Crystal clear
Paler skin equals beauty – a multimodal analysis of Asiana magazine
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12713601 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Linda Mcloughlin (Liverpool Hope University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 15-29 |
| Publication date | 2013-02-11 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | South Asian Popular Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1474-6689 • E-ISSN: 1474-6697 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14746689.2013.764639 |
| OpenAlex | W1982217724 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 15 |
This paper examines the multimodal representations of beauty in Asiana, a contemporary magazine aimed at British Asian women. Through a methodological integration of social semiotics and critical discourse analysis, it argues that the magazine promulgates a universal aesthetic of female beauty which is persistently white, western and wealthy; a standard imbued with corresponding ideals regarding femininity and female sexuality. The analysis will focus on the constitution of the consuming subject through the beauty/lifestyle features and skin care/fashion advertisements to illustrate the ways in which whiteness is promoted as a commodity in the global marketplace. Underlying tensions are inherent in the juxtaposition of Western and traditional images and values which offer this ‘new’ community a commodified and hybridized subject position. As a useful complement to the substantive analysis, a small-scale focus group discussion was carried out to ascertain the subject positions taken up by the target audience. Despite a discursive, nationalistic discourse which promotes Asian cultural superiority, the article concludes that the association of pale skin with success and the alignment of material commodities with progress results in Western forms of expression having an advantage over indigenous ones
Aesthetics · Art · Beauty · Commodification · Constitution · Critical discourse analysis · Femininity · Focus (optics · Ideology · Indigenous · Linguistics · Political science · Politics · Semiotics · Sociology · Subject (documents · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Gender Studies · Law · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Philosophy
Discourse and social change
Gender Advertisements
Langage et pouvoir symbolique
The Nationalization of the Global Indian Woman
Ash‐coloured whiteness
Thin White Women in Advertising
The Fact of Blackness? The Bleached Body in Contemporary Jamaica
Race, place and bodily difference in early nineteenth-century India
White but Not Quite
Yearning for Lightness
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,43 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2026 (8) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |