The construction of hegemonic female gender roles in Serbian/Yugoslav women's magazine Bazar

This paper examines a select sample of popular Serbian/Yugoslav women 's magazine Bazar to address the question: How are the media construction of female gender roles discursively constructed within specific societal circumstances in Serbian/Yugoslav society in three different historical moments (in 1970s, 1980s, 1990s)? How do these hegemonic constructs differ among themselves? Do they correspond with everyday reality and in which way? The major finding of this paper is the existence of three ideal type of hegemonic female gender role models represented in women 's magazine Bazar in three different historical periods (1970s, 1980s, 1990s). These three ideal type models are: (a) the 1970s model of 'super-woman', (b) the 1980s model of 'frustrated super-woman' and (c) the 1990s model of 'escapist woman'. All of them testify how popular women's magazine follows the policy of its publishing house, and official ideological political discourse, through the media construction of hegemonic female gender role. The comparative analysis of these three models of hegemonic female gender roles and their relation toward official ideological political discourse (mediated through the policy of Bazar 's publishing house Politika) shows/confirms that the aggravation of living conditions and the increase of social instability enlarge the gap between media construct of hegemonic female gender role and the everyday reality of the society, in relation to which the HFGR is constructed in particular historical moment.