The ideal post-modern woman is a collage of charm, grace, beauty, strength and independence. This ideal is what Keira Knightley epitomizes in the Coco Mademoiselle perfume commercial. A far cry from the original feminist movement which was entrenched in politics this post-feminism created a realm where woman sought all the riches of the feminist movement but shunned the feminist title (Goldman 1992, 130). Keira is presented as a beautiful independent woman, who is free from the hold of men and sexually liberated. However, through close examination, it is clear that her independence is in relation to her power over the men in the commercial. Further, this power is simply power over the man whom she wishes to seduce.
The commercial begins with Keira slipping into her loft in the early morning, wearing only a men’s white dress shirt and black hat. She looks past the camera, never making eye-contact. Keira is presented as the super-woman which Goldman (1992) describes as “sublimely self-confident and secure, poised, effortlessly beautiful, [moving] with a style and grace called ‘presence’... independent and successful; liberated, yet feminine and romantic; modern, yet traditional at the same time” (107-108). By looking past the camera Keira becomes the subject of envy. This envy can only be achieved by distance, we look to her but she does not look back at us, her demeanour signifies confidence, which we watch but do not have a connection to (Goldman 1992, 118).
Throughout the ad, Keira exudes a confidence in a playful yet mature way. This confidence, however, rises from her relation to men. At the beginning of the commercial she is dressed in a way that implies she has just left her lover’s room. So the ‘presence’ which she hold...
... middle of paper ...
...desire for control leads to a fetishization of the female body. This fetishization in turn lends itself to the consumption of commodities (Goldman 1992, 113), as the perfect femme fatal is impossible to achieve outside of a James Bond movie. This all for control over men, which ironically shows that if so much emphasis is placed on control of men, are woman really in control? The feminist movement was aimed at gaining equality between sexes, yet we have raped this movement of all its political meanings. Women have objectified themselves in order to gain power over men, while pursuing freedom from the objectification of men. This Chanel commercial clearly demonstrates how woman objectify themselves in order to show a form of control over men. This need for control actually shows women’s failure to justify their position in society separate of its relation to men.
This phenomenon suggests that all women are required to remain loyal wives and stay at home mothers who aspire to achieve perfection. In “Mirrors of Masculinity: Representation and Identity in Advertising Images,” Jonathon E. Schroeder and Detlev Zwick claim that “highly abstract connections are made between the models, a lifestyle, and the brand” resulting in a need to associate these products with a specific way of living (25). Instead of simply displaying these luxurious bracelets and handbags, the ad creates an elegant environment through the incorporation of sophisticated items. The women are dressed elegantly in dresses and blouses, adding a conservative element to the ad. The ad presents a rather stereotypical image of the very successful heads-of-household type mothers who have brunch with other elite women in an exclusive circle. Everything from the merchandise they sport to the champagne glasses down to the neatly manicured fingernails provides insight into the class of women presented in this ad. The body language of the women strips the image of the reality element and instead appears to be staged or frozen in time. This directly contributes to the concept of the gendered American dream that urges women to put up a picture-perfect image for the world to see. Instead of embracing individual struggle and realities, the American dream encourages women to live out a fabricated
CoCo Chanel’s action of moving away from the older Victorian ideologies was a show of liberalism for women. The writer uses t...
The world is becoming more aware of the gender hierarchy occurring in our society. Men are consistently leaders and placed in positions of power while women are seen as inferior. Jean Kilbourne, author of “Two ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”, investigates this ideology as she looks throughout media and advertisements and highlights their sexually explicit commercials that degrade woman. In comparison, Allan G. Johnson, writer of Why Do We Make So Much of Gender?, discusses how the world’s view of gender has changed over time and how it has affected the world. Kilbourne and Johnson outline the presence of a gender hierarchy but do not accurately interpret why it happens. The underlying presence driving patriarchy is hidden deep in men’s resistance
There are several aspects to the layout of this advertisement. Women, regardless of age, tend to be drawn to the use of beautiful, younger women in an arrangement, which makes this design effective. Firstly, Taylor Swift (the young woman in the picture) has been properly dressed so that the lip-gloss she is using matc...
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...
