Experiences of Social Inequalities Related to Skin Colour Enhaced by Fashion Magazines in South Africa : A case study on how women in South Africa identify themselves in relation to the representation of race in South African fashion magazines

Abstract: This study was carried out during the spring of 2013 in Cape Town, South Africa with a Minor Field Study (MFS) scholarship funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). South Africa is a country with a complex society due to the still recent history of Apartheid. South Africa faces great challenges with the gap between rich and poor, high unemployment and deep expertise gaps between the white minority and the historically disadvantaged coloureds and black majority. As a result the contemporary situation is extensive segregation and difficulties for the multicultural population to conduct a common cultural identity. The aim of this study was to find out how four South African issues of international fashion magazines deals with the representation of black, white and coloured people. Furthermore, to find out how South African women from socially diverse areas experience and perceive this representation. Quantitative content analysis, connotative and denotative picture analysis and the conduction of interviews was made in order to reach a result. Consequently, it turned out that the investigated magazines do not present a fair and equal representation of the South African society, hence highly over representing the white minority in each magazine. Additionally, South African women do not describe the fashion magazines as presenting an equal representation of race, neither that a reality based ideal is being conveyed.