representation of women in advertising

Blog tasks: Representation of women in advertising

The following tasks are challenging - some of the reading is university-level but this will be great preparation for the next stage in your education after leaving Greenford. Create a new blogpost called 'Representation of women in advertising' and work through the following tasks.

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 suggest that advertising has increasingly employed images in which the gender and sexual

orientation of the subject(s) are markedly (and purposefully) ambiguous.


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

The stereotypes were that that no women have their own plans and choices to make for their career.

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

Clothes and makeup started to represent women as decorative  objects.

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

Laura Mulvey come up with the male gaze idea and the male gaze ideology is that media is represented in a male point of view.

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

The representation of women changed in 1970s as they were showing how women are independent,energetic and confident in the world.

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?

van zoned suggest with his advert of a office saying that women need to look forward to get ready for office.

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

Barthel suggests  that there is no actual threat to male power for example even  if a women is seen to be wearing a suit and working in something professional there is still a sense of power of a male over this presentation. 




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?

This advert was about weight loss and  having a slim body with the question of "are you beach body ready?".

2) Why was it controversial?

This was controversial because this advert was showing the male gaze view and was telling women how there body should be to attract male attention.

3) What did the adverts suggest to audiences?

This advert suggests that you need to have a slim body specifically to be confident enough to go to the beach this summer.

4) How did some audiences react?

The audience was really upset and angry with advert as they believed this was objectifying women.

5) What was the Dove Real Beauty campaign?

Dove advert was  to show all different types of women with different race and ethnicity that they don't need to change for the society and also showed that everyone is beautiful.

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

social media changed the way people interact with adverts because social media has allowed everyone to put their opinion with freedom and has allowed them people to show how they really feel about adverts.

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

van zoonen's feminist theory links with this case studies because her theory about women's body is  shown different to male bodied and that women are shown  as sex objects for male are represented in this adverts like the beach bodies.

In addition Stuart halls theory also links with this Case study because it shows the prefer reading of

8) 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?

In my opinion the representation of women has changed a lot in advertising over 60 years as at 1940's they were shown  to be controlled by women and after some years in the 80's and 90's they were shown as appealing and attracting to male therefore now they re shown as very independent and confident who can do anything in world without any hesitation.