UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS

Body shaming ideologies in Women’s Health magazine covers in the

Philippines

A Paper
presented to the
Faculty of Arts and Letters
University of Santo Tomas

In partial fulfillment
of the requirements for degree
Bachelor of Arts and Letters in English Language Studies

By
Francis Beatta M. Ramirez
beatta_ramirez@yahoo.com
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables vii

List of Figure xi
List of Appendices xii
Acknowledgments xiii
Abstract xv

Chapter 1: Introduction 1

1.1 Research Objectives 8

1.2 Theoretical Framework 8

1.3 Conceptual Framework 12

Chapter 2: Method 16

2.1 Research Design 16

2.2 Research Corpus 16

2.3 Data Analysis 17

2.4 Intercoding 18

2.5 Research Procedure 19

Chapter 3: Findings 21

3.1 Overwording 22

3.2 Lexical Choice and Semantic Prosody 25

3.2.1 The Lexeme “sexy” 25

3.2.2 “Fat” Body Connotation 28

3.3 Body Shaming Euphemisms 30

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

3.4 “Real Women” and “Weight loss” Connotation 33

3.5 Building Relations: Synthetic Personalization 34

3.6 Ideal Body Type Defined 36

3.6.1 Assertive Speech Acts 37

3.6.2 Directive Speech Acts 39

3.7 Personality of the Magazine Covers 43

3.7.1 Placement of Images 44

3.7.2 Image Act, Gaze, Gestures 45

3.8 Women’s Health: The Brand 46

3.8.1 Confidence in sexy, slim, fit body type 49

3.8.2 Sexy and Slim Culture 52

4.0 Intercoding 54

4.1 Ovewording 55

4.2 The Lexeme “sexy” 55

4.3 “Fat” body Connotation 56

4.4 Body Shaming Euphemism 57

4.5 “Real Women” and “Weight loss” Connotations 58

4.6 Assertive Speech Acts 59

4.7 Directive Speech Acts 60

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

Chapter 4: Conclusion 61

4.1 Implications 62

4.2 Recommendations 63

References 64

Appendices 69
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE vii

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Frequency of overwording 23

Table 2: Frequency of overwording 54

Table 3: Connotations of sexy 55

Table 4: Connotations of fat 56

Table 5: Body Shaming euphemisms 57

Table 6: “Real Women” and “Weight loss” connotation 58

Table 7: Assertive Speech Acts 59

Table 8: Directive Speech Acts 60

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE xi

LIST OF FIGURE

Figure 1: A Schematic diagram of the Conceptual Framework of the

Study as Adopted from Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (1996) 13
incorporating Searle’s (1969) Speech Act Theory and Cook’s (2001) model
in language and advertising
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE xii

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix A: Sample Coding Sheets 69

Appendix B: Women’s Health Magazine covers (research corpus) 75

Appendix C: Coder 1 Coding Sheet 81

Appendix D: Coder 2 Coding Sheet 85

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE xiii

Acknowledgments

The writer is sincerely grateful to the following for their invaluable

contribution and very kind assistance:

The University of Santo Tomas – Faculty of Arts and Letters for being the
home of the researcher for the past four years and instilling Christian values and
virtues;
Dr. Alejandro Bernardo for being a diligent ELS Thesis Coordinator;
The researcher’s thesis adviser, Ms. Josephine B. Alarcon, her
immeasurable support, unwavering patience and understanding, commendable
knowledge, and for providing the researcher with all the necessary factors to
successfully finish this paper;
The researcher’s fellow thesis advisee, Laiza Ysabelle Rodriguez, for being
the best buddy in every thesis undertakings and struggles, through the library-
searching adventures just to have enough sources and references and unending
chat and encouragement just to overcome each other’s anxiety.
The researcher’s interraters, Ayn Bernos and Chia Castro, for imparting
their commendable knowledge to validate the research findings;
The researcher’s forever Best friends (Som, Chi, Dan, Cam, Justin, Ika, Ina,
Angge, Ven, Joma) for keeping the researcher ecstatic while writing the paper
through late night chats, corny jokes and stories, and witty debates about
presidentiables and politics;
The researcher’s College friends (Pearl, Lae, Abi, Patti, Cath) for keeping
the thesis writing more fun through unforgettable sleepovers and food
adventures;
The researcher’s friends (Amos, Chelsea, Marion, Aaron) for patiently
listening to the researcher’s sentiments, for tagging anything about body
shaming issues, and for supporting whatever the researcher’s decisions are;
The researcher’s family (Mama, Papa, Mico, Igui) for being best of the
best support system, motivation, inspiration and for giving care and love to the
researcher while writing the paper;
Most importantly, the Lord Almighty, for His unending grace and spiritual
guidance in everyday undertaking.
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE xv

Body Shaming Ideologies in Women’s Health magazine covers

in the Philippines

Francis Beatta M. Ramirez

Abstract

Advertising is the most influential institution of socialization in modern society

such that it has brought into perspectives on how people who are in control of
business in advertising manage to exercise their power and manipulate certain
beliefs. These instances opened an area of studies on language and power and
ideologies. Thus, this study is focused on body shaming ideologies and
controversies observed in Women’s Health magazine covers in the Philippines
through Fairclough’s (1996) Critical Discourse Analysis framework and Searle’s
(1962) Speech Act Theory for an intertextual and interdiscursive analysis of texts
and events, and Cook’s (2001) Language and Advertising model for the analysis
of visual texts that includes discourse strategies present in magazine covers. The
synthesis of these theories allows a comprehensive and a qualitative analysis of
all linguistic, visual, textual, and social factors to the depiction of body shaming
ideologies in the magazine covers. The use of overwording, lexical choice and
semantic prosody, synthetic personalization, directive and assertive speech acts,
image act, gaze, gestures, and facial expression in the magazine covers greatly
show the unfavorable and biased portrayal of “fat body” and partiality and
confidence for “sexy”, “slim”, “flat” body type, inducing body shaming
ideologies. Hence, this paper contributes to the growing literature on body
shaming ideologies and raises awareness to the Filipino community on how body
shaming is presented in magazines exercising the power of advertising to
manipulate women’s cultural beliefs.

Keywords: Critical discourse analysis, body shaming ideology, beauty

ideology, magazine advertising, speech acts
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

1. Introduction

Advertisements are skillful and amusing in promoting various products

across a variety of categories. Cook (2001) explains that advertising is a topic

which both causes and reveals existing social divisions due to the growing

effectiveness of its persuasion techniques. It has elevated beyond the use of

basic techniques in promoting products and services such that it has entrenched

into social discourse and permeated the cultural landscape of the people by

virtue of its widespread diffusion throughout the society. Intense large-scale

advertising has a history now. Since people grow up with it and grow used to it, it

is perceived as evil and ambiguous, and it is also seen as inevitable and

remarkable. Thus, in its strongest form, it can be argued that a growth economy,

social exploitation and inequality, violence and destructions are all inextricably

linked to each other, and that advertising is both an expression of this

apocalyptic unity and dependent upon it (Cook, 2001).

In recent years, a number of studies have been conducted as to language

and power, body image, and body shaming controversies and ideologies. The

expanding awareness of body image and body type has become the main

elements of research especially in discourse advertising. Andrew (2012) even

argues that body shaming issues are growing; hence most women are being
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

deprived of their body type and image based on how social media portrays the

ideal and perfect body of women.

Body shaming happens when someone is made to feel shame for his/her

body image and/or body size. Usually, this incident is associated with being

overweight or not, being pretty and handsome enough versus the ideal image of

a certain individual that has been set and portrayed by the social media.

However, psychologists explain that body shaming is not a one-sided issue;

rather it includes being made to feel shame for being too skinny. But

predominantly, being overweight has a greater impact when it comes to this

issue since a large number of women often do self-starvation to lose weight and

to achieve their ideal body type leading them to be bulimic and anorexic.

Due to this, the growing number of self-starvation is uncontrollable

among women; such that self-starvation to slenderness and its hypothesized

relation to the media image, suggests food use/abuse is just a range of

technologies working on women’s bodies to alter shape, weight, and attributes.

Hence, blaming the media for reproducing and extolling representations of

unrealistic female bodies that encourage young women to starve themselves has

almost become a popular truism (Wykes & Gunter, 2005).

It can be observed that magazines have been a way to disseminate such

ideas since this medium is efficient and accessible enough in influencing people’s
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

lifestyle. There are certain kinds of magazines based on what they are trying to

campaign. One of these magazines is health and lifestyle magazines that

obviously aim to promote healthy living among people since the primary concern

of the majority at the moment is to be physically fit; by eating such food that is

less fatty and less in calorie content and exercising. Mckay’s (2013) study on

Female Self-Objectification: Causes, consequences, and prevention reveals that

women are more self-conscious as to what they wear and how they look. Hence,

many advertisements especially in magazines advertise beauty products

influencing women and beauty and have become an absolute religious

imperative for women and subsequently pressuring them to do their best to hold

their beauty (Baudrillard, 2005). Thus, certain magazine advertisements

incorporate the idea of women being self and beauty conscious making them as

the target audience of most magazines.

Magazines, therefore, are more focused on body features and

appearances on how to look good and act glamorously rather than just accepting

their body image and natural beauty at the same time. Since Eldaly (2011) claims

that advertising is referred to as form of discourse in the sense that it has

influenced not only the structure of language and the modality of lifestyle, but

also the content daily acts of communicative exchanges. Due to the unique and

diverse components of advertisements, it is inevitable that it provokes

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

underlying issues and controversies since advertisements express opinions of a

certain individual (Cook, 2001). Hence, advertisers use visual and linguistics

means to persuade their audience that help to create awareness, identities, and

attitude. And, a crucial point is that assumptions embedded in the forms of

language that are used are said to be ideologies (Fairclough, 1996).

Fairclough (1996) explains that ideologies are closely linked to language

and power considering that language is the most usual form of social behavior

and has become perhaps the primary medium of social control and power. In

examining these ideologies, Critical Discourse Analaysis (CDA) by Fairclough

(1996) is probably the best framework to examine certain ideologies since its

central idea is to show the link between the nature of social practice and the

properties of language “texts”. Hence, ideologies can be strongly recognized in

discourse advertising given that ideologies are pervasively present in language

(Bloom, 1996).

Different cases upon showing these certain products and processes have

set an ideal and perfect beauty and body type that touch the idea of health,

beauty, body shaming issues and ideologies present in magazines as a great

influencer of the majority. Due to these cases, a number of studies is now

frequent regarding this controversial issue especially on magazine

advertisements. Garner and Adams (1998) researched how sexual etiquette was
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

being developed in advice columns in magazines popular among teenage

women. It appears that the rhetoric of sexual etiquette encourages young

women to be sex objects and teachers for interpersonal communication rather

than lovers, friends, and partners; and young women are being taught to

subordinate self for others and to be contained.

Tianen (2009) examined Women’s representation on Cosmopolitan

magazine advertisements through investigating and comparing the way the

magazine’s articles depict women to the image Cosmopolitan publicly declares

to convey of the female sex. The findings reveal that the femininity advocated in

the magazine is actually not even depicted that desirable in the end. Also, the

model women are expected to take as an ideal is not being depicted very

respectfully, thus indicating that women ought to idolize passivity and find

comments usually considered as derogatory flattering. She found that women

are also expected to be insecure because of their inability to reach this

objectified position.

In most of the related literature discussed, magazines play a significant

role in the portrayal of women and imply instances like objectification of women

in the society instead of empowering them. Morno and Huon (2009) delves into

the effects of media-portrayed idealized images in local magazines on young

women’s body shame and appearance anxiety to establish whether the effects
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

depend on advertisement type and on participant self-objectification through a

mixed method approach. The study showed that appearance anxiety increased

after viewing the advertisements featuring idealized images. There was also a

significant interaction between self-objectification level and idealized body

(presence vs. absence) and no differences emerged for body-related compared

with non–body-related product advertisements. The only result for body shame

was a main effect for time such that participants’ body shame increased after

exposure to idealized images, irrespective of advertisement type.

