Tuesday, 22 April 2014

Critical Investigation

How are women represented in TV/print advertising that promotes beauty/cosmetic products?
“For too long beauty has been by narrow and superficial stereotypes”[[1]]
There are several issues created by the representation of females in print. A moral panic is created especially in young females as they believe that the images portrayed in magazines as well as TV advertisements are true or  that some elements are true as Perkins would say, therefore loading to many females going on “copycat” diet as shown in health magazines without the knowledge that the images have been digitally altered. This doesn’t show “real women"[[2]] they don’t be made to look like something they’re not through editing software’s as the “portrayal is so "unrealistic”[[3]], leaving various different representations for audiences.
In the beauty industry, many things have changed over time. People in society have changed their opinions on the way women are represented in TV/print advertisements that a promoting beauty/cosmetic products. One of the biggest changes that have occurred over time is the difference in technology which would be supported by theories like postmodernists. The advanced technology  used to create TV/print advertisements has changed the overall outcome of the advertisements itself and what audience see now to what they would in the past. The result of the new advanced technology makes women feel ‘that there is room for improvement in a woman's appearance.’[[4]] This is done through the appearance of the beauty/cosmetic advertisements. Also the easy access that people in society have to view these advertisements "16.7% of the world’s population have access to the internet"[5] Women will start to believe that the products that they are being promoted, consumer are likely to continue to buying the beauty treatment which they believe will improve their appearance or their confidence in their appearance that are shown in by the models in these advertisements. This will give them the confidence as they will feel they look more model like. Women want men to want them, therefore meaning that they want to look a certain way. The way that men expect them to look like 'male gaze' [[6]]. Men are attracted to perfection, which they see in beauty/cosmetic advertisements this is through the advanced technology that is provided in the 21st century for example television advertisements can now have females airbrushed whilst their moving etc. Having affects of females being airbrushed most males expect females to have naturally perfect skin. Women feel more pressured into buying these products as men expect them to look this way.
Society is split into two, males and females. “Men masculine values”[7]. Men in society are seen to be more dominate, ‘have always designated women as a sub-class who exist to serve male needs’[8] this show that they are strong and have more power. The females in society “Women feminine values”[9] this shows that they are weaker than men their seen as being more feminine giving the result that they are over ruled by them. “Feminine beauty which men find attractive”[10] Women  will do whatever in their power to stay feminine, in some cases women achieve and come to understand the process of dominant and powerful images. Advertisements contain successful women for example celebrities shown in print and TV advertisements they are shows in ways that will appeal to other women “life where women see other women in entertainment who are happy, famous, beautiful, and sexy, they will want to emulate them.”[11] Using celebrity’s images makes women feel they need to improve the way that they look as the images they are available at an easy and which generate fake realities and materialistic societies.
The outcome of advertisements prompting beauty products makes women want to look like the famous models that are modelling within these adverts this links with the copycat theory as women are becoming more aware of the "fake realities"[12]. Having famous celebrities is an advantage for the campaign as they will already be promoted to their fan bases. However the disadvantage would be that consumers start to believe that they need the product in order to feel good about themselves "not owning the product would involve personal failure".[13] This creates a whole world that consumers feel the need to have " a whole desirable style of life" [14] This is done through women and the way their ideologies have changed. For example it is now a priority to make an appearance, due to the amount of beauty that they are exposed to "‘try to achieve this unattainable look they constantly see in media advertising" [[15]] This also creates a dominated look on how society runs by "paying the advertising campaign used to influence their purchase"[[16]]. Some people believe “Every woman should love herself”[[17]] no matter how they look, some women feel pressured into looking like “models”[[18]] which supports Mulvey theory of the ‘Male Gaze’ as the camera frame focuses on women’s body features, concentrating on their female curves. On the hand, through some advertisement’s women can feel empowered following Angela theory feel that sexualising empowers them making them feel “Glamour”[[19]] and empowered.   Women want to look good! and when powerful women are presented within these advertisements the feel the need to "copy"[20] them. "UK industries take £8.9 billion a year out of women’s pockets."[[21]] Recently there has been a trend of employing females. Whereas ‘women in magazine adverts prior to the 1970s were rarely shown to be in paid work’[[22]] These ladies have better financial freedom, and a higher spare income to spend, which most females spend on beauty treatments with a greater hope of looking good. The pampers means that women will continue to spend, in the hunt to look and feel good.
In the L’Oreal Paris make up advert, advertising lip glosses in several different shades. Like many other adverts L’Oreal Paris also decided to have a celebrities in their advertisements. Cosmetic institution believe that "brands and celebrities can be described as mutually beneficial"[[23]]also meaning that they ‘pay millions of dollars’[[24]] One of the biggest reason for this is down to the fact that the celebrity will bring a fan base to the makeup brand. L'Oreal decided to have Cheryl Cole as their famous celebrity as she is a  famous singer and ‘bring magic to the brand they endorse and make them more appealing and successful".[[25]] The woman stereotype for this advert would be something in-between the Alpha Female she’s a powerful professional whose main focus in life is her career and the Fashionist as she appears in every glossy magazine, such as Voyage and Elle, and is portrayed as someone who is only interested in the way she looks. The persuasive techniques used in this advert are beautiful people using good looking models as if telling us we will look like them if we use the product and repetition slogans, images and brand names being repeated to add creditability to a campaign. All of this shows that L'Oreal is a powerful media institution, however they will still use models like Cheryl in their campaign as this is now a norm for society. If action was taken to change this there would be a huge risk of their being controversy. Cheryl is admired by many people, they look up to her as a role model. She uses direct mode of address, this gives that extra connection to the audience watching.[[26]] Cheryl is a dominate women therefore she should challenge the stereotype "informing and teaching its citizens, helps democracy move toward its ideal state"[[27]] of how women should really be. Within the advertisements Cheryl is smiling and looks happy, this connotes her smiling is that you get the feeling that the lip gloss.[[28]] The beauty industry is extremely successful, alongside the success it is also shown that the stereotypical views that are going against of the beauty industry has a great effect on consumers. Down to the fact that "informing and teaching its citizens, helps democracy move toward its ideal state"[[29]] as beauty tries to avoid challenging some stereotypes.
