‘There is a secret ‘under life’ poisoning our freedom, infused with notions of beauty, it is a dark vein of self hatred, physical obsessions, terror of ageing and dread of lost control’[1]
To what extent does the beauty advertising industry promote dominant ideologies that female audiences are influenced by and adopt?
The conventions, representations and ideologies the beauty industry advertises, elicits aspirations, desires and celebrity endorsed images which generate fake realities and materialistic societies. The beauty industry tends to ‘invite our gaze’[2] into a glamorous attainable life, however subliminally they allow female consumers to believe ‘that there is room for improvement in a woman's appearance.’[3] Advertising desensitises consumers into believing the beauty products will enhance femininity, attract a ‘male gaze’[4] and achieve dominance in the 21st century, all in which are ‘on the basis of semi-conscious or hidden memories.’[5]Modelling attributes the protagonist represents in adverts are greatly enhanced when a product is celebrity endorsed or the product is of their own. Celebrity images in magazines, television and websites consistently remind women about their ideal life where ‘women see other women in entertainment who are "happy, famous, beautiful, and sexy," they will want to emulate them.’[6] In some respect, women come to understand the processes of achieving such a dominant powerful image in which the ‘portrayal is so unrealistic.’[7]
Looking retrospectively at the gender roles; historically ‘Women spend most of their time either pregnant or producing milk’[8] subject to a psychological evolutionary view from the 1950s. Society has created a belief that ‘women and men were indoctrinated from birth into believing that women's semi-slave status was natural.’[9] The distinctive roles transferred within advertising as shown in ‘The Joy of Living with Fragrance’ and ‘Coty Lipstick’, merely representing a dominant patriarchal society where expression and independence of a woman was frowned upon. Such beauty adverts deemed to challenge the dominant ideologies of women however, ‘even when women are shown in a position of power, it is still shown through a very patriarchal ideology’[10]. Close analysis of this text shows many shots of the woman protagonist, however within the frame, it incorporates the male figures that ‘have always designated women as a sub-class who exist to serve male needs’[11]. The explicit connection between male and female inseparability is evident throughout the advert showing male dominance over a woman. This contradicts the real aims of the advert as it strives to target middle aged aspiring women wanting to break the stereotypes of a woman such as a ‘housewife’. Such beauty adverts echoes the actions of society in the 1960s. Barthes theory of cultural myth relates to social gender differences as he suggests that women are ‘passive, waiting to be rescued by a man. The male figure is more active and economically powerful, henceforth targeted consumers were less aware and educated that women could challenge dominant stereotypes especially in the beauty industry.
Reference to the Guardian, ‘women could let her hair go grey and still feel she was making the best of herself.’[12] In this decade the media were afraid to embrace women’s successes and femininity; although potentially minimal, due to its unconventionality and breaking the norms of society. In some respect, by taking risks, would jeopardise the status, respect and economical values of accredited institutions.
The feminist movement over many decades imposed an inevitable change. According to Gunter (1995) who provides a guide to content analysis of studies, results showed that ‘women in magazine adverts prior to the 1970s were rarely shown to be in paid work’[13]. Continuation of studies led to found that the amount of ‘housewives’ after the 50s decreased however advertising still showed ‘three quarters were for kitchen and bathroom products’.[14] Even though there was a decrease in gender stereotype roles, women weren’t seen as influential or successful to challenge the stereotypes within advertising. The failure to being embraced to their full potential, feminists continued to challenge the rights of women such as reproductive rights, maternity leave, equal pay and the right to vote, striving to make women socially dominant and representative of developing characteristics of the country, i.e. the media. This was considered as the third wave of movement between the 1980s and 1990s which focused on developing the achievements of women, one of which expressing their beauty and success in adverts to represent a hard hitting impact on audiences to generate a new generation of competitive culture in consumerism.
Women started to become less domestic; trying to pursue careers and independence as supported by the BBC broadcasting a video online quoting that in 1970s, ‘26,000 women in this decade went to study higher education and ‘advertisers celebrated these new women’[15]. This crucial change between being a domestic housewife and being an independent woman led to improve their appearance changing the dynamics of dominant and alternative ideologies. Women became greatly open with their appearance to generate excitement, change and independence in a ‘new’ woman. This created a dominant effect in those women who succeeded flaunting their femininity and attributes the media glamorised to working women aspiring to achieve a welcoming appearance and beauty. Brands such as L’Oreal created an ‘advertising campaign making dyeing practically mandatory.’[16] Due to this feminist movement, stereotypes of women began to change.
In the 21st century the feminist movement hasn’t managed to dishevel the patriarchal society however strong women has pushed the boundaries to continue to represent their lives as a ‘new’ woman. This is heavily evident in Rihanna first released perfume ‘Reb’l or Fleur?’ advertised predominantly on social networking sites and YouTube. The majority of Rihanna’s audience; young female aspirers, actively use the internet, due to technological determinism in the current 21stcentury. It is found that ‘16.7% of the world’s population have access to the internet’[17] which shows that Rihanna’s impact on consumers through technological marketing, generates a vast amount of female consumers to acknowledge her innovative and successful pathway to becoming an idol. This enhances the awareness and knowledge women have acquired over several years to push the boundaries of the norm and elicit mesmerising and memorable attributes competing against the patriarchal society.
