Representations of women in advertising

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-1990's?

-Increasingly employed images in which 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 1940's and 1950's?

-Betty Friedan (1963) claims this led to the creation of the 'feminine mystique': 'the highest value and the only real commitment for women lies in the fulfilment of their own femininity.

3) How did the increasing influence of clothes and make-up change representations of women in advertising?

-The of expansion in production/consumption of clothes and makeup which 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's (1975) theory of the 'male gaze' shows how men oversexualise and objectify women.

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

-Proliferation of distinct images that became labelled as the 'New Woman' and 'changing reality of women's social position and of the influence of the women's movement'According to

advertisers, the appeal in the use of female attractiveness and sexuality to sell products to women is

its appeal to their exhibitionism.

6) Why does van Zoonen suggest the 'new' representations of women in the 1970's and 1980's were only marginally different from the sexist representations of earlier years?

-From the mid-1970's 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' (van Zoonen, 1994:72). The New Woman was

supposed to be 'independent, confident and assertive,

7) What does Barthes 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?

-The message in the Dior advert is that women can use Christian Dior make-up to make themselves sexually attractive - and that her sexuality is for her own enjoyment.He suggests that the media is constructing the women as a spectacle and, just like the innocent maiden, is presented as a willing co- conspirator of men's sexual advances - and worse, believes she is 'liberated' in doing so.


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 blog post as the questions above.

1) What was the Protein World 'Beach Bodies' campaign and why was it controversial?

-The advert had a blond and fit women standing in a bikini,and this caused a lot of controversy because the advert was trying to pleasure the male gaze instead of trying to sell to females who the products is for.

2) What was the Dove Real Beauty campaign?

-One of the most successful of the digital age. The campaign features real women with real bodies of all races and ages.

3) How has social media changed the way audiences can interact with advertising campaigns? 

-Social media allows access to everyone across the world so that they can interact with advertising campaigns.Social media has become very powerful in the recent years in terms of their opinions about certain campaigns,if the audiences do not like a advertising campaigns based of reasons like sexism for example then they can come together as a community to make sure the campaign is based and taken down.

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

-Stuart halls reception theory discusses the preferred, negational and oppositional readings of the producer. Preferred would be that audience would be more passive and agree with the women's body image, negotiated it that people would raise questions towards the advert but not express their options clearly and finally oppositional would be the audience completely against the idea of the ad even existing in our society as it reflects women in the wrong way.

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?

-I think that the advertising of women has changes in the tiniest possible way but not much because women are still presented as products and spectacles like Richard Dyer has said.Women are sexulised for the male gaze as they bring them pleasure like Mulvey has said in his theory that women are objectified.