Wednesday 11 February 2015
Thursday 11 December 2014
Representation of Women in Adverts
Advertising is an interesting aspect to look at when studying the representation of a specific group of people because it does two things; firstly, adverts tend to represent the status quo of society at the time and any hegomonies that may exist. For example, that football is our national sport. Secondly, adverts represent an ideal that people must aspire to.
We watched a series of Fairy Liquid advertisements from the 1960s to the present day, we discovered that women are represented traditionally idealistic way, for example the 1960s to the 1990s adverts all followed a similar story line of a mother teaching her daughter about Fairy Liquid whilst doing the washing up in the kitchen, they all emphasise the fact that the product made your hands soft, suggesting that this is something that would've been important to women. The characters used in the adverts are all 'well spoken', which could be to show that the people who use the product have high standards so the product must be of high quality.
The more modern adverts for Fairy Liquid differ as the little girls that featured in the adverts before, were replaced by little boys, widening out the demographics. By 2012, the Fairy Liquid advert Olympics edition features a father character helping with the washing, however the focus is still on the mum and how she will bring up the son to be an athlete. There is a male voice over stating how its takes 'a lot of dishes' and 'a lot of washing up' for 'mum to build an athlete'.
Fairy Liquid has become such an established product, that in 2013 the company produced an advertisement that is a montage of all their classic adverts up to the present day. They all display the stereotypical view of a woman in the home and it shows how the product has been around for a long amount of time. A main selling point of the product is emphasised by the statement 'I hardly ever buy Fairy Liquid' which refers to how the product is long lasting and reliable. This is all significant as the company have used past advertisements to romanticise the past.
We watched a series of Fairy Liquid advertisements from the 1960s to the present day, we discovered that women are represented traditionally idealistic way, for example the 1960s to the 1990s adverts all followed a similar story line of a mother teaching her daughter about Fairy Liquid whilst doing the washing up in the kitchen, they all emphasise the fact that the product made your hands soft, suggesting that this is something that would've been important to women. The characters used in the adverts are all 'well spoken', which could be to show that the people who use the product have high standards so the product must be of high quality.
The more modern adverts for Fairy Liquid differ as the little girls that featured in the adverts before, were replaced by little boys, widening out the demographics. By 2012, the Fairy Liquid advert Olympics edition features a father character helping with the washing, however the focus is still on the mum and how she will bring up the son to be an athlete. There is a male voice over stating how its takes 'a lot of dishes' and 'a lot of washing up' for 'mum to build an athlete'.
Fairy Liquid has become such an established product, that in 2013 the company produced an advertisement that is a montage of all their classic adverts up to the present day. They all display the stereotypical view of a woman in the home and it shows how the product has been around for a long amount of time. A main selling point of the product is emphasised by the statement 'I hardly ever buy Fairy Liquid' which refers to how the product is long lasting and reliable. This is all significant as the company have used past advertisements to romanticise the past.
Tuesday 9 December 2014
British Cinema and Represenation
We are looking at ways women have been presented in British cinema over time. We started by watching Vertigo (1958) directed by Alfred Hitchcock, applying Laura Mulberry's theory if the male gaze. Currently, we are looking at contemporary British cinema and they ways British films constructs, reinforce or challenge notions of identity (the burden of representation) and the conflict between successful commercial films in contrast to cultural UK films. We examined the trailers for Notting Hill (1999) and Bend It Like Beckham (2002) which were commercially successful films but also challenge the representation of women through a humorous view of stereotypes. We are considering the dilemma film makers have between making films that are commercially successful and might attract an American audience and social realist films by directors like Ken Loach, which are critically acclaimed but give a much bleaker representation of society in general. Next, we will look at the representation of women in contemporary British films such as Fast Girls (2012), The Kings Speech (2010), It's A Wonderful Afterlife (2010) and The Angel's Share (2012).
Tuesday 18 November 2014
Monday 17 November 2014
Representation of Women in Magazines
I undertook a sustained analysis of the November issue of 'Cosmopolitan' magazine, looking at how the magazine creates a sense of belonging for its readers. I bore in mind that post modern readers play with gender identity and so can pick and mix the meaning of the representations in the magazine.
Firstly, we looked at the cover of the magazine and discovered that Taylor Swift was used as the November cover girl; a strong independent woman who is admired by many people in our society. The image displayed on the cover shows Taylor with her hand on her hip wearing a long, dark, sparkly purple dress, with a long slit up the side, presents her as a confident, glamorous and assertive figure- something that the Cosmo readers can aspire to. A slightly low camera angle in used to help portray her as a figure to look up to.
We conducted a semiotic analysis of the fonts and colours that were used on the over of the magazine. We learnt that Cosmopolitan is aimed towards a female audience through the use of the pink, purple and pale blue colours used. Its media pack supports this idea as it states that more than 14 million readers each month are female. The fonts range from clear bold sans-serif font to fancy, decorative feminine fonts.
As Janice Winship says "A magazine is like a club. Its first function is to provide readers with a comfortable sense of community and pride in their identity." Cover lines such as 'Taylor Swift on Feminism' proves that the magazine is directed at a female audience, as well as this it is stated in the media pack that Cosmopolitan is 'The Bible for Young Women, wanting to live fun and fearless lives.' Cosmopolitan used cover stories that would entice women such as 'The great sex act even Christian Grey only fred to do once', this allowed women to read about private and intimate things.
After further analysis of the magazine, we learnt that the stories that were covered all centred around fashion, lifestyle, sex and celebrity gossip; all these being topics were are interesting to the regular Cosmo readers. As well as this Cosmo tries to address issues such as feminism and reveal opinions that role models hold; such as Taylor Swift who praises Emma Watson for her powerful speech on feminism to the UN. The discussions of these issues in Cosmo allows female readers to believe that they are able to hold their own opinions just as these celebrities do. A feminist/Marxist reading of women's magazines in general suggests that women are told what to thin by magazines which distracts them from more important issues, yet Cosmopolitan contradicts this view in articles like 'Women Hating= Not Cool' by bringing those issues into the spotlight.