According to Kaur, Arumugam, and Yunus (2013), advertisers used

various strategies to manipulate women; and that the advertisements promote

an idealized lifestyle and manipulate readers to a certain extent into believing

whatever that is advertised is indeed true. Based on Fairclough’s three

dimensional framework, their study on beauty advertisements in local English

magazines that is mainly focused on the use of language in beauty

advertisements and strategies such as positive and negative adjectives, celebrity

endorsement, scientific evidence/clinical test proof, puffery, irrealisis

representation, and emotive words are employed by advertisers to manipulate

and influence costumers, reveals how the ideology of beauty is constructed and

reconstructed through magazines by stereotyping how beauty products are

synonymous with a better life and advertising language is used to control

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

people’s minds. Thus, people in power (advertisers) use language as a means to

exercise control over others.

On the other hand, Noriega (2012) examined the conflation of health and

beauty in advertising through a critical multimodal discourse analysis of three

television commercials. She mainly focused on how advertising discourse plays a

vital role to shaping body image ideologies by investigating television

commercials that make up connections on health and beauty through the

analysis of both the visual and verbal modes employing Systematic Functional

Linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis, Multimodal Disccourse Analysis, and Inter-

mode Relations. Through the critical multimodal discourse analysis, its findings

highlighted the colonization of advertising non-health related products

dismantling the discourse which represent beauty in an unhealthy manner.

Although television commercials and magazines are worthy of such kind

of researches, it appears that there is a little attention given to body shaming

ideologies in the Philippines specifically in health and lifestyle magazines and

more focused on beauty products.

Body shaming ideologies in Philippine magazines particularly in Health

and Lifestyle magazines are therefore worthy of study since this can be an open

ground to give additional knowledge and raise awareness to the Filipino

community on how body shaming is observed in magazines; exercising the

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

power of advertising to manipulate women’s cultural beliefs given that

advertising is the most influential institution of socialization in modern society

(Jhally, 1995). Based on the foregoing discussion, this paper sought to offer how

body shaming ideologies are being presented in Women’s Health magazine

covers. Specifically, this study addressed the following questions: (1) What are

the discursive techniques/discourse strategies employed in Women’s Health

magazine covers that constitute connections between ideologies of health,

beauty, and body shaming? (2) What do these discourse strategies try to show

with regard to underlying issues on ‘ideal’ body type in the Philippines?; and (3)

How do visual texts in Women’s Health magazine covers promote body

shaming?

1.1 Theoretical Framework

Language is a powerful tool to influence one’s perspectives. Thus,

dominance and power are developed. As Fairclough (1996) puts it, language is

therefore essential enough to merit the attention of the norm; and so certain

ideologies are formed. Body shaming ideologies through texts in magazines are

not given much attention since the social media has already served as a tool to

promote and accept the ideal and perfect images present in such mediums

throughout the years. Through Critical Discourse Analysis framework by

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

Fairclough (1996), Cook’s (2001) language and advertising model, and Searle’s

(1969) Speech Act Theory, body shaming ideologies shall be easier to examine in

this study. This paper therefore addressed the concerns and uncertainties

present in Women’s Health magazine covers that specifically pertain to beauty

and body shaming ideologies.

According to Fairclough’s CDA, the central idea of this framework is

change. Hence, this framework is designed to examine a concrete language that

draws discursive structures as language users build on established specific

meanings (Fairclough, 2001). He focuses on this through the concept of

intertextuality pertaining to the historical view of texts as transforming the past

from the existing conventions or prior text into the present; and interdiscursivity

highlighting the normal heterogeneity of texts in being constituted by

combinations of diverse genres and discourses through the visual, verbal, and

linguistic means. Discourses, on the other hand, are standard tools to represent

certain objects and incidents; they are inevitable sources and carriers of

ideologies (Tianen, 2009). Fairclough (1996) adds that CDA brings the critical

tradition in social analysis which contributes to such studies that focus on

discourse, and on relations between discourse and other social elements. Wodak

(2002) supports this claim by elaborating its main perspectives in relation to the

notion of ‘power’ in which texts have discursive differences and therefore

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

negotiated such that texts are governed in power which is in part encoded in and

determined by discourse and genre. Fairclough (2001) even emphasizes the

significance of the relationship between texts, processes, and social conditions;

such that both of them are immediate conditions of the situational context and

the remote conditions of social structures (as cited in Bernos, 2015). Thus, texts

are often tools and/or sites of struggle such that show patterns of differing

discourses and ideologies all contending for dominance.

There are three dimensions and stages in CDA namely: description,

interpretation, and explanation (Fairclough, 1996). Linguistic properties of texts

are described (text analysis), the relationship between the productive and

interpretative processes of discursive practice and the relationship between the

discursive practice and social practice is explained. Hence, Fairclough (1995)

attempts to establish a systematic method for exploring the relationship

between texts and social context. Meanwhile, a massive number of researches

on body image and beauty are expanding using critical discourse analysis as

pointed out in the previous discussion. Thus, factors such as verbal, textual as

well as visual texts are essential in CDA. Furthermore, he emphasizes the

dramatically increasing social significance of visual imagery in discourse, and the

essential role it plays in the production and interpretation processes of discourse

(Fairclough, 1996 as cited in Bernos, 2015).

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

CDA and Speech Act Theory (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969) seem to be

interrelated when it comes to the main purpose of the theory. As Searle (1969)

puts it, speech acts constitute an initial step in a long and still unfinished

business embracing not only the language but also the realms of mental

consciousness of social and institutional reality, and most recently, of rationality,

the self, and free will. According to Searle (1969), speaking a language is

performing speech acts, acts such as making statements, giving commands,

asking questions or making promises. He states that all linguistic communication

involves linguistic (speech) acts. In other words, speech acts are the basic or

minimal units of linguistic communication (Searle, 1976). They are not mere

artificial linguistic constructs as they may seem, their understanding together

with the acquaintance of context in which they are performed are often

essential for decoding the whole utterance and its proper meaning.

The theory attempts to analyze the facts of the language in which

utterances with referrings and predicatings, and with acts of stating, questioning,

commanding, and promising. Searle (1962) then explains further by the concept

of intentionality in which each speech act can be abstractly distinguished in two

components namely the type of quality of the act (sometimes called illocutionary

force) and the (normally propositional) content of the act.

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

Searle (1969) further categorizes illocutionary forces present in

utterances into assertive acts that claim, assure, suggest, argue, inform, and

swear; directive acts that demand, order, instruct, and require; commissive acts

that promise, consent, and refuse; expressive acts tend to condole, apologize,

congratulate; and declarations.

In line with Fairclough’s (2001) CDA and Searle’s (1969) Speech Act

Theory, Cook’s (2001) concept on discourse advertising presents common beliefs

when it comes to social practice especially in advertisements. It merely includes

verbal and visual texts (color, design, layout, body language, and gestures of the

subject) that make an advertisement be more persuasive enough and at the

same time easier to analyze and distinguish the points of persuasion itself.

1.2 Conceptual Framework

This research study is focused on body shaming ideologies in Women’s

Health magazine covers employing Fairclough’s (2001) CDA as the main

framework for analysis. Since CDA is a transdisciplinary research methodolody, it

can be integrated with various frameworks as well (Chouliaraki and Fairclough,

1999). Thus, Cook’s (2001) model in language and advertising and Searle’s (1969)

Speech Act Theory were also incorporated. The synthesis of these theories and

approaches allowed comprehensive intertextual and interdiscursive analysis of

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

all linguistic, visual, and social factors to the depiction of body shaming

ideologies in magazine covers.

Description Member Resource

(Fairclough 2001)

Interpretation
(Speech
F Act Visual Texts
Theory) (Cook 2001)

Explanation
Recontextualization
(Interaction & (Fairclough, 2001)
Social Context)

Figure 1. A Schematic diagram of the Conceptual Framework of the Study as

Adopted from Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (1996) incorporating
Searle’s (1969) Speech Act Theory and Cook’s (2001) model in language and
advertising

Figure 1 shows the integration of three concepts and theories. CDA has

three main dimensions and stages namely description, interpretation, and

explanation (Fairclough, 1996) and this can be seen on the initial phase of the

framework. Under the description process, it highlights the vocabulary features,

grammar, and textual structures concerning the experiential, relational, and

expressive values of each (Fairclough, 1996). Experiential values deal with the

forms of language code happenings or relationship in the world, the people,

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

animals, or things involved, their spatial and temporal circumstance, and manner

of occurrence through the presence of rewording or overwording defined as

unusually high degree of wording. This may show preoccupation with some

aspect of reality. Relational values focus on how a text’s choice of wordings

depends on, and helps create, social relationships between participants

concerning nominalizations, modalities, and use of personal pronouns we, you,

and yours known as synthetic personalization; and expressive values that give a

clue to how texts relate to the reality it is discussing creating social identities. As

to interpretation, this stage is concerned with the relationship between text,

interaction, and social structures with seeing the text as the product of a process

of production considering the situational context and discourse types

(Fairclough, 1996) in which textual features, speech act values, and meanings are

the highlights of this stage. According to Fairclough (1996), it is essential to

characterize what the text producer is doing by virtue of producing in a way of

making a statement, a promise, threatening, warning, asking questions, giving an

order and so on. Hence, referring to Searle’s (1969) Speech Act Theory that

involve illocutionary forces in an utterance namely assertives (assert, suggest,

inform, argue, predict, insist), directives (direct, order, command, instruct,

entreat), expressives (apologize, thanks, praise), and declaratives (declare). With

regard to explanation, this stage deals with the relationship of the text,
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

interaction, social contexts and processes involving the level of the society as a

whole; its objective is to clearly portray a discourse as part of a social process, as

a social practice, showing how it is determined by social structures, and what

reproductive effects are present in the social structure, by sustaining or changing

them (Fairclough, 1996). Through these phrases, intertextuality (historical view

of texts) and interdiscursivity (combinations of genres and discourses) are

observed considering that these concepts are also the highlight of Fairclough’s

CDA framework.

Cook’s (2001) model in advertising discourse was also adapted in the

second phase. It pertains to the placement of images, the image act, gaze, and

gestures of the main subjects present in the magazine covers.

For the final phase, Fairclough’s (2001) CDA main components, Member’s

Resource and recontextualization are observed. Member Resource (MR) pertains

to the speaker/listener/audience’s knowledge of the language, representation of

ideas inhabiting their social context and/or social practice, assumptions, beliefs,

and certain ideologies that may serve as the “resources” to have enough

interpretations and explanation of the texts. While recontextualization involves

the idea of the MR, the researcher, and the overall intertextual and

interdiscursive analysis of the magazine covers. By combining these concepts

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

and frameworks, the underlying ideologies are easier to determine throughout

the process of the study.

2. Method

2.1 Research Design

A qualitative analysis was used to investigate how the visual, textual, and

overall linguistic elements of the magazine covers constitute connections

between ideologies of beauty and body shaming involving different

discursive/discourse strategies in advertising.

2.2 Research Corpus

Women’s Health Philippines was selected as a corpus because of its

evident popularity when it comes to health and fitness, beauty, and weight loss

tips among women. Forty Women’s Health magazine covers issued from 2011-

2015 were collected for said magazine utilizes a number of popular celebrity

endorsers. Interestingly, Women’s Health is the only magazine in the Philippines

that has a specific section for weight-loss.

2.3 Data Analysis

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

The qualitative analysis of the study is based on the integration of

Fairclough’s (1996) Critical Discourse Analysis, Searle’s (1969) Speech Act Theory,

and Cook’s (2001) model in language and advertising.

Fairclough’s (1996) CDA help to show the link between the nature of

social practice and properties of language “texts” present in the magazine covers

through its three stages namely description, interpretation, and explanation. A

micro level of analysis that includes vocabulary features and grammar

concerning the experiential, relational, and expressive value of each sums up the

description process. Hence, overwordings, lexical choice, semantic prosody,

euphemisms, and synthetic personalizations are observed. Visual images are also

considered in this phase through Cook’s (2001) advertising model that concludes

the placement of the image, image act, gaze, and gestures. Since Fairclough

(1996) and Cook (2001) explains that images are essential in understanding and

conveying language “texts.” Hence, pre-ideologies are established. Further, the

interpretation phase helped to distinguish the different schemes and ideologies

present in the magazine covers since this stage deals with the meso level or the

sociocultural practices and events hence, speech acts theory is employed.

