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Discursive families: a comparison of magazine advertising in two countries
Type
fundamental research project
Start Date
01 January 2011
End Date
01 January 2012
Status
completed
Keywords
Family
popular culture
media
advertising
Description
The Discursive Families Network research project fostered links between researchers interested in narratives around the family and representations of family life in popular culture. It originates from Leverhulme Network project F/00158/CS and seeks to disseminate some of the findings from this network and to encourage researchers working in this area to connect with each other.
The Discursive Families Network project is a collaboration between The University of Edinburgh (David Marshall), University of Lancaster (Margaret Hogg), University of Oxford (Tanja Schneider), University of Sydney (Teresa Davis) and University of Monash (Alan Petersen).
The Discursive Families Network project is a collaboration between The University of Edinburgh (David Marshall), University of Lancaster (Margaret Hogg), University of Oxford (Tanja Schneider), University of Sydney (Teresa Davis) and University of Monash (Alan Petersen).
Leader contributor(s)
Marshall, David
Member contributor(s)
Funder(s)
Topic(s)
Family
popular culture
media
advertising
Method(s)
(Visual) discourse analysis
archival research
Range
HSG Internal
Range (De)
HSG Intern
Principal
The Leverhulme Trust: International Network Grant
Division(s)
Eprints ID
245175
Reference Number
F/00158/CS
3 results
Now showing
1 - 3 of 3
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PublicationType: conference paper
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PublicationThe knowing mother: Maternal knowledge and the reinforcement of the feminine consuming subject in magazine advertisements( 2019-12-02)
;Davis, Teresa ;Hogg, Margaret ;Marshall, DavidPetersen, AlanThe caring mother is one of the most recurring images of femininity in post-war advertising. We examine how mothers are depicted as knowing consumers in advertisements in Australian Women’s Weekly and the United Kingdom’s Good Housekeeping magazines between 1950 and 2010. Our data suggest that although visual representations of maternal consumer knowledge change over this period, assumptions about the responsibilities of mothers endure in the family-related advertisements in these women’s magazines. There is a shift over time, however, from a representation of mothers as passive recipients of advice provided by external experts to a more active representation of mothers as experts themselves within both domestic and private spheres. We trace historically how the trope of the knowing mother works as a visual discursive device that helps to reinforce not just patriarchal hegemony, but a particular form of maternal hegemony. The hegemony of motherhood presents a particularly desirable/idealised femininity. However, this visual depiction also serves to gender the very way in which maternal knowledge is to be used. While maternal knowledge is depicted as changing from being merely intuitive or practical to subsuming the technique of knowledge or prescribed expertise; the purposes for which such knowledge is used remain firmly situated within the maternal/feminine realm of nurtur- ing and caring consumption for the family. Despite shifts in discourse that appear to increasingly value mothers’ knowledge—there exists an enduring assumption that mothers should use their knowledge for domestic caring and consumption, ultimately reinforcing a heteronormativity of the use of women’s knowledge that subdues even expert knowledge for a domestic purpose.Type: journal articleJournal: Journal of Consumer CultureVolume: published online first -
PublicationFamilies and Food: Marketing, Consuming and Managing (Guest editorial)( 2018)
;Davis, Teresa ;Hogg, Margaret ;Marshall, David ;Petersen, AlanType: journal articleJournal: European Journal of MarketingVolume: 52Issue: 12