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-1990s?

Advertising has been using more and more pictures since the mid-1990s that purposely and noticeably ambiguously depict the gender and sexual orientation of the person or subjects. In addition, there are an increasing number of images that are clearly homosexual; these differ greatly from portrayals of the camp gay used as comic relief in other popular media.

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

Women were suffering their own identity crisis. Prior to the war, feminists had been articulating the idea of women having their own plans and careers; but soon after 1945, women were made to feel guilty by warnings of the 'dangerous consequences to the home' that had begun to circulate.

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

The expansion in production/consumption - clothes and make-up 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 idea of the male gaze. She suggests that the dominant view in the media is masculine and created for the benefit of men. Women are presented for men to look at, hence the ‘male gaze’. This links to the idea of ‘sex sells’ and women being represented as sex objects.

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

Women learn what creates voyeuristic pleasure for men - that 'men are drawn to a certain portrayal of femininity' and thus 'women are drawn toward occupying that portrayal' (Fowles, 1996: 153). According to advertisers, the appeal in the use of female attractiveness and sexuality to sell products to women is its appeal to their exhibitionism. 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 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.' Indeed, a woman 'is portrayed stepping confidently towards the camera in an office environment observed by a male colleague from behind; but she is not portrayed actually working' .

7) What does Barthel suggest regarding advertising and male power?

Barthel notes that '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?

Richard Dyer claims that such images are something of a misrepresentation of women's liberation: '[advertising] 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'. Thus, all we are really left with is a woman who continues to construct herself 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 blogpost as the questions above.

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

The advert that featured a tanned, blonde female in a full-frontal pose generated so much controversy as advert was arguably aimed first and foremost at the male gaze.

2) What was the Dove Real Beauty campaign?

The campaign features real women with real bodies of all races and ages. Dove created an interactive Ad Makeover campaign that put women in charge of the advertisements, where they themselves would choose what they saw as beautiful, not the advertisers. 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? 

Recently, in April 2013, Dove’s ‘Real Beauty Sketches’ had garnered more than 114m total YouTube views within one month of its release, making it the most viral ad of all time. 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. The campaign resulted in upwards of four billion PR and blogger media hits, and was much praised. 

Social media has given audiences the ability to criticise and draw attention to advertisements that, in the absence of social media coverage, would have gone unnoticed by the public. Traditional media would have most likely collaborated with these corporations to avoid negative publicity. However, social media has now unintentionally had the effect of publicising advertisements through widely shared, argumentative viewpoints and scenarios that raise awareness of the brands and their goods.

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

Van Zoonen examines how women are portrayed differently, and via the case studies, the viewer is able to observe how commercials perpetuate negative stereotypes about women. It doesn't show how feminism and the waves have encouraged us as a culture to move away from these prejudices, or how technology has changed the way we view women. Stuart Hall's theory of reception addresses the producer's preferred, negational, and oppositional readings. Preferred would be an audience that is more accepting of women's body image; negotiated would be an audience that expresses questions about the advertisement without providing a clear answer; and oppositional would be an audience that is wholly opposed to the advertisement's existence in our society because it inaccurately portrays women.

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?

In my opinion, media portrayals of women have evolved, but they are still attractive to a larger audience and reinforce Mulvey's theory of the male gaze. Still, compared to half a century ago, women are now defined by the media as more independent and powerful than they were as men's property in a patriarchal society.