Due to the changes of the dynamics of dominant and alternative ideologies Rihanna portrays both through a representation of both success and freedom against sexuality and femininity. According to Todorov’s narrative theory, the advert follows a continuous pathway of equilibrium where Rihanna is surrounded by feathers creating an idea of freedom and control of her surroundings, a disequilibrium where she allows herself into having attachments with many men and a new equilibrium when she discovers her real identity and escaping to her unwanted reality. The contrasting point in which Rihanna sells in her perfume reflects Levi Strauss’ binary oppositions through the use of snow and sun. The advert incorporates these two opposite ideologies and begins with the ‘good’ image ‘Fleur’ and the bad ‘Reb’l’. This text elicits the current dynamics of the ideologies of women.
Now, women are seen as ‘the objectification which fuels stereotypes – reducing them to nothing more than their body parts’.[18] In the Reb’l section, the audience become aware of several male figures following her, covering her eyes, and seducing her. This is executed through multiple close up shots of body parts and sexual expressions representing women merely seen as sex objects in a patriarchal society currently in the 21st century. This can be considered as post feminist as it ‘includes the notion that femininity is a bodily property; the shift from objectification to subjectification’.[19] This theory suggests that it has succeeded in its goal of revolutionising sexism, making it fundamentally opposed to the third-wave intention of broadening feminist struggle henceforth shown in the sexualisation of a dominant ideology of Rihanna transitioned section of her advert.
Beauty adverts today are parallel to the current status in society, all created by powerful media institutions who fail to understand the change in society, and are afraid of change due to the risks and controversy it may cause. Contradicting this idea, Rihanna has currently represented herself as a dominant female figure amongst big institutions and proven this through her perfume and enabling control. This success has proved to the beauty industry that taking risks against stereotypical views has a great effect on consumer culture. However, institutions believe that ‘informing and teaching its citizens, helps democracy move toward its ideal state’[20], which is why beauty advertising avoids challenging certain stereotypes in order to achieve the aims of society.
Rihanna generates aspirations in which female consumers believe that it’s worthy enough to allow them to purchase a product regardless of the cost where they are ‘expected to be sexy and virginal, experienced and naive, seductive and chaste, they are made to feel that they have to achieve this ideal, by constantly being presented with these image’.[21] By fighting against the patriarchal society who continues to fuel the objectification of women they now believe that in order to attain a successful and engaging life with maximum opportunities, they have to achieve the mass injection of sexualisation through the beauty industry. The change in advertisers aims of sexualisation in adverts questions the regulation and censorship it may have to avoid. Belle D’Opium by Yves Saint Laurent had explicit reference to drug use which generated thirteen complaints sent to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The brand quoted to the agency ‘The advertisement was not intended to make any reference to drug culture, but to promote the sensuality and seductive qualities of the fragrance’.[22] This shows that the changes in ideologies in which institutions want to achieve has reached ultimate glamorisation leading to adverts being banned. This represents a radical change in women from the 1960s.
Such industries use women who possess success, power and independence which is evident through celebrity endorsement through a variety products; Cheryl Cole and L’Oreal, Davina McCall and Pantene and Beyonce and Heat. Marketers believe that ‘brands and celebrities can be described as mutually beneficial’[23]in which they ‘pay millions of dollars’[24]hoping that such a tactic would ‘bring magic to the brand they endorse and make them more appealing and successful’[25].Practically, this was illustrated when, ‘Lily Allen under the Chanel umbrella to promote their handbag range in 2009 added a touch of European sophistication’[26]which shows that celebrities can challenge the dominant ideologies of women within beauty advertising. By challenging the stereotypes of women using celebrities; female consumers can identify themselves with opinions they have in reality, and generate aspirations in which celebrities endorse which are currently achieving the new dominant ideologies of women.
By ‘paying the advertising campaign used to influence their purchase’[27] it achieves a dominant look in society by the women’s increased knowledge of ‘fake realities’ portrayed in adverts represent the copycat theory. Women strive to be like famous successful women, therefore go to any means necessary to ‘copy’ such power through the products the beauty industry believes to sell. Due to this selling technique, ‘UK industries take £8.9 billion a year out of women’s pockets.’[28]
The use of current ideologies fuels advertising as it possesses many qualities for industries to sell their product and gain high revenues for their business henceforth ultimately improving the economy. However, society believes it contains disadvantages for all consumers as it generates ‘a whole desirable style of life’[29] allowing consumers to believe that ‘not owning the product would involve personal failure’[30]. In some respect, the forms and effects of advertising can be explained through Baudrillard’s Simulacra theory because through constant injections of advertising through posters, radio and television in which it ‘is widely known to represent and reinforce the mainstream ideology of contemporary western culture’[31], it hides reality which is irrelevant to understanding our own personal lives. According to Marxist theory, the big institutions that are in charge of the injection of production are known as the bourgeoisie who deem to control the beliefs of the proletariat. Within advertising, the bourgeoisie try to ensure that body image and beauty is standardised across all cultures to achieve continuity and the creating ‘needs’ for a product in a consumers mind. The bourgeoisie gain greater profits, ensuring mass capitalism hence improving the economy.
