Essay

Women in advertising has changed from women as passive objects of male gaze, to active, independent and sexually powerful agents” Dr Rosalind Gill. Explore this statement and the effect it has on women with reference to selected critical theories and advertisements.

Today, we are controlled by how others perceive us. Women in particular are constantly aware that they are being judged by their appearance. They are an “object of vision” (Berger, 2008, p41), used as a tool by advertisers wanting to gain attention from the masses. While adverts such as Gucci’s perfume “Guilty” (Image 1) clearly display a dominant and “sexually powerful agent” we have to ask, why do advertising companies portray women in this way if not to reach out to other women and make them believe that you have to be like the advertisement to pacify a man and the “male gaze”?

In visual media “the gaze” refers to the scrutinisation of a person (or people) being viewed by another. Most commonly, the feminist theory of the “male gaze”; describes how men regard women. In his book “Ways of Seeing” (primarily a 1970’s television series broadcast on the BBC) British art critic John Berger describes how a woman appears will “determine how she will be treated” (Berger, 2008, p40). Society’s pressure means a woman should be constantly aware of her appearance and the fact that others are judging her for it wherever she is. For how she appears to a man is “normally thought as the success of her life” (Berger, 2008, p40).

The effect that advertising has on women starts from a ridiculously young age- or maybe even subtle conditioning from birth where newly born baby girls are dressed in pink. Children see the Barbie doll in shops and “wished [they] looked like her” (Rogers, 1999, p12) aspiring to a piece of plastic with unrealistic bodily proportions (if Barbie were real she would be too thin to actually stand or live very long). From a young age, girls are slapped in makeup and encouraged to participate in beauty pageants that “advance the notion that devoting time to the superficial qualities of physical perfection is the key to success” (Tebbel, 2000, p5). Is this really something we should be drilling into women, yet alone children? What happened to the wise adage 'beauty is only skin deep?' It does not reflect well on modern society and has been going on for decades. Is it likely to stop, or get worse? With the fact that in 2010, the 10-year-old Willow Smith (daughter of actor Will Smith) hit the charts with the “unsettling” (Sullivan, 2010) song “Whip My Hair” hope for the future does not look strong.

Furthermore, the increasing development of the makeup industry means children are being exploited by advertising companies worldwide. They can “easily be transformed into mini adults” (Tebbel, 2000 p6) by the media. Not only is this robbing the children of their childhood innocence, forcing young girls to worry about conforming to pressures set for women in an increasingly demanding adult world, but it also portrays a false image on adult women who see these metaphors. The “hyper sexed look of younger and younger girls” (Dines, 2011) does not make a woman look “powerful” but smothers her in innocence and invites the male gaze. Just take a look at Disney star Miley Cyrus, who in 2008 did her first topless photo shoot at only 15 years old and then at 16, she appeared on the front cover of the adult woman’s magazine ELLE (image 2). With all this it is no wonder child grooming occurs. A concerning action where young girls are definitely passive objects of the male gaze- at the end of the day under all their makeup and fakeries they are not sexually powerful agents, they are vulnerable children.

Similarly, most of what people see in advertisements is set up- it is fake, yet women seem to be forced by society to aspire to it. Almost all the models in advertisements have been airbrushed or been created digitally from just a ghost of a real person, setting an unachievable goal. Tebbel describes how women are meant to ‘mimic’ the ‘Überwoman’ despite the fact that they represent an ideal that less than once percent of the female population can ever hope to achieve.’(Tebbel, 2000, p.ix) Models like Erin O’Connor have spoken out saying fashion and advertising is all based on ‘perpetual fantasy’- in an article for The Observer on Sunday she describes how she does not fit into the sample sizes and has not ‘for some time’. If ‘the already drop dead gorgeous’ models are being ‘routinely retouched’ (Tebbel, 2000, p22) it makes the image of a “sexually powerful agent” a lie. They may look sexually powerful and independent but they are false women who have been built for others to gaze upon them. Built in fact for real women and men alike to fantasise and believe that this is the norm and is what women should look like. Women want to satisfy the “male gaze”: for their men to look at them like they are as perfect as the flawless images they see everyday on billboards and in magazines. These advertisements are sending out the wrong messages, making women incessantly attempt the impossible. No one is perfect and that is what makes us all unique.

In addition, women go to the extreme lengths of cosmetic surgery and dieting to try and achieve “faultless” looks that are unnaturally possible. Society’s pressure for women to attract the male gaze, to look more confident and sexually powerful, cause women to undergo breast enlargements, facelifts, tummy tucks etc, things which have been inspired by advertising and the media. Stick thin Keira Knightly’s “boob job” for the King Arthur advertisement posters (image 3) supports this notion. The company saw her as too flat chested so digitally enhanced her chest to become bustier. But is this what people expect to see? If people in the media and fashion do not think that women look good naturally and do not show them as such, then this is not setting a very a good example to the billions of women looking up to them daily; the boom in cosmetic surgery is evidence that women are, in some cases, risking their lives to try to achieve the fantasy. Women used to be embarrassed by cosmetic surgery keeping their visits to the surgeon a secret from others. Now it is more of a “trophy”, an act of showing society how far you are willing go to become this “Überwoman”. A woman has gone out her way and endured a lot of pain to surgically change her appearance most, likely to gain attention from a man and the male gaze.

