Representation of women in advertising

Advertising: The representation of women in advertising 

The representation of women in advertising is a vital area of study. We need to be able to discuss how representations have changed and apply these ideas to both unseen advertisements and our CSPs.

 The notes from the lesson are below.

 Jean Kilbourne: Killing us softly

Activist and cultural theorist Jean Kilbourne has been studying the image of women in advertising for over 40 years. Her series ‘Killing us softly’ highlighted the negative representation of women in advertising.

 She went on to make further documentaries studying this issue and whether it was changing over time.

Liesbet van Zoonen: Feminist Media Studies

 Liesbet van Zoonen was one of the first theorists to explicitly link gender, feminism and media studies. Writing since the 1990s, van Zoonen is a key figure in third wave feminism alongside theorists such as Butler and McRobbie.

 Looking specifically at the representation of women in advertisements in the 1970s and 80s, van Zoonen questioned how much things had really changed. For example, women in adverts may be shown to have jobs but their appearance was usually still the vital element.

 Liesbet van Zoonen: third wave feminist

Like McRobbie, van Zoonen was interested in the pleasures female audiences took from the women’s magazines that were heavily criticised by more radical 1970s-style feminists.

 In a similarity with Butler, van Zoonen sees gender as negotiated and dependent on social and historical context. She wrote the meaning of gender is a “discursive struggle and negotiation, the outcome having far-reaching socio-cultural implications.” (van Zoonen, 1994) 

Liesbet van Zoonen: constructing meanings

Van Zoonen also built on Stuart Hall’s reception theory with regards to how gender representations communicate their meanings to audiences. She suggested the media’s influence in constructing gender is dependent on:

•Whether the institution is commercial or public

•The platform (print/broadcast/digital)

•Genre (e.g. drama/news/advertisement)

•Target audience

•How significant the media text is to that audience

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?

• Since the mid-1990s, advertising has 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 1940s and 1950s?

• 1945, women were made to feel guilty by warnings of the 'dangerous consequences to the home' that had begun to circulate (Millum, 1975:73). Looking at women's magazines in the 1950s, 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?

• It sexualised them more.

4) Which theorist came up with the idea of the 'male gaze' and what does it refer to?

• Laura Malvy - women see them selves through the eyes of men.

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

• They became more independent and started to go to work.

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?

• Because they were were still sexualised and plus even harassed at work.

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

• Clothes and make-up - which led to women being increasingly portrayed as decorative (empty) objects

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

• It’s not about making women look sexually attractive, but making them (feel) sexually attractive.

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?

• A marketing campaign that went wrong.  Launched in Spring 2015 on London Underground, the PR team were clearly courting the female market into looking their best for the beach this summer. The advert – featuring a tanned, blonde female in a full-frontal pose saying “Are you Beach body read?"

2) Why was it controversial?

• It invited readers to think about their figures and they 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. 

3) What did the adverts suggest to audiences?

• 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. 

4) How did some audiences react?

• Consumers chose to disagree though, as shown by the sticker placed on the model’s stomach . When people began to campaign against the poster’s sexist portrayal, a change.org petition signed by 71,000 urged the ASA to take the adverts down. Some protesters responded visually by posing next to the advert in their bikinis, to offer a more realistic depiction of women’s bodies.

5) 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.

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

·      It’s made it so people everywhere can comment and be part of what they're seeing as well as criticize what they don't like.

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

·      

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?

• Somewhat, however not that much, this due to the fact that society is becoming more sexually open and in this sexual acts or more expected of women seen from shows, movies and in the entertainment industry in general.