Introduction We are often unaware of how much we are exposed to .doc
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Introduction
We are often unaware of how much we are exposed to advertising and the
effect of what these ads contain upon us as individuals especially in the
construction of our identities. Advertising holds a very specific function in
society, in its most basic form it is to sell products, through creating
awareness and promotion of consumer goods. Yet it is also able to
subliminally filter through ideas about how we construct our identities within
society. Gender stereotyping in the media, and particularly in advertising is a
well established fact, it is these stereotypes that I wish to explore more
closely. Starting from the notion which Friedman (1990) illustrated, that
gender is socially constructed I.e. women’s identity is constructed through
what they see and read, rather than a natural or biological trait (given the fact
that boundaries change over time and space), I intend to look at how adverts
construct women’s social roles.
The language of advertising is quite a restricted genre, there are certain
conventions which tend to be followed, and limitations regarding things such
as space means that a lot has to be conveyed through as little information as
possible. Due to such limitations, advertising has become a very creative and
innovative medium in its use of both language and images , which are used to
target its intended audiences. There has been extensive research based
around advertising and the effects it has upon both society and individuals, but
I would like to focus this investigation upon exploring the construction of
women in advertising today, and in particular through the channel of women‘s
magazines. I want to discover whether the images of women we are
surrounded by in adverts featured in women’s magazines reflect those that
exist in society.
To do this I will initially start by researching what has previously been written
on advertising, picking up on those studies related particularly to gender. I will
also need to explore the genre itself, whilst collecting ads from magazines
which address or attempt to construct women. I will then be able to form some
ideas about the ways in which women are represented and in what ways the
language found in the ads create identities. I expect to find portrayal of women
to be that of a liberated nature, with women celebrating their independence
and breaking down traditional boundaries or expectations of them in society.
I would also like to speak to the women who read particular magazines, and
see how they feel about the depiction of women in ads, and whether they see
these social roles as an indicator of how they see and act themselves.
1.2 Aims & Objectives
To continue any further in this investigation, I need to focus upon which
particular aspects of advertising I wish to focus upon. To do this accurately I
have set up a series of questions that I intend to explore, they are:
How do ads in women’s magazines portray women and their social roles?
-how does the language and text which is featured in an ad create
assumptions about women and their identity within society.
-how do the images and pictures in an ad convey messages, which
intensify or strengthen social roles.
What contribution do the ads make to young women and their identities?
-how do the targeted audience (e.g. readers of young, women’s
magazines) see themselves.
-does the images of women they see in ads affect how they perceive
themselves and create identities or social roles to aspire to maintain.
Background
2.1 The Magazines
I will now give a brief background to each of the magazines I am using in order
to understand the sorts of products that would feature in their pages. It is not
enough to randomly select magazines. Marketers and advertising executives
work incredibly hard at finding the right channel or medium in which to
advertise their product, they carry out intensive and rigorous research to find
the right magazines in which to place their ads, to be able to contact their
target consumer market. Moreover, most of the research that is carried out
upon readership is essentially to attract advertisers. The cover price of a
magazine barely covers the production costs, so magazines rely almost
completely on the income earned from selling advertising space in order to
produce revenue.
Cosmopolitan (published by Hearst)
The introduction of Cosmopolitan was one of the turning points in women’s
magazines. There has been previous research into this particular magazine,
not just internally, but by academics interested in the study of magazines.
Most notoriously research by J. Winship who studied at length Cosmopolitan
(amongst other titles).
Cosmopolitan was one of the first of its kind and one of its fundamental
differences from those that had preceded it, it talked very bluntly and frankly
about sex. Recognising that sex should be pleasurable for women and the
articles reflected this, giving women advice and real life stories to relate to.