Through the presence of directive and assertive speech acts (Searle, 1969), the

disparity between the ideal body type and the unfavorable body type was clearly

observed in the magazine covers imposing body shaming ideologies. The last
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

stage, explanation, deals with the macro level of analysis that considers the view

and the level of society as a whole that include the member resource described

as the speaker/audience’s knowledge, assumptions and beliefs that may serve as

additional “resources” to explain the ideologies embedded in language.

2.4 Intercoding

Since ideologies are embedded in texts and considered as common-sense

assumptions, meanings are therefore highly dependent on each individual’s

interpretation. Fairclough (2001) suggests the use of member resource described

as speaker/audience’s knowledge of the language, representation of ideas

inhabiting their social practice, assumptions and beliefs to provide enough

interpretation and explanation of texts.

Hence, two interraters who are knowledgeable enough on Fairclough’s

Critical Discourse Analysis and on the idea of body shaming were invited to

provide sufficient validation to the research findings through coding sheets (see

Appendix A). Coder 1 is a graduate of UST-English Language Studies who has a

paper on Language and Colorism employing Critical Discourse Analysis by

Fairclough while Coder 2 is a graduating student from the University of the

Philippines taking-up Linguistics Major in Bahasa.

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

The coding sheet was based on the qualitative findings of the study. It

consists of seven significant findings. The first is overwording in which the

interraters were requested to account for the frequency/occurrence of the

words that are overused. They were also asked to examine the underlying

connotations attached to the lexemes “sexy”, “fat”, “real women”, and “weight

loss”, the validity of body shaming euphemisms, the directive and assertive

speech acts present in the magazine covers inducing body shaming ideologies.

2.5 Research Procedure

Forty Women’s Health Magazine covers issued from 2011-2015 were

retrieved from its official Facebook page account, Women’s Health Philippines. A

qualitative analysis of the magazine covers was examined simultaneously

through textual and visual aspects. In the proceeding stage, CDA’s interpretation

and explanation were employed to give meanings and relationships between the

text production, interaction, social process, and the level of society as a whole.

Hence, a coding sheet consists of seven significant findings was validated by two

interraters that serve as the member resource. In the process of intercoding,

both the interraters and researcher have almost perfect agreement in relation to

the body shaming ideologies present in the magazine covers. Hence, for the final

phase, through these essential phases, discourse/discursive strategies and

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

ideologies on beauty and body shaming in the magazine covers were

determined, interpreted, and explained.

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

3. Findings

The magazine covers were examined at the textual (micro), discursive

practice (meso) and social practice (macro) level based on Fairclough’s (2001)

framework. Since it is believed that texts serve as an evidence for the existence

of discourses, a concrete realization of abstract forms of knowledge, and at the

same time, texts are interactive and influenced by sociolinguistic factors.

Fairclough’s (1996) asserts that as people read and interpret texts, they

do so form a subject position that is created for us, participants, by the text

producer. Hence, the visual features (facial expressions and gestures) and textual

features such as vocabulary, grammar, and textual structures concerning the

experiential, relational, and expressive values of each serve a great part of the

analysis process under Fairclough’s CDA model first stage, description. To

identify the different linguistic and non-linguistic features used in magazine

covers constituting health, beauty, and body shaming ideologies, the visual and

textual features were thoroughly examined and in conjunction with one another.

In depth evaluation of the magazine covers was employed in the second

stage of the framework, interpretation. This deals with the significant role of

member resource in the production and reception of texts constructing

ideologies present in the magazine covers. In the final stage of the analysis,

explanation, the state of the society as a whole was incorporated concerning

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

beliefs, social practices, current events, and issues; this also includes advertising

strategies employed in magazine covers.

3.1 Overwording

Fairclough (1996) relates overwording with the term overlexicalization

(Fowler, 1979), where an unusually high degree of wording, often involving

clusters of related terms that are near synonyms occurs. Overwording or

overlexicalization often indicates a key concept or particular preoccupation that

gives certain meanings the producer of texts intends to convey. Fairclough

(1996) opts for the term overwording to refer to the relative density of the

number of words used to name the concepts from a particular domain, which

may be a sign or intense preoccupation: pointing to peculiarities in the ideology

of the group responsible for it. Thus, this aspect deals with the frequently used

words in the magazine covers that draw different classification of schemes and

ideologies (Fairclough, 1996; Fowler, 19 79).

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

Table 1. Frequency of Overwording

Content Word Frequency %

Health 51 22%
Women 43 18%
Sex 28 12%
Sexy 27 11%
weight loss/lose 25 11%
weight/weigh less
Slim 19 8%
Fit 15 6%
Healthy 12 5%
Beauty 11 5%
real women 5 2%
Total 236 100%

Of forty magazine covers analyzed, the highest occurrence of

overwording was observed in terms of nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs.

Table 1 shows the most used content words in the magazine covers that greatly

constitute the portrayal of women and women’s body given that one of the

objectives of this study is to show connections between health and beauty.

Surprisingly, “sex” appeared 28 times of the magazine covers next to “women”

and “health”. Given that the magazine’s main objective is to promote healthy

lifestyle among women (womenshealthmagazine.com), it seems that the idea of

sex is also evident concerning health and beauty ideologies.

In the magazine covers, “women” is explicitly described as “real”,

“gorgeous”, “charming”, “confident”, “young”, “strong”, “sexy”, “steady”,

“lean”, “smart”, “fit”, “fabulous”, “trim”, “slim”, “healthy”, “toned”, and

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

“happy”. While, the body is also highly modified as “healthy”, “hot”, “lean”,

“sexy”, “slim”, “toned”, “fit”, “bum”, “flat”, “bikini-body”, “thin”, “best”, “trim”,

and “calm”. The different parts of the body like belly, abs, arm, legs, butt,

breasts, and skin are described as “flat”, “superflat”, “firm”, “tight”, “lean”,

“sexy”, and “toned” as well. And of these descriptions, it appears that most of

the magazine covers use adjectives that create a typical scheme on beauty and

body type of a woman such that sexy was used 27 times in the magazine covers.

Though real women only appeared five times of the magazine covers, it is

important to note its connotation such that it implies a question as to what

constitutes a real woman.

According to Fairclough (1996), overwording implies ideologically

significant meaning relations (synonymy, hyponymy, antonymy). He strongly

asserts that overwording shows certain preoccupation with some reality which

may indicate that it is a focus of ideological struggle such that the relation of the

synonymy in the examples above are ideologically predetermined as to

ideologies of health and beauty.

While Women’s Health magazine is positioned to promote healthy living,

it is expected that it uses “healthy”, however it only appeared eight times in the

magazine covers inclusive of its variations “healthier” and “healthiest”.

According to Cawford (2006), the 21st century has brought about new health
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

practices and a greater health consciousness that has been greatly informed by

advertising. Lupton (1995) also states that most social issues have become

subsumed under the rubric of health and this idea of a rubric may help to

conceptualize the expansion of health perspectives into traditionally non-health

related social platforms such as consumer culture. Thus, it can be deduced that

Women’s Health magazine views healthy as near-synonymous to sexy, slim, and

fit; or the magazine’s objective implicitly promotes a different angle of

healthiness such that new definitions of being healthy are established.

3.2 Lexical Choice and Semantic Prosody

Given that Fairclough’s (1996) overwording is related to overlexicalization

(Fowler, 1999), it is essential to note lexical choice defines as choosing lexemes

to highlight what information is trying to convey based on a particular context

and semantic prosody to determine the “favorable and unfavorable

connotations” of each lexeme.

3.2.1 The Lexeme “Sexy”

Given that one of the most frequently used content words in Women’s

Health magazine covers is the lexeme “sexy” that appeared 25 times, it is still

crucial to examine how it was used and described in the context of health and

beauty.
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

“Lean, sexy, confident” (Mag13)

“Strong, sexy, slim” (Mag18)

“Healthy, sexy breasts” (Mag3)

The placement of the adjectives affects the meaning and the thought of

what it is trying to modify such that two or more adjectives are used to fully

describe a noun. Hence, coordinating adjectives take place (Sherman and

Slawson, 2010) that provide subjective evaluations and opinions. A combination

of adjectives of opinion or judgment and size are observed in the examples given

above. Through this, the extracts illustrate how favorable connotations are

attached to “sexy” using positive adjectives “strong”, “confident”, and “healthy”.

Therefore, the lexical choice suggests that sexy body can be described as

healthy, strong, and confident; hence disregarding other kinds of body types,

thus portraying an ideal body type. This can also be seen in the examples below:

“New shortcuts to a slim, sexy body” (Mag15)

“Sculpt sexy legs and a tight butt.” (Mag24)

“Lean, sexy legs” (Mag14)

“Fast-track to a lean body and a sexy belly” (Mag34)

Although it is not explicitly stated similar to the previous example, the

favorable portrayal of sexy body is still evident. Given that both sentences are

assertive and directive, it directly addresses the readers to inform and do

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

something by stating “new shortcuts” “fast-track” which can be considered as

factors of urgency and the verb “sculpt” that requires the readers to have a

“sexier” body type considering that it is attached to “sexy legs” and a “tight

butt”. Notice that “lean” is often affixed with “sexy” whereas it appeared six

times in the magazine covers. According to Noriega (2012) in her study on

conflation of health and beauty in advertising, the body is considered a site

where people’s values can not only be displayed but also assessed by others

such that the lean, toned physique displays control over what the body

consumes, and the self-discipline to sculpt the body. By strongly stating these

certain qualities as to being sexy, lean, and slim, having an excess weight is

therefore reflected as abomination of the body as it displays lack of self-control.

Hence, schemes and ideologies of body shaming are clearly produced and

established.

Surprisingly, among the variations and modifications of “sexy”, it was also

extensively used not only to describe women and women’s body, but yoga,

swimsuits, ideas, and even sex as well. Examples are shown below:

“Slim, calm, and sexy yoga” (Mag7)

“Sexy swimsuits for every body type” (Mag10)

“Sexy ways to dress-up for your workout” (Mag12)

“25+ crazy, sexy, summer ideas to keep cool” (Mag33)

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

“Sexier sex” (Mag33, Mag18)

Leech (1966) says that the language of advertising greatly uses poetic

language in many ways having poetic functions of reiterated elements because

of its intention to influence and change the will and the attitude of the receivers

or the audience. Thus, this explains that the extensive use of “sexy” in diverse

manner is noteworthy given that it plays as an advertising discourse strategy of

the Women’s Health magazine to promote healthy as sexy. And it reveals that

“sexy” is an adjective that is usually used to describe a body but is becoming an

expression as well to describe and promote an ideology.

3.2.2 “Fat” Body Connotation

Given that healthy is synonymously describe as sexy as discussed in the

previous section, the portrayal of “sexy” body through overwording, its

modifications, and connotations, “sexy” body representations are evidently

more favorable. However, unlike the lexeme “sexy”, “fat” was not used often

and that “slim”, “flat”, and “fit” co-occurred more in the magazine covers. In

fact, there were only four magazine covers that included the said lexeme:

“Eat out and still lose weight: Avoid holiday fat traps” (Mag1)

“Burn more fat” (Mag8)

“Eat up and slim down: fat burning meals, low-cal cocktails” (Mag14)

“Healthy in a hurry: fast, tasty, low-fat recipes to try” (Mag9)

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

The sentences show assertiveness and directness in depicting a sexy and

a slim body type; irony and sarcasm are also observed given that a person would

still “lose weight” (not gaining weight) and “slim down” by eating out. As

Lagerwerf (2007) points out, the effect of advertisements when irony (and

sarcasm) is used leads to positive reactions and sometimes to negative reactions

and repercussions in a sense that people are in position to assert that irony is

used in advertisements to put forth a tacit message, triggering the reader have

pre-judgment (Alrasheedi, 2010). Through this, readers of advertisements may

pause to read, assimilate, interpret and then take an action. This use renders

irony useful in shaping the main function of media in general and advertisement

in particular. Hence, irony is best categorized as a persuasive strategy in

advertising (Gibbs and Izett, 2005).

