All a Black Woman Needs is Great Sex and a Sexy Body: Themes in True Love Magazine Cover Lines

Abstract

Drawing on social constructivism, and Stuart Hall’s representation theories, the purpose of this article is to examine themes of black femininity presented on the cover lines on the 12 front covers of South African True Love magazine published between June 2015 and May 2016. Moreover, Galician’s myths are used to analyse the themes of sex, love and romance featured on the covers. A combination of social semiotic analysis and qualitative content analysis of 83 cover lines published in the 12 issues was conducted to explore the themes used to construct and represent black women. The findings revealed that the cover lines provided a narrow range of discourses of black femininity. The pivotal themes centred on notions of good sex and a beautiful body. The underlying messages were that a desirable body is an asset that can get a woman very far in life, and it is associated with sexual fulfilment. The cover lines tended to give instructions on maintaining healthy romantic relationships. Overall, the texts promoted unrealistic sex expectations and glamorous looks that are near impossible for an average True Love reader to attain.

Keywords:

• black women
• bodily appearance
• cover lines
• sex
• women’s magazines
• True Love