ABSTRACT

 

Title: ‘The New Indian Woman: Changing constructions of gender in South Asian Women’s Magazines'

   By Dr. Linda McLoughlin

 

This talk presents a study of South Asian Women’s magazines sold in the UK and South Asia. It aims to explore the subject positions on offer both for readers and the text producers themselves in order to understand how tensions between tradition and modernity, East and West are negotiated and how this connects with larger discourses surrounding gender and sexual politics. Transformations in the production, advertising and marketing practices, driven by political and economic shifts, has led to an increased focus on consumer lifestyles. South Asian Women’s lifestyle magazines at first sight appear to be modelled on iconic Western glossy magazines such as Cosmopolitan which sells to its readers ‘independence, power and fun’. However, in the diasporic setting, the UK, the analysis will show that magazines are carefully and deliberately crafted to evoke nostalgic notions of ‘untarnished’ and ‘pure’ Indian women. In relation to English Language women’s lifestyle magazines in India, there is tension in the figure of ‘The New Indian Woman’ who embodies both the traditional and modern cultural identity.