Blog tasks: Representation of women in advertising
1) How does Mistry suggest advertising has changed since the mid-1990s?
Since the mid 1990s advertising has increasingly employed images in which the gender and sexual orientation of the subject(s) are markedly ambiguous. There are also a growing number of homosexual images.
2) What kinds of female stereotypes were found in advertising in the 1940s and 1950s?
Women were constantly objectified in magazines and were presented to be submissive to all men. The clothing they wore was also always revealing giving a sexual appeal to the male gaze.
3) How did the increasing influence of clothes and make-up change representations of women in advertising?
The increasing influence of clothing and make up created the representation of women being decorative objects made to satisfy men with their features. The use of make up is use of men trying to make women become their ideal image of what a woman should look like to for their own personal satisfaction.
4) Which theorist came up with the idea of the 'male gaze' and what does it refer to?
The Male Gaze theory was made by theorist Laura Mulvey. It refers to that women are purposely positioned as an sexualized object of male desire
5) How did the representation of women change in the 1970s?
Since the mid 1970s there were images that came to be titled as the New woman as they showcased the social change women were going through as they were becoming more independent and assertive showcasing a type of women's movement.
6) Why does van Zoonen suggest the 'new' representations of women in the 1970s and 1980s were only
marginally different from the sexist representations of earlier years?
Van Zoonen suggests that this New Woman representation only partially moves away from her older and more traditional sisters, he also talks about an advertisement that promotes professional working clothing for women and explains how having a job is to give women another occasion to dress up and present themselves. Van zoonen clearly believes that not much has changed but instead its just a new way of putting the older representations.
7) What does Barthel suggest regarding advertising and male power?
Barthel suggests that their isn't any real threat to male power because of the fact that under everything women are still women no matter what, even if they can manage to successfully storm the bastions of male power.
8) What does Richard Dyer suggest about the 'femme fatale' representation of women in adverts such as Christian Dior make-up?
Dyer suggests that these images are a failed representation of women's liberation as when these popular companies try to incorporate new feminist attitudes and representations in their campaigns they miss the point and end up offering a representation that isn't accurate at all.
Media Magazine: Beach Bodies v Real Women (MM54)
Now go to our Media Magazine archive and read the feature on Protein World's controversial 'Beach Bodies' marketing campaign in 2015. Read the feature and answer the questions below in the same blogpost as the questions above.
1) What was the Protein World 'Beach Bodies' campaign?
The beach body campaign which was related to a weight loss collection made by Protein World had a print advertisement on the tubes, picturing a model wearing a revealing bikini with words to go along with it being Are you beach body ready.
2) Why was it controversial?
The advert attracted much criticism for playing on female consumers insecurities, making them believe that to go to places like the beach or just in general they had to look as slim as the girl on the advertisement. It was also arguably aimed first and foremost at the male gaze.
3) What did the adverts suggest to audiences?
The advert suggests to audiences that women had to look a certain way at all times in order to present themselves the right way most likely to men which plays into the Male Gaze theory and therefore audiences saw this as body shaming towards females.
4) How did some audiences react?
Many people disagreed with the advert so much to the point that when people began to campaign against the sexist poster a change.org petition was created and signed by 71,000 people urging to take adverts down. Other protesters responded visually by posing next to the ad, offering a more realistic depiction of women's bodies.
5) What was the Dove Real Beauty campaign?
In 2013 Dove's Real beauty sketches gamered more than 114m views in one month. The campaign employed an FBI trained sketch to draw women twice with the first based on their own self-perception and then based on that of a stranger. The outcome showed that the strangers representation were both more attractive and more attractive than the women's own perception. This suggests that women are hyper-critical of their own appearances, not being able to see their own beauty.
6) How has social media changed the way audiences can interact with advertising campaigns?
Social media changed the way audiences interact with advertising campaigns by giving audiences a way to actually interact with these said campaigns and give out their own personal views which others may at first be scared to address.
7) How can we apply van Zoonen's feminist theory and Stuart Hall's reception theory to these case studies?
Van zoonen believes nothing has changed from back in the 1970s which is clearly evident with adverts like the Beach bodies since it offers a sexual representation of women to men and tries to force women to look a certain way instead of actually trying to be themselves. Stuart halls reception theory links to this because the preferred reading is that women should look a certain way to present themselves as feminine. The oppositional reading being that women have to be slim and nothing else will do as it is not the correct standard for a woman
8) Through studying the social and historical context of women in advertising, do you think representations of women in advertising have changed in the last 60 years?
In my opinion, the representations of women has changed in the last 60 years as these days yes objectification of women is still evident but not as large as it was back in those days and that women are now seen as more independent and have a lot of support through different campaigns and groups that you wouldn't have ever seen all those years ago.
