”. Furthermore, considering the last example shown above, it appears that being healthy also demands an urgency since it is attached to “hurry” and “fast” whereas the “low-fat recipes” implies a resistance
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of getting fat. Hence, it demands the readers to become healthy as sexy while the avoidance of being fat is evident hence showcases a disparity between two body types, one is ideal and the other is undesirable.
3.3 Body Shaming Euphemism
Euphemism is used when people talk about taboo or sensitive subjects, therefore euphemistic language is also the language of evasion, of hypocrisy, of prudery, and of deceit (Holder 2002). It is the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant
(Allan and Burridge 2006). Hence, when people use euphemistic words or UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE phrases, they avoid saying things people think the audience would rather not hear for various reasons.
Given that the lexeme “fat” is not explicitly stated in the magazine covers as compared to the high frequency of “sexy”, “slim”, “fit”, Andrew (2014), an advocate of anti-body shaming campaign, strongly asserts that the society usually associates fat to hate hence a lot of people keep avoiding it; and by avoiding it, the term “fat” will keep and remain vilified thus imposing ideologies on body shaming through euphemistic means since generally speaking, euphemisms are mostly used when there is a need to discuss or refer to something that is a taboo, in bad taste, or insulting to the audience. Examples are shown below:
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“Use the right weight loss plan” (Mag9)
“Stress less, weigh less” (Mag31)
“Shape-up secrets to get you back on track and keep you injury-free”
(Mag23)
“Eat more weigh less: save pesos, lose pounds with these food swaps.”
(Mag23)
“Boost your productivity: Weigh less, save more, sleep soundly, eat healthily” (Mag27)
“Stop yo-yo dieting for good: yummy, healthy, low-calorie, breakfasts.”
(Mag27) UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE
“Burn calories and score a well-toned body” (Mag38)
Euphemisms can be in the form of idioms and metaphors because of them being figurative. The examples shown above are considered to be euphemism-metaphors, advertisers use this kind of strategy to maintain relationships and capture the consumers’ attention (Mehawesh, 2013). It is also evident that advertisers use lexicons that are strange and amusing to the audience (Fairclough, 1996) like “yo-yo dieting”, as seen in Mag-27, implying an unsteady manner of losing fat. Such kind of lexicons are usually used to sustain practicality in a lifeworld discourse hence informal (Fairclough, 1996). Since it is
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believed that that the more informal the words are, the more relationships are established since it emphasizes a conversational genre.
While “weight-loss”, “weigh less“, “lose pounds”, and “burn calories” seem to be neutral statements, these were used as euphemistic tools to resist on directly stating “losing fats”, “fat loss”, or “lose fat” considering that the term
“weight-loss” appeared fifteen times in the magazine covers including its variations “lose weight” and “weigh less”. Hence, it maintains the politeness and positive degree among readers since it was also attached to the word “right” and phrase “boost your productivity” such that “weighing less” greatly include in a productivity level. On a higher positive scale, “shape-up” including its variation UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE
“get-in-shape” is more pleasant to hear than “weight-loss” recognizing better the persuasion technique since it was attached to the positive compound adjectives “injury-free” and “stress-less” however deterring the idea of “fat” and just being “fat”.
“Tone trouble spots” (Mag15)
“Sculpt hot curves” (Mag15)
“Lose the bulge for good” (Mag7)
“Burn more calories” (Mag6)
The examples above show the different connotations of “spots”,
“curves”, and “bulge” “calories” as euphemistic tools to substitute the lexeme
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“fat”. Given that euphemisms are greatly used to conceal the real meanings of words as one of its main features (Lutz, 2000), the concept of fat is being disregarded in the examples shown considering that in Mag-29, “Burn more fat” is explicitly stated; hence it proves the “fat” is substituted by “calories.”
Furthering, the representation of “fat” in the following examples implies negative connotations such that “spots” is attached to “trouble”; “curves” and
“bulge” attached to the verbs “sculpt” and “lose” suggesting that by doing it, it would be “hot” and would be “for good”. Lutz (2000) comments euphemisms are tactful words and phrases which avoid directly mentioning a painful reality. In this way, by substituting more pleasant terms such as “spots”, “curves”, and UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE
“bulge” proves that euphemisms are sometimes positive words/phrases used to avoid a harsh, unpleasant, or distasteful reality which is to be “fat”.
3.4 “Real Women” and “Weight-loss” Connotation
Though “real women” only appeared five times in the magazine covers, it is important to note its connotation for it implies a question as to what constitutes a real woman. There were only five magazine covers that include
“real women”. Examples are shown below:
“Weight-loss secrets of real women” (Mag4)
“Get inspired: Real women and their weight-loss secrets” (Mag17),
(Mag34)
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“Pounds off! Success tips from real women” (Mag39)
“25 Beauty must-haves tried and tested by real women” (Mag9)
The extracts above show great assertiveness in the manner of “real women” being attached to “weight-loss” and “pounds-off” three times in the magazine covers considering that they are euphemistic tools to conceal the lexeme “fat” as discussed in the previous section. Hence it greatly illustrates how favorable connotations are attached to “weight-loss” and “pounds-off” that add to the description of a “real woman”. Thus, these instances show great bias on constituting a “real woman” being “sexy”, “slim”, and “fit” as inspirational because of the directive statement of the third example “get inspired” hence UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE strongly disregarding the idea of being “fat” as a “real woman” and inspirational.
As Andrew (2012) tries to explain, being “fat” is attached to the idea of hate.
3.5 Building Relations: Synthetic Personalization
As discussed, health, beauty, and body shaming ideologies are established hence it is essential to note the specific audience of Women’s Health magazine.
Given that advertising style makes a great deal of use of direct address for both ideological and practical reasons (Leeuwen, 2005). A great use of direct address in the magazine covers was observed such that thirty out of forty magazine covers do have this advertising element. Fairclough (1996) defines this
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as synthetic personalization in terms of his framework. The use of personal and possessive pronouns such as “we”, “you” and “your” intend to directly address the readers stimulating a conversational genre, therefore personal, informal, and solidary establishing a synthetic personalization of both ‘we’ addresses ‘you’
(Fairclough, 1996) such that when people are individually addressed rather than as part of mass audience, it is then considered highly valued (Cook, 2001).
Examples are shown below:
“Career boost: we show you how” (Mag27)
“The body you want in three weeks flat” (Mag10)
“Shape up secrets to get you back on track and keep you injury free” UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE
(Mag23)
“Slim down and tone your body no matter what age you’re in” (Mag36)
“Take charge of your health” (Mag5)
The first example has synthetic personalization of audience members
‘you’ as the readers and the producer is personalized with the pronoun ‘we’ having the authority of doing something. It establishes a relationship between the text producer and the participants (Fairclough, 1996). He further defines synthetic personalization as all phenomena strategic discourse where subject positions are being established and often manipulated by text producers.
