Blog tasks: Representation of women in advertising
The following tasks are challenging - some of the reading is university-level but this will be great preparation for the next stage in your education after leaving Greenford. Create a new blogpost called 'Representation of women in advertising' and work through the following tasks.
Academic reading: A Critical Analysis of Progressive Depictions of Gender in Advertising
Read these extracts from an academic essay on gender in advertising by Reena Mistry. This was originally published in full in David Gauntlett's book 'Media, Gender and Identity'. Then, answer the following questions:
1) How does Mistry suggest advertising has changed since the mid-1990s?
She states that the gender roles are less rigid and have become more fluid and amigious. Homosexuality is becoming more and more accepted within society.
2) What kinds of female stereotypes were found in advertising in the 1940s and 1950s?
One of the main stereotypes found was the idea of masculinity being superior to femininity. However, soon after 1945 women were made to feel guilty by warnings of the 'dangerous consequences to home'. In 1950, women's magazines led to something called 'feminine mystique'. This placed more importance on housewife chores and reinforced stereotypical ideals.
3) How did the increasing influence of clothes and make-up change representations of women in advertising?
It represented women to be more 'decorative'. More people began to think that women are objects that are used to be decorated. An example of this is the perfume advert-'fair maiden'. This is further reinforced when Janice Winship claims that women are encouraged to 'use commodities to serve men', which suggests that women are simply an object of pleasure and used to sell products to male audiences, this links to the idea of the 'male gaze'.
4) Which theorist came up with the idea of the 'male gaze' and what does it refer to?
Laura Mulvey was the theorist who came up with this idea in 1975. It refers to the act of depicting the world and women in the media from a masculine point of view, presenting women as objects of male pleasure.
5) How did the representation of women change in the 1970s?
From the mid-1970s there was a proliferation of distinct images that became labelled as the 'New Woman', and that were seen as representative of the 'changing reality of women's social position and of the influence of the women's movement'. The New Woman was supposed to be 'independent, confident and assertive, finding satisfaction in the world of work and recreation, seeking excitement, adventure and fulfilment.
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?
The ability of these images to undermine traditional female stereotypes is superficial according to van Zoonen because it is suggested that 'A woman should look forward to dressing for the office.', Having a job is seen merely to provide 'another happy occasion for women to dress up and present themselves.
7) What does Barthel suggest regarding advertising and male power?
Young women in advertising now can defend the male power or keep them the way they are, posing no threat. But also with them gaining power a reassurance has to be made that no gender change has occurred.
8) What does Richard Dyer suggest about the 'femme fatale' representation of women in adverts such as Christian Dior make-up?
The message in Figure 5 is that women can use Christian Dior make-up to make themselves sexually attractive - and that her sexuality is for her own enjoyment.
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?
It was a campaign which 'Protein World' launched in spring 2015 on the London Underground. It featured a tanned, blonde female in a full-frontal pose. It included a question - 'Are You Beach body Ready?'
2) Why was it controversial?
Some people took loads of offence to it because it was suggesting that unless you looked like that model - thin and tanned, then you couldn't wear a bikini. Because it was selling weight loss product, the question was essentially saying - Are you thin enough for the beach?
3) What did the adverts suggest to audiences?
It suggested that unless you looked as thin as the model on the advert, then you couldn't wear a bikini and that only thin girls should show their bodies off.
4) How did some audiences react?
71,000 women had signed a petition on change.org for the ASA to take the ad down. Also other women posed next to the advert in their bikini's to create a more real picture of what women's bodies look like.
5) What was the Dove Real Beauty campaign?
The campaign employed an FBI-trained sketch artist to draw women twice – first based on
their own self-perception, and then based on that of a stranger. The outcomes demonstrated that the strangers’ descriptions were both more attractive and more accurate than the women’s own perceptions, suggesting that women are often hyper-critical of their appearances, and unable to see their own beauty. Both of the adverts became talking points, but for opposite reasons.
6) How has social media changed the way audiences can interact with advertising campaigns?
There is more of a direct communication to institutions and people can reach wider range of people if they want to have a conversation or debate about different ad campaigns.
7) How can we apply van Zoonen's feminist theory and Stuart Hall's reception theory to these case studies?
The reading of these adverts could be either opposed, dominant or negotiated. Both adverts are quite controversial, one with a much larger negative reading and one with more of a positive reading.
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?
I think it's definitely changed, but there's still some work to do. Compared to the 50s/60s, there's a much larger number of women in advertising and more and more women are being encouraged to be themselves and embrace their sexuality/beauty. However, there are still some elements of the male gaze and women aaren't being represented as equally as women.