Since the mid 1990s advertising has increasingly employed images in which the gender and sexual orientation of the subject(s) are markedly ambiguous. There are also a growing number of homosexual images.
2) What kinds of female stereotypes were found in advertising in the 1940s and 1950s?
Women were constantly objectified in magazines and were presented to be submissive to all men. The clothing they wore was also always revealing giving a sexual appeal to the male gaze.
3) How did the increasing influence of clothes and make-up change representations of women in advertising?
The increasing influence of clothing and make up created the representation of women being decorative objects made to satisfy men with their features. The use of make up is use of men trying to make women become their ideal image of what a woman should look like to for their own personal satisfaction.
4) Which theorist came up with the idea of the 'male gaze' and what does it refer to?
The Male Gaze theory was made by theorist Laura Mulvey. It refers to that women are purposely positioned as an sexualized object of male desire
5) How did the representation of women change in the 1970s?
Since the mid 1970s there were images that came to be titled as the New woman as they showcased the social change women were going through as they were becoming more independent and assertive showcasing a type of women's movement.
6) Why does van Zoonen suggest the 'new' representations of women in the 1970s and 1980s were only
marginally different from the sexist representations of earlier years?
Van Zoonen suggests that this New Woman representation only partially moves away from her older and more traditional sisters, he also talks about an advertisement that promotes professional working clothing for women and explains how having a job is to give women another occasion to dress up and present themselves. Van zoonen clearly believes that not much has changed but instead its just a new way of putting the older representations.
7) What does Barthel suggest regarding advertising and male power?
Barthel suggests that their isn't any real threat to male power because of the fact that under everything women are still women no matter what, even if they can manage to successfully storm the bastions of male power.
8) What does Richard Dyer suggest about the 'femme fatale' representation of women in adverts such as Christian Dior make-up?
Dyer suggests that these images are a failed representation of women's liberation as when these popular companies try to incorporate new feminist attitudes and representations in their campaigns they miss the point and end up offering a representation that isn't accurate at all.
Media Magazine: Beach Bodies v Real Women (MM54)
Now go to our Media Magazine archive and read the feature on Protein World's controversial 'Beach Bodies' marketing campaign in 2015. Read the feature and answer the questions below in the same blogpost as the questions above.
1) What was the Protein World 'Beach Bodies' campaign?
The beach body campaign which was related to a weight loss collection made by Protein World had a print advertisement on the tubes, picturing a model wearing a revealing bikini with words to go along with it being Are you beach body ready.
2) Why was it controversial?
The advert attracted much criticism for playing on female consumers insecurities, making them believe that to go to places like the beach or just in general they had to look as slim as the girl on the advertisement. It was also arguably aimed first and foremost at the male gaze.
3) What did the adverts suggest to audiences?
The advert suggests to audiences that women had to look a certain way at all times in order to present themselves the right way most likely to men which plays into the Male Gaze theory and therefore audiences saw this as body shaming towards females.
4) How did some audiences react?
Many people disagreed with the advert so much to the point that when people began to campaign against the sexist poster a change.org petition was created and signed by 71,000 people urging to take adverts down. Other protesters responded visually by posing next to the ad, offering a more realistic depiction of women's bodies.
5) What was the Dove Real Beauty campaign?
In 2013 Dove's Real beauty sketches gamered more than 114m views in one month. The campaign employed an FBI trained sketch to draw women twice with the first based on their own self-perception and then based on that of a stranger. The outcome showed that the strangers representation were both more attractive and more attractive than the women's own perception. This suggests that women are hyper-critical of their own appearances, not being able to see their own beauty.
6) How has social media changed the way audiences can interact with advertising campaigns?
Social media changed the way audiences interact with advertising campaigns by giving audiences a way to actually interact with these said campaigns and give out their own personal views which others may at first be scared to address.
7) How can we apply van Zoonen's feminist theory and Stuart Hall's reception theory to these case studies?
Van zoonen believes nothing has changed from back in the 1970s which is clearly evident with adverts like the Beach bodies since it offers a sexual representation of women to men and tries to force women to look a certain way instead of actually trying to be themselves. Stuart halls reception theory links to this because the preferred reading is that women should look a certain way to present themselves as feminine. The oppositional reading being that women have to be slim and nothing else will do as it is not the correct standard for a woman
8) Through studying the social and historical context of women in advertising, do you think representations of women in advertising have changed in the last 60 years?
In my opinion, the representations of women has changed in the last 60 years as these days yes objectification of women is still evident but not as large as it was back in those days and that women are now seen as more independent and have a lot of support through different campaigns and groups that you wouldn't have ever seen all those years ago.
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