Feminist conceptual metaphors in the corpus of American and Chinese magazines

Abstract

Women’s magazines reflect the notions of gender equality and social justice in society and serve as a catalyst for public debate on these issues. Little is understood about whether feminist conceptual metaphors in magazines are similar to those in magazines published in the United States and China. The study examined feminist conceptual metaphors used in the self-compiled corpus of American magazines Ms. and Bust (1,617 articles) and Chinese magazines Women of China and Marriage and Family (5,182 articles). The magazine articles were published between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024. The analysis using AntConc 4.2.4 and SegmentAnt 1.0.0 shows that both American and Chinese magazines deploy war and journey metaphors to portray the ongoing struggle and progress toward gender equality. However, we argue that magazines are active constructors, not mere mirrors, of gender ideology, deploying metaphors to naturalize neoliberal individualism in the United States and state-mediated collectivism in China.