In terms of audience targeting Cosmopolitans readership profiles explain a lot
about who actually reads and buys the magazine. Having been established
since 1972, Cosmopolitan always had a clearly defined outlook, one of
addressing women in a new and innovative way that nobody had ever done
before. Articles were focused around sex, advancing
careers and fashion, it was one of the first magazines to
talk about sex in such a frank way, which readers
appreciated. Cosmopolitan continued to follow the changing lives of women
which was the source of its success. Today, Cosmopolitan has a very clear
readership, they explain that Cosmopolitan readers are young ABC1 women
aged in their early to mid twenties, they are “Intelligent and independent,
determined to succeed - in career, social life and relationships”. Cosmopolitan
has a very strong view of women in the world claiming that they aim to inspire
women to celebrate being a woman, and that their readers take full advantage
of the many choices and opportunities that are on offer for women. The typical
Cosmopolitan reader “is part of the post-feminist generation who assume they
have equal rights. She has grown up in a world that has grown progressively
smaller and more accessible, so is far less constrained by society's rules,
physical boundaries or tradition than her predecessors. She will judge her
success on her own terms.” (information taken from
http://www.natmags.co.uk/magazines/magazine.asp?id=2 9th Jan 2004).
Company (Hearst Publishing)
Their mission statement (as stated on their website):
“Fashionable and fresh, Company magazine is for young women who are
going all out to enjoy their freedom years; the
exciting stage in a young woman's life when she's
breaking free from the restrictions of her teens but
isn't yet burdened by financial or family
responsibilities - a time characterised by
self-discovery, growing independence,
experimentation, optimism and fun with a capital
'F'. Company magazine is honest, trusted and always takes her side; it
champions every aspect of her life in a real and positive way. Cheeky and
sexy but never smutty; direct but never aggressive, Company magazine is the
best friend you wish you had.”
Demographically, the loyal Company magazine buyer is predominantly
between the age of 18-28 and ABC1. Attitudinally, she describes the
magazine as something for "when you're not settled, a bit wild" (Company
magazine reader, Qualitative Research). As a consequence she has a sense
of real freedom. Although she is aware of the future and wants to be
successful, she is determined to get the most out of life right now! She is
seeking to be in control and wants to appear confident and assertive. She
likes to be 'in the know' on personal, sexual and social issues and loves
anything that is new, stylish, fun and fast-paced. Subconsciously, she is still
searching for her own identity and trying to establish her own style - this is the
time of her life when she really has the chance to experiment and grow. She
needs guidance, but wants to be presented with choices rather than dictated
to. (source: http://www.natmags.co.uk/magazines/magazine.asp?id=1)
Glamour (Conde Nast)
Glamour, like Cosmopolitan has carried out intensive, internal research in
terms of their readership, their readers values and their lifestyles. As the
research is not independent it chooses to highlight certain aspects of its
readership, and more than likely backgrounds information that may not be
within their interests (which essentially is promote themselves), firstly to
readers and secondly to potential advertisers. Glamour has a clearly stated
'philosophy', which is explained in their media pack:
“Glamour is for successful, independent modern women who know how
to have fun, how to dress and how to spend. they are ABC1C2 women
aged 18-34. 48% of its readers are single, with 65% having
qualifications beyond A-level.” [the implications of such a question is
explained in the methodology section].
The most important statistics relating to this piece of research is those figures
which represent women’s reactions to advertising. For
example, the study states that 72% of readers are
influenced by magazines when buying beauty product,
this is a high percentage, but is also an attribute that
would persuade cosmetic companies to use the medium
of print advertising in women’s magazines. It is a two-fold
operation, magazines need to attract advertisers and
readers, advertisers need to attract consumers .
Some of the figures are quite ambiguous, and the researchers have inferred
certain connotations of certain actions, for example because 59% of readers
own a car does not necessarily mean she is independent, similarly because
65% of readers like to keep up with technology, does not necessarily mean
firstly that they do keep up with technology, and secondly is not an indication
of their intelligence as is suggested in the media pack.
New Woman (EMAP)
On the official website it states:
“New Woman magazine is the guide to modern life for women of the 21st
century: gutsy, glamorous, practical, inspiring – and a right good laugh. Every
issue is packed full of features, gossip, celebs, wearable fashion, top beauty
tips, plus advice on everything from your love life to getting the salary you
want!”. This is the only information given in terms of readership, it may be that
there has not been an intensive study of the magazines readership figures,
however in terms of my own (quite narrow) research, the title continued to be
brought up, and has also been fifth in the most popular magazines on the
market for the last two years consecutively.