In the first example above, “fat” is implicitly portrayed in a negative

manner through semantic prosody because the general impression of the

sentence is also negative with the use of “avoid” linked to “fat traps”. It is clear

that the objective of the sentences shown is to avoid being fat for it uses

compound adjectives like “fat-burning” and “low-fat” for meals, and the

directive statement “burn more fat”. Furthermore, considering the last example

shown above, it appears that being healthy also demands an urgency since it is

attached to “hurry” and “fast” whereas the “low-fat recipes” implies a resistance
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

of getting fat. Hence, it demands the readers to become healthy as sexy while

the avoidance of being fat is evident hence showcases a disparity between two

body types, one is ideal and the other is undesirable.

3.3 Body Shaming Euphemism

Euphemism is used when people talk about taboo or sensitive subjects,

therefore euphemistic language is also the language of evasion, of hypocrisy, of

prudery, and of deceit (Holder 2002). It is the substitution of an agreeable or

inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant

(Allan and Burridge 2006). Hence, when people use euphemistic words or

phrases, they avoid saying things people think the audience would rather not

hear for various reasons.

Given that the lexeme “fat” is not explicitly stated in the magazine covers

as compared to the high frequency of “sexy”, “slim”, “fit”, Andrew (2014), an

advocate of anti-body shaming campaign, strongly asserts that the society

usually associates fat to hate hence a lot of people keep avoiding it; and by

avoiding it, the term “fat” will keep and remain vilified thus imposing ideologies

on body shaming through euphemistic means since generally speaking,

euphemisms are mostly used when there is a need to discuss or refer to

something that is a taboo, in bad taste, or insulting to the audience. Examples

are shown below:

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

“Use the right weight loss plan” (Mag9)

“Stress less, weigh less” (Mag31)

“Shape-up secrets to get you back on track and keep you injury-free”

(Mag23)

“Eat more weigh less: save pesos, lose pounds with these food swaps.”

(Mag23)

“Boost your productivity: Weigh less, save more, sleep soundly, eat

healthily” (Mag27)

“Stop yo-yo dieting for good: yummy, healthy, low-calorie, breakfasts.”

(Mag27)

“Burn calories and score a well-toned body” (Mag38)

Euphemisms can be in the form of idioms and metaphors because of

them being figurative. The examples shown above are considered to be

euphemism-metaphors, advertisers use this kind of strategy to maintain

relationships and capture the consumers’ attention (Mehawesh, 2013). It is also

evident that advertisers use lexicons that are strange and amusing to the

audience (Fairclough, 1996) like “yo-yo dieting”, as seen in Mag-27, implying an

unsteady manner of losing fat. Such kind of lexicons are usually used to sustain

practicality in a lifeworld discourse hence informal (Fairclough, 1996). Since it is

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

believed that that the more informal the words are, the more relationships are

established since it emphasizes a conversational genre.

While “weight-loss”, “weigh less“, “lose pounds”, and “burn calories”

seem to be neutral statements, these were used as euphemistic tools to resist on

directly stating “losing fats”, “fat loss”, or “lose fat” considering that the term

“weight-loss” appeared fifteen times in the magazine covers including its

variations “lose weight” and “weigh less”. Hence, it maintains the politeness and

positive degree among readers since it was also attached to the word “right” and

phrase “boost your productivity” such that “weighing less” greatly include in a

productivity level. On a higher positive scale, “shape-up” including its variation

“get-in-shape” is more pleasant to hear than “weight-loss” recognizing better

the persuasion technique since it was attached to the positive compound

adjectives “injury-free” and “stress-less” however deterring the idea of “fat” and

just being “fat”.

“Tone trouble spots” (Mag15)

“Sculpt hot curves” (Mag15)

“Lose the bulge for good” (Mag7)

“Burn more calories” (Mag6)

The examples above show the different connotations of “spots”,

“curves”, and “bulge” “calories” as euphemistic tools to substitute the lexeme

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

“fat”. Given that euphemisms are greatly used to conceal the real meanings of

words as one of its main features (Lutz, 2000), the concept of fat is being

disregarded in the examples shown considering that in Mag-29, “Burn more fat”

is explicitly stated; hence it proves the “fat” is substituted by “calories.”

Furthering, the representation of “fat” in the following examples implies

negative connotations such that “spots” is attached to “trouble”; “curves” and

“bulge” attached to the verbs “sculpt” and “lose” suggesting that by doing it, it

would be “hot” and would be “for good”. Lutz (2000) comments euphemisms are

tactful words and phrases which avoid directly mentioning a painful reality. In

this way, by substituting more pleasant terms such as “spots”, “curves”, and

“bulge” proves that euphemisms are sometimes positive words/phrases used to

avoid a harsh, unpleasant, or distasteful reality which is to be “fat”.

3.4 “Real Women” and “Weight-loss” Connotation

Though “real women” only appeared five times in the magazine covers, it

is important to note its connotation for it implies a question as to what

constitutes a real woman. There were only five magazine covers that include

“real women”. Examples are shown below:

“Weight-loss secrets of real women” (Mag4)

“Get inspired: Real women and their weight-loss secrets” (Mag17),

(Mag34)
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

“Pounds off! Success tips from real women” (Mag39)

“25 Beauty must-haves tried and tested by real women” (Mag9)

The extracts above show great assertiveness in the manner of “real

women” being attached to “weight-loss” and “pounds-off” three times in the

magazine covers considering that they are euphemistic tools to conceal the

lexeme “fat” as discussed in the previous section. Hence it greatly illustrates how

favorable connotations are attached to “weight-loss” and “pounds-off” that add

to the description of a “real woman”. Thus, these instances show great bias on

constituting a “real woman” being “sexy”, “slim”, and “fit” as inspirational

because of the directive statement of the third example “get inspired” hence

strongly disregarding the idea of being “fat” as a “real woman” and inspirational.

As Andrew (2012) tries to explain, being “fat” is attached to the idea of hate.

3.5 Building Relations: Synthetic Personalization

As discussed, health, beauty, and body shaming ideologies are

established hence it is essential to note the specific audience of Women’s Health

magazine.

Given that advertising style makes a great deal of use of direct address

for both ideological and practical reasons (Leeuwen, 2005). A great use of direct

address in the magazine covers was observed such that thirty out of forty

magazine covers do have this advertising element. Fairclough (1996) defines this
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

as synthetic personalization in terms of his framework. The use of personal and

possessive pronouns such as “we”, “you” and “your” intend to directly address

the readers stimulating a conversational genre, therefore personal, informal, and

solidary establishing a synthetic personalization of both ‘we’ addresses ‘you’

(Fairclough, 1996) such that when people are individually addressed rather than

as part of mass audience, it is then considered highly valued (Cook, 2001).

Examples are shown below:

“Career boost: we show you how” (Mag27)

“The body you want in three weeks flat” (Mag10)

“Shape up secrets to get you back on track and keep you injury free”

(Mag23)

“Slim down and tone your body no matter what age you’re in” (Mag36)

“Take charge of your health” (Mag5)

The first example has synthetic personalization of audience members

‘you’ as the readers and the producer is personalized with the pronoun ‘we’

having the authority of doing something. It establishes a relationship between

the text producer and the participants (Fairclough, 1996). He further defines

synthetic personalization as all phenomena strategic discourse where subject

positions are being established and often manipulated by text producers.

Considering that “sexy”, “slim”, and “fit” are presented as the ideal body type in
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

the magazine covers analyzed, this may imply that the magazine strongly

addresses the unfavorable body type which is “fat” as ‘you’ and ‘your’ personal

pronouns since these were used as indefinite pronouns such that in the

examples given, the reader is characterized as ‘you’ being the center of the

conversation. It builds a relationship to the public that provides carefully

managed cues for the readers to do something thus stimulates a conversational

genre (Fairclough, 1996). Thus this implies that promotional materials such as

Women’s Health magazines highly address readerships as consumers and clients

such that when someone is communicating with the client, the client is

positioned as having the authority (Cook, 2001).

3.6 Ideal Body Type Defined

Other than the use of lexemes “sexy” and “fat” in the portrayal of beauty,

health, and body shaming, it is also important to consider how the ideal body

type is represented in the magazine covers. The portrayal of ideal body type is

evident because of extensively using directive and assertive speech acts.

This section helped to draw meanings and elaborate the connection of

beauty, health, and body shaming ideologies within the advertising discourse of

the magazine covers. It is believed that speech acts aims to do justice to the fact

that even though words (phrases, sentences) encode information, people do

more things with words than convey information and that when people do
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

convey information, they often process more than their words encode. Although

the focus of speech act theory has been on utterances, especially those made in

conversational and other face-to-face situations, the phrase 'speech act' should

be taken as a generic term for any sort of language use, oral or otherwise

(Searle, 1969). Hence, the speech acts observe the moods and modality of the

clauses and phrases present in the magazine covers to identify what it is trying to

imply with regard to the underlying definitions and portrayal of ideal body type.

In the analysis, there was a high affinity combination of epistemic and

deontic modality making the clauses and phrases be in imperative moods with

the use of assertive forces in which the speaker presents a proposition as

representing the actual state of affairs of the world; and directive forces in which

the speaker attempts to get the audience carry and do the propositions

considering that the extracts from the magazine covers are all performative.

3.6.1 Assertive Speech Acts

Given that health plays an essential role when it comes to living,

advertisers use assertive language and techniques since it typically increases

compliance when the recipients perceive the issue as important (Wilson, 2015).

Searle (1969) argues that a strong use of assertion happens when the ‘knowing’

is changed to ‘believing’ such that the text producer not only informs, rather

claims, and assures the readers regarding the vast outcome of doing something.
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

In the given examples below, a great use of assertive forces helps to show the

depiction of ideal body type:

“21 super foods for weight-loss issue” (Mag1)

“The key to weight-loss that lasts” (Mag15)

“2-in-1 moves for firm arms, flat abs, and a tight butt.” (Mag9)

“The body you want in three weeks flat” (Mag10)

“Diet and exercise pointers that really works” (Mag11)

“The health check-up you really need” (Mag8)

“Health check: The surprising pleasure zone you must know well”

(Mag13)

It can be observed that the extracts above show solutions for “weight-

loss issue” implying that being fat is really an issue. Furthering, given that the

modal “really” and “must” provides an expressive value hence gives an emphasis

of evaluation of truth (Fairclough, 1996). The presence of synthetic

personalization “you” attached to “want” and “need” in the examples above

proves that the text producer has the knowledge to assert the readers’ interests

and desires. In this way, providing moves, diet, and exercise pointers that

constitute to have a “sexy”, “slim”, and “fit” body type. This can also be seen in

the examples below:

“Strip away pounds in four weeks” (Mag4)

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

“The best calorie-torching, body-sculpting, health-boosting tips to try

now” (Mag28)

“Top 5 reasons to stay fit” (Mag26)

“Tricks to drop pounds and tone muscles faster” (Mag36)

“10 moves to flatten your abs fast” (Mag33)

“Hot body shortcuts” (Mag32)

Given that the extracts above use adverbs such as “fast” and “in four

weeks”, it shows great assertiveness such that it provides assurance for the

readers. Based on Searle’s (1969) assertive speech acts schemes, assuring also

deals with the removal of worry from the mind of the audience (as cited in

Wierzbika, 1999) such that assuring means showing someone of the truth and

accuracy of something (Austin, 1971). In the given examples, the text producer

seems to imply that the readers need not to worry with the results because it is

already proven and tested; such that it indicates “reasons to stay fit”, different

tips and moves to “strip away pounds” when in fact the bottom line is to “lose-

weight” hence avoidance of getting fat.

3.6.2 Directive Speech Acts

Searle (1969) explains that the point of directives is to make the

addressee perform an action through orders, commands, instructions, requests,

and invitations such that the speaker wants the hearer or audience to do
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

something (Searle and Veken, 1969) and expects the person to do it without any

conflict (Searle, 1969). Hence the examples shown below greatly exercise

directive forces such that it demands and requires doing it:

“Shrink your belly” (Mag7, Mag13, Mag20, Mag25)

“Eat, drink, and still shrink” (Mag2, Mag19)

“Get slim and stay that way” (Mag16)

“Slim down for good” (Mag32)

“Eat up and slim down” (Mag27)

“Run faster and get firmer too” (Mag40)

“Take charge of your health” (Mag22)

“Climate Change Diet: Get slimmer and make a positive impact on the

environment” (Mag19)

The extracts above show the directness on getting a “slim” body type

given that in the previous discussions, “slim”, “sexy” and “fit” are nearly

synonymous to “healthy” as presented in the magazine covers. However

imposing a consumer culture attitude in such a way that readers are asked to

“take charge of your health” but at the same time are being asked to “run faster”

not just to “get firm” rather “to get firmer too”. Hence, being ironic; while the

first example “shrink your belly” is extensively used four times in the magazine

covers referring to belly, the second example uses sarcasm in such a way that
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

eating and drinking would still give a “slim” body type considering that it is

substituted by “shrink”. Surprisingly, the last example seems that there is a

“positive impact on the environment” on “getting slim” implying a negative

expressive value of being “fat”, in which the readers are asked to “get slim”.

