A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Gender Ideologies in Women’s Magazines’ Horoscopes

English (OpenAlex)

Women’s magazines are a means to create and reproduce women identity through emphasizing particular topics like fashion, beauty, love and horoscopes. In this sense, they convey some ideological messages – mostly cultural and gender-biased. Using critical discourse analysis method of Van Dijk (2001), this study intends to compare the social and linguistic patterns of love and sexual themes in horoscopes in women’s magazines in three cultures – English, German and Turkish. The data were collected from 2023 yearly horoscopes published in online women's magazines in three languages. The macro level analysis showed that in all three languages, horoscopes highlighted the place of love in women's self-improvement. German and English horoscopes reflected women as equal, independent, self-confident, and strong individuals, while Turkish horoscopes conveyed a more conservative perspective on love, partnership, and sexuality, emphasizing traditional gender roles and perpetuating stereotypes. Regarding the micro level of the analysis, left and right dislocation were frequently found in the German horoscopes, compared to Turkish and English ones. Questions and imperatives were mostly applied pattern in the three language. The employment of plural and singular forms of you pronoun and the lexical strategies used to address readers showed variations in Turkish, German, and English horoscopes.