Piggare, gladare och friskare: en studie om representationer av kvinnor i hälsotidningar

The purpose of this study was to examine representations of women in Swedish health magazines. Critical discourse analysis was used as method to answer my research questions. The analysis was built on three dimensions; linguistic text analysis, discourse practice and social practice. Articles in three Swedish health magazines for women were analysed and the results were then divided into themes. These four themes were: the changing and optimizing woman, the consuming middle-class woman, the conscious woman and the white woman. I have presented my results in relation to chosen theories about intersectionality, health, bodies, consumtion and life style. The result showed that the magazines portayed mainly white, slim, middle-class women and these women were also the magazines target group. The magazines contribute to reproducing the body ideal and health ideal that exists in the western community. They also reproduce whiteness as a norm through only displaying white women. Furthermore the result showed that the three magazines all encourage consumtion through use of specific words connected to pictures. A certain type of life style is also being portrayed and encouraged in the magazines. The magazines indirectly tell women that they are not good enough the way they are by telling them that they should be happier, exercise more, become healthier, become more alert and look better