coverwork for friday 12th Dec 2008

Gender in Advertising.

Gunter-

• After the 1950's images of women as 'housewives' declined but it was again common in the 1960's and 70's
• women in magazines in the 1970's were not likely to be shown in paid work roles and if ever they were it would be in streotypical working roles for women, such as hairderessers and secretaires.
• all advertisments featuring women in them, in early 1970s were streotypical; 3/4 of them were of kitchen and bathroom products. sexism was present in adverts aimed at children. so the men dominant society was introduced in society a a young age.

Scheibe-

• women were shown to be more concerned and inulged with beauty, cleanliness, family and pleasing others.
• where as men were shown related to achievements and having fun.

Cumberbatch-

• Advertisers started to be a little realactant on shwing women being related to housework or even doing housework. (7% of adverts showed women in such roles.)

Macdonald-

• Advertisers seemed to follow women's magazines in cultivation of new model, even when there was strong evdience suggesting that if they modernised their ways of advertising it would be an advantage for advertisers. .
• feminists would leave messages on advertisments such as the Fiat car advert with quotes such as “When I’m not lying on car I’m a brain surgeon”.

Gender in Contemporary Advertising.

Both genders were shown to be equal in a study taken place in 1998, it studied over 750 prime tv ads and they all found that women were twice likely as men to be in commercials for domestic products; Bartsch et al.

Cortese -

• “Ad deconstruction reveals a pattern of symbolic and institutionalised sexism”; Female prototype showed youth, good looks, sexual seductiveness, perfection.
• Analysis of men in advertising showed that men were often showen as “perfect provocateur”
• i n today's society men are shown with pumped pecs and shoulders and has perfects abs. many years ago, a slick refined look was defined as fashion ideal for men.
• Now days the muscular guy dominates the runways and magazine pages.

Macdonald-

• Macdonald looked at the changes fom late 1980's- 90's; at this time in history feminists had won both their fights, and their ideologies were harmless by far, accept for the fact o being out of date
• Advertisers invented “post feminism” as a utopia where women were independent and could do whatever they wanted, just making sure they had the will power and enthusiasm.

Greer-

• Selling Beauty; shows females are a failure if they are not beautiful
• the UK beauty industry takes £8.9 billion a year out of women’s pockets.
• They teach little girls that streotype that they need make-up and train them to use it.
• Reminds us that situation is unchanged till today.
• Since she wrote “The Female Eunch” (1960’s); “Women who were unselfconscious and unmade up thirty years ago” are now “infected” with the need to conform to certain images of beauty.
• 30 years ago it was enough to look beautiful; now a woman has to have a tight toned body, including her buttocks and thighs, so that she is good to touch, all over

Walter-

• 1998; today’s women more or less happy with how they look, where as men felt unsatisfied with their own appearance “If only 4% of men think they are attractive, we should not be too quick to argue that only women feel cast down by pressures of beautiful ideals”
• A feminist but refuses to see fashion and beauty advertising as a conspiracy to keep women down.

The representation of women in commercials

• “Hi we’d like a large thin crust pizza”
• “That’s Ok I’ll clean up”
• Cleaners,Housewife,Repair shop Women can’t take on men’s roles.
• Exploitation of women in ads Jean Kilbourne; “We are exposed to over 2,000 ads a day, constituting perhaps the most powerful educational force in society”
• “Turning a human being into a thing is almost always the first step in justifying violence against that person” Bodies onlyBugle Boy
• “In an extremely competitive environment, you kind of go back to T&A Sex objects Dehumanization Lazier
• Smith, Furham & Bitar;“We often find no representational connections in contemporary advertising.
• One of the common registers of print advertising is of the naked or sexually
• posed woman selling a product”
• Stereotypical to stop explotation of women in advertisments.