VISITING »HAPPY FAMILY« WITH THE MAGAZINE »NADA«

Abstract

By analysing the contents of the central column of one of the magazines with the highest circulation among the so-called »women’s press«, the specific methods of promoting patriarchal patterns of family life through media are esta- blished. On the pages of the popular magazine, public figures »live« their private lives, which are presented as a modified and partly concealed variation of patriarchal family idyll. In that way, the dominant patterns of thought and behaviour which are familiar to all »average« families are being promoted »from the top«, and at the same time the process of bringing closer media stars and »commons« people takes place. By propagating patriarchal values, in some aspects of its essence shaken by the appearance of new, more humane, alternative values, these texts perform the homogenization of consciousness, preservation of conservative views on the position and the role of woman in family and society and, thus, cause the postponement or prevention of potentially destructive changes in the prevailing cultural system.