Essay Sample on Women's Health South Africa

Introduction

Most magazine covers are used to advertise the content of the magazine and usually informs the reader of what to expect. Magazines achieve this through the utilization of cover lines that reflect its content. The cover lines are strategically positioned while both the written and visual modes are used to encourage and persuade the readers. In the article, Women's Health South Africa, January/February 2012, women are encouraged to change their physical appearance by losing weight to be happier. For this reason, this paper seeks to explore how and why women are represented in this way and the social significance of this representation.

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Magazine covers usually reflect both the cultural constructs and cultural values that shape all the different cultures across the world. This construction is demonstrated by the article Women's Health South Africa, January/February 2012. This magazine serves to encourage the South African Women to purchase the magazine. This magazine attempts to persuade women to lose weight to be happy in a culture setting that has defined standards of physical beauty. By doing this, it successfully manipulates the emotions of these women demonstrating the capitalist economic context in this culture. The timing of the magazine is also very crucial as it is written at a time of the year when most women make losing weight one of their New Year resolutions.

One of how the audience of the magazine is persuaded to change is through the social context, leaving dialogue spaces for these women to fill. The underlying presumption in this magazine is that women need to be thinner to achieve happiness. In this assumption the comes to the question of whether becoming thinner is a path for you to find happiness and this arouses curiosity creating dialogue. Nonetheless, this question is rhetorical and already leaves the reader to fill the dialogic space suggesting that the answer is yes. This makes the readers commit to buying the magazine.

Moreover, the contrast between the magazine's suggestion of most women being skinny and most women in real life not being skinny can transform societal attitudes and behaviors. Another assumption, in this case, is that all women have the desire to be beautiful and happy. While the text does not explicitly allude that changing appearance will make women happy, it mainly relies on the cover lines used to encourage the audience that beauty will make women happy.

The written modes and praghosemantic effects are also used to persuade women into changing the physical appearance. The main cover line is in bold, black font which establishes a high modal authority to encourage women to drop two sizes! Most English reading audiences will be attracted to the top left-hand corner and becomes the first thing they read due to the size of the text. The round letters in the words 'drop' and 'two' imply round stomachs while the curved letters in the word 'sizes' imply an ideal body that is sleek. Furthermore, the reader is commanded to follow the order by the imperative form of the word 'drop' with an exclamation mark at the end which suggests a sense of urgency.

Another way that the magazine encourages readers to change their appearance is through the representation and subjective commentary of Zoe Saldana. The cover model has been edited to appear slimmer despite being described as 'totally uncensored.' This alteration or technological manipulation is a typical convention of magazine covers use to develop a synthetic personalization between the reader and the creators of the magazine. Very few women will achieve the body displayed on the magazine cover, but still encourages women to pursue improvements that they could make. The captions 'strong' and 'sexy' utilizes strident to create gruff but smooth sounds, implying a type of a person that the audience should emulate.

Moreover, the verbs used to promote the model rather than diminish her. The image on the cover occupies much of the space, and her posture opens her body, indicating self-confidence. The attire worn by the model is casual and is used to reflect the true 'real' woman. The readers are encouraged by the carefree and beautiful representation of a sleek woman that by changing their physical appearance, they will be happy and live better lives.

Therefore, women are represented as a desperate group of people who must change to be happy. This representation is achieved through the interpretation of the textual and visual mode. Women are represented in this manner due to the existing societal and cultural assumptions. The magazine portrays women in a manner that appeals to women who are the primary readers of the magazines, while at the same time recommending that they change their appearance to be happier. This magazine can be seen as a cultural artifact that both constructs and reflect societal values. Consumerism in the contemporary world dictates that the audience's insecurities should be manipulated to achieve more sales and improve business. What this magazine attempts to demonstrate is that happiness and looking better are synonymous and that women must change to achieve it.

Works Cited

"Buy January-February 2012 - Women's Health South Africa." Digital Magazine Subscriptions. Over 6,000 Publications, 20 Dec. 2011, www.zinio.com/za/women-s-health-south-africa/january-february-2012-i173581.