Representations of women in advertising

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?

Mistry suggests that it has increasingly utilised ambiguity to heteronormative standards and camp comic relief used to undermine conventional gender stereotypes.

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

In a post-war society, warnings of leaving traditional gender roles shot up to guilt women back into the home, so there was a creation of the 'feminine mystique', ideals of women's strengths laying in fulfilments of femininity. 

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

They highlighted women's domestic roles and showed how women were viewed as decor for their husbands and it was a form of sexuality, waiting to be 'awakened'.

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

Laura Mulvey, that visual sexual drive is organised by the patriarchy, the act of looking is masculine whilst the act of being observed is a feminine, voyeuristic pleasure.

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

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?

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

8) What does Richard Dyer suggest about the 'femme fatale' representation of women in adverts such as Christian Dior make-up?


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 and why was it controversial?

2) What was the Dove Real Beauty campaign?

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

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

5) 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?