נוכחות־נפקדות: דימויים חזותיים ולשוניים של נשים חרדיות בפרסומות במגזין החרדי "משפחה"

The present article examines visual-linguistic rhetorical features in advertisements appearing in the commercial ultra-Orthodox magazine Mishpacha and its supplement Betoch HaMishpacha in the second decade of the 21st century. The aim of the study is to examine advertisements targeting modern ultra-Orthodox women in order to learn about the place, status, and roles of women in contemporary ultra-Orthodox society. The research methods used integrated quantitative content analysis, semiotic interpretive qualitative analysis, and linguistic-stylistic analysis. In this way, we identified the visual-linguistic rhetorical features in the advertisements. Analysis of the quantitative data revealed four main categories in the advertisements: products, roles and jobs, the relationship between the verbal and the visual text, and the characteristics of the discourse and linguistic style, all of which included two more or less equal spaces existing between the private and public spheres. The qualitative and linguistic-stylistic findings each point in their own way to a blurring of borders between conservatism and modernism. In their depiction of the “missing” women, based on the rule against the concrete presentation of women, the advertisements make use of several indirect strategies. The findings shed light on multiple voices and various options for being an ultra-Orthodox woman.