How Do I Look Asia: The Mythical Empowerment of Asian Women

From Iskomunidad

How Do I Look? Asia: The Mythical Empowerment of Asian Women

Abstract

Myths are ideologies socially constructed by the dominant class based on their values. One way to create these myths is through media. A popular genre in recent years is reality television shows such as makeover programs. This study will analyze the narrative of the makeover reality television program How Do I Look Asia? to be able to identify the myths that are communicated and how they are created. The main framework of this study will be Roland Barthes’ semiotics theory on myths and the narrative structure will be observed based on Gustav Freytag’s model of the dramatic structure. This will be then studied using textual analysis, specifically a multimodal semiotics method. This study will discuss how the program communicates the myth that consumption of Western fashion is the key to empowerment.

Keywords: myth, fashion, consumerism, culture

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