Considering that “sexy”, “slim”, and “fit” are presented as the ideal body type in
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the magazine covers analyzed, this may imply that the magazine strongly addresses the unfavorable body type which is “fat” as ‘you’ and ‘your’ personal pronouns since these were used as indefinite pronouns such that in the examples given, the reader is characterized as ‘you’ being the center of the conversation. It builds a relationship to the public that provides carefully managed cues for the readers to do something thus stimulates a conversational genre (Fairclough, 1996). Thus this implies that promotional materials such as
Women’s Health magazines highly address readerships as consumers and clients such that when someone is communicating with the client, the client is positioned as having the authority (Cook, 2001). UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE
3.6 Ideal Body Type Defined
Other than the use of lexemes “sexy” and “fat” in the portrayal of beauty, health, and body shaming, it is also important to consider how the ideal body type is represented in the magazine covers. The portrayal of ideal body type is evident because of extensively using directive and assertive speech acts.
This section helped to draw meanings and elaborate the connection of beauty, health, and body shaming ideologies within the advertising discourse of the magazine covers. It is believed that speech acts aims to do justice to the fact that even though words (phrases, sentences) encode information, people do more things with words than convey information and that when people do
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convey information, they often process more than their words encode. Although the focus of speech act theory has been on utterances, especially those made in conversational and other face-to-face situations, the phrase 'speech act' should be taken as a generic term for any sort of language use, oral or otherwise
(Searle, 1969). Hence, the speech acts observe the moods and modality of the clauses and phrases present in the magazine covers to identify what it is trying to imply with regard to the underlying definitions and portrayal of ideal body type.
In the analysis, there was a high affinity combination of epistemic and deontic modality making the clauses and phrases be in imperative moods with the use of assertive forces in which the speaker presents a proposition as UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE representing the actual state of affairs of the world; and directive forces in which the speaker attempts to get the audience carry and do the propositions considering that the extracts from the magazine covers are all performative.
3.6.1 Assertive Speech Acts
Given that health plays an essential role when it comes to living, advertisers use assertive language and techniques since it typically increases compliance when the recipients perceive the issue as important (Wilson, 2015).
Searle (1969) argues that a strong use of assertion happens when the ‘knowing’ is changed to ‘believing’ such that the text producer not only informs, rather claims, and assures the readers regarding the vast outcome of doing something.
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In the given examples below, a great use of assertive forces helps to show the depiction of ideal body type:
“21 super foods for weight-loss issue” (Mag1)
“The key to weight-loss that lasts” (Mag15)
“2-in-1 moves for firm arms, flat abs, and a tight butt.” (Mag9)
“The body you want in three weeks flat” (Mag10)
“Diet and exercise pointers that really works” (Mag11)
“The health check-up you really need” (Mag8)
“Health check: The surprising pleasure zone you must know well”
(Mag13) UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE
It can be observed that the extracts above show solutions for “weight- loss issue” implying that being fat is really an issue. Furthering, given that the modal “really” and “must” provides an expressive value hence gives an emphasis of evaluation of truth (Fairclough, 1996). The presence of synthetic personalization “you” attached to “want” and “need” in the examples above proves that the text producer has the knowledge to assert the readers’ interests and desires. In this way, providing moves, diet, and exercise pointers that constitute to have a “sexy”, “slim”, and “fit” body type. This can also be seen in the examples below:
“Strip away pounds in four weeks” (Mag4)
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“The best calorie-torching, body-sculpting, health-boosting tips to try now” (Mag28)
“Top 5 reasons to stay fit” (Mag26)
“Tricks to drop pounds and tone muscles faster” (Mag36)
“10 moves to flatten your abs fast” (Mag33)
“Hot body shortcuts” (Mag32)
Given that the extracts above use adverbs such as “fast” and “in four weeks”, it shows great assertiveness such that it provides assurance for the readers. Based on Searle’s (1969) assertive speech acts schemes, assuring also deals with the removal of worry from the mind of the audience (as cited in UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE
Wierzbika, 1999) such that assuring means showing someone of the truth and accuracy of something (Austin, 1971). In the given examples, the text producer seems to imply that the readers need not to worry with the results because it is already proven and tested; such that it indicates “reasons to stay fit”, different tips and moves to “strip away pounds” when in fact the bottom line is to “lose- weight” hence avoidance of getting fat.
3.6.2 Directive Speech Acts
Searle (1969) explains that the point of directives is to make the addressee perform an action through orders, commands, instructions, requests, and invitations such that the speaker wants the hearer or audience to do
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something (Searle and Veken, 1969) and expects the person to do it without any conflict (Searle, 1969). Hence the examples shown below greatly exercise directive forces such that it demands and requires doing it:
“Shrink your belly” (Mag7, Mag13, Mag20, Mag25)
“Eat, drink, and still shrink” (Mag2, Mag19)
“Get slim and stay that way” (Mag16)
“Slim down for good” (Mag32)
“Eat up and slim down” (Mag27)
“Run faster and get firmer too” (Mag40)
“Take charge of your health” (Mag22) UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE
“Climate Change Diet: Get slimmer and make a positive impact on the environment” (Mag19)
The extracts above show the directness on getting a “slim” body type given that in the previous discussions, “slim”, “sexy” and “fit” are nearly synonymous to “healthy” as presented in the magazine covers. However imposing a consumer culture attitude in such a way that readers are asked to
“take charge of your health” but at the same time are being asked to “run faster” not just to “get firm” rather “to get firmer too”. Hence, being ironic; while the first example “shrink your belly” is extensively used four times in the magazine covers referring to belly, the second example uses sarcasm in such a way that
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eating and drinking would still give a “slim” body type considering that it is substituted by “shrink”. Surprisingly, the last example seems that there is a
“positive impact on the environment” on “getting slim” implying a negative expressive value of being “fat”, in which the readers are asked to “get slim”.
Hence with the extensive use and synonymy of these words and phrases, it implies a high demand and order to the readers to do it as to “get slim” and commanding them to “stay that way” and by saying this positive expression, it is
“for good”. On a higher scale, the manner of the directive forces is more emphasized because of the adverbs of manner “fast”, time “now”, and frequency “ever”. Thus, these instances below demand the readers an urgency UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE to “lose weight” to be “sexy”.
“Drop two sizes fast” (Mag39)
“Slim down fast” (Mag2, Mag30)
“Lose weight fast” (Mag11)
“Your fittest body ever” (Mag30)
“Lean and sexy now” (Mag5, Mag19, Mag29)
“Hot body fast: See results in just days not weeks” (Mag22, Mag37)
Though the examples above present directness to “get slim”, a number of variations are still evident as to identifying the ideal body type such as:
“Eat this, not that!” (Mag3)
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“Wear this, not that!” (Mag19)
“Flatten your belly” (Mag29)
“Flatter your figure” (Mag33)
“Flatter your belly” (Mag22)
“Lose your belly” (Mag36)
By observing the extracts above, it shows schemes on getting a “flat belly” however in different variations and extent through the use of a comparative degree for “flat”. In this way, the readers are directly asked not only to “flatten” their belly and figure but to “flatter” and to the extent of “losing” it.