Marie Claire (Hearst)
“Our Mission: Marie Claire is different, Marie Claire
is the magazine for women of the world. Marie
Claire reaches women around the globe, who feel at
home wherever they are. We give women what they
want: fashion coverage that moves from runway
trends to sidewalk style, beauty tips that work, and articles that address tough
subjects with sharp minds. Gutsy, groundbreaking, and glamorous, Marie
Claire is the core magazine for the women of substance and an eye for style.”
(www.marieclairemk.co.uk) Marie Claire, has a similar viewpoint as Glamour
and Cosmopolitan ( a little more ‘grown up’ than New Woman and Company)
proclaiming the personality of its readers into one single definition, although
not necessarily all of its readers do actually have these personal attributes.
Each magazine is slightly differentiated from the other.
Cosmopolitan places importance on women’s success,
particularly in careers and relationships. Marie Claire’s
focus is upon beauty and fashion, Company and New
Woman are less weighty and have sections focused around different areas of
women’s lifestyle for a slightly younger audience. Glamour, however, is the
competing publishing house’s version of Cosmopolitan having a similar
philosophy.
Since establishing exactly who the magazines are aimed at and describing
how the magazines perceive and therefore depict women in society, the next
section will focus upon women’s magazines as a whole.
Literature Review
2.2 Genre
2.2.1 Women’s magazines
One of the most recent influential writers who explored women’s magazines
as a genre in itself was Janice Winship. She studied the way women used
magazines, for what purposes and the effect that they had on them.
Traditionally magazines for women were aimed at upper class women to fill
their lengthly leisure filled days, but magazines have undergone radical
changes since the eighteenth century. Winship found that women’s
magazines are nowadays treated as a form of escapism which “provide for the
routines of women’s lives in which private time and space are precious”
(1987:17). The various magazines represent the images to convey their
respective styles – domestic, or girl-about-town, cheeky or stupid, upmarket or
downmarket., therefore the images we find in magazines are an important
source of study, all that needs to be done is select the magazine with the
personality we want to find out about, and it should in return present images of
this women. Traditionally the role of women in our society has primarily
centred on nurturing and family. In fact, for a long time motherhood was the
only acceptable role for women. Then the increase in the proportion of
working women grew dramatically. Many women began to pursue alternatives
to the traditional role in society, such as non-traditional relationships, careers
etc. Many began striving for equality, women’s magazines were said to
‘empower’ women, giving them tips upon how to be successful. I am not sure
how far I would agree with this notion, given that women are not as passive
as some of these studies have aimed to proclaim.
Cosmopolitan revolutionised women’s magazines, launched in the early
seventies, It aimed to modernise magazines and attempted to address a
‘new woman’ with interests other than the home and hearth. Traditionally
images of women in magazines have shown women as mothers and wives
with women’s identity being determined by domesticity. Cosmopolitan wanted
to address those women who came with a second wave of feminism that
arose after the 1960’s. Winship writes:
“What Cosmo conveyed was not anger and discontent at
being sexually and economically unequal to men, but an
optimistic joie de vivre about what women could enjoy and
achieve. The magazine enthused that women could combine
independence with traditional aspects of femininity” (1987)
Cosmopolitans claim was upon individuality claiming that women were ‘tired of
being told what to do’, yet the content of the magazine e.g. articles on what to
wear this summer, how to please your man etc did exactly just that. Cosmo
has many contradictions mostly about being independent and feminist,
however many of their features seem to be centred around ‘getting the guy’,
not being individual and independent.
The most important factor which any researcher of women’s magazines or
advertising respectively must bear in mind is that they are shaped by a
consumer culture geared to selling and making a profit from commodities, they
portray images of women which women want to achieve and make the
oppressed group construct themselves through consumption i.e. if they buy
the product that the young, thin, beautiful woman is wearing, they too can be
young, thin and beautiful and no longer oppressed. Winship also explains why
people respond to the images, she argues that the images sold to women is
something they want to aspire to, persuading them that “they too, like the
model can succeed“, and not because like men, we are attracted to them.
