Are you a “woman”? Representation of femininity in two women’s magazines in Singapore, Cleo and Her World

Magazines are a part of popular culture, conveying messages through text and images. These messages are framed through the selection, placement, and emphasis communicating social meanings, often depicting images of “how to be a woman.” Therefore, a study employing content analysis was conducted to examine portrayals of femininity vis-à-vis masculinity within women's magazines in Singapore. The findings are reflective of changing frames of femininity in media contents, where blurry lines of femininity in opposition to masculinity are emerging. New frames of being a woman are identified in dichotomized frames of being traditional versus being modern. Framed images continue to create a lens for interpreting social meanings of how to be a woman, which in turn continually creates expectations of women to meet the ideal image.