Hence with the extensive use and synonymy of these words and phrases, it

implies a high demand and order to the readers to do it as to “get slim” and

commanding them to “stay that way” and by saying this positive expression, it is

“for good”. On a higher scale, the manner of the directive forces is more

emphasized because of the adverbs of manner “fast”, time “now”, and

frequency “ever”. Thus, these instances below demand the readers an urgency

to “lose weight” to be “sexy”.

“Drop two sizes fast” (Mag39)

“Slim down fast” (Mag2, Mag30)

“Lose weight fast” (Mag11)

“Your fittest body ever” (Mag30)

“Lean and sexy now” (Mag5, Mag19, Mag29)

“Hot body fast: See results in just days not weeks” (Mag22, Mag37)

Though the examples above present directness to “get slim”, a number of

variations are still evident as to identifying the ideal body type such as:

“Eat this, not that!” (Mag3)

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

“Wear this, not that!” (Mag19)

“Flatten your belly” (Mag29)

“Flatter your figure” (Mag33)

“Flatter your belly” (Mag22)

“Lose your belly” (Mag36)

By observing the extracts above, it shows schemes on getting a “flat

belly” however in different variations and extent through the use of a

comparative degree for “flat”. In this way, the readers are directly asked not only

to “flatten” their belly and figure but to “flatter” and to the extent of “losing” it.

Furthering, there is a strong directive force in the first two examples above

because of stating in an exclamatory manner moreover using “not that” such the

readers are also dictated as to what they should eat and wear.

In the analysis of magazine covers, the portrayal of ideal body type is

evident such that the specific body parts are asked to be “lean” and ordered to

be “firm”, “tone”, and “sculpt” “gain energy instantly” serve as a requirement

which constitute to have a “sexy”, “slim”, and “fit” body type. Examples are

shown below:

“Firm your butt” (Mag22)

“Tone your arms” (Mag22, Mag29)

“Sculpt lean muscles” (Mag37)

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

“Get lean legs” (Mag22)

“Get a toned body and gain energy instantly” (Mag27)

Searle (1969) believes that requiring differs from telling someone to do

something only in that it carries with it a greater degree of strength because

requiring someone appears to imply an element of obligation. Similar findings

are shown in Kaur, Arumugam, and Yunus (2013) study about beauty product

advertisements showing that advertisers need to persuade the readers to buy or

take certain actions hence most of advertisements use imperatives as seen in the

example.

“Eat your way thin” (Mag12)

“Dress 10 lbs thinner” (Mag4)

Surprisingly, in the given examples above, it is noteworthy to clarify that

there is a historical shift in the nature of the objective because of the presence

of the word “thin” and its variation “thinner”. In this instance, the readers are

now asked to get “thin” and “thinner” instead of the ideal body type “sexy”,

“slim”, and “fit” implying body dissatisfaction however the avoidance of getting

“fat” is still evident in this manner.

3.7 Personality of the Magazine Cover

Since ideology is defined as an entire system of ideas, beliefs, and values,

which provides a restricted view of the world, Van Dijk (1998) remarks that
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

ideologies are typically, though not exclusively, expressed and reproduced in

discourse and communication, including non-verbal semiotic messages, such as

pictures, photographs and movies.

Considering Cook’s (2001) note that advertisers rely more on images

because they carry connotations and story and that Mcloughin (2000) even

claims that the image on the magazine covers reveals the personality of the

magazine, hence visual texts are considered in this aspect since Bernos (2015)

asserts that though language may be dominant mode of communication, visual

texts still play an essential role in the production and reception of ideas,

meanings, and receptions.

3.7.1 Placement of Images

The placement of the image is very essential in conveying the messages

of the texts (Kress and Leeuwen, 2005 as cited in Cook, 2001). Of 40 magazine

covers, 38 covers utilize single human image by placing the image on the center,

which endorses different aspects when it comes to beauty and health. It is a

large colored image which can be seen from the bottom to the top. Thus, it

implies that this human image is the central means of conveying meaning (Cook,

2001; Kress, 1992; Leeuwen, 2005) such that it is functionally dominant in

carrying major informational load of the image.

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

The images are presented through famous celebrities in the Philippines

that are entitled having a “sexy”, “slim”, “fit”, and “hot” body since Cook (2001)

affirms that in the context of magazine advertising, the sense of connection to

the readers is greatly established by portraying authority figures, celebrities, and

role models depending on what it is trying to promote. Najafan (2011) also

delves into same findings on her study on words behind images in advertising;

she believes that endorsing advertisements by celebrities makes a product or

service more reliable.

3.7.2 The Image Act, Gaze, and Gestures

As Bernos (2015) cites, facial expression, movement, and posture are

inseparable when it comes to advertising since these three are usually

manifested in the same subject: actor. As stated in the previous discussions, the

magazine covers only utilize single image portrayed by famous celebrities.

Furthering, the text producer uses the image to do something to the viewer

(Kress, 2006) hence the participant’s gaze that includes facial expression and

gestures are the key factors that add on conveying the message of the magazine

covers. Hence, by observing their facial expressions and gestures, these would

highlight the desirability, sentiments, and human emotions.

Kress and Leeuwen (2006) state that there is a fundamental difference

between pictures from which represented participants look directly at the

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

viewer’s eyes to establish contact (as cited in Cook, 2001). According to them,

the primary visual configuration is when participants look at the viewers formed

by the participants’ eye-lines, contact is greatly established even if it is only on

imaginary level. Of the forty magazine covers, all of the celebrity endorsers seem

to look directly at the readers. It acknowledges the viewers explicitly, hence

addressing them with a visual “you” (Cook, 2001).

Of the forty magazine covers analyzed, each celebrity endorser has the

facial expression of smiling; implying a degree of confidence and contentment

they have with their body type, considering that these celebrities are all known

as “sexy” and “slim” in the Philippines. A majority of them wears crop-tops,

swimsuits, bikinis, mini shorts, and fitted dresses; by wearing such kind of

clothes it reveals their “toned arms”, “superflat abs”, “flat belly”, “tight butt”

constituting a “sexy” body and look.

3.8 Women’s Health: The Brand

Given that Fairclough’s (2001) interpretation phase considers the

production of texts, a comprehensive scrutiny of the Women’s Health brand and

its endorsers is critical showing the situational context of the brand. This stage

notes the contents, subjects, relations, and connections hence considering the

brand’s beliefs and perspectives in order to examine a deeper discernment of its

philosophy when it comes to health and beauty magazine advertising.

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

Women’s Health is owned by Rodale Incorporation, a global, multi-

platform content company the reaches more than 120 million people across

sixty-five countries and six continents through its category leading media

properties such as magazines, books, online, mobile, e-commerce, direct-to-

consumer, social and video channels. Rodale Inc., product highlights are Men’s

Health as the largest men’s lifestyle brand in the world and Women’s Health as

the fastest growing women’s magazines.

According to Rodale Incorporation’s official website, Women’s Health

magazine caters nineteen countries that include Asian countries such as China,

Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, and Thailand. Interestingly, these

Asian countries observes a high rate of eating disorders such as anorexia and

bulimia imposing body shaming issues due to extensive and evident demand to

be sexy, slim, and thin as a preference for body types (Wykes and Gunter, 2005)

considering the westernized physique body type.

Though Philippines is not observed as a country reported having eating

disorders, patronizing the western culture as to body type preference is

considerably evident since the celebrity endorsers utilized in the magazine

covers are all Filipinas. The globalization considering the western media have

increased their influence in Asia, hence the universal idea of beauty has become

increasingly Eurocentric (Zhang, 2013). Magdaraog (2012) connects body image

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

as a construct determined by a series of individual and sociocultural factors that

intervenes decisively in several aspects of people’s lives influenced by Western

society. Whereas, the mass media serves as a mediating structure between

individuals and their bodies by sending a powerful message to society: only a

determined physical stereotype of beauty is valued.

Certainly, westernization and globalizing values have permeated the

majority of western cultures and established body image ideals and eating

behaviors. As regards the media, it is fairly easy to see that a significant number

of Western television programs have been adapted to different Asian countries

(Calado, 2011) and same can be said for printed media that either offer different

versions of globalized magazines or publish magazines that imitate in form and

content of Western publications (Blowers, 1999).

Given that the official Facebook page Women’s Health Philippines, it is

the number one magazine for Pinay who values a healthy lifestyle. It primarily

aims to promote healthy lifestyle. Hence, the over-all analysis through

identifying (overwording) lexemes and its connotations, speech acts, visual

aspects, facial expression, gaze, and gestures serve as instruments to show the

manifestation of what the brand is trying to promote considering its slogan “look

great, feel great.”

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

3.8.1 Confidence in sexy, slim, fit body type

Cook (2001) states that the presence of the celebrity enhances a brand’s

distinctive identity such that although it cannot intrinsically improve any of the

product’s features or performance, it can provide added value and credibility.

Furthering, an infusion of celebrity attention can rejuvenate a stagnant brand

and it can also compensate for a lack of inventive marketing ideas. Through this,

Hatads (2011) explains that the approval of a brand by a celebrity fosters

confidence and highlights brand awareness in a cluttered marketplace. As

discussed earlier, the endorsers are all smiling, evidently happy having a “sexy”

body evoking contentment and confidence given that celebrities serve as great

factors in the context of body shaming since they are the ones who usually set

the standards of health and beauty imposing stereotypes.

“Iza Calzado: Charming, confident, and in control” (Mag9)

As published in Philippine Star, Iza Calzado is a model and an actress

whose body is defined as far from flawless and that she is the kind of fitness

inspiration because of having concave abs, thigh gaps, and gravity-defying butts.

This then shows how the magazine defines her as “charming”, “confident”, and

“in control”, considering Reischer and Koo’s (2004) note, the value of self-control

and self-discipline underpin ideologies in favor of sexy, slim, and slender body

type; such that having excess weight is thus considered as an abomination of the
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

body, as it displays a bereft of self-control (Reischer & Koo, 2004; Featherstone,

1991). Hence suggesting that when someone is “in control”; the person is highly

regarded because of it being attached to positive adjectives “charming” and

“confident”. Meanwhile disclosing a partiality for “sexy” compared to being

“fat”.

Such kind of instance is also observed in Mag12 as it states “Karylle:

Shares how to get this fit, happy, and confident” and Mag26 as it shows “Maja

Salvador: How she got fit, toned, and happy”. These examples present an

informative discourse hence stimulating a narrative genre such that the text

producers maintain its reliability and efficiency in promoting schemes and

ideologies through self-promotional claims by the endorsers; sharing and

showcasing their insights and stories. Through this, it builds up reader’s

anticipation of what is coming next (Mcloughin, 2000). The favorable

connotations attached to “fit” such as “confident” and “happy” are evidently

constitute to how such kind of “sexy”, ”slim”, and “fit” body type also promote

happiness and confidence however they also foster uncomplimentary

implications of being “fat”. Such instances can also be seen in the statements

below:

“Judy Ann Santos: On the best ways to keep pounds off forever and stay

happy” (Mag13)
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

“Judy Ann Santos: on braving challenges and keeping the weigh off”

(Mag29)

“Bea Alonzo: How the box-office star shoots down insecurity and keeps

the weight off” (Mag23)

Given that the endorsers, Judy Ann Santos and Bea Alonzo, are

considered as actresses that ‘surprised’ the public with slimmer figures as

published by pep.ph, this instance help the extracts above show great disparities

between “sexy” and “fat” body type; such that the endorsers seem to imply and

show their “struggles” on being “fat” defined as “braving challenges” and

“insecurity”. Considering that “weigh off” and “pounds off” are euphemisms for

“lose fat”, the contentment of having a “sexy” and “slim” body type is explicitly

stated because of it being directive, “keeping the weigh off” more so, it is

attached to the adverb “forever” and the expression “stay happy”.

As Andrew (2012) claims, the resistance of stating the word “fat” using

euphemisms signals abomination of having such kind of body type. Hence, these

circumstances also implies the discontentment of having a “fat” body type

through the recurrence of statements of staying happy, strong, and confident

with a “sexy”, “slim”, and “fit” body type.

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

3.8.2 Sexy and Slim Culture

Western societies serve general preferences for body shapes and body

image especially for a thin body shape that has been established as the norm

(Wykes and Gunter, 2005). Many societies have associated a plump physique for

women with attractiveness and in some cultures obesity has been admired (Ford

and Beach, 1952). Norms of feminine beauty in Western culture, however, have

varied considerably over time (Goodman, 1995; Seid, 1989; Wolf, 1992 as cited

in Wykes and Gunter, 2005). Meanwhile, skinny fashion models replaced shapely

film stars as the dominant culture icons (Wykes and Gunter, 2005). A preference

for a body shape that mimicked this cultural ideal was increasingly reflected in

the body image preferred by women, surveyed for their opinions about

attractiveness (Cash, 1997; Serdulla, 1993; Streigel-Moore et al., 1996 as cited in

Wykes and Gunter, 2005). Since then the only little shift from extreme

slenderness as the feminine ideal was the slender body during the 1980s and

eventually, the mass media has increased in volume, spread and representative

role. Although female attractiveness was once epitomized by a plump body

shape, the contemporary ideal, at the close of the twentieth, emphasized a sexy,

slim, and slender body. And the impact of this changing ideal for feminine

beauty is further exemplified by the increasing of dieting among women,

especially young women (Wykes and Gunter, 2005).

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

Images that are represented by the media tend to transmit and reinforce

dominant cultural ideologies as well as reject representations that question

these stereotypes. The mass media appears to exercise powerful social learning

processes by means of negative and positive reinforcement of mechanisms of

beliefs and behaviors.

Due to the prominent influence of Western culture to Asia, Filipinos also

view these instances to exercise social acceptance (Zhang, 2013). Being thin

considered as slim women are usually associated with wealth, health, control,

and beauty while being fat is associated negatively with weakness, laziness, lack

of control, and unhealthy lifestyle. These dynamics lead to the attribution of

positive values, including being more intelligent, friendlier, and more

determined, to thinner people on television (Fouts and Burggraf, 1999). Hence,

mass media and advertising equate beauty to thinness and slenderness, Rondilla

(2009) ascribed these ideologies in her study entitled Ganda Mo: Perception of

Feminine Beauty Shaped by Internal and External Factors, such that a majority of

Filipinos percepts that having a thin, sexy, and slim body type is viewed as ideal

and norm physique of a woman, avoiding the idea of being fat as an ideal and

beautiful as well. Hence, these incidents induce body shaming ideologies.

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

Today, body shaming is no longer manifested through direct and

aggressive acts, but has developed into more passive-aggressive strategies most

utilized in the different aspects of language and advertising.

4.0 Intercoding

The intercoding reveals an almost perfect observation and findings in the

aspect of overwording, the connotations of “fat”, “sexy”, “real women”, and

“weight-loss”, body shaming euphemisms, and assertive and directive speech

acts present in the magazine covers.

4.1 Overwording

Table 2. Frequency of overwording

Content Words Coder 1 Coder 2 Researcher’s Findings

Health 54 53 51
Women 41 41 43
Sex 28 28 28
Sexy 27 27 27
Slim 17 19 19
weight-loss/ lose 25 25 25
weight/ weigh less
Fit 18 18 15
Healthy 15 13 12
Beauty 13 13 11
real women 5 5 5

Since Fairclough (1996) defines overwording as unusually high degree of

wording, the interraters were requested to account for the

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

frequency/occurrence of the words that are overused. The table shows an

almost perfect frequency count between the coders and the researcher. Hence,

these wordings help to draw different schemes and ideologies present in the

magazine covers.

4.2 The Lexeme “Sexy”

The table shows how the interraters perfectly agree with the research

finding as to the favorable connotations attached to the lexeme “sexy”. Thus, the

connotation of sexy as favorable (F) serves as a way to identify the ideal body

type that the magazine covers promote.

Table3. Connotations of sexy

Extracts Coder 1 Coder 2 Researcher’s Findings

“Lean, sexy, confident” (Mag13) F F F
“Strong, sexy, slim” (Mag18) F F F
“Healthy, sexy breasts” (Mag3) F F F
“New shortcuts to a slim, sexy F F F
body” (Mag15)

“Fast-track to a lean body and a F F F

sexy belly” (Mag34)
“Sculpt sexy legs and a tight butt.” F F F
(Mag24)
“Lean, sexy legs” (Mag14) F F F
“Slim, calm, and sexy yoga” F F F
(Mag7)
“Sexy ways to dress-up for your F F F
workout” (Mag12)
“Sexy swimsuits for every body F F F
type” (Mag 10)
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

“25+ crazy, sexy, summer ideas to F F F

keep cool” (Mag33)

4.3 “Fat” Body Connotation

The table shows how the interraters agree with the unfavorable (UF)

connotations attached to the lexeme “fat”. This, therefore, shows the difference

between two body types, one is ideal and the other is undesirable.

Table 4. Connotations of fat

Extracts Coder 1 Coder 2 Researcher’s Findings

“Eat out and still lose weight: UF UF UF
Avoid holiday fat traps” (Mag1)
“Burn more fat” (Mag8) UF UF UF
“Eat up and slim down: fat F UF UF
burning meals, low-cal cocktails”
(Mag14)
“Healthy in a hurry: fast, tasty, UF UF UF
low-fat recipes to try” (Mag9)
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

4.4 Body Shaming Euphemisms

The table reveals that both of the interraters agree with the researcher’s

findings. In this case, it proves that euphemisms are used in the magazine covers

to avoid the terms “fat”, “lose fat” and, “fat loss” considering that euphemism is

a language of evasion and substitution of words that are unpleasant to hear.

Hence, it is imposing body shaming (BS) ideologies through euphemistic means.

Table 5. Body shaming euphemisms

Extracts Coder 1 Coder 2 Researcher’s Findings

“Use the right weight loss BS BS BS
plan” (Mag9)
“Shape-up secrets to get you BS BS BS
back on track and keep you
injury-free” (Mag23)
“Eat more weigh less: save BS BS BS
pesos, lose pounds with these
food swaps.” (Mag23)
“Boost your productivity: BS BS BS
Weigh less, save more, sleep
soundly, eat healthily” (Mag27)
“Burn calories and score a BS BS BS
well-toned body” (Mag38)
“Tone trouble spots” (Mag15) BS BS BS
“Sculpt hot curves” (Mag15) BS BS BS
“Lose the bulge for good” BS BS BS
(Mag7)
“Burn more calories” (Mag6) BS BS BS
“Stress less, weigh less” BS BS BS
(Mag31)
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

4.5 “Real Women” and “Weight Loss” Connotation

The table shows how the interraters perfectly agree with the

connotations of “real women” and “weight loss” and showing partiality on the

idea of being a “real woman”. Hence, it greatly imposes body shaming (BS).

Table 6. “Real women” and “Weight loss” connotations

Extract Coder 1 Coder 2 Researcher’s Findings

“Weight-loss secrets of real BS BS BS
women” (Mag4)
“Get inspired: Real women and BS BS BS
their weight-loss secrets”
(Mag17), (Mag34)
“Pounds off! Success tips from BS BS BS
real women” (Mag39)
“25 Beauty must-haves tried and BS BS BS
tested by real women” (Mag9)
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

4.6 Assertive Speech Acts

In the table below, the interraters show perfect agreement. These

assertive acts (AA) present in the magazine covers helped to portray the ideal

body type through assuring and suggesting.

Table 7. Assertive Acts

Extracts Coder 1 Coder 2 Researcher’s Findings

“The key to weight-loss that lasts” AA AA AA
(Mag15)
“2-in-1 moves for firm arms, flat AA AA AA
abs, and a tight butt.” (Mag9)
“The body you want in three AA AA AA
weeks flat” (Mag10)
“Diet and exercise pointers that AA AA AA
really works” (Mag11)
“The health check-up you really AA AA AA
need” (Mag8)
“Health check: The surprising AA AA AA
pleasure zone you must know
well” (Mag13)
“Strip away pounds in four weeks” AA AA AA
(Mag4)
“The best calorie-torching, body- AA AA AA
sculpting, health-boosting tips to
try now” (Mag28)
“Top 5 reasons to stay fit” AA AA AA
(Mag26)
“10 moves to flatten your abs AA AA AA
fast” (Mag33)
“Hot body shortcuts” (Mag32) AA AA AA
“Tricks to drop pounds and tone AA AA AA
muscles faster” (Mag36)
“21 super foods for weight-loss AA AA AA
issue” (Mag1)
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

4.7 Directive Speech Acts

The table shows a perfect agreement between the intercoder and

researcher’s findings with regard to the presence of directive acts (DA) in the

magazine covers. Therefore, the readers are asked to have the ideal body type

through orders, commands, and instructions that imply an obligation to do so.

Table 8. Directive Acts

Extracts Coder 1 Coder 2 Researcher’s Findings

“Eat, drink, and still shrink” (Mag2), DA DA DA
Mag19)
“Get slim and stay that way” DA DA DA
(Mag16)
“Slim down for good” (Mag-32) DA DA DA
“Run faster and get firmer too” DA DA DA
(Mag40)
“Take charge of your health” DA DA DA
(Mag22)”
“Wear this, not that!” (Mag19) DA DA DA
“Flatten your belly” (Mag29) DA DA DA

“Flatter your figure” (Mag33) DA DA DA

“Flatter your belly” (Mag22) DA DA DA
“Lose your belly” (Mag36) DA DA DA
“Drop two sizes fast” (Mag39) DA DA DA
“Slim down fast” (Mag2, Mag30) DA DA DA
“Lose weight fast” (Mag11) DA DA DA
“Your fittest body ever” (Mag30) DA DA DA
“Lean and sexy now” (Mag5, DA DA DA
Mag19, Mag29)
“Eat up and slim down” (Mag27) DA DA DA
“Shrink your belly” (Mag7, Mag13, DA DA DA
Mag20, Mag25)
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

4. Conclusion

Considering that the main objective of this study is to show how body

shaming ideologies are presented in the magazine covers exercising the power of

advertising through discourse and discursive techniques which manipulate

women’s cultural beliefs, the analysis of visual and textual texts employed in

Women’s Health magazine covers gives a comprehensive intertextual and

interdiscursive analysis that show the different discursive techniques and

discourse strategies used in constructing health, beauty, and body shaming

ideologies in the magazine covers. These discursive and discourse strategies

present in the magazine covers are overwording, lexical choice, semantic

prosody, euphemisms, synthetic personalizations, speech acts, placement of

images, image act, gaze, and gestures.

The overwording of “women”, “health”, “healthy”, “sexy”, “slim”, and

“weight loss” are the factors that helped establish different schemes and

ideologies. The lexeme “sexy” has been repeatedly used in the magazine covers

and was consistently associated with words and adjectives with favorable

connotations such as “strong”, “confident”, and “healthy”. Hence, it was

deduced that Women’s Health views healthy as near synonymous to sexy, slim,

and fit; and implicitly promotes different and new definitions of being healthy. In

contrast, “fat” body type has been negatively portrayed through euphemisms,
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

hence imposing body shaming ideologies. Generally, with the extensive use of

deontic and epistemic modality observing directive and assertive speech acts,

these discursive techniques clearly show and promote unfavorable connotations

on fat body type, and manifest a partiality for sexy, slim, and fit body type,

making it an ideal body type for women. The personality of the magazine covers

was also deduced through describing the visual texts concerning the image act,

gaze, gestures, and facial expression that show a great confidence of having a

sexy body type, inducing discontentment of being fat. Famous sexy celebrity

endorsers in the Philippines were utilized in the magazine covers to increase the

positive impact of having a sexy body type, stating struggles of being fat, making

it a self-promotional claim helping the readers to see the partiality for sexy. The

overall discursive techniques and discourse strategies employed in the magazine

covers show an evident partiality for sexy, slim, and fit body type, avoiding a fat

body type inducing body shaming issues and ideologies through the influence of

western societies and advertising.

