A more positive look at post-feminism
Post-feminism as backlash to feminism
Post-feminism as a colloquialism
The ambiguity of the prefix “post
Monday 18 October 2010
What is Post-feminism?
Sunday 17 October 2010
LAURA MULVEY- The Male Gaze
Mirror Stage
Lacan’s term used to describe the stage at which a child realises they are a person independent of their mother.
Narcissism
Excessive or erotic interest in the self.
Scopophilia
The pleasure of watching what shouldn’t be seen.
Voyeuristic gaze
A gaze which objectifies the recipient of the gaze in a non-sexual manner, rather through admiration.
Fetishistic gaze
A gaze which objectifies the recipient of the gaze in a sexual manner.
To-be-looked-at-ness
The way in which a character is constructed, using media language (through the framing of shots and position of the camera) to be objectified by another character or the audience’s gaze.
Intra-diegetic gaze
The gaze of one character of another within the narrative world of the film.
Extra-diegetic gaze
The gaze of a character out of the narrative to the audience, generally making eye contact and connoting their awareness of being watched.
Nouvelle Vague
French New Wave. A movement in French national cinema which rejected the established way of doing things by employing experimental film making techniques.
The female gaze: accepts that women can also gain voyeuristic pleasure from looking at a subject, and that film techniques can sometimes be used to position the female audience to do so.
Mirror Stage
Lacan’s term used to describe the stage at which a child realises they are a person independent of their mother.
Narcissism
Excessive or erotic interest in the self.
Scopophilia
The pleasure of watching what shouldn’t be seen.
Voyeuristic gaze
A gaze which objectifies the recipient of the gaze in a non-sexual manner, rather through admiration.
Fetishistic gaze
A gaze which objectifies the recipient of the gaze in a sexual manner.
To-be-looked-at-ness
The way in which a character is constructed, using media language (through the framing of shots and position of the camera) to be objectified by another character or the audience’s gaze.
Intra-diegetic gaze
The gaze of one character of another within the narrative world of the film.
Extra-diegetic gaze
The gaze of a character out of the narrative to the audience, generally making eye contact and connoting their awareness of being watched.
Nouvelle Vague
French New Wave. A movement in French national cinema which rejected the established way of doing things by employing experimental film making techniques.
The female gaze: accepts that women can also gain voyeuristic pleasure from looking at a subject, and that film techniques can sometimes be used to position the female audience to do so.
Saturday 16 October 2010
Raheam's Advertising Essay
Positive Repesentation of Women
This commercial is used to advertise a new range of clothing at Marks and Spencer’s for women. There is a positive representation of women flowing constantly throughout this advert. Females are presented as happy; the vibrant parallel music played in the background creates a happy-go-lucky atmosphere.
The mise en scene includes natural environments such as lakes, beaches and forests to connote natural beauty reflected in the women. This advert is constructed to mirror the fact that who matter who you are you are beautiful. The target audience for this commercial is women aged between 25-50, an older audience can relate to the older females displayed. Women are not portrayed in their stereotypical roles in the kitchen; instead this advertisement illustrates the alternative representation of females. The happy-go-lucky successful type.
Famous successful women such as Danni Minogue and Lisa Snowdon are used to model the clothes. This is also a positive representation because the females are portrayed as totally feminine, the seductive dresses they wear, the handbags hanging of their shoulder and the open cut shirts all add to their femininity.
Androgyny is not presented in this commercial, enforcing the fact it is not socially acceptable for women to dress like men. Although there is not a lot of flesh on show and explicit revealing of body parts on show, the women still look sexually gratifying with clothes on, this helps to establish a positive representation for women in general.
Negative Representation of Women
In this advert for Fairy washing up liquid, it is evident that females are being represented in a negative manner. To show that Fairy liquid will last a very long time, the narrative constructed is based in the kitchen where the product is used. The advert tracks through the decades placing women in the kitchen. The change in decade is created through improvements in the mise en scene.
The medium shots of the women present them all in non kitchen clothing. The fact the women have been in the kitchen since approximately the 1940’s and still are to this day is considered degrading and isolating them into these stereotypically roles. The stereotype that is reinforced is the concept of women being housewives; they are only good in the kitchen. The mise en scene in all the shots shown is of a kitchen environment, further cementing a woman’s rightful place.