Furthering, there is a strong directive force in the first two examples above UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE because of stating in an exclamatory manner moreover using “not that” such the readers are also dictated as to what they should eat and wear.
In the analysis of magazine covers, the portrayal of ideal body type is evident such that the specific body parts are asked to be “lean” and ordered to be “firm”, “tone”, and “sculpt” “gain energy instantly” serve as a requirement which constitute to have a “sexy”, “slim”, and “fit” body type. Examples are shown below:
“Firm your butt” (Mag22)
“Tone your arms” (Mag22, Mag29)
“Sculpt lean muscles” (Mag37)
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“Get lean legs” (Mag22)
“Get a toned body and gain energy instantly” (Mag27)
Searle (1969) believes that requiring differs from telling someone to do something only in that it carries with it a greater degree of strength because requiring someone appears to imply an element of obligation. Similar findings are shown in Kaur, Arumugam, and Yunus (2013) study about beauty product advertisements showing that advertisers need to persuade the readers to buy or take certain actions hence most of advertisements use imperatives as seen in the example.
“Eat your way thin” (Mag12) UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE
“Dress 10 lbs thinner” (Mag4)
Surprisingly, in the given examples above, it is noteworthy to clarify that there is a historical shift in the nature of the objective because of the presence of the word “thin” and its variation “thinner”. In this instance, the readers are now asked to get “thin” and “thinner” instead of the ideal body type “sexy”,
“slim”, and “fit” implying body dissatisfaction however the avoidance of getting
“fat” is still evident in this manner.
3.7 Personality of the Magazine Cover
Since ideology is defined as an entire system of ideas, beliefs, and values, which provides a restricted view of the world, Van Dijk (1998) remarks that
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ideologies are typically, though not exclusively, expressed and reproduced in discourse and communication, including non-verbal semiotic messages, such as pictures, photographs and movies.
Considering Cook’s (2001) note that advertisers rely more on images because they carry connotations and story and that Mcloughin (2000) even claims that the image on the magazine covers reveals the personality of the magazine, hence visual texts are considered in this aspect since Bernos (2015) asserts that though language may be dominant mode of communication, visual texts still play an essential role in the production and reception of ideas, meanings, and receptions. UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE
3.7.1 Placement of Images
The placement of the image is very essential in conveying the messages of the texts (Kress and Leeuwen, 2005 as cited in Cook, 2001). Of 40 magazine covers, 38 covers utilize single human image by placing the image on the center, which endorses different aspects when it comes to beauty and health. It is a large colored image which can be seen from the bottom to the top. Thus, it implies that this human image is the central means of conveying meaning (Cook,
2001; Kress, 1992; Leeuwen, 2005) such that it is functionally dominant in carrying major informational load of the image.
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The images are presented through famous celebrities in the Philippines that are entitled having a “sexy”, “slim”, “fit”, and “hot” body since Cook (2001) affirms that in the context of magazine advertising, the sense of connection to the readers is greatly established by portraying authority figures, celebrities, and role models depending on what it is trying to promote. Najafan (2011) also delves into same findings on her study on words behind images in advertising; she believes that endorsing advertisements by celebrities makes a product or service more reliable.
3.7.2 The Image Act, Gaze, and Gestures UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE As Bernos (2015) cites, facial expression, movement, and posture are inseparable when it comes to advertising since these three are usually manifested in the same subject: actor. As stated in the previous discussions, the magazine covers only utilize single image portrayed by famous celebrities.
Furthering, the text producer uses the image to do something to the viewer
(Kress, 2006) hence the participant’s gaze that includes facial expression and gestures are the key factors that add on conveying the message of the magazine covers. Hence, by observing their facial expressions and gestures, these would highlight the desirability, sentiments, and human emotions.
Kress and Leeuwen (2006) state that there is a fundamental difference between pictures from which represented participants look directly at the
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viewer’s eyes to establish contact (as cited in Cook, 2001). According to them, the primary visual configuration is when participants look at the viewers formed by the participants’ eye-lines, contact is greatly established even if it is only on imaginary level. Of the forty magazine covers, all of the celebrity endorsers seem to look directly at the readers. It acknowledges the viewers explicitly, hence addressing them with a visual “you” (Cook, 2001).
Of the forty magazine covers analyzed, each celebrity endorser has the facial expression of smiling; implying a degree of confidence and contentment they have with their body type, considering that these celebrities are all known as “sexy” and “slim” in the Philippines. A majority of them wears crop-tops, UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE swimsuits, bikinis, mini shorts, and fitted dresses; by wearing such kind of clothes it reveals their “toned arms”, “superflat abs”, “flat belly”, “tight butt” constituting a “sexy” body and look.
3.8 Women’s Health: The Brand
Given that Fairclough’s (2001) interpretation phase considers the production of texts, a comprehensive scrutiny of the Women’s Health brand and its endorsers is critical showing the situational context of the brand. This stage notes the contents, subjects, relations, and connections hence considering the brand’s beliefs and perspectives in order to examine a deeper discernment of its philosophy when it comes to health and beauty magazine advertising.
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Women’s Health is owned by Rodale Incorporation, a global, multi- platform content company the reaches more than 120 million people across sixty-five countries and six continents through its category leading media properties such as magazines, books, online, mobile, e-commerce, direct-to- consumer, social and video channels. Rodale Inc., product highlights are Men’s
Health as the largest men’s lifestyle brand in the world and Women’s Health as the fastest growing women’s magazines.
According to Rodale Incorporation’s official website, Women’s Health magazine caters nineteen countries that include Asian countries such as China,
Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, and Thailand. Interestingly, these UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE
Asian countries observes a high rate of eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia imposing body shaming issues due to extensive and evident demand to be sexy, slim, and thin as a preference for body types (Wykes and Gunter, 2005) considering the westernized physique body type.
Though Philippines is not observed as a country reported having eating disorders, patronizing the western culture as to body type preference is considerably evident since the celebrity endorsers utilized in the magazine covers are all Filipinas. The globalization considering the western media have increased their influence in Asia, hence the universal idea of beauty has become increasingly Eurocentric (Zhang, 2013). Magdaraog (2012) connects body image
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as a construct determined by a series of individual and sociocultural factors that intervenes decisively in several aspects of people’s lives influenced by Western society. Whereas, the mass media serves as a mediating structure between individuals and their bodies by sending a powerful message to society: only a determined physical stereotype of beauty is valued.
