Feminism and TV Commercials
Television commercials to the average person are a form of entertainment. They are also a way for people to see what is being sold out there in the real world. To a critic television commercials are much more than that. Depending what critical approach the critic uses he or she will analyze the television commercials differently.
I decided to challenge myself and instead of using an approach that I knew about I used one that I knew little about. In my discussion of television commercials I focused on using the Feminist critical approach. I will discuss what Feminism is made up of. Then I will discuss and analyze six television commercials.
Feminism has at least four different parts to it. There are the radical feminists, which argue “that women’s oppression is the result of the system of patriarchy, a system of domination in which men as a group have power over women as a group,” (Storey 135). The Marxist feminists who argue that women’s oppression is due to capitalism. The third is the liberal feminism, which does not believe a system like patriarchy or capitalism oppresses women, but that males are prejudice against women. The fourth is the dual systems theory, “women’s oppression derives from their situation within an autonomous system of sex divisions of labor and male supremacy” (Vogel 128).
The first TV commercial is about a woman who is walking out of Taco Bell with a burrito in her hand. It is no ordinary woman she looks skinny and beautiful. Two young men look at her as she comes out of Taco Bell and they comment on how good she looks. This commercial might look harmless to someone who does not care, but to a critic it is not. This commercial shows a very skinny woman walking out of a Taco Bell with a burrito. A woman who sees this and has a low self-esteem could become anorexic or bulimic. Since she might go eat a taco or something at Taco Bell and then when she does not look like the model she might decide to hurt herself to look like the model. This commercial gives women a false perception and could be harmful. Women and men believe that the way the model looks is the norm and if they are not like that they will not be taken serious.
In the next commercial there is a man and a woman taking pictures of their surroundings. The man’s film finishes so the woman grabs a camera and takes the ...
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...on women, particularly women’s bodies, as sales bait is in universal evidence” (Gallagher 75). To know that the stereotyping is not only in the United States, but that it is universal is disturbing because it shows that we are in a male dominated world.
Despite the mixed perception of women as models, mothers, sex objects, and so on in these commercials the bottom line is that Feminists want the best for the women in this society and around the world. I learned by using the Feminist approach that women in general have it hard. I feel everyone grows up being taught about gender stereotyping since a very early age without really noticing it. We all have to have an open mind and not label people because of their gender. But if we must label or judge someone let it be because of what they have accomplished in life.
Bibliography:
Gallagher, Margaret. Unequal opportunities The case of women and the media. France: Offset Aubin, Poiters, 1981.
Storey, John. An Introduction to Cultural Theory and Popular Culture. 2nd ed. Georgia: The University of Georgia, 1998.
Vogel, Lisa. Marxism and The Oppression of Women. New Jersey: Rutgers, The State University, 1983.
During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, many saw alcohol as a cause of instability among communities. To counteract the effects of alcohol on American society, The Temperance Movement, Prohibition Party and many others sought to enact anti-liquor laws that would prohibit the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol. On January 19, 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment had taken effect and a nationwide ban on alcohol was enacted. This was thought of as a solution to the many problems that America had at the time, but it only made matters worse. The American society had been greatly affected by the Eighteenth Amendment in many negative aspects such as increasing crime and violence, worsening the economy, and much more.
In 1920 following the ratification of the 18th amendment the country became dry. The 18th amendment made it illegal to manufacture, sell, import, or export drinking alcohol. It would stay this way for a little more than a decade, which became known as the prohibition. Prohibition was a way to clean up the cities and improving the conditions of the US. Prohibition was approved because drinking was thought be a drag on the economy and the leading cause for some of the country's problems such as corruption, child abuse, crime, and unemployment. Fourteen years later in 1932 America had changed its mind and it was repealed. So what changed? The American people had changed their minds about the 18th amendment because crime had increased,
According to Robert Scholes, author of On Reading a Video Text, commercials aired on television hold a dynamic power over human beings on a subconscious level. He believes that through the use of specific tools, commercials can hold the minds of an audience captive, and can control their abilities to think rationally. Visual fascination, one of the tools Scholes believes captures the minds of viewers, can take a simple video, and through the use of editing and special effects, turn it into a powerful scene which one simply cannot take his or her eyes from. Narrativity is yet another way Scholes feels commercials can take control of the thoughts of a person sitting in front of the television. Through the use of specific words, sounds, accompanying statements and or music, a television commercial can hold a viewer’s mind within its grasp, just long enough to confuse someone into buying a product for the wrong reason. The most significant power over the population held by television commercials is that of cultural reinforcement, as Scholes calls it. By offering a human relation throughout itself, a commercial can link with the masses as though it’s speaking to the individual viewer on an equal level. A commercial In his essay, Scholes analyzes a Budweiser commercial in an effort to prove his statements about the aforementioned tools.
The Prohibition or the Eighteenth Amendment was a huge failure for a law in 1920. There were many factors that led to its downfall that included illegal means, rise of gangsters, and the Twenty- First Amendment. Despite the Prohibition, it did not stop the people from drinking it and accessing it through thousands of speakeasies. It became a most lucrative business for criminals that led to dangerous competition. In 1933, the failed amendment was repealed and most people rejoiced that alcohol was legal again. The Eighteenth Amendment was an experiment that went horribly wrong and did absolutely nothing to bring any positive change. This was proof “that you don’t have to be drunk to come up with a really, really, bad idea.” (Carlson. 141)
Today’s commercials cloud the viewers’ brains with meaningless ritzy camera angles and beautiful models to divert viewers from the true meaning of the commercials. The advertisers just want consumers to spend all of their hard-earned money on their brand of products. The “Pepsi” and “Heineken” commercials are perfect examples of what Dave Barry is trying to point out in his essay, “Red, White and Beer.” He emphasizes that commercial advertisements need to make viewers think that by choosing their brands of products, viewers are helping out American society. As Rita Dove’s essay “Loose Ends” argues, people prefer this fantasy of television to the reality of their own lives. Because viewers prefer fantasy to reality, they become fixated on the fantasy, and according to Marie Winn in “Television Addiction,” this can ultimately lead to a serious addiction to television. But, one must admit that the clever tactics of the commercial advertisers are beyond compare. Who would have thought the half naked-blondes holding soda cans and American men refusing commitment would have caught viewers’ attention?
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Common sense seems to dictate that commercials just advertise products. But in reality, advertising is a multi-headed beast that targets specific genders, races, ages, etc. In “Men’s Men & Women’s Women”, author Steve Craig focuses on one head of the beast: gender. Craig suggests that, “Advertisers . . . portray different images to men and women in order to exploit the different deep seated motivations and anxieties connected to gender identity.” In other words, advertisers manipulate consumers’ fantasies to sell their product. In this essay, I will be analyzing four different commercials that focuses on appealing to specific genders.
The 18th amendment was ratified on January 16, 1920. It was a very drastic measure taken by the United States government to reduce drinking and crime by outlawing the businesses that manufactured, distributed, and sold alcoholic beverages (“Why Prohibition?”). Its passage was the result of a “widespread temperance movement” during the first ten years of the 20th century that sought to end all vices and turn the United States into a land of morality (“Prohibition”). The amendment led to the period in American history known as Prohibition, an era that lasted almost fourteen years and was characterized by “speakeasies, glamor, gangsters, and a period of time in which even the average citizen broke the law” (Rosenberg). Clearly, the Prohibition
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