Men are not shown in this advert, suggesting that there role is not in the kitchen and that the patriarchal society is still in perfect order, that they are the breadwinner and can go home to have their food on clean plates. The advert is a bit ironic, because the feministic waves for equality strived to get women out of these designated stereotypical roles, but this advert throws them back into their delegated positions. Also the aurora that the females are giving off, revealed through the facial expressions makes it appear that the females are happy to be in the kitchen.
In every shot the woman of the house is accompanied by a young girl supposedly her daughter. This further gives of a negative representation of females because she seems eager to wash up and stay in the kitchen. In conclusion this advert contains a strong moral; that women belong in the kitchen.
WWW- Good analysis of the representation of women in the 'Marks and Spencers Advertisement'. good use of media terminology, when talking about the music and mise-en-scene.
EBI- More media terminology could of been used in you analysis of the negetive representation of women, e.g when talking about the narrative structure you could have mention a 'Linear narrative stucture'. When talking about the 'degrading of women', you could have mention 'subordinating'. When talking about th 'strong moral', you could have mentioned 'ideology.
This commercial is used to advertise a new range of clothing at Marks and Spencer’s for women. There is a positive representation of women flowing constantly throughout this advert. Females are presented as happy; the vibrant parallel music played in the background creates a happy-go-lucky atmosphere.
The mise en scene includes natural environments such as lakes, beaches and forests to connote natural beauty reflected in the women. This advert is constructed to mirror the fact that who matter who you are you are beautiful. The target audience for this commercial is women aged between 25-50, an older audience can relate to the older females displayed. Women are not portrayed in their stereotypical roles in the kitchen; instead this advertisement illustrates the alternative representation of females. The happy-go-lucky successful type.
Famous successful women such as Danni Minogue and Lisa Snowdon are used to model the clothes. This is also a positive representation because the females are portrayed as totally feminine, the seductive dresses they wear, the handbags hanging of their shoulder and the open cut shirts all add to their femininity.
Androgyny is not presented in this commercial, enforcing the fact it is not socially acceptable for women to dress like men. Although there is not a lot of flesh on show and explicit revealing of body parts on show, the women still look sexually gratifying with clothes on, this helps to establish a positive representation for women in general.
Negative Representation of Women
In this advert for Fairy washing up liquid, it is evident that females are being represented in a negative manner. To show that Fairy liquid will last a very long time, the narrative constructed is based in the kitchen where the product is used. The advert tracks through the decades placing women in the kitchen. The change in decade is created through improvements in the mise en scene.
The medium shots of the women present them all in non kitchen clothing. The fact the women have been in the kitchen since approximately the 1940’s and still are to this day is considered degrading and isolating them into these stereotypically roles. The stereotype that is reinforced is the concept of women being housewives; they are only good in the kitchen. The mise en scene in all the shots shown is of a kitchen environment, further cementing a woman’s rightful place.
Men are not shown in this advert, suggesting that there role is not in the kitchen and that the patriarchal society is still in perfect order, that they are the breadwinner and can go home to have their food on clean plates. The advert is a bit ironic, because the feministic waves for equality strived to get women out of these designated stereotypical roles, but this advert throws them back into their delegated positions. Also the aurora that the females are giving off, revealed through the facial expressions makes it appear that the females are happy to be in the kitchen.
In every shot the woman of the house is accompanied by a young girl supposedly her daughter. This further gives of a negative representation of females because she seems eager to wash up and stay in the kitchen. In conclusion this advert contains a strong moral; that women belong in the kitchen.
WWW- Good analysis of the representation of women in the 'Marks and Spencers Advertisement'. good use of media terminology, when talking about the music and mise-en-scene.
EBI- More media terminology could of been used in you analysis of the negetive representation of women, e.g when talking about the narrative structure you could have mention a 'Linear narrative stucture'. When talking about the 'degrading of women', you could have mention 'subordinating'. When talking about th 'strong moral', you could have mentioned 'ideology.
Bianca's Essay- Media Terminology
The representation of women can be positive: challenging the roles and expectations of women or negative: reinforcing a patriarchal society. This essay questions how and why these representations are constructed in an advert for Gucci Guilty Perfume and Stella Artois beer.
Firstly the Gucci advert is in widescreen which connotes a dramatic cinematic experience to engage its audience. More attention is gained by the female character first seen in the text and her protagonist is signified through this. The protagonist has female dominance which is signified through the use of colour- everything is in black and white while her hair is gold/blonde. This colour connotes gold, power and divinity signifying her importance in the text.