In the Dove Real Beauty Sketches commercial, the Forensic Artist interviewed different women to do their sketches and it captivates women as an acceptable target audience for this advertisement. Women be more concerned about their appearance than men does and sometimes women also worry about how society view them in public. For example, at first the women in the video was unsatisfied
Betty Friedan is the author of the famous book, which credited the beginning of a second –wave feminism in the United States. Friedan’s book begins with describing “the problem that has no name” to women who had everything, but were unhappy, depress and felt like they had nothing. Women are expected to be happy by buying things, a new refrigerator, house, best-selling coffee, having the right make-up, clothes and shoes, this is what the Feminine Mystique symbolized. Something that women wanted but can never have. Furthermore, society in present day is full of advertisements everywhere we go in TV, books and on the radio. The young generation as well as adults get trap in a fantasy world full of perfection. Women always want to have a thin waist, the most expensive make-up and purses, it’s all based on stereotypes. In her book, Friedan mentions that the average age of marriage was decreasing compared to increasing birthrate of women. Moreover, Friedan has been nit-pick at for focusing on the middle-class women and for prejudice against
Her confidence is well illustrated in the music video “Who Runs the World (Girls)” by her fierce, focused expression while dancing in skimpy, feminine clothing. In addition, she embraces her powerful feminine identity by comparing herself to a variety of powerful animals in the music video. These elements combine to illustrate Beyoncé’s acceptance of her own femininity but also show how she allows that to empower her, not weaken her. Her actions in the music video are complemented by her actions in real life such as posing in the GQ magazine in only her underwear. On the other hand, some such as Hadley Freeman feel that Beyoncé is too powerful to need to stoop to posing in such magazines; in Freeman’s words, “It’s another if you are professedly one of the most powerful women in the entertainment business who has no need of such tactics” (4). While it’s true that Beyoncé does not need such tactics, it does not necessarily follow that these tactics are in fact a bad thing and purely a publicity stunt. Rather, these tactics are her way of embracing her feminine identity in order to promote feminism in her own way. While perhaps untraditional in her methods, by fully embracing her feminine body, Beyoncé promotes a confident feminism that empowers women in order to eliminate
Sexy, attractive, dependent, traditional…successful, smart, determined, independent; why must a woman choose, why can they not be a woman of all these characteristics? Dalbey and duCille explain how women are objectified starting at a young age of playing with dolls and attending pageants. This objectification continues into advertisements, Kilbourne, Bailey, and Powers all argue why women are portrayed as objects of sex which ultimately dehumanizes women. The reliance on a man is a constant issue women are faced with, along with the notion that men are to be the breadwinners. What if a single woman making half a million dollars as a doctor is out buying a new vehicle; does a dealer have the right to ask “shouldn’t you ask a man permission
From the Mid Century of the 1900’s to today, women have strived to be noticed and respected by society; and to be a part of a world with little confidence and many insecurities leads to wanting more and stepping out of the box that society builds to keep traditions alive.
Women read Cosmopolitan to find confidence in themselves especially in their sexuality. According to Mark Crispin Miller, a professor at New York University specialized in writing, “Advertising agencies do plenty of research, by which we can assume that they don’t select their tactics arbitrarily” (119). Although this ad is distinct from the other ads in the magazine, it is clever because it stands out to the readers and it did not get thrown into the magazine because they felt like it. The creator carefully analyzed the audience and the other ads in the magazine. Cosmopolitan has a copious amount of ads referring to glamor, confidence, and sex. This ad does the complete opposite, it throws out a natural look and a real life situation of being scared. The tone is different for it brings the reader back into the reality of their lives realizing they should not wander too far societal expectations. Women are expected to wear high heels to work every day and know how to cook and clean. They are incapable of being independent and wandering from those expectation. If they do wander, they are not going to make it because they are incompetent of living a life out of the norm. Cosmopolitan’s readers are reading the magazine to find confidence in themselves, but this ad throws a kink in those thoughts. This ad tells women that they really are not capable of being
The advert is for a new product called ‘WOMAN’ that they are adding to their line of fragrances. The first thing that is noticed about this advert is the colour. It is very contrasting with the black and white, and gives a big impact to the audience. The white usually signifies innocence but with the black background it’s suggesting hidden depths, like a wild side that you could have. The model’s look is very confident, like she can get
I will analyse these sources in my main body. In the past fifty years women have been marginalised and were represented as the weaker sex. The woman in the Kenzo advert is represented stereotypically as a weak human. For example, this can be seen when the woman is bare footed, full of laughter, innocence and leaning on an object, a slam. The woman leaning on the object signifies that the woman cannot live without this perfume.
image of themselves in real life. They are almost computer-generated women like in the movie Simone. Indeed, with the technology we have now, advertisers can transform a product into perfection, at the same time, misleading the consumer into seeing it as “real”, and thus permanently providing impossible standards (Ingham). More and more women are becoming dissatisfied with themselves trying to be this fantasy person created by the men in our society. This distorted view of reality, portrayed by advertisemen...
Popular media such as magazines and television shows like Sex and the City and Nigella portray contemporary core feminist beliefs that can strongly impact the consumer culture of their target audience. A common trend, although represented differently in each medium, is how identity is expressed through consumer culture and the politics of consumption. This paper will investigate how media depicts and exploits the changing feminist identity through consumption and independence.