Certainly, westernization and globalizing values have permeated the majority of western cultures and established body image ideals and eating behaviors. As regards the media, it is fairly easy to see that a significant number of Western television programs have been adapted to different Asian countries
(Calado, 2011) and same can be said for printed media that either offer different UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE versions of globalized magazines or publish magazines that imitate in form and content of Western publications (Blowers, 1999).
Given that the official Facebook page Women’s Health Philippines, it is the number one magazine for Pinay who values a healthy lifestyle. It primarily aims to promote healthy lifestyle. Hence, the over-all analysis through identifying (overwording) lexemes and its connotations, speech acts, visual aspects, facial expression, gaze, and gestures serve as instruments to show the manifestation of what the brand is trying to promote considering its slogan “look great, feel great.”
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3.8.1 Confidence in sexy, slim, fit body type
Cook (2001) states that the presence of the celebrity enhances a brand’s distinctive identity such that although it cannot intrinsically improve any of the product’s features or performance, it can provide added value and credibility.
Furthering, an infusion of celebrity attention can rejuvenate a stagnant brand and it can also compensate for a lack of inventive marketing ideas. Through this,
Hatads (2011) explains that the approval of a brand by a celebrity fosters confidence and highlights brand awareness in a cluttered marketplace. As discussed earlier, the endorsers are all smiling, evidently happy having a “sexy” body evoking contentment and confidence given that celebrities serve as great UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE factors in the context of body shaming since they are the ones who usually set the standards of health and beauty imposing stereotypes.
“Iza Calzado: Charming, confident, and in control” (Mag9)
As published in Philippine Star, Iza Calzado is a model and an actress whose body is defined as far from flawless and that she is the kind of fitness inspiration because of having concave abs, thigh gaps, and gravity-defying butts.
This then shows how the magazine defines her as “charming”, “confident”, and
“in control”, considering Reischer and Koo’s (2004) note, the value of self-control and self-discipline underpin ideologies in favor of sexy, slim, and slender body type; such that having excess weight is thus considered as an abomination of the
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body, as it displays a bereft of self-control (Reischer & Koo, 2004; Featherstone,
1991). Hence suggesting that when someone is “in control”; the person is highly regarded because of it being attached to positive adjectives “charming” and
“confident”. Meanwhile disclosing a partiality for “sexy” compared to being
“fat”.
Such kind of instance is also observed in Mag12 as it states “Karylle:
Shares how to get this fit, happy, and confident” and Mag26 as it shows “Maja
Salvador: How she got fit, toned, and happy”. These examples present an informative discourse hence stimulating a narrative genre such that the text producers maintain its reliability and efficiency in promoting schemes and UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE ideologies through self-promotional claims by the endorsers; sharing and showcasing their insights and stories. Through this, it builds up reader’s anticipation of what is coming next (Mcloughin, 2000). The favorable connotations attached to “fit” such as “confident” and “happy” are evidently constitute to how such kind of “sexy”, ”slim”, and “fit” body type also promote happiness and confidence however they also foster uncomplimentary implications of being “fat”. Such instances can also be seen in the statements below:
“Judy Ann Santos: On the best ways to keep pounds off forever and stay happy” (Mag13)
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“Judy Ann Santos: on braving challenges and keeping the weigh off”
(Mag29)
“Bea Alonzo: How the box-office star shoots down insecurity and keeps the weight off” (Mag23)
Given that the endorsers, Judy Ann Santos and Bea Alonzo, are considered as actresses that ‘surprised’ the public with slimmer figures as published by pep.ph, this instance help the extracts above show great disparities between “sexy” and “fat” body type; such that the endorsers seem to imply and show their “struggles” on being “fat” defined as “braving challenges” and
“insecurity”. Considering that “weigh off” and “pounds off” are euphemisms for UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE
“lose fat”, the contentment of having a “sexy” and “slim” body type is explicitly stated because of it being directive, “keeping the weigh off” more so, it is attached to the adverb “forever” and the expression “stay happy”.
As Andrew (2012) claims, the resistance of stating the word “fat” using euphemisms signals abomination of having such kind of body type. Hence, these circumstances also implies the discontentment of having a “fat” body type through the recurrence of statements of staying happy, strong, and confident with a “sexy”, “slim”, and “fit” body type.
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3.8.2 Sexy and Slim Culture
Western societies serve general preferences for body shapes and body image especially for a thin body shape that has been established as the norm
(Wykes and Gunter, 2005). Many societies have associated a plump physique for women with attractiveness and in some cultures obesity has been admired (Ford and Beach, 1952). Norms of feminine beauty in Western culture, however, have varied considerably over time (Goodman, 1995; Seid, 1989; Wolf, 1992 as cited in Wykes and Gunter, 2005). Meanwhile, skinny fashion models replaced shapely film stars as the dominant culture icons (Wykes and Gunter, 2005). A preference for a body shape that mimicked this cultural ideal was increasingly reflected in UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE the body image preferred by women, surveyed for their opinions about attractiveness (Cash, 1997; Serdulla, 1993; Streigel-Moore et al., 1996 as cited in
Wykes and Gunter, 2005). Since then the only little shift from extreme slenderness as the feminine ideal was the slender body during the 1980s and eventually, the mass media has increased in volume, spread and representative role. Although female attractiveness was once epitomized by a plump body shape, the contemporary ideal, at the close of the twentieth, emphasized a sexy, slim, and slender body. And the impact of this changing ideal for feminine beauty is further exemplified by the increasing of dieting among women, especially young women (Wykes and Gunter, 2005).
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Images that are represented by the media tend to transmit and reinforce dominant cultural ideologies as well as reject representations that question these stereotypes. The mass media appears to exercise powerful social learning processes by means of negative and positive reinforcement of mechanisms of beliefs and behaviors.
Due to the prominent influence of Western culture to Asia, Filipinos also view these instances to exercise social acceptance (Zhang, 2013). Being thin considered as slim women are usually associated with wealth, health, control, and beauty while being fat is associated negatively with weakness, laziness, lack of control, and unhealthy lifestyle. These dynamics lead to the attribution of UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE positive values, including being more intelligent, friendlier, and more determined, to thinner people on television (Fouts and Burggraf, 1999). Hence, mass media and advertising equate beauty to thinness and slenderness, Rondilla
(2009) ascribed these ideologies in her study entitled Ganda Mo: Perception of
Feminine Beauty Shaped by Internal and External Factors, such that a majority of
Filipinos percepts that having a thin, sexy, and slim body type is viewed as ideal and norm physique of a woman, avoiding the idea of being fat as an ideal and beautiful as well. Hence, these incidents induce body shaming ideologies.
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Today, body shaming is no longer manifested through direct and aggressive acts, but has developed into more passive-aggressive strategies most utilized in the different aspects of language and advertising.
4.0 Intercoding
The intercoding reveals an almost perfect observation and findings in the aspect of overwording, the connotations of “fat”, “sexy”, “real women”, and
“weight-loss”, body shaming euphemisms, and assertive and directive speech acts present in the magazine covers.