Magazines for men take a whole different scope to women and their bodies, in
that respect it is the women who are available for consumption and not the
products.
2.2.2 Advertising
Advertising serves one primary function in our society that is to sell products
and advertisers recognise that women’s magazines are the most effective way
of targeting a particular kind of women. As explained above magazines can
attract such a specific audience that they can marginalise a particular kind of
reader. Advertisers can tailor ads to fit the presumed attitudes and values of
the target audience.
Advertising is much more complex than a medium for selling products, it does
not simply provide an image of a product list its qualities and hope you buy it.
The medium is much more sinister than this, it uses words and images to
create feelings of inadequacy . Advertisers play upon women’s insecurities
constructing idealised images of women and femininity consequently women
reading ads are caught up in defining their own femininity. They construct an
identity for women that is based completely on their consumer decisions,
contrasting the images of women in ads to their own, hoping that by buying a
product they can alleviate insecurities about their appearance.
2.3 Image and Semiotics
Being a linguistics paper, I do not want to focus too much upon just the
semiotics in ads, yet it is impossible for me to analyse the genre without
discussing the images and what they represent to some extent. An ad is an
assembly of signs, words, images which all work together to create meaning. I
will attempt in this section to discuss a little about the practise of semiotics.
2.3.1 Semiotics
Ferdinand de Saussure was the founder of semiotics, with his theory being
that any system of signs create complex associations which in turn develop
some sort of meaning. (some background to his work can be found at
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/saussure.htm).
When dealing with semiotics of a social nature such as in advertising there are
often a need to describe an overall system of signs using a Structuralist
analytical method, I however do not attempt to find the complex underlying
structures of semiotics found in ads, yet I take some of the findings that
semiotics have to offer in my analyses.
Judith Williamson focused specifically upon the signs found in ads basically
concluded that adverts sets up connections between consumers and
products. She identified that ads play upon symbols, but they play upon the
status of things and the connotations they conjure up. The semiotics of
advertising associate the products advertised with socially desirable values.
The analogy she makes is that diamonds are not merely a rock, they are a
symbol of love and ads generate a connection between two products, firstly
the thing itself, and then the production of certain feelings, love happiness etc.
2.3.2 Women in advertising
An account of advertising to women in the first half of the twentieth century
was given by Pierre Martineau. He created a set of guidelines to which ad
creators should follow stating :
“advertising should help reduce feelings of isolation. it should:
-make her feel better about her routine duties
-give her feelings of pleasure in keeping house
-give her a sense of achievement
-generate feelings of self esteem
-alleviate feelings of solitude
-recognise her accomplishments” (1957)
These initial writings about women in ads were influential in the world of
advertising at the time, yet are seriously outdated. The myth of happy
housewife has been apparent for decades now, with many women going out
to work and leading a very different life to that of women in the 1940’s. Since
the 1980s women’s magazines emphasised an ongoing responsibility for the
readers own conduct, while continuing to offer her advice on self
improvement.
Goffmans book “Gender Advertisements” was one of the first of its kind in the
late 1970’s which attempted to break down the creating of meaning in
advertising. He explained that ads can “iconically reflect fundamental features
of our social structure” (1979:7) therefore the ads that we see are basically a
mirror of what is around us. If there are images of women as housewives this
is likely to represent women’s roles as they are in society. He explains that
this will be done in a slanted way, creating inevitable stereotypical images of
women, in a “dolled-up” version of reality. (ibid). Slightly contradictory,
Goffman also believes that adverts do not necessarily depict how men and
women behave but they are a good “representation on the way we think they
behave.” (Courtney 1983:12). He took from a huge sample of ads (mostly in
women’s magazines) and drew generalisations across them, he broke down
ads into categories, explaining the pose and meaning behind the pose of the
models in the ads. Concluding that women are submissive and dominated by
men.