The use of intertextuality in this text will appeal to a particular audience. The film references a great deal to the neo film noir Sin City, with the use of colour and the female dominant femme fatale character. Sin City appeals to a male audience due to the action genre, this trailer could also appeal to the same audience due to the intertextuality. In terms of the Uses and Gratifications theory, a female audience might realise and accept the protagonist in the text is a form of escapism and also a male gaze, by theorist Mulvey, and therefore might aspire, from Young and Rubicam's 4Cs, to be the object of male gaze too.
Though the protagonist is an object of male gaze, it could be suggested that she sexually objectifies herself to tease the audience. The protagonist puts her leg into the frame of the shot. As she puts into the frame, it signifies self objectification, allowing the audience to fetishise her body. Another shot, a high angle, of their sexual activities signifies CCTV and spying which is voyeuristic. The fact she is on top signifies her control of the situation for both the male character and the audience.
Not only does the protagonist exert her feminity through self objectification she also presents herself as an anarchic character signified by adopting male stereotypes. The advert begins with a long shot of an unknown character speeding down the motorway, which stereotypically would be expected to be a male character. However, the audience's expectations are challenged when a medium shot of the driver shows to be a female.
In contrast, women are negatively represented in the Stella Artois text. The most obvious editing technique used in the advert is the split screen: one side shows the female getting dressed and the other side is of the beer getting "prepared". This use of split screen signifies that neither the beer nor the woman know they have been placed side by side. This puts the audience in position of control as they can voyeur the woman, in a socially acceptable way. Audiences may identify this control as patriarchy, and also identify with the unknown male character whose presence is felt within the text. This text then reinforces the idea of a patriarchal society and that women are subordinated by men.
Not only does the female share the screen with the beer, but the screen is split equally between the two "objects" which connotes the woman is equally objectified to the status of beer. It is suggested the audience is male due to the female and beer subject. Though the advert is targeted at men, it also negatively stereotypes men as people who have little respect for women which however is a dominant representation.
A range of close up shots of the female are used to fetishise her body. There is a close up shot of the female's leg slowly and elegantly rising from the bath tub. On one hand this could signify femininity and her control over it which is the oppositional reading. However, the more dominant reading is that her legs are an important part of the female body and connotes a male audience who can voyeur her body.
The text near the beginning of the trailer says "the preparation" which is an enigma code as the audience question "what event is the preparation for?". It is signified through the shots that the woman and beer preparation is for the male through the use of action codes. Action codes of both the preparation of the woman and the glass of beer are the same.
Women are represented as people who prioritise their looks and appearance, and this ad reinforces this ideology. Action codes including close ups of her: brushing her hair, doing her make up and putting on heels strongly represent women as image conscious. It could be said that the advert reinforces this representation, which is always seen in the media. Funnily enough, it could also be said that the media itself is the cause of this representation as this ideal, perfect woman is always represented in the media, and women feel they have to aspire to it.
In conclusion, both texts females are the protagonists and are sexually objectified for male audiences to fetishise and vouyer their bodies. However, while Gucci’s advert’s protagonist controls her sexuality through self objectification, the Stella Artois’ protagonist is objectified by an unknown but present male character.
In the Gucci’s ad, there are many examples in the text that signify the protagonist’s female dominance, but it is arguable whether this could be seen as a positive representation. The dominant reading is that the protagonist exerts her female dominance over the male challenging the historical patriarchal society and even subordinating males as easily manipulated and easily tempted by women and sex and this would favour feminism. However the oppositional reading which would favour the ideologies of the Stella Artois advert, might be that females can control their sexuality, but it is still for the male gaze and male dominant society.
Firstly the Gucci advert is in widescreen which connotes a dramatic cinematic experience to engage its audience. More attention is gained by the female character first seen in the text and her protagonist is signified through this. The protagonist has female dominance which is signified through the use of colour- everything is in black and white while her hair is gold/blonde. This colour connotes gold, power and divinity signifying her importance in the text.
The use of intertextuality in this text will appeal to a particular audience. The film references a great deal to the neo film noir Sin City, with the use of colour and the female dominant femme fatale character. Sin City appeals to a male audience due to the action genre, this trailer could also appeal to the same audience due to the intertextuality. In terms of the Uses and Gratifications theory, a female audience might realise and accept the protagonist in the text is a form of escapism and also a male gaze, by theorist Mulvey, and therefore might aspire, from Young and Rubicam's 4Cs, to be the object of male gaze too.
