The media has been essential to the construction of modern identities and the production of concepts and behaviors: educating, disciplining, and regulating bodies; in short, constituting individuals. The objective of this study was to analyze discourses about the teenage body as published in Capricho magazine and reflect upon the meanings they carry. This study is of a qualitative nature with an exploratory approach, situated in the field of a post-structuralism version of Cultural Studies. It makes use of Michel Foucault's ideas for theoretical support. For the analysis of Capricho magazine's 2005, 2006, and 2007 content, we adopted Discourse Analysis associated with post-structuralism. Upon analyzing such discourses, we created the following categories: Collecting diets, Addicted to working out, and Clothes to conceal one's figure. It is our assessment that upon addressing a teenage audience, this magazine becomes a powerful cultural tool, operating in the sense of creating anorexic individuals. Eating disorders are developed through a complex social and biological network and the role of the nurse is important for its prevention.
Anorexia nervosa; Adolescent; Communications media