Advertisers use stereotypes as a way of targeting their intended audience, it is
an effective way of selling a product. Women especially, recognise
themselves in any representation of woman. ‘Woman’ is a strong signifier
because it has many powerful connotations that women aspire to be (Coutney
& Whipple 1985). Trevor Millum is another important figure in the writings of
women in ads, he identified four common portrayals of women in British ads:
Mannequin
Narcissist
Hostess, and
Wife/mother
I will take these categories into account, checking whether ads today could
still be segmented into just four groups. I don’t believe that the final category
will exist at all, particularly when looking at this genre, and I would be very
surprised if there were any representations of women as mothers.
Bignell (1997) pointed out that “Women look to seek beauty, and men,
strength. As women, we either empathise with models, like what they are
portraying and want to copy them, or feel intimidated by their beauty and shy
away or detest it.”. This is an interesting point and also an important factor in
the way in which women are addressed and construct themselves. I may
consider this when creating questionnaires.
2.4 Language
It is important to clarify the linguistic means by which the material in the ads
will be analysed. Semiotics and pragmatics (the signs and the relation of signs
to interpreters) will be the linguistic scope that I will be using to read the ads.
These will be explained in 2.4.2, following an exploration into the previous
research of the language used in advertising.
2.4.1 Language in advertising
The language of advertising is very complex. It has to be creative, and
attention grabbing, yet has to work within a fixed set of restrictions concerning
issues such as legal matters and other what is deemed as more trivial issues
such as space. Advertising must create impact, and the creators of ads and
specifically words in ads have to be very clever with the English language.
Manipulation of language, lexis and grammar create certain effects which has
been discussed at length by a range of authors, the most well known including
Vestergaard & Schroder, Guy Cooke and Angela Goddard being some of the
most recent authors.
Vestergaard highlighted that ads target particular groups of people, and one
way of getting the audience to recognise who its aimed at is to provide some
sort of cue ( i.e. language) that are concerned with that particular group. Thus
I am discussing whether adverts portray a modern ‘new’ woman, but if the ads
are attempting to target this woman then inevitably they will use language and
images to let them know it is they who the advertisers are trying to reach.
Advertisers then have to create motives for purchasers they do this
predominantly by creating some kind of essential need for the product, they do
this by mainly highlighting inadequacies for example “if you don’t have perfect
skin, buy this to improve its condition”.
Lund 1947 described the structure of an ad to be:
Attract attention
Arouse interest
Stimulate desire
Create conviction
Get action
Both the image, but mostly the language are the indictors of these. Attention
seeking devices are paramount, and usually the standard is that sex sells.
Short phrases, puns, humour and sexual connotations all attract interest and
consequently arouse interest. The manipulation of regular linguistic forms sets
some language of ads apart from others. Slogans, metaphor and certain
sentence structures (e.g. rhetoric) all frequent in ads.
As mentioned previously but also maintained by Vestergaard, advertising can
be expected to reflect closely the current trends and value systems of a
society. Ads are tailored to fit the presumed target audience, so the language
is that which can relate to the audience. (e.g. simple and light hearted in a
genre such as magazines, this is expected to be very different from that found
in broadsheets).
I will use some of the ideas that have been found in the work of language in
advertising in the analysis section.
2.4.2 A pragmatic perspective
“Pragmatics is concerned with the study of meaning as communicated by a
writer and interpreted by a reader” (Yule 1996). It explores how readers make
inferences about what is written which in turn aids them in the interpretation of
the intended meaning of a text. It involves breaking down the process of
interpretation which draws upon linguistic knowledge and a wider knowledge
of the world, and explores the use of presuppositions in order to come to some
kind of conclusion. However, we can only ever speculate about intended
meanings which is the beauty of advertising. Many ads rely on the reader to
make what Trevor Pateman (in Davis & Watson 1983) calls a default
assignment where they infer meanings from the cues provided. In this sense
he describes advertising to be a one-way anonymous form of communication,
which means advertisers get consumers to do their “ideological dirty-work”
which in effect means that adverts can hint at some ulterior meaning, yet as it
has been left unstated they are not liable for any misinterpretations.
