Disempowerment through friendly advice: A perspective on how women’s magazines address issues of violence and ill treatment against women

Abstract

Women’s magazines have always been perceived as an intimate part of the women’s world and have inhabited a unique place in journalism. Despite the notoriety they may have gained on account of being an essentially ‘popular’ medium, I believe that these magazines are a form of art which has sprung from and been influenced by our culture, and therefore would reveal many things about our contemporary culture’s attitudes about women. My study would be based on a number of issues of popular women’s magazines in Sri Lanka from January to June 2009. In this paper I would be focusing on how incidents of offences against women and ill treatment of women are brought in to the notice of women through this genre of magazine, with a view towards examining the psychological impact on women it would create. I would be imposing a feminist reading upon the way these articles would affect women psychologically, and would also be looking at cultural values relating to women that they reflect. I would be arguing that the particular way in which these incidents are related would have a negative impact upon women’s self-confidence and on the way they perceive themselves. In my opinion, the paper would form links to three distinct disciplines in research, popular literature, psychology and feminist theory.