There is the argument that women undergo cosmetic surgery ‘to please themselves’ (Tebbel, 2000, p39) which would support the idea that they are “independent”, but this is only so they can feel good about themselves: to capture the male gaze and achieve the “success of her life”. They are trying to mould their bodies into something the media has created, making women slaves to the industry. Berger states: ‘it is important not to confuse publicity with the pleasure or benefits to be enjoyed for the things it advertises.’ (Berger, 2004, p41) This is called commodity fetishism. Women buy the products believing that they need them to become like the women in the adverts: they strive for the male attention unmistakably apparent in adverts they see everywhere every day.

Dieting is another way women try to achieve a faultless and independent image and is another powerful money making industry. Women are the ones in control of what they as individuals consume and society today judges her for it- ‘a woman must continuously watch herself’ (Berger, 2008, p40). This leads to society’s growing problem of anorexia. Women are seeing these ever thinner and thinner models in advertisements and are starving themselves to become fashionable. These ‘women are going too far to meet the standards set by too few.’ (Tebbel, 2000, p59). The noun ‘standard’ being the key problem- what is the ‘correct’ standard today? It is very difficult to tell with the media obscuring the truth and feeding every one lies that suit them. Manikins people see in shops every time they go shopping is another delusion. They are made to appear life like, to show the customer what they would look like with those clothes on, but in fact if the manikin is unnaturally thin. The body would not be able to contain all the necessary vital human organs we need to live. Is this really what women aspire to? Something with is not actually human? There have been a few brave models consumed by anorexia that have allowed themselves to be photographed so emaciated that they are close to death. Is this the reality of the 'gaze' we should aspire to

Women need a new role model. They need someone who does not make them feel insecure every time they watch television or look in the mirror, but someone who makes them happy with who they are and confident about the life they are leading. The model Sophie Dahl argues that ‘fashion should be about making women look beautiful, not making women starve.’ With plus size models appearing on catwalks in Paris, there is a slight chance that this notion may be making a break through. However, this unfortunately does not deal with the problem of a woman’s obsession with the constant search for eternal youth. It is understandable that women want to hold on for as long as possible the days when they could attract the male gaze, but must they be persistently reminded of it by the media? Advertisements are over run with ‘perky young things’ (Silvuka, 2009, p11). In the 1960’s Lesley Hornby, aka Twiggy, became the first outstanding teenage model at the age of 16. Now in her early 60’s Twiggy’s life has surprisingly not come to an end. Society of course will have naturally expected her to age. This has not stopped airbrushing however. Image 4 reveals that regardless of society’s expectations, companies such as OLAY still feel the need to make their models look younger and more vibrant in their advertisement campaigns- Twiggy looks like two totally different people in these pictures. If advertisements keep lying to women in this way they are just going to become less and less confident and more unrealistic in their expectations. Will this make them happy or is it just another way to keep them suppressed?

Another issue is that women welcome the envy of others. They want other women to be jealous of them. As a woman, to be wearing the latest trend reflects her status in society; she is spending to become successful. This emancipation of is getting out of control. Women are losing the ‘human qualities that have noting to do with fashion’ (Tebbel, 2000, p.x) and it is mainly the media’s fault. The phrase ‘human qualities’ perhaps bringing to light the fact that the models women are seeing in advertisements are so over manipulated that they do not have the right to be called ‘human’ anymore, they are almost alien to us. This idea also works with the male gaze. Women strut about in their newest, most expensive and revealing outfits with the aim to draw the most attention from men. Other women envy them for this and they ravishingly embrace it. It is not a healthy way to live, but the more autonomous a woman appears to others, the more she flourishes in society and will become like the women they see in adverts- inhuman.

There are people starving in the world and all people can think about is how they can spend money to make themselves look better and work their way up the social ladder. Surely this is inhumane? A reflection of the faceless manikins that we are becoming. Advertisements are teaching women to care more about their looks rather than their personal health and life threatening matters. Women are becoming ‘greedy, materialistic and wasteful’ (Dyer, 1996, p77) all to please the male gaze and to achieve the unrealistic scenes shown in advertisements.

Finally, in relation to the above, advertisements could just adapt to try and help women feel more secure about themselves instead of attempting to portray them as something they are not. It is this sentiment that has helped fashion adviser Gok Wan become famous. However, companies are just showing women what they want to see so they will buy the product. If it was not such a huge desire of the female gender to look great, feel wanted and to be adored by a man, then maybe companies would not be showing them these scenes. It is a common ground amongst most women that appeals to a mass audience and this what makes advertising successful.

In conclusion, modern day adverts are portraying women as “active, independent and sexually powerful agents” but they are still objects of the male gaze, so it has not really changed. Women see these adverts of strong and independent women and believe that society expect them to look like that. No matter what shape or size they are they strive for the perfect image reflected in modern day media (no matter what it is), to become the passive objects of the male gaze. Now society has to ask the question: is there any hope for women in the future? Some would argue no, as technology is becoming further advanced and allows all kinds of digital manipulation to occur. However more and more people are beginning to speak out. Although Tebbel says that fat models “was just a stunt…big girls has their fifteen minutes of fame” (Tebbel, 2000, p15) it has come into the limelight again and is today a very hot topic of conversation- in September 2010 New York had it’s first plus size catwalk saying that is was “long overdue” (Trevelyan, 2010). How women should appear seems to be spiralling way out of control, casting way too much unnecessary pressure on everyone. It all seems a bit of a costly set up as, after all, men ‘don’t give a damn what [women] wear just as long as [they] take it off a lot.’ (Tebbel, 2000, p119).

Image 1- "Gucci Guilty"Advertisement for perfume

Image 2- Miley Cyrus for ELLE magazine

Image 3- Keira Knightly in the advertisement for the film King Arthur

Image 4- Twiggy in the Olay advertisement

Bibliography

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