To what extent does the representation of women in advertising reflect or challenge the identity of women?
Consider how both explore the conceptual question: To what extent does the representation of women in advertising reflect or challenge the identity of women.
Consider:
- What values/stereotypes/attitudes are being conveyed?
- How are the adverts similar/different in conveying this?
- How do they provoke thinking about global issues?
- How does the craftsmanship (refer to the guide document) of the text explore the ideas of representation and identity?
Global issues: Culture, identity and community; power, politics and justice; beliefs, values and education; art, creativity and imagination; science, technology and the environment
The two advertisements convey women’s obsession with beauty. They are stereotyped as not being able to care about anything else but solely their physical appearance. The ad on the left depicts that in the past women were extremely mindful of their appearance more especially in terms of their facial beauty. In the opposite ad, women are now represented as having transformed from only making their faces look as elegant as possible to ensuring the beauty and fitness of their entire body.
the left ad communicates that women are surbodinate to men and that they have limited power in terms of politics or leadership. This is potentially because they invest most of their time trying to beautify themselves before their husbands or the community at large. Despite the fact that women are seen to partake in politics nowadays, leadership is still not very common among women nowadays as they are still found to care much about their appearance and other aspects of life not illustrated in the ads.
In some cultures, women were expected to obey and render absolute respect and dignity to their husbands. As one of the ways to fulfil these values, they tend to ensure that they are as appealing as possible before their husbands. In the present world, although women have other things to do, they still hold beauty as their core value thus they tend to be sensitive about their appearance so they can be admired by other people.
The wording in the ads is written in capital and also bolded to catch the attention of the audience. The yellow colour(right ad) that is used in the background as well as the swimwear is a connotation of freshness, happiness and energy. It also makes the ad as bright as possible to attract the attention of the audience as well to allow for the wording used to be as clear and appealing as possible. In the left ad, the picture of the woman is placed in the center with words surrounding her to describe everything in the picture and provide clear details. Some words in the left ad have been bolded to attract the attention of the audience towards them since they hold most of the weight of the ad.