4.1 Overwording UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE
Table 2. Frequency of overwording
Content Words Coder 1 Coder 2 Researcher’s Findings Health 54 53 51 Women 41 41 43 Sex 28 28 28 Sexy 27 27 27 Slim 17 19 19 weight-loss/ lose 25 25 25 weight/ weigh less Fit 18 18 15 Healthy 15 13 12 Beauty 13 13 11 real women 5 5 5
Since Fairclough (1996) defines overwording as unusually high degree of wording, the interraters were requested to account for the
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frequency/occurrence of the words that are overused. The table shows an almost perfect frequency count between the coders and the researcher. Hence, these wordings help to draw different schemes and ideologies present in the magazine covers.
4.2 The Lexeme “Sexy”
The table shows how the interraters perfectly agree with the research finding as to the favorable connotations attached to the lexeme “sexy”. Thus, the connotation of sexy as favorable (F) serves as a way to identify the ideal body type that the magazine covers promote. UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE Table3. Connotations of sexy
Extracts Coder 1 Coder 2 Researcher’s Findings “Lean, sexy, confident” (Mag13) F F F “Strong, sexy, slim” (Mag18) F F F “Healthy, sexy breasts” (Mag3) F F F “New shortcuts to a slim, sexy F F F body” (Mag15)
“Fast-track to a lean body and a F F F sexy belly” (Mag34) “Sculpt sexy legs and a tight butt.” F F F (Mag24) “Lean, sexy legs” (Mag14) F F F “Slim, calm, and sexy yoga” F F F (Mag7) “Sexy ways to dress-up for your F F F workout” (Mag12) “Sexy swimsuits for every body F F F type” (Mag 10)
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“25+ crazy, sexy, summer ideas to F F F keep cool” (Mag33)
4.3 “Fat” Body Connotation
The table shows how the interraters agree with the unfavorable (UF) connotations attached to the lexeme “fat”. This, therefore, shows the difference between two body types, one is ideal and the other is undesirable.
Table 4. Connotations of fat
Extracts Coder 1 Coder 2 Researcher’s Findings “Eat out and still lose weight: UF UF UF Avoid holiday fat traps” (Mag1) “Burn more fat” (Mag8) UF UF UF “Eat up and slim down: fat F UF UF UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE burning meals, low-cal cocktails” (Mag14) “Healthy in a hurry: fast, tasty, UF UF UF low-fat recipes to try” (Mag9)
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4.4 Body Shaming Euphemisms
The table reveals that both of the interraters agree with the researcher’s findings. In this case, it proves that euphemisms are used in the magazine covers to avoid the terms “fat”, “lose fat” and, “fat loss” considering that euphemism is a language of evasion and substitution of words that are unpleasant to hear.
Hence, it is imposing body shaming (BS) ideologies through euphemistic means.
Table 5. Body shaming euphemisms
Extracts Coder 1 Coder 2 Researcher’s Findings “Use the right weight loss BS BS BS plan” (Mag9) “Shape-up secrets to get you BS BS BS UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE back on track and keep you injury-free” (Mag23) “Eat more weigh less: save BS BS BS pesos, lose pounds with these food swaps.” (Mag23) “Boost your productivity: BS BS BS Weigh less, save more, sleep soundly, eat healthily” (Mag27) “Burn calories and score a BS BS BS well-toned body” (Mag38) “Tone trouble spots” (Mag15) BS BS BS “Sculpt hot curves” (Mag15) BS BS BS “Lose the bulge for good” BS BS BS (Mag7) “Burn more calories” (Mag6) BS BS BS “Stress less, weigh less” BS BS BS (Mag31)
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4.5 “Real Women” and “Weight Loss” Connotation
The table shows how the interraters perfectly agree with the connotations of “real women” and “weight loss” and showing partiality on the idea of being a “real woman”. Hence, it greatly imposes body shaming (BS).
Table 6. “Real women” and “Weight loss” connotations
Extract Coder 1 Coder 2 Researcher’s Findings “Weight-loss secrets of real BS BS BS women” (Mag4) “Get inspired: Real women and BS BS BS their weight-loss secrets” (Mag17), (Mag34) “Pounds off! Success tips from BS BS BS real women” (Mag39) UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE “25 Beauty must-haves tried and BS BS BS tested by real women” (Mag9)
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4.6 Assertive Speech Acts
In the table below, the interraters show perfect agreement. These assertive acts (AA) present in the magazine covers helped to portray the ideal body type through assuring and suggesting.
Table 7. Assertive Acts
Extracts Coder 1 Coder 2 Researcher’s Findings “The key to weight-loss that lasts” AA AA AA (Mag15) “2-in-1 moves for firm arms, flat AA AA AA abs, and a tight butt.” (Mag9) “The body you want in three AA AA AA weeks flat” (Mag10) “Diet and exercise pointers that AA AA AA UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE really works” (Mag11) “The health check-up you really AA AA AA need” (Mag8) “Health check: The surprising AA AA AA pleasure zone you must know well” (Mag13) “Strip away pounds in four weeks” AA AA AA (Mag4) “The best calorie-torching, body- AA AA AA sculpting, health-boosting tips to try now” (Mag28) “Top 5 reasons to stay fit” AA AA AA (Mag26) “10 moves to flatten your abs AA AA AA fast” (Mag33) “Hot body shortcuts” (Mag32) AA AA AA “Tricks to drop pounds and tone AA AA AA muscles faster” (Mag36) “21 super foods for weight-loss AA AA AA issue” (Mag1)
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4.7 Directive Speech Acts
The table shows a perfect agreement between the intercoder and researcher’s findings with regard to the presence of directive acts (DA) in the magazine covers. Therefore, the readers are asked to have the ideal body type through orders, commands, and instructions that imply an obligation to do so.
Table 8. Directive Acts
Extracts Coder 1 Coder 2 Researcher’s Findings “Eat, drink, and still shrink” (Mag2), DA DA DA Mag19) “Get slim and stay that way” DA DA DA (Mag16) “Slim down for good” (Mag-32) DA DA DA UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE “Run faster and get firmer too” DA DA DA (Mag40) “Take charge of your health” DA DA DA (Mag22)” “Wear this, not that!” (Mag19) DA DA DA “Flatten your belly” (Mag29) DA DA DA
“Flatter your figure” (Mag33) DA DA DA “Flatter your belly” (Mag22) DA DA DA “Lose your belly” (Mag36) DA DA DA “Drop two sizes fast” (Mag39) DA DA DA “Slim down fast” (Mag2, Mag30) DA DA DA “Lose weight fast” (Mag11) DA DA DA “Your fittest body ever” (Mag30) DA DA DA “Lean and sexy now” (Mag5, DA DA DA Mag19, Mag29) “Eat up and slim down” (Mag27) DA DA DA “Shrink your belly” (Mag7, Mag13, DA DA DA Mag20, Mag25)
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4. Conclusion
Considering that the main objective of this study is to show how body shaming ideologies are presented in the magazine covers exercising the power of advertising through discourse and discursive techniques which manipulate women’s cultural beliefs, the analysis of visual and textual texts employed in
Women’s Health magazine covers gives a comprehensive intertextual and interdiscursive analysis that show the different discursive techniques and discourse strategies used in constructing health, beauty, and body shaming ideologies in the magazine covers. These discursive and discourse strategies present in the magazine covers are overwording, lexical choice, semantic UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE prosody, euphemisms, synthetic personalizations, speech acts, placement of images, image act, gaze, and gestures.
