Abstract
This study aims to identify and interpret representations of parenting (especially paternity) in FQ, a British parenting magazine for fathers, in terms of the approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA) put forward by Fairclough (1992, 2003). Specifically, the aim of this analysis is to illustrate what discourses on fathers ' role are constructed and thus what ideologies on paternity are represented in FQ. The analysis shows that there are two conflicting discourses in FQ: "Part-time father/Mother as main parent" and "Father as main parent," though the former are the main discourses. However, there is a difference between these conflicting discourses in terms of their collocation with the content of childcare. The former collocates with discourses on childcare such as "changing a baby's nappy" and "milk feeding," whereas the latter collocates with discourses on discipline and education. Therefore, the assumption represented is that fathers and mothers do not share parenting equally and that they are assigned different types of childcare related roles. This is problematic because prejudiced perspectives on differential roles of fathers and mothers are presented to readers despite the fact that FQ claims to be targeting all fathers and men.
