Blog tasks: Representations 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 'Representations 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?

Advertising has included more homosexuality as well as images of gender and sexuality that are ambiguous. 

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

Women were stereotyped to be subordinates and during wartime, glamorous workers

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

Women were represented as objects that could be decorated with make up and clothes.

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

Mulvey came up with the theory of the "male gaze" and suggested women were objectified for male pleasures and wants.

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

Women were represented as independent and confident without any man.

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?

She points out women are still represented to have the drive to look good rather than having the motivation for real ideals such as working hard in an office.

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

Male power in advertising is under no threat despite the changes in female representations.

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

The "femme fatale" is a misrepresentation of women's liberation. 

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?

This campaign was an advertisement aiming to "help" women look ready for the beach and summer however this was controversial as it suggests an idea of how a woman should look if they want to wear a bikini or go to the beach.

2) What was the Dove Real Beauty campaign?

A campaign with a diverse cast of women who look realistic in their looks.

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

Social media has allowed people to share their opinions freely and can even do this directly to a company advertising a product by commenting. 

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

In the Beach Bodies campaign, the producers wanted women to feel as if they aren't enough and believe that there product will solve their problems but in reality many women had an opposition reading as they criticized against the campaign for its problematic messages. However, in the Dove campaign, producers wanted women to feel included and normal no matter how they looked like and in return most women agreed with this preferred reading. This links to van Zoonen's theory as we see how gender is dependent on social contexts.

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 believe that representations have changed, especially due to the fact that women can be more vocal about adverts through social media. Compared to older years, women are now not only shown as objects (Mulvey's male gaze) but also as hard workers and actual people with real ambitions in advertising. However, Mulvey's theory is still applicable to many modern adverts but there is a huge difference from the past and today's representations of women in advertising.