Though the protagonist is an object of male gaze, it could be suggested that she sexually objectifies herself to tease the audience. The protagonist puts her leg into the frame of the shot. As she puts into the frame, it signifies self objectification, allowing the audience to fetishise her body. Another shot, a high angle, of their sexual activities signifies CCTV and spying which is voyeuristic. The fact she is on top signifies her control of the situation for both the male character and the audience.
Not only does the protagonist exert her feminity through self objectification she also presents herself as an anarchic character signified by adopting male stereotypes. The advert begins with a long shot of an unknown character speeding down the motorway, which stereotypically would be expected to be a male character. However, the audience's expectations are challenged when a medium shot of the driver shows to be a female.
In contrast, women are negatively represented in the Stella Artois text. The most obvious editing technique used in the advert is the split screen: one side shows the female getting dressed and the other side is of the beer getting "prepared". This use of split screen signifies that neither the beer nor the woman know they have been placed side by side. This puts the audience in position of control as they can voyeur the woman, in a socially acceptable way. Audiences may identify this control as patriarchy, and also identify with the unknown male character whose presence is felt within the text. This text then reinforces the idea of a patriarchal society and that women are subordinated by men.
Not only does the female share the screen with the beer, but the screen is split equally between the two "objects" which connotes the woman is equally objectified to the status of beer. It is suggested the audience is male due to the female and beer subject. Though the advert is targeted at men, it also negatively stereotypes men as people who have little respect for women which however is a dominant representation.
A range of close up shots of the female are used to fetishise her body. There is a close up shot of the female's leg slowly and elegantly rising from the bath tub. On one hand this could signify femininity and her control over it which is the oppositional reading. However, the more dominant reading is that her legs are an important part of the female body and connotes a male audience who can voyeur her body.
The text near the beginning of the trailer says "the preparation" which is an enigma code as the audience question "what event is the preparation for?". It is signified through the shots that the woman and beer preparation is for the male through the use of action codes. Action codes of both the preparation of the woman and the glass of beer are the same.
Women are represented as people who prioritise their looks and appearance, and this ad reinforces this ideology. Action codes including close ups of her: brushing her hair, doing her make up and putting on heels strongly represent women as image conscious. It could be said that the advert reinforces this representation, which is always seen in the media. Funnily enough, it could also be said that the media itself is the cause of this representation as this ideal, perfect woman is always represented in the media, and women feel they have to aspire to it.
In conclusion, both texts females are the protagonists and are sexually objectified for male audiences to fetishise and vouyer their bodies. However, while Gucci’s advert’s protagonist controls her sexuality through self objectification, the Stella Artois’ protagonist is objectified by an unknown but present male character.
In the Gucci’s ad, there are many examples in the text that signify the protagonist’s female dominance, but it is arguable whether this could be seen as a positive representation. The dominant reading is that the protagonist exerts her female dominance over the male challenging the historical patriarchal society and even subordinating males as easily manipulated and easily tempted by women and sex and this would favour feminism. However the oppositional reading which would favour the ideologies of the Stella Artois advert, might be that females can control their sexuality, but it is still for the male gaze and male dominant society.
Tuesday 12 October 2010
Historical Adverts
Positive Representation of Women
In this advertisement the representation of women is not negative because it presents the male and female people within the advert as equal. The Jingle of the advert happens on both the female and male. The woman in the advert is not sexually self-objectifying herslef and not yearning for male attention, as she comes into the shop, she waves hello to her male friends and as the man comes in he waves hello to his female friends. So this advertisement presents both sexes as somewhat equal.
Negative Representation of Women
This advertisement represents the woman as subordinate compared to the man who is being served by her and then criticising her for her service, which highlights the patriarchal society within that era. This is further outlined when the man says 'the girls down at the office make a better coffee', which shows how the females in the society at that time are portrayed as subservient to the men, there for their needs. Also when the woman telling her friend that he didn't kiss' her on the way out, creates an ideology that men are only satisfied with a women if she is able to cook and provide services for them, and that women should provide for their man and that them being happy will also make them happy.
