Advertising: The representations of women in advertising

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Blog tasks: Representations 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 'Representations 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?
More ambiguity. 

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

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

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

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

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?

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

8) What does Richard Dyer suggest about the 'femme fatale' representation of women in adverts such as Christian Dior make-up?


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 and why was it controversial?

2) What was the Dove Real Beauty campaign?

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

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

5) 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?

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