The overwording of “women”, “health”, “healthy”, “sexy”, “slim”, and
“weight loss” are the factors that helped establish different schemes and ideologies. The lexeme “sexy” has been repeatedly used in the magazine covers and was consistently associated with words and adjectives with favorable connotations such as “strong”, “confident”, and “healthy”. Hence, it was deduced that Women’s Health views healthy as near synonymous to sexy, slim, and fit; and implicitly promotes different and new definitions of being healthy. In contrast, “fat” body type has been negatively portrayed through euphemisms,
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hence imposing body shaming ideologies. Generally, with the extensive use of deontic and epistemic modality observing directive and assertive speech acts, these discursive techniques clearly show and promote unfavorable connotations on fat body type, and manifest a partiality for sexy, slim, and fit body type, making it an ideal body type for women. The personality of the magazine covers was also deduced through describing the visual texts concerning the image act, gaze, gestures, and facial expression that show a great confidence of having a sexy body type, inducing discontentment of being fat. Famous sexy celebrity endorsers in the Philippines were utilized in the magazine covers to increase the positive impact of having a sexy body type, stating struggles of being fat, making UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE it a self-promotional claim helping the readers to see the partiality for sexy. The overall discursive techniques and discourse strategies employed in the magazine covers show an evident partiality for sexy, slim, and fit body type, avoiding a fat body type inducing body shaming issues and ideologies through the influence of western societies and advertising.
4.1 Social Implications
Due to these discursive techniques and discourse strategies employed in the field of advertising, people must be careful and aware enough of what they buy, use, and read since these may contribute and influence them to promote social control and dominance, shame and guilt, inequality, and violence. Hence,
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this paper serves as an open ground to give additional knowledge and raise awareness to the Filipino community on how body shaming is observed in magazines, exercising the power of advertising to manipulate people’s ideas and beliefs.
4.2 Recommendations
Desirably, future research on beauty and body shaming ideologies could focus on other mediums, such as television and internet memes through multimodality analysis and social semiotics. Women’s Health Philippines remains a good case study because of its evident popularity among Filipinas and its wide array of celebrity endorsers. A comparative study on Women’s Health and Men’s UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE health magazine can also be a good case study to show if body shaming is also evident to both genders. Moreover, contrastive analyses between different brands such as Cosmopolitan can also be taken into consideration since the presence of the idea on sex is also observed in this case study constituting health, sex, beauty, and body shaming ideologies.
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Scheidies, N. (2015). How Apple became the world's most valuable company. Retrieved from IncomeDiary: http://www.incomediary.com/how-apple- became-the-worlds-most-valuable-company
Searle, J. (1965). What is a Speech Act? New York: Free Press.
Smith, B. (1995). John Searle: From Speech Acts to Social Reality. New York: Free UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE Press.
Smith, P. W. (1991). Speech Act Theory, Discourse Structure and Indirect Speech. Philosophy Now.
Tianen, M. (2009). Behind the Cosmo Girl: Women's Representations and brand Cosmopolitan Magazine. 22.
Wodak, R. (2001). Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. SAGE Publications.
Wodak, R. (2002). Aspects of Critical Discourse Analysis. 27.
Wodak, R. (2006). Critical Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis. John Benjamin Publication Corp.
Wodak, R. (2011). Language, Power, Identity. 10-19.
Zhang, X., & Gao, X. (2009). An analysis of conceptual metaphor in Western commercial advertisements. Asian Social Science, 5(12), 97-104.
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Zheng, H. (2013). The semiotic analysis of a print advertisement. Retrieved from University of Leicester: https://www.academia.edu/5318232/The_Semiotic_Analysis_of_a_Print _Advertisement_HUIMIN_ZHENG
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APPENDIX A Coding Sheet
1. Overwording
Fairclough (1996) relates overwording with the term overlexicalization (Fowler,
1979), where an unusually high degree of wording, often involving clusters of related terms that are near synonyms imposing pre-ideologies. Hence, this aspect deals with the frequently used words in the magazine covers that draw different classification of schemes and ideologies. Kindly put a legend as to what column it belongs. Refer to the magazine covers provided. UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE Content Words Frequency 50-40 40-30 30-20 20-15 15-5 0 Health Women Sex Sexy Slim weight-loss/ lose weight/ weigh less Fit Healthy Beauty real women Total
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2. The lexeme “sexy”
What connotation does the word “sexy” show in the extracts? Kindly put a legend as to what column it belongs.
Extracts Favorable Unfavorable “Lean, sexy, confident” (Mag13) “Strong, sexy, slim” (Mag18) “Healthy, sexy breasts” (Mag3) “New shortcuts to a slim, sexy body” (Mag15) “Fast-track to a lean body and a sexy belly” (Mag34) “Sculpt sexy legs and a tight butt.” (Mag24) “Lean, sexy legs” (Mag14) “Slim, calm, and sexy yoga” (Mag7) “Sexy ways to dress-up for your workout” (Mag12) “Sexy swimsuits for every body type” (Mag10) “25+ crazy, sexy, summer ideas to keep cool” UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE (Mag33)
Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.
3. “Fat” Body Connotation
What connotation does the word “sexy” show in the extracts? Kindly put a legend as to what column it belongs.
Extracts Favorable Unfavorable “Eat out and still lose weight: Avoid holiday fat traps” (Mag1) “Burn more fat” (Mag8) “Eat up and slim down: fat burning meals, low-cal cocktails” (Mag14) “Healthy in a hurry: fast, tasty, low-fat recipes to try” (Mag9)
Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE
4. Body Shaming Euphemisms
Considering that euphemisms are used for taboo or sensitive subjects, a language of evasion, of hypocrisy, of prudery, and of deceit (Holder 2002), it is the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant. Do the examples below substitute the terms “fat”, “lose fat”, “fat loss”? Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it belongs.
