Two research questions: 1) does the language used in The Fountain conform to the Guidelines on the Use of Nonsexist Language as first articulated in 1975 and revised in 1985 and 2002 by the National Council for Teachers of English? and 2) Does The Fountain address issues related to women and if so, what issues are discussed? guided my examination of the articles and editorials in The Fountain, a bimonthly magazine published in English and distributed to English speakers in the United States and the United Kingdom, by the Gülen Movement. The Fountain is archived at www.fountainmagazine.net and I examined issues 1-70 from the years 1993-2009.

Framing theory provided the methodology for this study. Framing theory argues that journalists are not mere recorders of facts, but that they package that information for audience consumption by their choices of what information to include or exclude, by covering issues that they or their editors deem important or timely, through language choice, and by their values that govern those choices.

Findings are that The Fountain has moved to sex inclusive language and avoids the use of stereotypes and sex-linked language. Women’s issues receive very little coverage and when they are covered, the prescriptions are framed using examples and discussions from the time of the Prophet Muhammad. The discussions take an essentialist position that sex rather than gender and culture determines the roles and behaviors of men and women.

Dr. Fran Hassencahl, is Assistant Professor (tenured), Director of Middle Eastern Studies Minor and Assistant Chair, Department of Communication, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA. She has a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in communication and her most recent publications include, “Framing 9/11” book chapter in The Changing Face of Evil in Film and Television, Gary Edgerton, Fran Hassencahl and W. B. Hart, Ed. Martin F. Norden, Rodopi, Amsterdam, 2007. “Editorial Cartoonists Use metaphor to Portray President George W. Bush as a Cowboy,” book chapter, Communication in The Millennium The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, 2007. “Conflicting Social Construction of Reality: Editorial Cartoonists  frame the Death of Yasser Arafat’’ book chapter in Communication in Peace/Conflict in Communication. Eds. Turgul Iter, et al. Famagusta: North Cyprus: Eastern Mediterranean University Press, 2008. “Framing the Arguments for the Success/Failure of Radio Sawa as a Vehicle of Public Diplomacy”, book chapter in Communication in The Millennium. Eds. Suat Gezgin, et al, Istanbul University, 2008.