Discourse Analysis

A discourse analysis refers to groups of statements that structure the way a thing is thought and the way we act on the basis of that thinking (Rose 190). In other words discourse is a particular knowledge about the world which shapes how the world is understood and how things are done in it (Rose 190). In a discourse analysis, power, truth, and surveillance are a couple of important factors to look at as we enter a discourse analysis.

As we take a look at the models of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit models, they all have one similar thing in common. All of them have spectacular bodies, small waist, long legs, large breasts, and hair that just falls over their shoulders. By examining these photographs the viewer can tell that, "showing women less in athletic action and more in posed photographs enables a media outlet to construct a reality that serves to maintain the status-quo ideology of women as different and inferior athletes in comparison to men (Fink and Kensick 11)." This plays an important part in this particular magazine because it is labeled and referenced as a sports magazine.

As readers look at the women that cover Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues they might feel the attempt to replicate the womanly figures that they see on the magazine. They might start to workout; start to lose weight, and maybe even dress themselves up a little more to look more appealing. In the images above both models are showing off their butts, as well as just a side view of their breasts, letting women know to show off what they and be free, as the one on the left has her top off, be free is the message being sent to the audience here. Most women know that, "much of the public discourse about, and many of the ways boys/men consume, the swimsuit issue reinforce the belief that nature compels male attraction to and enjoyment of sexual representations (Davis 52)." This shows that women have to look good to be desired by men and therefore have to do these things that make them more attractive in their minds such as; workout, and dress up a little more. Just like the magazine, in real life males are attracted to enjoy sexual representations so women feel the need to give it to them.

As a viewer we can see the women on the cover photo of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, but they cannot see us at all. "This sort of visuality, in which one subject is seen without ever seeing, and the other sees without ever being see, Foucault called surveillance (Rose 229, 230)." This puts the model with less power than the viewer because the viewer can see her but the model does not know what the viewer is specifically looking at. "Surveillance studies scholars stress that we live in a surveillance society (Allmer 566)."



Psychoanalysis Audience Studies

Works Cited
Allmer, Thomas. "Critical Surveillance Studies in the Information Society." Triple C 9.2 (2011): 566-92. Print.

Davis, Laurel R. The Swimsuit Issue and Sport: Hegemonic Masculinity in Sports Illustrated. Albany: State University of New York, 1997. Print.

Fink, Janet S., and Linda Jean Kensicki. "An Imperceptible Difference: Visual and Textual Constructions of Femininity in Sports Illustrated and Sports Illustrated for Women." Mass Communication and Society 5.3 (2002): 317-39. Print.

Rose, Gillian. Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Researching with Visual Materials. London: SAGE, 2012. Print.

Illustrations

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/swimsuit/

Zach Lynch

May 8, 2013