A comparison with 'Women's Health' magazine is significant because this conforms more consistently to the Marxist theory. The cover lines for Women's Health are more didactic, using imperatives such as 'Shed One Size' and 'Burn Fat'.
The cover girl, Frankie Bridge from The Saturdays should be portrayed as a role model to the reader as her well exercised body is exposed on the magazine cover. This also conforms to the Marxist idea of interpellation (mis-recognising yourself), as women who read this magazine want to imagine themselves as Frankie Bridge which is an unrealistic aim. The articles in the magazine are presented like an instruction manual; telling you what to do, eat, how to act and when by playing on your insecurities, this relates to Judith Butler's theory that "Gender is a performance and gender and lifestyle magazines provide the performance."
Furthermore, Gramsci's 'uses and gratifications' theory can be applied here in that the readers are using the magazine media to conform to a hegemony; a given set of beliefs and ideas that we should all accept and live by. For example, the cover story about Strictly's Frankie Bridge is followed by a set of instructions on how to "get flat like Frankie".
In comparison, our analysis of 'Men's Health' magazine revealed slightly different dominant discourses. The cover lines confirmed four key discourses; quick-fix problem solving, displayed in cover lines such as '5 minute energy boosts'; Male narcissism and anxiety ('1 instant age eraser'); new male sensitivity ('21 women you need to have in for life' the women featured include Angela Merkel and Emma Watson who all display empowerment, helping to teach the reader 'to be a real man'); male superiority ('how to hit on a supermodel').
However, despite gestures towards being 'new men', the cover pictures are always in black and white, this is because the editors assume that the heterosexual readership will feel more secure with this as the black and white male torso which has connotations of being less sexual and more mechanical. This supports the idea the magazines reassure readers that they have made the right lifestyles choices.
Firstly, we looked at the cover of the magazine and discovered that Taylor Swift was used as the November cover girl; a strong independent woman who is admired by many people in our society. The image displayed on the cover shows Taylor with her hand on her hip wearing a long, dark, sparkly purple dress, with a long slit up the side, presents her as a confident, glamorous and assertive figure- something that the Cosmo readers can aspire to. A slightly low camera angle in used to help portray her as a figure to look up to.
We conducted a semiotic analysis of the fonts and colours that were used on the over of the magazine. We learnt that Cosmopolitan is aimed towards a female audience through the use of the pink, purple and pale blue colours used. Its media pack supports this idea as it states that more than 14 million readers each month are female. The fonts range from clear bold sans-serif font to fancy, decorative feminine fonts.
As Janice Winship says "A magazine is like a club. Its first function is to provide readers with a comfortable sense of community and pride in their identity." Cover lines such as 'Taylor Swift on Feminism' proves that the magazine is directed at a female audience, as well as this it is stated in the media pack that Cosmopolitan is 'The Bible for Young Women, wanting to live fun and fearless lives.' Cosmopolitan used cover stories that would entice women such as 'The great sex act even Christian Grey only fred to do once', this allowed women to read about private and intimate things.
After further analysis of the magazine, we learnt that the stories that were covered all centred around fashion, lifestyle, sex and celebrity gossip; all these being topics were are interesting to the regular Cosmo readers. As well as this Cosmo tries to address issues such as feminism and reveal opinions that role models hold; such as Taylor Swift who praises Emma Watson for her powerful speech on feminism to the UN. The discussions of these issues in Cosmo allows female readers to believe that they are able to hold their own opinions just as these celebrities do. A feminist/Marxist reading of women's magazines in general suggests that women are told what to thin by magazines which distracts them from more important issues, yet Cosmopolitan contradicts this view in articles like 'Women Hating= Not Cool' by bringing those issues into the spotlight.
A comparison with 'Women's Health' magazine is significant because this conforms more consistently to the Marxist theory. The cover lines for Women's Health are more didactic, using imperatives such as 'Shed One Size' and 'Burn Fat'.
The cover girl, Frankie Bridge from The Saturdays should be portrayed as a role model to the reader as her well exercised body is exposed on the magazine cover. This also conforms to the Marxist idea of interpellation (mis-recognising yourself), as women who read this magazine want to imagine themselves as Frankie Bridge which is an unrealistic aim. The articles in the magazine are presented like an instruction manual; telling you what to do, eat, how to act and when by playing on your insecurities, this relates to Judith Butler's theory that "Gender is a performance and gender and lifestyle magazines provide the performance."
Furthermore, Gramsci's 'uses and gratifications' theory can be applied here in that the readers are using the magazine media to conform to a hegemony; a given set of beliefs and ideas that we should all accept and live by. For example, the cover story about Strictly's Frankie Bridge is followed by a set of instructions on how to "get flat like Frankie".
In comparison, our analysis of 'Men's Health' magazine revealed slightly different dominant discourses. The cover lines confirmed four key discourses; quick-fix problem solving, displayed in cover lines such as '5 minute energy boosts'; Male narcissism and anxiety ('1 instant age eraser'); new male sensitivity ('21 women you need to have in for life' the women featured include Angela Merkel and Emma Watson who all display empowerment, helping to teach the reader 'to be a real man'); male superiority ('how to hit on a supermodel').
However, despite gestures towards being 'new men', the cover pictures are always in black and white, this is because the editors assume that the heterosexual readership will feel more secure with this as the black and white male torso which has connotations of being less sexual and more mechanical. This supports the idea the magazines reassure readers that they have made the right lifestyles choices.
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