Representation is the way in which the media constructs aspects of 'reality' including people, places, events, culture, ethnicity and issues.
Representation is a complex concept in which we try to understand how the media constructs its messages and how audiences respond to that message. For this essay I will be looking at the way in which women are represented in the Britney Spears' Fantasy perfume advertisement, and the 2011 Coco Mademoiselle advertisement featuring Keira Knightly.
Feminism has been a social philosophy for quite a long time and over the last four decades the role of women and their rights has changed dramatically in the Western world. However, the female representation has stayed constant. Beauty, physique, sexuality, emotions and relationships have been the focus for female representations There is so much focus on physical beauty that other values seem to be excluded; this is not a realistic view of an everyday life for many women around the world. In perfume adverts especially, there are a lot of beautiful, thin, 'airbrushed women', who appear to seduce the man with their perfume. In this essay I will be studying the way the perfume advertisements use the representation of women in various forms including objectification, fragmentation and binding of the body.
Objectification: to present as an object (rather than a person - to duhmanise)
Fragmentation: to break up
Binding: to restrain or confine as if with ties or responsibility or loyalty
U.S. pop sensation Britney Spears has her own perfume brand called Fantasy, and the Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel is endorsed by Keira Knightly.
Britney Spears is a global superstar, rich and successful. Although, she has had a lot of bad press for her behaviour in the pa...
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...gton Post', http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-leo/five-trends-the-advertisi_b_149354.html (date unknown) [accessed 20 December 2013]
'Male Gaze Illustration' in 'Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze' http://www.freewebs.com/elizabethbarnes/ (date unknown)
[accessed 20 December 2013]
'Rape myths to be challenged in court by proescutors' in 'The Telegraph' http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/5012571/Rape-myths-to-be-challenged-in-court-by-prosecutors.html (date unknown)
[date accessed 20 December 2013]
'Women Leading the Way' in 'Huffington Post' http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robin-amos-kahn/women-leading-the-way_b_3056013.html (date unknown)
[accessed 20 December 2013]
Coco Mademoiselle. Dir. Joe Wright. Perf. Keira Knightly and Alberto Ammann. Chanel. 2011. Advertisement.
Fantasy. Dir. Bille Woodruff. Perf. Britney Spears and Nick Steele. 2011. Advertisement.
The documentary, “Miss Representation,” is a film about how women are perceived in the media. It is written, directed, and produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom. She is an actress and a film maker who advocates for women. In the beginning of the documentary, Newsom discusses her struggles as a young woman surrounded by the pressures of looking a certain way. This film is targeting mainly women of all age that has experienced her struggles. Jennifer Siebel Newsom effectively convinces the audience of “Miss Representation” that the media has molded women in a negative way through statistics, celebrities’ and younger generation’s testimonies, and clips from the media.
Kim Kardashian. Mother, sister, daughter and Kanye's wife. Although people are quick to judge her they still can't get enough of her. Blustering into the spotlight due to a leaked sex tape 2007. The starlet socialite has been on our televisions ever since.
In this essay I’ll be exploring various concepts of women and will deeply criticise the way women are seen and portrayed through advertising. My primary resource I’ll be referring to throughout this essay is a book called ‘Ways of seeing’ by John Berger, which highlights the role women during the early renaissance and onwards. In addition to this I will explore the various beliefs of women from a wide range of secondary resources, and will include references from books, websites, and various images to help clarify my statements.
The documentary Killing Us Softly 4 discusses and examines the role of women in advertisements and the effects of the ads throughout history. The film begins by inspecting a variety of old ads. The speaker, Jean Kilbourne, then discusses and dissects each ad describing the messages of the advertisements and the subliminal meanings they evoke. The commercials from the past and now differ in some respects but they still suggest the same messages. These messages include but are not limited to the following: women are sexual objects, physical appearance is everything, and women are naturally inferior then men. Kilbourne discusses that because individuals are surrounded by media and advertisements everywhere they go, that these messages become real attitudes and mindsets in men and women. Women believe they must achieve a level of beauty similar to models they see in magazines and television commercials. On the other hand, men expect real women to have the same characteristics and look as beautiful as the women pictured in ads. However, even though women may diet and exercise, the reality...