4.1 Social Implications

Due to these discursive techniques and discourse strategies employed in

the field of advertising, people must be careful and aware enough of what they

buy, use, and read since these may contribute and influence them to promote

social control and dominance, shame and guilt, inequality, and violence. Hence,
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

this paper serves as an open ground to give additional knowledge and raise

awareness to the Filipino community on how body shaming is observed in

magazines, exercising the power of advertising to manipulate people’s ideas and

beliefs.

4.2 Recommendations

Desirably, future research on beauty and body shaming ideologies could

focus on other mediums, such as television and internet memes through

multimodality analysis and social semiotics. Women’s Health Philippines remains

a good case study because of its evident popularity among Filipinas and its wide

array of celebrity endorsers. A comparative study on Women’s Health and Men’s

health magazine can also be a good case study to show if body shaming is also

evident to both genders. Moreover, contrastive analyses between different

brands such as Cosmopolitan can also be taken into consideration since the

presence of the idea on sex is also observed in this case study constituting

health, sex, beauty, and body shaming ideologies.

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

References

Advertising definition | Advertising meaning - The Economic Times. (2015).

Retrieved from The Economic Times:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/advertising

Akinbode, O. (2012). A sociolinguistic analysis of advertising language in selected

Nigerian mass media commercials. Research on Humanities and Social
Sciences, 2(8), 26-30.

Allwood, J. (1977). A Critical Look at Speech Act Theory. Dept. of Linguistics,

Goteborg University.

Ana Garner, H. S. (1998). Narrative Analysis of Sexual Etiquette in Teenage

Magazines. 10.

Barthes, R. (1977). Image, music, text. London: Fontana.

Bernos, R. (2014). Language and Colorism: Beauty Ideologies in Pond's

Philippines Youtube advertisements. 25.

Biricik, A. (2006). The role of logo design in creating brand emotion: A semiotic
comparison of the Apple and IBM logos. Retrieved from
http://library.iyte.edu.tr/tezler/master/endustriurunleritasarimi/T00056
0.pdf

Bloor, M. B. (2007). The Practice of Critical Discourse Analysis.

Börjesson, M. (2013). Swedes' understanding of printed ads in English: A study of

how well Swedish adults understand the message of printed ads in
English. Retrieved from http://www.diva-
portal.org/smash/get/diva2:625323/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Chandler, D. (2014). Semiotics for beginners: Signs. Retrieved from Semiotics for
beginners: http://visual-
memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/sem02.html
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

Chandler, D. (2014). Semiotics for beginners:Denotation, connotation, myth.

Retrieved from Semiotics for beginners: http://visual-
memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/sem06.html

Cook, G. (2001). The Discourse of Advertising. Routledge Publications.

Cook, G. (2001). The Discourse of Advertising. Your Linguistics Org.

Cowin, E. (2011). The evolution of U.S. corporate logos: A semiotic Analysis.

Retrieved from Florida Sate University:
http://etd.fcla.edu/CF/CFE0003597/Cowin_Erica_M_201105_MA.pdf

Davisson, A., & Booth, P. (2010). Intertextuality, parody, and polyphony in Pepsi's
2009 Presidential Inauguration campaign. Journal of Visual Literacy,
29(1), 68-87.

Dijk, T. V. (1993). Principle of Discourse Analysis.

Dyer, G. (1982). Advertising as communication. London: Methuen.

Džanić, M. (2013). The semiotics of contemporary advertising messages:

Decoding visuals. Jezikoslovlje, 475-485.

Fairclough, N. (1996). Language and Power. New York City: Longman

Incorporation.

Fairclough, N. (2010). Critical Discourse Analysis. 12-14.

Garner, J. D. (2002). The Representation of Women's Roles in Women's

Magazines over the past 30 years. The Journal of Psychology.

Gunter, M. W. (2005). The Media and The Body Image. SAGE Publications.

Hall, S. (2007). This means this, this means that: A user's guide to semiotics.
London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd.

Huon, F. M. (2005). Media Portayed idealized image, Body Shame, and

Appearance Anxiety. The Journal of Psychology.
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

Innis, R. E. (1985). Semiotics: An introductory anthology. United States of

America: Indiana University Press.

Jewitt, C. (2010). Multimodal analysis: Key issues. (L. Litosseliti, Ed.) London:
Continuum.

Jones, R. (2012). Discourse Analysis. Routlege Publications.

Jorgensen, L. P. (2002). Discourse Analysis. SAGE Publications.

Kannan, R., & Tyagi, S. (2013). Use of language in advertisements. English for
Specific Purposes World, 1.

Klein, A. (2009). The Role of Printed Media in Today's Technological Society.

Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: A social semiotic approach to contemporary

communication. London; New York: Routledge.

Kudlip Kaur, N. A. (2013). Beauty Product Ads: A Critical Discourse Analysis.

Canadian Center Science and Education.

Larson, M. (2014). Iconic multimodal communication: A case study of Apple's

iPod silhouette ad campaign. Retrieved from Montana Tech of the
University of Montana.

Leeuwen, T. V. (2005). Introducing Social Semiotics. London; New York:

Routledge.

Louisse Philipps, M. J. (2002). Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method. Sage

Publication Ltd.

Mcquarrie, E., & Mick, D. G. (1999). Visual rhetoric in advertising: Text-

interpretive, experimental, and reader-response analyses. Journal of
Consumer Research, 26(1), 37-54.

Mick, D. G., & Mcquarrie, E. (2003). Figures of rhetoric in advertising language.

Journal of Consumer Research, 22(4), 424-438.

Moeschler, J. (1996). Speech Act Theory and the Analysis of Conversations.

Department of Linguistics.
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

Najafian, M., & Ketabi, S. (2011). Advertising social semiotic representation: A

critical approach. International Journal of Industrial Marketing, 63-78.

Noriega, A. (2012). The Conflation of health and beauty in advertising: A critical

multimodal discourse analysis of three television commercials.

Norval, E. (2011). Research into Women's Magazines and the Social Construction
and Womanhood. 78-92.

Oishi, E. (2006). Austin's Speech Act Theory and Speech Situation. Retrieved
January 2016, from www.univ.trieste.it

Scheidies, N. (2015). How Apple became the world's most valuable company.
Retrieved from IncomeDiary: http://www.incomediary.com/how-apple-
became-the-worlds-most-valuable-company

Searle, J. (1965). What is a Speech Act? New York: Free Press.

Smith, B. (1995). John Searle: From Speech Acts to Social Reality. New York: Free
Press.

Smith, P. W. (1991). Speech Act Theory, Discourse Structure and Indirect Speech.
Philosophy Now.

Tianen, M. (2009). Behind the Cosmo Girl: Women's Representations and brand
Cosmopolitan Magazine. 22.

Wodak, R. (2001). Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. SAGE Publications.

Wodak, R. (2002). Aspects of Critical Discourse Analysis. 27.

Wodak, R. (2006). Critical Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis. John

Benjamin Publication Corp.

Wodak, R. (2011). Language, Power, Identity. 10-19.

Zhang, X., & Gao, X. (2009). An analysis of conceptual metaphor in Western

commercial advertisements. Asian Social Science, 5(12), 97-104.
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

Zheng, H. (2013). The semiotic analysis of a print advertisement. Retrieved from

University of Leicester:
https://www.academia.edu/5318232/The_Semiotic_Analysis_of_a_Print
_Advertisement_HUIMIN_ZHENG
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

APPENDIX A
Coding Sheet

1. Overwording

Fairclough (1996) relates overwording with the term overlexicalization (Fowler,

1979), where an unusually high degree of wording, often involving clusters of

related terms that are near synonyms imposing pre-ideologies. Hence, this

aspect deals with the frequently used words in the magazine covers that draw

different classification of schemes and ideologies. Kindly put a legend as to what

column it belongs. Refer to the magazine covers provided.

Content Words Frequency

50-40 40-30 30-20 20-15 15-5 0
Health
Women
Sex
Sexy
Slim
weight-loss/ lose
weight/ weigh
less
Fit
Healthy
Beauty
real women
Total
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

2. The lexeme “sexy”

What connotation does the word “sexy” show in the extracts? Kindly put a

legend as to what column it belongs.

Extracts Favorable Unfavorable

“Lean, sexy, confident” (Mag13)
“Strong, sexy, slim” (Mag18)
“Healthy, sexy breasts” (Mag3)
“New shortcuts to a slim, sexy body” (Mag15)
“Fast-track to a lean body and a sexy belly” (Mag34)
“Sculpt sexy legs and a tight butt.” (Mag24)
“Lean, sexy legs” (Mag14)
“Slim, calm, and sexy yoga” (Mag7)
“Sexy ways to dress-up for your workout” (Mag12)
“Sexy swimsuits for every body type” (Mag10)
“25+ crazy, sexy, summer ideas to keep cool”
(Mag33)

Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.

3. “Fat” Body Connotation

What connotation does the word “sexy” show in the extracts? Kindly put a

legend as to what column it belongs.

Extracts Favorable Unfavorable

“Eat out and still lose weight: Avoid holiday fat
traps” (Mag1)
“Burn more fat” (Mag8)
“Eat up and slim down: fat burning meals, low-cal
cocktails” (Mag14)
“Healthy in a hurry: fast, tasty, low-fat recipes to
try” (Mag9)

Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

4. Body Shaming Euphemisms

Considering that euphemisms are used for taboo or sensitive subjects, a

language of evasion, of hypocrisy, of prudery, and of deceit (Holder 2002), it is

the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may

offend or suggest something unpleasant. Do the examples below substitute the

terms “fat”, “lose fat”, “fat loss”? Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it

belongs.

Extracts Yes No
“Use the right weight loss plan” (Mag9)
“Shape-up secrets to get you back on track and keep you injury-
free” (Mag23)
“Eat more weigh less: save pesos, lose pounds with these food
swaps.” (Mag23)
“Boost your productivity: Weigh less, save more, sleep soundly, eat
healthily” (Mag27)
“Burn calories and score a well-toned body” (Mag-38)
“Tone trouble spots” (Mag15)
“Sculpt hot curves” (Mag15)
“Lose the bulge for good” (Mag7)
“Burn more calories” (Mag6)
“Stress less, weigh less” (Mag31)

Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

5. “Real Women” and “Weight-loss” Connotation

Do you think that these instances show partiality on the idea of being a “real

woman”? Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it belongs.

Extracts Yes No
“Weight-loss secrets of real women” (Mag4)
“Get inspired: Real women and their weight-loss secrets”
(Mag17), (Mag34)
“Pounds off! Success tips from real women” (Mag39)
“25 Beauty must-haves tried and tested by real women”
(Mag9)

Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

6. Assertive Speech Acts

Based on Searle’s (1969) assertive speech acts schemes, assuring also deals with

the removal of worry from the mind of the audience (as cited in Wierzbika, 1999)

such that assuring means showing someone of the truth and accuracy of

something (Austin, 1971). Do the examples show assuring and suggesting?

Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it belongs.

Extracts Assuring Suggesting

“The key to weight-loss that lasts” (Mag15)
“2-in-1 moves for firm arms, flat abs, and a tight
butt.” (Mag9)
“The body you want in three weeks flat” (Mag10)
“Diet and exercise pointers that really works”
(Mag11)
“The health check-up you really need” (Mag8)
“Health check: The surprising pleasure zone you must
know well” (Mag13)
“Strip away pounds in four weeks” (Mag4)
“The best calorie-torching, body-sculpting, health-
boosting tips to try now” (Mag28)
“Top 5 reasons to stay fit” (Mag26)
“10 moves to flatten your abs fast” (Mag33)
“Hot body shortcuts” (Mag32)
“Tricks to drop pounds and tone muscles faster”
(Mag36)
“21 super foods for weight-loss issue” (Mag1)

Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

7. Directive Speech Acts

Searle (1969) explains that the point of directives is to make the addressee

perform an action through commands, requests, and instructions. Do the

examples below observe such kind of speech act? Kindly indicate a legend as to

what column it belongs.

