Date of Award

2010

Thesis Type

Masters

Document Type

Dissertation

Divisions

Faculty of Languages and Linguistics

Department

Department of English Language

Institution

Universiti Malaya

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate i) what are the words used to describe the non-ideal female body and the ideal female body, ii) what are the qualities and values associated with the ideal female body; iii) How does the social practice and discursive practice influence text production and interpretation. The data for this study consists of 132 print advertisements that featured services offered by slimming centres obtained from The Star and The Sun newspapers. Fairclough’s (1995a) three dimensional framework was adopted to analyze the data for this study because this framework enables the researcher to examine the relationships between three facets of a particular communication event i.e. discourse as texts, discourse as a discursive practice and discourse as a social practice. The analysis concentrates on linguistic features at the level of text. In order to unearth the opaque ideology on female ideal body image in the print media in Malaysia, the researcher examined the various lexicalization strategies employed by the promotional texts. Findings from the analysis show that promotional texts rely heavily on negative lexicalization, negative labeling, positive lexicalization and positive association to construct the non-ideal and the ideal body image for Malaysian women. Negative lexicalization is more widely employed by the advertisers compared to positive lexicalization. The print advertisements examined promote and endorse the ‘slim’ body shape as the ideal body image for women. The frequency count shows that the body parts that are given the most attention by the promotional texts are the thighs, waist, hips, arms and tummy. The promotional texts also use positive association to attach certain qualities and values to the ideal female form. The positive associations found in the promotional texts with regards to the ideal female body are self-esteem, confidence, beauty, sex appeal; success, achievement; health; happiness; sense of pride; peace of mind and object of desire. Majority of the studies on media portrayal of the female body image focuses on the visual images that appear in the advertisements without paying adequate attention to the lexical items. This study is significant because it discussed how the social practice (i.e. patriarchal culture) in Malaysia has to a certain extent shaped the beauty ideology and belief system of the Malaysian women. The researcher also discussed how the internalization of the constructed beauty ideal in the culture that celebrates thinness has resulted in the production of promotional texts that advocate the thin ideal. Likewise, readers of the print advertisements are also not able to easily recognize the ideology of the thin ideal in the promotional texts due to the strong influence by the social practice in this society. The ideal body image for women is therefore a social construction by the authority in power. It is hoped that this study in a way has achieved its aim to create awareness among Malaysian women to recognize that the media portrayal of the slim ideal is merely a construct. Due to the absence of other triangulation methods such as interview and questionnaire, the data analysis of this research may contain some potential biasness. Another limitation of this study is that it does not analyze audience reception of the print advertisements. Therefore, the researcher is not able to say with certainty that the audience will interpret the promotional texts as stated in the analysis chapter.

Initial

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Additional Information

Dissertation (M.A.) – Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya, 2010.

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