First, Kilbourne’s research should be praised tremendously for bringing to light the unhealthy impression of true beauty in today’s culture. Kilbourne challenges the audience to reconsider their viewpoints on advertising that is sublime with sexual language. The evolution of advertising and product placement has drastically changed the real meaning of being a woman. According to the movie, every American is exposed to hundreds and thousands of advertisements each day. Furthermore, the picture of an “ideal women” in magazines, commercials, and billboards are a product of numerous computer retouching and cosmetics. Media creates a false and unrealistic sense of how women should be viewing themselves. Instead of being praised for their femininity and prowess, women are turned into objects. This can be detrimental to a society filled with girls that are brainwashed to strive to achieve this unrealistic look of beauty.
Britney was very successful from 1998 to 2000. During these years, things were changing for her. Britney was telling people about her “remaining a virgin until marriage” yet she was posing in pictures that convinced people to think otherwise. Her albums still continued to sell in the United States as well as in Europe. She embarked on many successful roads through 2003 (Wikipedia, 2011). Her public finally saw her as a woman not a girl.
In the essay “Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body,” author and philosopher Susan Bordo discusses the history and current state of male representation in advertisements. While using her feminist background, Bordo compares and contrasts the aspects of how men and women are portrayed in the public eye. She claims that there has been a paradigm shift the media with the theory that not just women are being objectified in the public eye, but also men too. Since the mid-1970s, with the introduction of Calvin Klein commercials, men have started to become more dehumanized and regarded as sex symbols. In a similar fashion to how Bordo describes gender, race plays a similar role in the media. People of all different ethnicities and cultures are being categorized into an oversimplified and usually unfair image by the media over basic characteristics.
What Kylie is most famously recognized for now are her lipsticks alongside some other makeup products. She has glosses, matte lipsticks, liquid lipsticks, eyeshadow, blush, you name it. She has her own website with all of her makeup. Her most recent thing coming up is her very own TV show on E! called Life of Kylie, which began this August.
Advertising is always about appearance. It is also about information and what really satisfies people. Undoubtedly, that advertisement of women has been increased dramatically and obviously in such a way that it turns out to be an important part of people’s lives. Recently, with advertising developments, there are more and more prospective shows to the public. It cannot be denied that advertisements consist of negative scenes that shape female identity.
The objectification of women is a huge issue in society and is often led by advertising. However, many men still believe that the adverts depicting women in a sexual and often passive posture are not very offensive, but rather very funny or sexy. However, how would they feel if it were their daughter or sister being advertised throughout the world as a sexual object? The Tiger Beer advertisement shown in the appendix is a clear example of the objectification of women in advertising. The Tiger Beer advert was made to appeal to men from the age of 20 to 60.
It is well known that women and minorities are both systemically underrepresented in national parliaments. There are factors that can explain why they are both underrepresented, for instance, electoral system design is one of the big factors that has impact on women and minorities representation. Along with demographic and socioeconomic factors, and cultural variables. Although, women and minorities are both systemically underrepresented in national parliaments, I argue that the types of electoral challenges they face and the institutional tools used to overcome them are not same.
4) Kilbourne, Jean. Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising’s Image of Women. Dir. Sut Jhally. DVD. Media Education Foundation, 2000.
Representation in the media is important for countless reasons. While consuming media, people want a character that they can relate to. People are much more likely to consume media when there is the representation
Curry and Clarke’s article believe in a strategy called “visual literacy” which develops women and men’s roles in advertisements (1983: 365). Advertisements are considered a part of mass media and communications, which influence an audience and impact society as a whole. Audiences quickly begin to rely on messages sent through advertisements and can create ideologies of women and men. These messages not only are extremely persuasive, but they additionally are effective in product consumption in the media (Curry and Clarke 1983:
Men and women have different life experiences, the writing of male and female authors will differ, as well. Some people believe that male authors are not able to write accurately from the female perspective or present feminist ideals because they have not experienced life as women. When writing about women it is possible that authors will describe them differently depending on gender and culture. But, there are cases were male authors can illustrate women representing the stereotypical female. To explore these issues, I have studied the representation of women in four novels: two novels from male writers, Henry James and Ernest Hemingway, and two novels by female writers, Kate Chopin and Sandra Cisneros.