Women's health magazines and postfeminist healthism: A critical discourse analysis

Abstract

Daily, millions of North American women turn to popular media, like women's health magazines, for health-related advice and information. “Magazines continue to be a popular medium” and, given their power and reach, remain an important site for critical analysis. In this article, we examine the ways in which three popular women's health magazines provide “health” advice to their readers. We first provide an overview of research in feminist media studies exploring postfeminist sensibility, healthism, and now a postfeminist healthism. We then conduct a critical discourse analysis of articles from all 30 issues of Health, Women's Health, and Shape magazines published in 2018. Our investigation of how the magazines portray what it means to have “good health,” suggests that health continues to be conflated with appearance. Moreover, health is presented as confusing, such that maintaining health requires expert help, and as purchasable, and thus linked to economic practices.