Academic reading: A Critical Analysis of Progressive Depictions of Gender in Advertising
Read these extracts from an academic essay on gender in advertising by Reena Mistry. This was originally published in full in David Gauntlett's book 'Media, Gender and Identity'. Then, answer the following questions:
1) How does Mistry suggest advertising has changed since the mid-1990s?
She states that the gender roles are less rigid and have become more fluid and amigious. Homosexuality is becoming more and more accepted within society.
2) What kinds of female stereotypes were found in advertising in the 1940s and 1950s?
One of the main stereotypes found was the idea of masculinity being superior to femininity. However, soon after 1945 women were made to feel guilty by warnings of the 'dangerous consequences to home'. In 1950, women's magazines led to something called 'feminine mystique'. This placed more importance on housewife chores and reinforced stereotypical ideals.
3) How did the increasing influence of clothes and make-up change representations of women in advertising?
It represented women to be more 'decorative'. More people began to think that women are objects that are used to be decorated. An example of this is the perfume advert-'fair maiden'. This is further reinforced when Janice Winship claims that women are encouraged to 'use commodities to serve men', which suggests that women are simply an object of pleasure and used to sell products to male audiences, this links to the idea of the 'male gaze'.
4) Which theorist came up with the idea of the 'male gaze' and what does it refer to?
Laura Mulvey was the theorist who came up with this idea in 1975. It refers to the act of depicting the world and women in the media from a masculine point of view, presenting women as objects of male pleasure.
5) How did the representation of women change in the 1970s?
From the mid-1970s there was a proliferation of distinct images that became labelled as the 'New Woman', and that were seen as representative of the 'changing reality of women's social position and of the influence of the women's movement'. The New Woman was supposed to be 'independent, confident and assertive, finding satisfaction in the world of work and recreation, seeking excitement, adventure and fulfilment.
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?
The ability of these images to undermine traditional female stereotypes is superficial according to van Zoonen because it is suggested that 'A woman should look forward to dressing for the office.', Having a job is seen merely to provide 'another happy occasion for women to dress up and present themselves.
7) What does Barthel suggest regarding advertising and male power?
Young women in advertising now can defend the male power or keep them the way they are, posing no threat. But also with them gaining power a reassurance has to be made that no gender change has occurred.
8) What does Richard Dyer suggest about the 'femme fatale' representation of women in adverts such as Christian Dior make-up?
The message in Figure 5 is that women can use Christian Dior make-up to make themselves sexually attractive - and that her sexuality is for her own enjoyment.
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?
It was a campaign which 'Protein World' launched in spring 2015 on the London Underground. It featured a tanned, blonde female in a full-frontal pose. It included a question - 'Are You Beach body Ready?'
2) Why was it controversial?
Some people took loads of offence to it because it was suggesting that unless you looked like that model - thin and tanned, then you couldn't wear a bikini. Because it was selling weight loss product, the question was essentially saying - Are you thin enough for the beach?
3) What did the adverts suggest to audiences?
It suggested that unless you looked as thin as the model on the advert, then you couldn't wear a bikini and that only thin girls should show their bodies off.
4) How did some audiences react?
71,000 women had signed a petition on change.org for the ASA to take the ad down. Also other women posed next to the advert in their bikini's to create a more real picture of what women's bodies look like.
5) What was the Dove Real Beauty campaign?
The campaign employed an FBI-trained sketch artist to draw women twice – first based on
their own self-perception, and then based on that of a stranger. The outcomes demonstrated that the strangers’ descriptions were both more attractive and more accurate than the women’s own perceptions, suggesting that women are often hyper-critical of their appearances, and unable to see their own beauty. Both of the adverts became talking points, but for opposite reasons.
6) How has social media changed the way audiences can interact with advertising campaigns?
There is more of a direct communication to institutions and people can reach wider range of people if they want to have a conversation or debate about different ad campaigns.
7) How can we apply van Zoonen's feminist theory and Stuart Hall's reception theory to these case studies?
The reading of these adverts could be either opposed, dominant or negotiated. Both adverts are quite controversial, one with a much larger negative reading and one with more of a positive reading.
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?
I think it's definitely changed, but there's still some work to do. Compared to the 50s/60s, there's a much larger number of women in advertising and more and more women are being encouraged to be themselves and embrace their sexuality/beauty. However, there are still some elements of the male gaze and women aaren't being represented as equally as women.
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