Historical Advert- Representation of Men (Sex Object)
This advertisement has the ideology that a woman desires the perfect man with the perfect hair. And that if a man doesnt have perfect hair, they're no good to women. And this is somewhat portraying men as sex object, since after the mans hair is good, he seems desirable as the woman kisses him.
Contemporary Representation of Men as Sex Objects
In this advertisement, the man is being viewed as a sex object. Firstly he is topless whilst the woman is wearing normal clothing, the body language of the man seems to be submissive and timid, usually qualities and an idealogy of women. He is being dragged out of the car my the women, as if the women is lurring him, instead of him flirting with her. This reversal of ideology is later heighten when the woman graps the man bum. this gesture is usually depicted with men rather than women. This advertisement seems to have a post-feminist view since the woman is carrying male qualities however by still being feminine.
Contemporary Representation of Men as Sex Objects
In this advertisement the representation of women is not negative because it presents the male and female people within the advert as equal. The Jingle of the advert happens on both the female and male. The woman in the advert is not sexually self-objectifying herslef and not yearning for male attention, as she comes into the shop, she waves hello to her male friends and as the man comes in he waves hello to his female friends. So this advertisement presents both sexes as somewhat equal.
Negative Representation of Women
This advertisement represents the woman as subordinate compared to the man who is being served by her and then criticising her for her service, which highlights the patriarchal society within that era. This is further outlined when the man says 'the girls down at the office make a better coffee', which shows how the females in the society at that time are portrayed as subservient to the men, there for their needs. Also when the woman telling her friend that he didn't kiss' her on the way out, creates an ideology that men are only satisfied with a women if she is able to cook and provide services for them, and that women should provide for their man and that them being happy will also make them happy.
Historical Advert- Representation of Men (Sex Object)
This advertisement has the ideology that a woman desires the perfect man with the perfect hair. And that if a man doesnt have perfect hair, they're no good to women. And this is somewhat portraying men as sex object, since after the mans hair is good, he seems desirable as the woman kisses him.
Contemporary Representation of Men as Sex Objects
In this advertisement, the man is being viewed as a sex object. Firstly he is topless whilst the woman is wearing normal clothing, the body language of the man seems to be submissive and timid, usually qualities and an idealogy of women. He is being dragged out of the car my the women, as if the women is lurring him, instead of him flirting with her. This reversal of ideology is later heighten when the woman graps the man bum. this gesture is usually depicted with men rather than women. This advertisement seems to have a post-feminist view since the woman is carrying male qualities however by still being feminine.
Contemporary Representation of Men as Sex Objects
Gender & Advertising
1. What sort of images of women and men dominated advertising pre-1970s? Why was this the case?
Media, Gender and Identity (Gauntlett), outlines that women in magazine adverts prior to the 1970’s were rarely shown to be in paid work and when they were it would usually be a stereotypical role, ‘a smiling secretary’ or ‘hairdresser’ and women in advertisement from 1950’s to early 1970’s predominantly had a ‘Housewife’ image.
However Men were most likely to be seen in authority roles and ‘were ten times more likely than women to provide the dependable voice’, which shows that men were the dominant figures in advertising prior the 1970’s.
2. How did the advertising of the 1970’s continue to perpetuate the stereotype of women, despite depicting women in a greater range of roles?
Content analysis of advertising in the early 1970’s found strong evidence of stereotypes of women, all ads featuring women; three-quarters were for kitchen and bathroom products.
Advertising continued to perpetuate the stereotype of women during the 1970’s since women were more than twice as likely as men to be shown inside the home and when in seen in paid work environment, they were more often than not subservient to men.
3. Can Gaye Tuchman’s quote regarding under-representation and the ‘symbolic annihilation of women’ still be applied in 21st Century advertising? If so, how?
4. Do you agree that adverts, such as those for the 1990’s Boots No. 7, ‘It’s not make-up. its ammunition.’ campaign, are post-feminist (thereby representing women as better than men?). Explain your answer.
I think the No.7 campaign is post-feminist since the tagline/slogan is portraying ‘make-up’ as important as ‘ammunition’, and the make-up can be symbolising the women and the ammunition is symbolising the men. The binary opposition of the make-up and the ammunition help to put across the post-feminism view.
5. Is the representation of women by the media accountable for the results of a survey in which ‘women were up to ten times more likely than men to be unhappy with their body image’?
