Paper: Housewives to Global Women: Bangalore Magazines for Empowerment
Abstract
The article argues that women’s magazines in Bangalore envisage a site where
female archetypes are formed and dissolved. The research engages with a new
angle, combining audience reception theory as propounded by Stuart Hall with a textual
analysis of feminine magazines. Magazine reading has emerged as a social
practice and the responses of the readers collected through qualitative
questionnaire survey (in the form of in-depth interviews) establish the
eminence of this media utility.
With
the emerging of the ‘New’ woman in the global world, the taste and inclination
of women have shifted to more “worldly” contours of business, economic affairs,
and leadership stories. To accommodate these changing interests that are
rapidly evolving into passions, the magazines have expanded their horizons
beyond the clichés of a “girlie magazine”. The research explores how these
magazines form the social construction of “womanhood” and how the audience
either resist or reinforce these constructions through everyday process.
The
research also reflects on how the publishing industry plays a major role in
determining the general trend of entertainment for women, pointing out the
differences in the reception of these magazines among different focus groups.
The research affirms that these magazines are evolving to become an educative
platform for the global woman while empowering her with new and liberating
ideas, avenues and models.
Ragesree
Roy is pursuing MA English from Christ
University. She has interned with Times of India and Deccan Chronicle-Asian
Age. Her flash fiction story was published in the 2014 Spring Issue of Haunted
Waters Press, Washington DC. She has participated at the GOI Peace Foundation, in collaboration
with UNESCO, 2014 and at the ASISC International
Competition held at De Paul’s
International Residential School, Mysore.
She has volunteered with NGOs like Teach for India, Child Rights and You (CRY),
GreenPeace, and Sanbedan
Voice of World.
