Representation of women in advertising

Blog tasks: Representation 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 'Representation 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?

"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." 

She believes the sexuality of the models used in advertising has increasingly become ambiguous. 

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

Women were expected to be hyper feminine to make up for the leniency of the world war. 

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

They were shown as decorative (empty) objects. Their worth was in their appearance. 

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

Mulvey suggested it along with the idea that 'sex sells' and women being represented as objects.

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

Due to radical feminism, the 'new woman' image was created and women were presented as more career driven. However, some people criticise this as being superficial because of the low ranking, subservient jobs they were encouraged into. 

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 professional world is marketed to women as another opportunity to present themselves differently and buy clothes, deeming it superficial social progress.

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

"Similarly, 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'

(Barthel, 1988:124-125; Davis, 1992:50). 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?

'[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'

Therefore no real progress is made and the representation of women remains sexualised. 


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?

They had a blonde, white, scantily clad woman with the ideal body and text saying "are you beach body ready?"

2) Why was it controversial?

It shamed audiences, women, for not having the right body type and suggested they would be fixed by the product. Inadequacy marketing is very out of date.

3) What did the adverts suggest to audiences?

They would be fixed by the product.

4) How did some audiences react?

With mockery and disdain.  

5) What was the Dove Real Beauty campaign?

They attempted to showcase 'real beauty' by showing predominately white women with a slightly bigger hour-glass figure. 

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

Social media means that consumers can call out and shame bad representation and hold companies accountable for being out of the loop/traditional.

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

Van Zoonen says the female body is a spectacle which is very apparent in the protein advert. However, the Dove advert attempts to subvert this by desexualising the women's bodies and attempting to get a sort of empowerment message across.

Protein World
pr: I'm not beach body ready, I need the product.
or: This is highly offensive for suggesting a woman's body must look like that in order to be shown for other people's enjoyment. 

Dove Real Beauty:
pr: The women look like me, a size 12 white woman, I can get behind this product as it empowers me through my insecurities to feel sexy.
or: The women's bodies have very little difference between them and they all cinch in at the waist, so this is still trying to present the women as conventionally attractive.

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?

I feel like the changes that have been made over time have been mostly superficial. Perhaps if the internet had not been created and consumers were not given a voice the changes would have been even more gradual as companies would have minimal pressure to change their marketing. Therefore in my heart of hearts I truly believe the only reason companies have changed their tone of address to women is to sell products to the empowered females, and not because of some industrial shift to the left wing. If they were not adapting and evolving, they would be left behind in the 50s.