Representations Of Women In Advertising

 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?
The gender and sexual orientation of the subject(s) are markedly (and purposefully) ambiguous.

2) What kinds of female stereotypes were found in advertising in the 1940s and 1950s?

Keeping house and raising children'

Washing machines and convenience foods.

3) How did the increasing influence of clothes and make-up change representations of women in advertising?
Led to women being increasingly portrayed as decorative (empty) objects

4) Which theorist came up with the idea of the 'male gaze' and what does it refer to?
Laura Mulvey came up with the theory and it refers to the idea that women are exploited and presented in the media purely for men's satisfaction, fantasies and gaze.

5) How did the representation of women change in the 1970s?

Women became overly sexualised.

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. At the level of content analysis, the roles that women take on in these advertisements appear to be progressive (the employee, the active woman); however, with a more semiological 

approach, van Zoonen asserts that the New Woman 'only departs marginally from her older, more traditional sisters.' Deconstructing an advertisement promoting the 'Jenni Barnes Working Style' range of clothing, van Zoonen points to its claim 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?

'Today's young women can successfully storm the bastions of male power... without threatening their male counterparts' providing we can reassure them that, underneath the suit, we are still 'all woman', that 'no serious gender defection has occurred'. In other words, that there is no real threat to male power.

8) What does Richard Dyer suggest about the 'femme fatale' representation of women in adverts such as Christian Dior make-up?

He claims that such images are something of a misrepresentation of women's liberation:  agencies trying to accommodate new [feminist] attitudes in their campaigns, often miss the point and equate "liberation" with a type of aggressive sexuality and a very

unliberated coy sexiness'.

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 and why was it controversial?

‘Are you beach body ready?’ invited readers to think about their figures, we did not consider the image of the model would shame women who had different body shapes into believing they needed to take a slimming supplement to feel confident wearing swimwear in

public. For that reason, we concluded the ad was not irresponsible. The advert was arguably aimed first and foremost at the male gaze.

2) What was the Dove Real Beauty campaign?

Dove created an interactive Ad Makeover campaign that put women in charge of the advertisements, where they themselves customers. Most of them are women.   The campaign’s mission is to create a world where beauty is a source of confidence and not anxiety.

3) How has social media changed the way audiences can interact with advertising campaigns? 
Let's them express their feelings and actual impact the advertisement made rather than what the producer thinks it made, like boycotting.

4) How can we apply van Zoonen's feminist theory and Stuart Hall's reception theory to these case studies?

To analyse women's social experiences with gender subordination, oppression, and gender inequality and to identify remedies to these gender-specific discrimination issues.

5) 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?

It has changed in the sense of what they are being advertised for such as, job, independence etc but it is the same overly sexual way.