Commodification of Women in Pakistani Newspaper Matrimonial Advertisements: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Jang and Dawn Newspaper Classifieds

Abstract

This paper explores how Pakistani newspapers construct and commodify women in their matrimonial advertisements, the matrimonial classifieds in the Jang (Urdu) and Dawn (English). Based on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study explores how adjectives and descriptors such as fair, tall, educated, doctor, and homemaker reduce women to a list of commodifiable characteristics and propagate and reinforce patriarchal, colourist, conservative, and classist ideologies. The advertisements were collected through a qualitative purposive sampling method and were analysed thematically to identify recurrent words and the social significance of these linguistic patterns. The results show that women are mainly judged on physical appearance, morality, housewifery, and social standing. Simultaneously, there is a gender imbalance, with men referring to financial stability and social standing. The study also shows that colourism and the symbolic status of education and profession as indicators of class have become normalised. The patterns indicate that matrimonial advertisements are the ideological instruments that propagate structural inequalities and cultural rules about marriageability and femininity subtly and unconsciously. The study will contribute to feminist media studies and discourse analysis by anticipating the deliberate use of print matrimonial advertisements as an important but under-explored theme of gendered social practice, and by learning from media literacy and gender sensitisation programmes.

Keywords: Rishta Culture, Matrimonial Advertisements, Commodification of Women, Colourism, Classism, Critical Discourse Analysis, Pakistan, Dawn Newspaper, Jang Newspaper.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18635388