Print advertisements in “women’s popular magazines” [[30]], such as Vogue. Has a concern on women's body image, “Pressing issues leading to ill-health in the industry,”[[31][For example "two models died of eating disorders in 2006 and 2007.”[[32]] Women have to look a certain way in order to be able to peruse a career in modelling. Young girls and boys want to see models who look like them, and to constantly be bombarded by images of only one-type of a “fantasy portrayal” [[33]] that has caused generations of women and men to condemn their own unique beauty by hating their bodies and going even further to starve and manipulate their own radiant health. However raising the feminine principle and not using poor body images of women would start a new era of health and self-image for women and how they are portrayed and viewed in society. Beauty is not a one-size-fits-all club, the lack of diversity is damaging. [[34]] For example Vogue’s photo shoots use teen models under the age of 16 which doesn’t represent any woman on the planet. “Concerned with the changing lives of women; the troubling signs of the female individualization as intersected by everyday media culture” [[35]] this is a negative representation of women within the media as teen models “average-size models, or no models” [[36]] haven’t fully developed at that age. The effect of using them as their models doesn’t show an accurate mode image for women. Let alone a child capable of protecting themselves against sexual harassment and poor working conditions or be representative of women across the globe. This leads the public to wonder why the company even bothers to put out a Teen Vogue, except those models are closer to looking like real teens.
Whether something is beautiful or not “beauty is in the eye of the observer”[[37]] different people will find beauty in different things, as well as finding beauty the observer will also find “ugliness”[[38]]. “Observers of feminine beauty are men”[[39]] men can go from admiring a woman to then seeing them in an inappropriate way “women will only feel beautiful if a man says so”[[40]] Men are more dominated and their opinion matters to women especially if it comes to the way they look. The way a woman looks determines how they portray themselves. For example if a females is told she look beautiful shell believe it for a minute however if she's told she looks ugly she remember it for her whole life time.   
There are still some women who believe  that “Chic natural beauty is the loveliest”[[41]] and that women should embrace their natural beauty and leave the “fake beauty of surgery”[[42]] out as there is nothing beautiful about being overly fake. “Heavy makeup is the ugliest”[[43]] covering yourself in makeup that masks your natural beauty isn’t attractive. It’s important for women to be happy with what they have as it’s all about the “inside not the outside”[[44]]. Not everyone is happy with the way they look it “Doesn’t matter”[[45]] not everyone is the same their women that feel their fat, flat chested, old and anorexic”[[46]]. There is beauty in each and every individual. Creating binary opposition through culture and natural, for example between natural and artificial beauty. [[47]]
      The Dove Real Beauty Campaign, it consists of natural beauty, " the women are all pretty"[[48]]. The models are portraying themselves as being confident which suggest that they "show more courage"[[49]]. The print advertisements for the Dove Real Beauty Campaign uses a different approach to advertising their product and haven't used the stereotype. Stereotypically in advertisements "sexual images of women in magazine advertisements” [[50]] majority of advertisements have women posing in sexual ways is to show consumers the product. "The objectification which fuels stereotypes – reducing them to nothing more than their body parts"[[51]] having women represented in this way that  post feminist theory would apply to it ‘includes the notion that femininity is a bodily property; the shift from objectification to subjectification’[[52]] this shows that the goal of revolutionising sexism has been succeeded. However this is not the case with The Dove Real Beauty Campaign, the images used have not been Photoshop meaning that there has been no airbrushing these shows the target audience that it’s a real life image of the mode. Giving the effect if they were to see the image of the model and then the model in real life they would be fairly similar. This will be an attraction for the females as they know that The Real Dove Campaign is being true with the audience which is an attraction. The smile on her face connotes that she is happy with her skin and that the target audience should see that and be happy with their own skin."Women in these pictures who are considered ugly by conventional standards"[[53] ]The representation of the models in The Dove Real Beauty Campaign and other advertising campaign. And how this has a different effect on female’s audience. However the male gender reacts to The Dove Real Beauty Campaign and other campaign that use editing software and airbrushing. However this is not the case for Dove real Beauty campaign as they all have real models and represents them natural.
Theorist's like Marxists, that are known as the bourgeoisie for controlling the beliefs of proletariat. Body image within advertisements and beauty, are controlled by the bourgeoisie as they like to ensure that consumer need the product. This is a benefit to them as they are ensure that they receive profit meaning that they are in a capitalism economy that is ruling.
Other theorist's such as radical feminism,  they would state on the product that is being prompted itself. They say that they try to  reinforce the mainstream ideology of female oppression, this could be done its subconsciously or directly. radical feminism do this by opposing standard gender roles . For example females will have that gender role of being represented in a certain way through out different media platforms. 
In conclusion, the way women are represented in TV/print advertising that promotes beauty/cosmetic products has had an effect on the way women present themselves today.  The media represent females in certain ways that influence the way women see themselves and other women to be a certain way. For example the models within beauty/cosmetic print advertisements have been airbrushed etc. will the models are promoting their products.  The women in magazines are portrayed quite positively with flawless skin and a beautiful figure however this is usually thanks to Photoshop which therefore gives females reader an unrealistic vie and young females may try to achieve these unrealistic views leading to many health issues. 
Word Count - 2,668



