Presents The Image Of Women In The Tv Fashion Transformation Program: Empowerment Or Patriarchal?

This research project, which arises from conflicting views between traditional mediated female study and post-feminism claims on women empowerment, endeavors to explore how females are represented in two Chinese makeover shows Women Queen and Belle. Its primary objective is to testify whether women are liberated in makeover shows such as Women Queen, Belle, or women are still subject to hegemonic masculinity. Two samples of each program are selected from the whole population randomly, covering programs from 2007 until 2009. Coding scheme and content analysis are used to sketch the outlook of the show, revealing the masculine design of the programs, and their exclusion of certain types of women. Male discourse is under scrutiny in three different situations: male present as dominate party; male and female in equal situations; and male absence. This research has discovered that male control the power of discourse in every situation, and this particular masculine notion even deeply roots in female ideology which manifests in the fact that women unconsciously revealing their subordination status to men. The concept of normalization is adopted in further critical discourse analysis so as to illustrate how idealized womanhood is constructed by male discourse. This research argues that posit between state power of hegemonic masculinity and the rising consumerism culture, the Chinese makeover shows Women Queen, Belle do not liberate women as they proclaim to be. On the contrary, women are under ever intensive and disguised suppression from the ruling masculine power, as consumerism cultural blurs the boundary between empowerment and commodification of female body.