Extracts Commands Instructions

“Eat, drink, and still shrink” (Mag2, Mag9)
“Get slim and stay that way” (Mag16)
“Slim down for good” (Mag32)
“Run faster and get firmer too” (Mag40)
“Take charge of your health” (Mag22)”
“Wear this, not that!” (Mag19)
“Flatten your belly” (Mag29)
“Flatter your figure” (Mag33)
“Flatter your belly” (Mag22)
“Lose your belly” (Mag36)
“Drop two sizes fast” (Mag39)
“Slim down fast” (Mag2, Mag30)
“Lose weight fast” (Mag11)
“Your fittest body ever” (Mag30)
“Lean and sexy now” (Mag5, Mag19,
Mag29)
“Eat up and slim down” (Mag27)
“Shrink your belly” (Mag7, Mag13, Mag20,
Mag25)

Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.

UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

APPENDIX B
Women’s Health Magazine covers
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

APPENDIX C
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

Coder 1 Coding Sheet

1. Overwording

Fairclough (1996) relates overwording with the term overlexicalization (Fowler,

1979), where an unusually high degree of wording, often involving clusters of

related terms that are near synonyms imposing pre-ideologies. Hence, this

aspect deals with the frequently used words in the magazine covers that draw

different classification of schemes and ideologies. Kindly put a legend as to what

column it belongs with. Refer to the magazine covers provided.

Content Words Frequency

50-40 40-30 30-20 20-15 15-5 0
health 54
women 41
sex 28
sexy 27
slim 17
weight-loss/ lose 25
weight/ weigh
less
fit 18
healthy 21
beauty 13
real women 5
Total
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

2. The lexeme “sexy”

What connotation does the word “sexy” show in the extracts? Kindly put a

legend as to what column it belongs with.

Extracts Favorable Unfavorable

“Lean, sexy, confident” (Mag13) X
“Strong, sexy, slim” (Mag18) X
“Healthy, sexy breasts” (Mag3) X
“New shortcuts to a slim, sexy body” (Mag15) X
“Fast-track to a lean body and a sexy belly” (Mag-34) X
“Sculpt sexy legs and a tight butt.” (Mag-24) X
“Lean, sexy legs” (Mag-14) X
“Slim, calm, and sexy yoga” (Mag-7) X
“Sexy ways to dress-up for your workout” (Mag-12) X
“Sexy swimsuits for every body type” (Mag 10) X
“25+ crazy, sexy, summer ideas to keep cool” X
(Mag33)

Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.

3. “Fat” Body Connotation

What connotation does the word “sexy” show in the extracts? Kindly put a

legend as to what column it belongs with.

Extracts Favorable Unfavorable

“Eat out and still lose weight: Avoid holiday fat X
traps” (Mag1)
“Burn more fat” (Mag8) X
“Eat up and slim down: fat burning meals, low-cal X
cocktails” (Mag14)
“Healthy in a hurry: fast, tasty, low-fat recipes to X
try” (Mag9)

Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

4. Body Shaming Euphemisms

Considering that euphemisms are used for taboo or sensitive subjects, a

language of evasion, of hypocrisy, of prudery, and of deceit (Holder 2002), it is

the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may

offend or suggest something unpleasant. Do the examples below substitute the

terms “fat”, “lose fat”, “fat loss”? Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it

belongs with.

Extracts Yes No
“Use the right weight loss plan” (Mag9) X
“Shape-up secrets to get you back on track and keep you injury- X
free” (Mag23)
“Eat more weigh less: save pesos, lose pounds with these food X
swaps.” (Mag23)
“Boost your productivity: Weigh less, save more, sleep soundly, eat X
healthily” (Mag27)
“Burn calories and score a well-toned body” (Mag-38) X
“Tone trouble spots” (Mag15) X
“Sculpt hot curves” (Mag15) X
“Lose the bulge for good” (Mag7) X
“Burn more calories” (Mag6) X
“Stress less, weigh less” (Mag31) X

Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

5. “Real Women” and “Weight-loss” Connotation

Do you think that these instances show partiality on the idea of being a “real

woman”? Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it belongs with.

Extracts Yes No
“Weight-loss secrets of real women” (Mag4) X
“Get inspired: Real women and their weight-loss secrets” X
(Mag17), (Mag34)
“Pounds off! Success tips from real women” (Mag39) X
“25 Beauty must-haves tried and tested by real women” X
(Mag9)

Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

6. Assertive Speech Acts

Based on Searle’s (1969) assertive speech acts schemes, assuring also deals with

the removal of worry from the mind of the audience (as cited in Wierzbika, 1999)

such that assuring means showing someone of the truth and accuracy of

something (Austin, 1971). Do the examples show assuring and suggesting?

Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it belongs with.

Extracts Assuring Suggesting

“The key to weight-loss that lasts” (Mag15) x
“2-in-1 moves for firm arms, flat abs, and a tight x
butt.” (Mag9)
“The body you want in three weeks flat” (Mag10) x
“Diet and exercise pointers that really works” x
(Mag11)
“The health check-up you really need” (Mag8) x
“Health check: The surprising pleasure zone you must x
know well” (Mag13)
“Strip away pounds in four weeks” (Mag-4) x
“The best calorie-torching, body-sculpting, health- X
boosting tips to try now” (Mag28)
“Top 5 reasons to stay fit” (Mag26) X
“10 moves to flatten your abs fast” (Mag33) x
“Hot body shortcuts” (Mag32) x
“Tricks to drop pounds and tone muscles faster” X
(Mag36)
“21 super foods for weight-loss issue” (Mag1) X

Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

7. Directive Speech Acts

Searle (1969) explains that the point of directives is to make the addressee

perform an action through commands, requests, and instructions. Do the

examples below observe such kind of speech act? Kindly indicate a legend as to

what column it belongs with.

Extracts Commands Instructions

“Eat, drink, and still shrink” (Mag2, Mag-9) x
“Get slim and stay that way” (Mag16) X
“Slim down for good” (Mag32) X
“Run faster and get firmer too” (Mag40) X
“Take charge of your health” (Mag22)” X
“Wear this, not that!” (Mag19) X
“Flatten your belly” (Mag29) X
“Flatter your figure” (Mag33) X
“Flatter your belly” (Mag22) X
“Lose your belly” (Mag36) X
“Drop two sizes fast” (Mag39) X
“Slim down fast” (Mag2, Mag30) X
“Lose weight fast” (Mag11) X
“Your fittest body ever” (Mag30) X
“Lean and sexy now” (Mag5, Mag19,
Mag29)
“Eat up and slim down” (Mag27) X
“Shrink your belly” (Mag7, Mag13, Mag20, X
Mag25)

Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

Appendix D

Coder 2 Coding Sheet

1. Overwording

Content Words Frequency

50-40 40-30 30-20 20-15 15-5 0
Health 53
Women 41
Sex 28
Sexy 27
Slim 19
weight-loss/ lose 25
weight/ weigh
less
Fit 18
Healthy 13
Beauty 13
real women 5

2. The lexeme “sexy”

What connotation does the word “sexy” show in the extracts? Kindly put a

legend as to what column it belongs with.

Extracts Favorable Unfavorable

“Lean, sexy, confident” (Mag13) X
“Strong, sexy, slim” (Mag18) X
“Healthy, sexy breasts” (Mag3) X
“New shortcuts to a slim, sexy body” (Mag15) X
“Fast-track to a lean body and a sexy belly” (Mag-34) X
“Sculpt sexy legs and a tight butt.” (Mag-24) X
“Lean, sexy legs” (Mag-14) X
“Slim, calm, and sexy yoga” (Mag-7) X
“Sexy ways to dress-up for your workout” (Mag-12) X
“Sexy swimsuits for every body type” (Mag 10) X
“25+ crazy, sexy, summer ideas to keep cool” (Mag- X
33)
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.

3. “Fat” Body Connotation

What connotation does the word “sexy” show in the extracts? Kindly put a

legend as to what column it belongs with.

Extracts Favorable Unfavorable

“Eat out and still lose weight: Avoid holiday fat X
traps” (Mag1)
“Burn more fat” (Mag8) X
“Eat up and slim down: fat burning meals, low-cal X
cocktails” (Mag14)
“Healthy in a hurry: fast, tasty, low-fat recipes to X
try” (Mag9)

Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.

4. Body Shaming Euphemisms

Considering that euphemisms are used for taboo or sensitive subjects, a

language of evasion, of hypocrisy, of prudery, and of deceit (Holder 2002), it is

the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may

offend or suggest something unpleasant. Do the examples below substitute the

terms “fat”, “lose fat”, “fat loss”? Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it

belongs with.
 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

Extracts Yes No
“Use the right weight loss plan” (Mag9) X
“Shape-up secrets to get you back on track and keep you injury- X
free” (Mag23)
“Eat more weigh less: save pesos, lose pounds with these food X
swaps.” (Mag23)
“Boost your productivity: Weigh less, save more, sleep soundly, eat X
healthily” (Mag27)
“Stop yo-yo dieting for good: yummy, healthy, low-calorie, X
breakfasts.” (Mag27)
“Burn calories and score a well-toned body” (Mag-38) X
“Tone trouble spots” (Mag15) X
“Sculpt hot curves” (Mag15) X
“Lose the bulge for good” (Mag7) X
“Burn more calories” (Mag6) X
“Stress less, weigh less” (Mag31) X

Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.

5. “Real Women” and “Weight-loss” Connotation

Do you think that these instances show partiality on the idea of being a “real

woman”? Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it belongs with.

Extracts Yes No
“Weight-loss secrets of real women” (Mag4) X
“Get inspired: Real women and their weight-loss secrets” X
(Mag17), (Mag34)
“Pounds off! Success tips from real women” (Mag39) X
“25 Beauty must-haves tried and tested by real women” X
(Mag9)

Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

6. Assertive Speech Acts

Based on Searle’s (1969) assertive speech acts schemes, assuring also deals with

the removal of worry from the mind of the audience (as cited in Wierzbika, 1999)

such that assuring means showing someone of the truth and accuracy of

something (Austin, 1971). Do the examples show assuring and suggesting?

Kindly indicate a legend as to what column it belongs with.

Extracts Assuring Suggesting

“The key to weight-loss that lasts” (Mag15) X
“2-in-1 moves for firm arms, flat abs, and a tight X
butt.” (Mag9)
“The body you want in three weeks flat” (Mag10) X
“Diet and exercise pointers that really works” X
(Mag11)
“The health check-up you really need” (Mag8) X
“Health check: The surprising pleasure zone you must X
know well” (Mag-13)
“Strip away pounds in four weeks” (Mag-4) X
“The best calorie-torching, body-sculpting, health- X
boosting tips to try now” (Mag-28)
“Top 5 reasons to stay fit” (Mag-26) X
“10 moves to flatten your abs fast” (Mag-33) X
“Hot body shortcuts” (Mag-32) X
“Tricks to drop pounds and tone muscles faster” X
(Mag-36)
“21 super foods for weight-loss issue” (Mag-1) X

Do you observe any other connotations or implications? If so, kindly state.

 UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS FACULTY OF ARTS AND LETTERS PAGE

7. Directive Speech Acts

Searle (1969) explains that the point of directives is to make the addressee

perform an action through commands, requests, and instructions. Do the

examples below observe such kind of speech act? Kindly indicate a legend as to

what column it belongs with.

Extracts Commands Instructions

“Eat, drink, and still shrink” (Mag2, Mag-9) X
“Get slim and stay that way” (Mag16) X
“Slim down for good” (Mag32) X
“Run faster and get firmer too” (Mag40) X
“Take charge of your health” (Mag22)” X
“Wear this, not that!” (Mag19) X
“Flatten your belly” (Mag29) X
“Flatter your figure” (Mag33) X
“Flatter your belly” (Mag22) X
“Lose your belly” (Mag36) X
“Drop two sizes fast” (Mag39) X
“Slim down fast” (Mag2, Mag30) X
“Lose weight fast” (Mag11) X
“Your fittest body ever” (Mag30) X
“Lean and sexy now” (Mag5, Mag19, X
Mag29)
“Eat up and slim down” (Mag27) X
“Shrink your belly” (Mag7, Mag13, Mag20, X
Mag25)