[1] Feminist’s media studies Vol9 2009 
[2] ibid
[3] Effects of Media portrayal of women.(n.d.).HomePage
[4] ibid
[5] Skinner, Andrew M ."The Impact of Technology on the Media Industry."Nottingham University. Accenture
[6] David Gautlett p41
[7] Feminist’s media studies Vol9 2009 
[8] British Women's Emancipation since the Renaissance.
[9] Asian  journal of communication 2002-2003 page 104
[10] Feminist’s media studies Vol9 2009 
[11] Effects of Media portrayal of women.(n.d.).HomePage
[12] ibid
[13] Branston, G.,& Stafford, R. (1999).pp.379
[14] Branston, G.,& Stafford, R. (1999.pp.379
[15] Ferrier, M. (2011, September 23). Luella Bartley: 'English women are more concerned with looking cool than sexy'
[16] Casey, Bernadette. Television studies: the key concepts. London: Routledge, 2002. Print.
[17] Feminist’s media studies Vol9 2009 
[18] ibid p303
[19] ibid
[20] ibid
[21] Gauntlett, D. (2002). p.77
[22] Gauntlett, D. (2002). p.55
[23] Homer, E. (2008, December 26). Star Struck. Media Magazine,
[24] Jambeshwar, G. (2007, January 1). Impact of Celebrity Endorsement on Consumer Buying Behaviour and Brand Building by Dinesh Gupta
[25] ibid
[26] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRjNJa_d4nY
[27] Mass Media".Retrieved November 28, 2011.

[28] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRjNJa_d4nY
[29] Mass Media".Retrieved November 28, 2011.
[30] Vogue
[31] [31] Mass Media".Retrieved November 28, 2011.
[32] Ibid
[34] Vogue
[35] Gunter, Barrie . The Media and Body Image. N/A: SAGE Publications Ltd, 18. Print
[37] Feminist’s media studies Vol9 2009 
[38] ibid p306
[39] ibid
[40] ibid
[41] ibid p309
[42] ibid
[43] ibid
[44] ibid
[45] ibid
[46] ibid
[47] ibid
[48] ibid
[49] ibid
[51] Urwin, R. (2012, January 26). p. 15.
[52] Gill, R. (n.d.). Postfeminist media culture: elements of a sensibility. Postfeminist media culture: elements of a sensibility from eprints
[53] ibid

No comments:

Post a Comment