The representation of women in the media can be accountable for the result of the survey which shows that ‘women were up to ten times more likely than men to be unhappy with their body image, since the UK Beauty industry takes £8.9billion a year out of women’s pockets and that shows that how beauty conscious women are now in the modern age, which is proven due to the fact that the cosmetic surgery industry is booming. (Greer) The beauty ideal seems to be a substantial pressure on women to make them look more like the mediated ideal which appears to be ridiculous.
6. Is the contemporary representation of men in advertising perhaps also a negative one where they too are treated as sex objects?
Men as well as women are told that they must have a perfect look to attract the opposite sex, so now people no longer seem have a critique of sexism in the media, instead people are left to with a criticism of advertising for telling everybody that they have to look great at all times. ‘Today’s man has pumped his pecs and shoulders and exhibits well-defined abs’. So men can be also treated as sex objects due to the advertisements that represent men as hunky sex objects for women, and men.
Media, Gender and Identity (Gauntlett), outlines that women in magazine adverts prior to the 1970’s were rarely shown to be in paid work and when they were it would usually be a stereotypical role, ‘a smiling secretary’ or ‘hairdresser’ and women in advertisement from 1950’s to early 1970’s predominantly had a ‘Housewife’ image.
However Men were most likely to be seen in authority roles and ‘were ten times more likely than women to provide the dependable voice’, which shows that men were the dominant figures in advertising prior the 1970’s.
2. How did the advertising of the 1970’s continue to perpetuate the stereotype of women, despite depicting women in a greater range of roles?
Content analysis of advertising in the early 1970’s found strong evidence of stereotypes of women, all ads featuring women; three-quarters were for kitchen and bathroom products.
Advertising continued to perpetuate the stereotype of women during the 1970’s since women were more than twice as likely as men to be shown inside the home and when in seen in paid work environment, they were more often than not subservient to men.
3. Can Gaye Tuchman’s quote regarding under-representation and the ‘symbolic annihilation of women’ still be applied in 21st Century advertising? If so, how?
4. Do you agree that adverts, such as those for the 1990’s Boots No. 7, ‘It’s not make-up. its ammunition.’ campaign, are post-feminist (thereby representing women as better than men?). Explain your answer.
I think the No.7 campaign is post-feminist since the tagline/slogan is portraying ‘make-up’ as important as ‘ammunition’, and the make-up can be symbolising the women and the ammunition is symbolising the men. The binary opposition of the make-up and the ammunition help to put across the post-feminism view.
5. Is the representation of women by the media accountable for the results of a survey in which ‘women were up to ten times more likely than men to be unhappy with their body image’?
The representation of women in the media can be accountable for the result of the survey which shows that ‘women were up to ten times more likely than men to be unhappy with their body image, since the UK Beauty industry takes £8.9billion a year out of women’s pockets and that shows that how beauty conscious women are now in the modern age, which is proven due to the fact that the cosmetic surgery industry is booming. (Greer) The beauty ideal seems to be a substantial pressure on women to make them look more like the mediated ideal which appears to be ridiculous.
6. Is the contemporary representation of men in advertising perhaps also a negative one where they too are treated as sex objects?
Men as well as women are told that they must have a perfect look to attract the opposite sex, so now people no longer seem have a critique of sexism in the media, instead people are left to with a criticism of advertising for telling everybody that they have to look great at all times. ‘Today’s man has pumped his pecs and shoulders and exhibits well-defined abs’. So men can be also treated as sex objects due to the advertisements that represent men as hunky sex objects for women, and men.
Sunday 3 October 2010
Representation of women in Advetisements
Negative Representation
In this advertisement, the representation of women is signified through the two binary oppositions of the ‘Librarian’ and the ‘Blonde Woman’. The ‘Librarian’ is represented as androgynous and somewhat of a feminist, due to her manlike clothing and bulky appearance which is heavily contrasted with the ‘Blonde Woman’. She is also working in a library, with a book, which represents her as an intellectual and self-driven woman, and the fact that she isn’t self objectifying her, shows that she doesn’t seems to desire any male attention, creating a positive representation of a woman since she is not self-objectifying herself for the male audience and not fulfilling their needs for sexual allurement.
On the other hand the ‘Blonde Woman’, is a stereotypical representation of a ‘Blonde Woman’. She is pretty, dim-witted and slow. Compared to the Librarian, the ‘Blonde Woman’ seems to be self objectifying herself, since she has her hair done, dressed nicely in a fitted dress and is wearing make-up. She seems to be addressing the male audience with her appearance and to attract the male audience into buying the ‘Mercedes- Benz E- Klasse.