Extracts Yes No “Use the right weight loss plan” (Mag9) “Shape-up secrets to get you back on track and keep you injury- free” (Mag23) UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE “Eat more weigh less: save pesos, lose pounds with these food swaps.” (Mag23) “Boost your productivity: Weigh less, save more, sleep soundly, eat healthily” (Mag27) “Burn calories and score a well-toned body” (Mag-38) “Tone trouble spots” (Mag15) “Sculpt hot curves” (Mag15) “Lose the bulge for good” (Mag7) “Burn more calories” (Mag6) “Stress less, weigh less” (Mag31)
Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE
5. “Real Women” and “Weight-loss” Connotation
Do you think that these instances show partiality on the idea of being a “real woman”? Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it belongs.
Extracts Yes No “Weight-loss secrets of real women” (Mag4) “Get inspired: Real women and their weight-loss secrets” (Mag17), (Mag34) “Pounds off! Success tips from real women” (Mag39) “25 Beauty must-haves tried and tested by real women” (Mag9)
Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.
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6. Assertive Speech Acts
Based on Searle’s (1969) assertive speech acts schemes, assuring also deals with the removal of worry from the mind of the audience (as cited in Wierzbika, 1999) such that assuring means showing someone of the truth and accuracy of something (Austin, 1971). Do the examples show assuring and suggesting?
Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it belongs.
Extracts Assuring Suggesting “The key to weight-loss that lasts” (Mag15) “2-in-1 moves for firm arms, flat abs, and a tight butt.” (Mag9) “The body you want in three weeks flat” (Mag10) “Diet and exercise pointers that really works” UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE (Mag11) “The health check-up you really need” (Mag8) “Health check: The surprising pleasure zone you must know well” (Mag13) “Strip away pounds in four weeks” (Mag4) “The best calorie-torching, body-sculpting, health- boosting tips to try now” (Mag28) “Top 5 reasons to stay fit” (Mag26) “10 moves to flatten your abs fast” (Mag33) “Hot body shortcuts” (Mag32) “Tricks to drop pounds and tone muscles faster” (Mag36) “21 super foods for weight-loss issue” (Mag1)
Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE
7. Directive Speech Acts
Searle (1969) explains that the point of directives is to make the addressee perform an action through commands, requests, and instructions. Do the examples below observe such kind of speech act? Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it belongs.
Extracts Commands Instructions “Eat, drink, and still shrink” (Mag2, Mag9) “Get slim and stay that way” (Mag16) “Slim down for good” (Mag32) “Run faster and get firmer too” (Mag40) “Take charge of your health” (Mag22)” “Wear this, not that!” (Mag19) “Flatten your belly” (Mag29) UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE “Flatter your figure” (Mag33) “Flatter your belly” (Mag22) “Lose your belly” (Mag36) “Drop two sizes fast” (Mag39) “Slim down fast” (Mag2, Mag30) “Lose weight fast” (Mag11) “Your fittest body ever” (Mag30) “Lean and sexy now” (Mag5, Mag19, Mag29) “Eat up and slim down” (Mag27) “Shrink your belly” (Mag7, Mag13, Mag20, Mag25)
Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.
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APPENDIX B Women’s Health Magazine covers
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APPENDIX C
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Coder 1 Coding Sheet
1. Overwording
Fairclough (1996) relates overwording with the term overlexicalization (Fowler,
1979), where an unusually high degree of wording, often involving clusters of related terms that are near synonyms imposing pre-ideologies. Hence, this aspect deals with the frequently used words in the magazine covers that draw different classification of schemes and ideologies. Kindly put a legend as to what column it belongs with. Refer to the magazine covers provided.
Content Words Frequency UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE 50-40 40-30 30-20 20-15 15-5 0 health 54 women 41 sex 28 sexy 27 slim 17 weight-loss/ lose 25 weight/ weigh less fit 18 healthy 21 beauty 13 real women 5 Total
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE
2. The lexeme “sexy”
What connotation does the word “sexy” show in the extracts? Kindly put a legend as to what column it belongs with.
Extracts Favorable Unfavorable “Lean, sexy, confident” (Mag13) X “Strong, sexy, slim” (Mag18) X “Healthy, sexy breasts” (Mag3) X “New shortcuts to a slim, sexy body” (Mag15) X “Fast-track to a lean body and a sexy belly” (Mag-34) X “Sculpt sexy legs and a tight butt.” (Mag-24) X “Lean, sexy legs” (Mag-14) X “Slim, calm, and sexy yoga” (Mag-7) X “Sexy ways to dress-up for your workout” (Mag-12) X “Sexy swimsuits for every body type” (Mag 10) X “25+ crazy, sexy, summer ideas to keep cool” X (Mag33) UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE
Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.
3. “Fat” Body Connotation
What connotation does the word “sexy” show in the extracts? Kindly put a legend as to what column it belongs with.
Extracts Favorable Unfavorable “Eat out and still lose weight: Avoid holiday fat X traps” (Mag1) “Burn more fat” (Mag8) X “Eat up and slim down: fat burning meals, low-cal X cocktails” (Mag14) “Healthy in a hurry: fast, tasty, low-fat recipes to X try” (Mag9)
Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE
4. Body Shaming Euphemisms
Considering that euphemisms are used for taboo or sensitive subjects, a language of evasion, of hypocrisy, of prudery, and of deceit (Holder 2002), it is the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant. Do the examples below substitute the terms “fat”, “lose fat”, “fat loss”? Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it belongs with.
Extracts Yes No “Use the right weight loss plan” (Mag9) X “Shape-up secrets to get you back on track and keep you injury- X free” (Mag23) UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE “Eat more weigh less: save pesos, lose pounds with these food X swaps.” (Mag23) “Boost your productivity: Weigh less, save more, sleep soundly, eat X healthily” (Mag27) “Burn calories and score a well-toned body” (Mag-38) X “Tone trouble spots” (Mag15) X “Sculpt hot curves” (Mag15) X “Lose the bulge for good” (Mag7) X “Burn more calories” (Mag6) X “Stress less, weigh less” (Mag31) X
Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE
5. “Real Women” and “Weight-loss” Connotation
Do you think that these instances show partiality on the idea of being a “real woman”? Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it belongs with.
Extracts Yes No “Weight-loss secrets of real women” (Mag4) X “Get inspired: Real women and their weight-loss secrets” X (Mag17), (Mag34) “Pounds off! Success tips from real women” (Mag39) X “25 Beauty must-haves tried and tested by real women” X (Mag9)
Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE
6. Assertive Speech Acts
Based on Searle’s (1969) assertive speech acts schemes, assuring also deals with the removal of worry from the mind of the audience (as cited in Wierzbika, 1999) such that assuring means showing someone of the truth and accuracy of something (Austin, 1971). Do the examples show assuring and suggesting?
Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it belongs with.
