A feminist critical discourse analysis of woman image in Chinese and American reviews of waitress: The musical
Jie Zhou
Zhejiang Normal University
DOI: https://doi.org/10.59429/pmcs.v8i2.14533
Keywords: feminist critical discourse analysis; woman image; musical reviews; Chinese and American comparison
Abstract
Woman image has been studied thoroughly from news, poetry, song lyrics to posts, but reviews have not got enough attention. This study took the perspective of feminist critical discourse analysis to analyze twenty American reviews and fifty-five Chinese reviews of Waitress: The Musical from 2023 to 2025 and identify the main themes. The reviews were categorized into four aspects: 1. job and success; 2. marriage and relationship; 3. sexual freedom; 4. pregnancy and motherhood. The study found that woman image constructed in Chinese and American reviews are similar at the aspect of job and success, marriage but differ at the aspect of pregnancy and motherhood, and this study made an attempt to explain the phenomenon to provide insight on how to analyze perceptions of social inequality, power abuse and discrimination in reviews.
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