Advertisements mostly use humour, and the humour in this advert is placed on the Blonde Woman, following the ideology that blonde women are ‘dumb’ (Blonde Jokes- began in the 1900’s, which is obviously a negative representation of women, especially blonde women.
Furthermore the advertisement is also objectifying her to the car; the ‘Mercedes- Benz E-Klasse’ applying the slogan/Tagline, ‘Beauty is nothing without brains’ on both the ‘Blonde Woman’ and the car, which is degrading and subordinating the woman in the advertisement, since she is compared to the car. Woman being compared to products and objects in advertising is something that is very popular in advertising, which highlights the fact that we live in a patriarchal society.
However the Slogan/Tagline puts across a positive representation on women, highlighting the Blonde Woman’s stupidity and that it is not appealing, showcasing the Librarian as a smart and intellectual woman. The binary opposition of the librarian and the blonde woman, allows the audience to judge which one of the women is better represented as women, and to ridicule the blonde woman for be so dim-witted.
Positive Representation
This representation of women is very different, the fact the woman is singing opera connotes that she is sophisticated, talented and elite, which are very idyllic and desirable describtions for a woman and are also very positive representations of women. The fact that she is not self-objectifying herself or is being self-objectifyied shows that she is not adhering to the male gaze shows that she is respected and is being celebrated for her talent. The woman in the advertisement is being presented in a high-angle shot which protrays her as innocent and her facail expression of emotional stress allow the audience to feel sypathetic towards her. The intertexaulity of this advertisement (Je ne regette rien) puts forwards its idealogies and values into the product (Specsavers), such as its sophistication and eliteness.
In this advertisement, the representation of women is signified through the two binary oppositions of the ‘Librarian’ and the ‘Blonde Woman’. The ‘Librarian’ is represented as androgynous and somewhat of a feminist, due to her manlike clothing and bulky appearance which is heavily contrasted with the ‘Blonde Woman’. She is also working in a library, with a book, which represents her as an intellectual and self-driven woman, and the fact that she isn’t self objectifying her, shows that she doesn’t seems to desire any male attention, creating a positive representation of a woman since she is not self-objectifying herself for the male audience and not fulfilling their needs for sexual allurement.
On the other hand the ‘Blonde Woman’, is a stereotypical representation of a ‘Blonde Woman’. She is pretty, dim-witted and slow. Compared to the Librarian, the ‘Blonde Woman’ seems to be self objectifying herself, since she has her hair done, dressed nicely in a fitted dress and is wearing make-up. She seems to be addressing the male audience with her appearance and to attract the male audience into buying the ‘Mercedes- Benz E- Klasse.
Advertisements mostly use humour, and the humour in this advert is placed on the Blonde Woman, following the ideology that blonde women are ‘dumb’ (Blonde Jokes- began in the 1900’s, which is obviously a negative representation of women, especially blonde women.
Furthermore the advertisement is also objectifying her to the car; the ‘Mercedes- Benz E-Klasse’ applying the slogan/Tagline, ‘Beauty is nothing without brains’ on both the ‘Blonde Woman’ and the car, which is degrading and subordinating the woman in the advertisement, since she is compared to the car. Woman being compared to products and objects in advertising is something that is very popular in advertising, which highlights the fact that we live in a patriarchal society.
However the Slogan/Tagline puts across a positive representation on women, highlighting the Blonde Woman’s stupidity and that it is not appealing, showcasing the Librarian as a smart and intellectual woman. The binary opposition of the librarian and the blonde woman, allows the audience to judge which one of the women is better represented as women, and to ridicule the blonde woman for be so dim-witted.
Positive Representation
This representation of women is very different, the fact the woman is singing opera connotes that she is sophisticated, talented and elite, which are very idyllic and desirable describtions for a woman and are also very positive representations of women. The fact that she is not self-objectifying herself or is being self-objectifyied shows that she is not adhering to the male gaze shows that she is respected and is being celebrated for her talent. The woman in the advertisement is being presented in a high-angle shot which protrays her as innocent and her facail expression of emotional stress allow the audience to feel sypathetic towards her. The intertexaulity of this advertisement (Je ne regette rien) puts forwards its idealogies and values into the product (Specsavers), such as its sophistication and eliteness.
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