Extracts Assuring Suggesting “The key to weight-loss that lasts” (Mag15) x “2-in-1 moves for firm arms, flat abs, and a tight x butt.” (Mag9) “The body you want in three weeks flat” (Mag10) x “Diet and exercise pointers that really works” x UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE (Mag11) “The health check-up you really need” (Mag8) x “Health check: The surprising pleasure zone you must x know well” (Mag13) “Strip away pounds in four weeks” (Mag-4) x “The best calorie-torching, body-sculpting, health- X boosting tips to try now” (Mag28) “Top 5 reasons to stay fit” (Mag26) X “10 moves to flatten your abs fast” (Mag33) x “Hot body shortcuts” (Mag32) x “Tricks to drop pounds and tone muscles faster” X (Mag36) “21 super foods for weight-loss issue” (Mag1) X
Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE
7. Directive Speech Acts
Searle (1969) explains that the point of directives is to make the addressee perform an action through commands, requests, and instructions. Do the examples below observe such kind of speech act? Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it belongs with.
Extracts Commands Instructions “Eat, drink, and still shrink” (Mag2, Mag-9) x “Get slim and stay that way” (Mag16) X “Slim down for good” (Mag32) X “Run faster and get firmer too” (Mag40) X “Take charge of your health” (Mag22)” X “Wear this, not that!” (Mag19) X “Flatten your belly” (Mag29) X UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE “Flatter your figure” (Mag33) X “Flatter your belly” (Mag22) X “Lose your belly” (Mag36) X “Drop two sizes fast” (Mag39) X “Slim down fast” (Mag2, Mag30) X “Lose weight fast” (Mag11) X “Your fittest body ever” (Mag30) X “Lean and sexy now” (Mag5, Mag19, Mag29) “Eat up and slim down” (Mag27) X “Shrink your belly” (Mag7, Mag13, Mag20, X Mag25)
Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.
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Appendix D
Coder 2 Coding Sheet 1. Overwording
Content Words Frequency 50-40 40-30 30-20 20-15 15-5 0 Health 53 Women 41 Sex 28 Sexy 27 Slim 19 weight-loss/ lose 25 weight/ weigh less Fit 18 Healthy 13 Beauty 13 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE real women 5
2. The lexeme “sexy”
What connotation does the word “sexy” show in the extracts? Kindly put a legend as to what column it belongs with.
Extracts Favorable Unfavorable “Lean, sexy, confident” (Mag13) X “Strong, sexy, slim” (Mag18) X “Healthy, sexy breasts” (Mag3) X “New shortcuts to a slim, sexy body” (Mag15) X “Fast-track to a lean body and a sexy belly” (Mag-34) X “Sculpt sexy legs and a tight butt.” (Mag-24) X “Lean, sexy legs” (Mag-14) X “Slim, calm, and sexy yoga” (Mag-7) X “Sexy ways to dress-up for your workout” (Mag-12) X “Sexy swimsuits for every body type” (Mag 10) X “25+ crazy, sexy, summer ideas to keep cool” (Mag- X 33)
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE
Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.
3. “Fat” Body Connotation
What connotation does the word “sexy” show in the extracts? Kindly put a legend as to what column it belongs with.
Extracts Favorable Unfavorable “Eat out and still lose weight: Avoid holiday fat X traps” (Mag1) “Burn more fat” (Mag8) X “Eat up and slim down: fat burning meals, low-cal X cocktails” (Mag14) “Healthy in a hurry: fast, tasty, low-fat recipes to X try” (Mag9)
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.
4. Body Shaming Euphemisms
Considering that euphemisms are used for taboo or sensitive subjects, a language of evasion, of hypocrisy, of prudery, and of deceit (Holder 2002), it is the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant. Do the examples below substitute the terms “fat”, “lose fat”, “fat loss”? Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it belongs with.
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE
Extracts Yes No “Use the right weight loss plan” (Mag9) X “Shape-up secrets to get you back on track and keep you injury- X free” (Mag23) “Eat more weigh less: save pesos, lose pounds with these food X swaps.” (Mag23) “Boost your productivity: Weigh less, save more, sleep soundly, eat X healthily” (Mag27) “Stop yo-yo dieting for good: yummy, healthy, low-calorie, X breakfasts.” (Mag27) “Burn calories and score a well-toned body” (Mag-38) X “Tone trouble spots” (Mag15) X “Sculpt hot curves” (Mag15) X “Lose the bulge for good” (Mag7) X “Burn more calories” (Mag6) X “Stress less, weigh less” (Mag31) X
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.
5. “Real Women” and “Weight-loss” Connotation
Do you think that these instances show partiality on the idea of being a “real woman”? Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it belongs with.
Extracts Yes No “Weight-loss secrets of real women” (Mag4) X “Get inspired: Real women and their weight-loss secrets” X (Mag17), (Mag34) “Pounds off! Success tips from real women” (Mag39) X “25 Beauty must-haves tried and tested by real women” X (Mag9)
Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE
6. Assertive Speech Acts
Based on Searle’s (1969) assertive speech acts schemes, assuring also deals with the removal of worry from the mind of the audience (as cited in Wierzbika, 1999) such that assuring means showing someone of the truth and accuracy of something (Austin, 1971). Do the examples show assuring and suggesting?
Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it belongs with.
Extracts Assuring Suggesting “The key to weight-loss that lasts” (Mag15) X “2-in-1 moves for firm arms, flat abs, and a tight X butt.” (Mag9) “The body you want in three weeks flat” (Mag10) X “Diet and exercise pointers that really works” X UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE (Mag11) “The health check-up you really need” (Mag8) X “Health check: The surprising pleasure zone you must X know well” (Mag-13) “Strip away pounds in four weeks” (Mag-4) X “The best calorie-torching, body-sculpting, health- X boosting tips to try now” (Mag-28) “Top 5 reasons to stay fit” (Mag-26) X “10 moves to flatten your abs fast” (Mag-33) X “Hot body shortcuts” (Mag-32) X “Tricks to drop pounds and tone muscles faster” X (Mag-36) “21 super foods for weight-loss issue” (Mag-1) X
Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE
7. Directive Speech Acts
Searle (1969) explains that the point of directives is to make the addressee perform an action through commands, requests, and instructions. Do the examples below observe such kind of speech act? Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it belongs with.
Extracts Commands Instructions “Eat, drink, and still shrink” (Mag2, Mag-9) X “Get slim and stay that way” (Mag16) X “Slim down for good” (Mag32) X “Run faster and get firmer too” (Mag40) X “Take charge of your health” (Mag22)” X “Wear this, not that!” (Mag19) X “Flatten your belly” (Mag29) X UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL PAGE “Flatter your figure” (Mag33) X “Flatter your belly” (Mag22) X “Lose your belly” (Mag36) X “Drop two sizes fast” (Mag39) X “Slim down fast” (Mag2, Mag30) X “Lose weight fast” (Mag11) X “Your fittest body ever” (Mag30) X “Lean and sexy now” (Mag5, Mag19, X Mag29) “Eat up and slim down” (Mag27) X “Shrink your belly” (Mag7, Mag13, Mag20, X Mag25)