Celebrity endorsement entices women to buy products as they are supplemented by conventions of aspirational advertising. As women are representing themselves more widely in different scenarios, this is influenced by their outward appearance and how they present themselves amongst others. Statistics have shown that on average ‘women expose themselves to more than 200 synthetic chemicals before she has morning coffee’[32] which also represents the heavy influence the beauty industry has. Celebrity endorsement affects women’s insecurities more than ‘normal’ advertising because celebrities represent a desirable image in which women of the mass population want to ‘try to achieve this unattainable look they constantly see in media advertising.’[33]
In conclusion, the media influences women’s desires and beliefs into what their appearance should look like. Over time the ideologies of women both dominant and alternative ones have changed due to the increase in important and influential aspects the media generates especially through the beauty industry. Simply, the injection of beauty representations of women are exaggerated, which refers to the hypodermic model as the actions, images and expressions are injected into culture in which women have to live up to. However some would argue that these changes are due to independent decisions rather than the effect of the media therefore it is hard to determine the cause and effect of the objectification of women and how they present themselves in the 21st century.
Word Count: 2,355
[1] Wolf, N. (1991).p.10
[2]Coad, D. (2008).p.76
[3]Effects of Media portrayal of women.(n.d.).HomePage. from http://www.mattbarton.net/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Effects+of+Media+portrayal+of+women
[4] Mulvey, Laura. 1989. Print.
[5]Homer, E. (2008, December 26). Star Struck. Media Magazine, 1, from http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscr
[6]Effects of Media portrayal of women.(n.d.).HomePage. from http://www.mattbarton.net/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Effects+of+Media+portrayal+of+women
[7]Effects of Media portrayal of women.(n.d.).HomePage. Retrieved January 30, 2012, from http://www.mattbarton.net/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Effects+of+Media+portrayal+of+women
[8]Cardwell, Mike, and Cara Flanagan. p.100
[9] British Women's Emancipation since the Renaissance. (n.d.)from www.historyofwomen.org/
[10]Women on Television.(n.d.).Aberystwyth University - Home . from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/
[11] British Women's Emancipation since the Renaissance. (n.d.)from www.historyofwomen.org/
[12]Butler, G. (2006, June 11). What makes women happy? | Life and style | The Observer, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2006/jun/11/familyandrelationships6?INTCMP=SRCH
[13]Gauntlett, D. (2002). p.55
[14]Gauntlett, D. (2002). p.55
[15]BBC - Learning Zone Class Clips - Greater Freedom for Women in the 1960s - History Video.(n.d.).BBC – Homepage, fromhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/greater-freedom-for-women-in-the-1960s/3515.html
[16]Butler, G. (2006, June 11). What makes women happy? | Life and style | The Observer, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2006/jun/11/familyandrelationships6?INTCMP=SRCH
[17] Skinner, Andrew M ."The Impact of Technology on the Media Industry."Nottingham University. Accenture,.<http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~nhn/G53DDB/LectureNotes-2007/lecture06-AndrewSkinner.pdf>.
[18]Urwin, R. (2012, January 26). p. 15.
[19] Gill, R. (n.d.). Postfeminist media culture: elements of a sensibility. Postfeminist media culture: elements of a sensibility from eprints.lse.ac.uk/2449/1/Postfeminist_media_culture_%28LSERO
[21]Women on Television.(n.d.).Aberystwyth University - Home , from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/hzi
[23]Homer, E. (2008, December 26). Star Struck. Media Magazine, from http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscribers
[24]Jambeshwar, G. (2007, January 1). Impact of Celebrity Endorsement on Consumer Buying Behaviour and Brand Building by Dinesh Gupta :: SSRN. Going to search. from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1203322
[25]Jambeshwar, G. (2007, January 1). Impact of Celebrity Endorsement on Consumer Buying Behaviour and Brand Building by Dinesh Gupta :: SSRN. Going to search. from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1203322
[26]Homer, E. (2008, December 26). Star Struck. Media Magazine, from http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscribers
[27] Casey, Bernadette. Television studies: the key concepts. London: Routledge, 2002. Print.
[28]Gauntlett, D. (2002). p.77
[29]Branston, G.,& Stafford, R. (1999.pp.379
[30]Branston, G.,& Stafford, R. (1999).pp.379
[31]Women on Television.(n.d.).Aberystwyth University – Home. from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/
[32]Ferrier, M. (2011, September 23). Luella Bartley: 'English women are more concerned with looking cool than sexy' | From the Observer | The Observer from http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2011/oct/23/luella-bartley-english-style-interview?INTCMP=SRCH
[33]Webster, I. (n.d.). Media And Influence On Women Body Image. EzineArticles Submission from http://ezinearticles.com/?Media-And-Influence-On-Women-Body-Image&id=720646
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