Ways of seeing Malaysian women: sketches of women in magazines in the global age

In Malaysia, sporadic efforts have been made to improve the status of women - perhaps through international pressure from the UN. However, despite the many facelifts in the national machinery in an effort to incorporate women in development and improve women\u27s lot, it is clear that efforts and policies are still very much circumscribed within the patriarchal ideology. Writers have pointed out that mass communication networks have done much both to frustrate and to advance women\u27s efforts and feminist objectives (Rhode 1997:8). It is with this purpose in mind that this paper will explore how women are constructed in local women\u27s magazines in this age of globalisation where successful formats have been adapted to boost sales. In theses adaptations, it will be examined as to whether local women\u27s magazines provide new ways of seeing and thinking about women and the kind of lifestyle and gender roles these magazines propose to its readers. This paper will also examine whether the messages in the magazines are circumscribed within patriarchal ideology or have successfully shed and rejected the traditional models of what constitute women that would inform and empower them