I will draw upon the practices of a pragmatic approach when looking at the ads
in the following section.
Methodology
In order to explain the advertisements I must firstly discuss why I chose these
particular magazines to take the ads from. Due to a number of practical
constraints, particularly those limiting the time span of my study, I was unable
to envision a large scale analysis of a wide range of adverts, this was just not
feasible. Instead I thought I’d focus more narrowly upon a selection of ads that
were found in British women’s magazines. There is such a wide variety of
women’s magazines around, there are over 25 weekly and monthly lifestyle
magazine’s aimed solely at women. I had researched the genre a little
previously but I needed to find out what type of women’s magazine I wanted to
focus upon. The choice of magazine ads I would focus on would invariably
have a great affect on the outcome of the research.
3.1 The Sample & Questionnaire
I thought it would be easiest for me to research the magazines that were
aimed at young women aged between 18-26. Being 21 myself I thought my
previous knowledge of magazines would give me some insight into the genre.
I realised that it would be an entirely biased study if I were to just use the
magazines that I read as the target of my study. I asked a number of peers in
an informal pilot questionnaire to find out simply what magazines did they read
and gave a number of titles of which the respondents had to circle. I had to
carefully select the sample of respondents making sure they fit the
specifications and ideals of the reader the genre of magazines I am hoping to
explore. I produced thirty questionnaires to friends and colleagues, who also
were able to pass them on to their wider circle of associates. I had to ask a
few initial questions to make sure that the people in the sample would be
useful to me. Firstly I needed some background information, mainly about
their lifestyle and views.
I asked the following questions:
1. Age:
2. Occupation:
3. Highest level of education:
4. Do you read magazines? (please circle)
Yes, regularly
Yes, occasionally
No, not at all
5. If you regularly or occasionally read magazines which of the following do
you like to read: (please circle, more than one may be circled)
Cosmopolitan New Woman More
Company Glamour Elle
Marie Claire B In Style
Vogue Woman’s own Women
Essentials 19
Please state any other magazines here:
3.2 Return rate
With such an informal method distribution (i.e. amongst friends and peers) I
didn’t expect receive all of the questionnaires back, so I was relatively pleased
with the 67% return rate. From these I was able to discover a little about a
select sample of readers of women’s magazines. I do realise however there
are some problems with questions 2 and 3. I hoped that by asking this I would
be able to get an insight into their current social status, without having to ask
about income. However neither are always a clear indication of success, for
example somebody that dropped out of school at 16 with no qualifications
could be a successful entrepreneur, similarly somebody who has a degree
may not necessarily be a high flying career girl. Therefore it is not always
possible to make assumptions about a persons status on the basis of these
two questions, but for the purpose of this research I will use these as markers
of success.
Of the 20 returned questionnaires I discarded those that I did not feel were
useful to my research, i.e. those who did not regularly read magazines, and
those who were not in the age range that concerned me. I then selected the
some of the remaining questionnaires to explore the respondents’ views
further. I selected the ones that I knew I would be able to contact easily, but
also those who I knew well enough to discuss at length the issues I want to
investigate. I chose five females aged between 19 and 24, I wanted to get as
wide a scope as possible so where I could, I chose those with different
careers, qualifications, and hopefully viewpoints. I had some structured
questions to base the informal interviews around, but with the intention of
discussing them further. These questions were as follows:
6. How do you feel about advertising in magazines? (circle one or more of the
following statements that apply to you)
(A) Its annoying and a waste of space
(B) It makes me want to buy the product
(C) It informs me of new products available
(D) I rarely take notice of the ads
Any further comments?
7. How do images you see of women in advertising make you feel?
(A) Jealous /envious/upset that you don’t look like them
(B) I want to attempt to emulate them, or be like them
( C ) It doesn’t particularly bother me, I don’t really notice
(D) I feel sorry for them
Anything you’d like to add?
8. Off the top of your head can you recall any adverts you have recently seen
in a magazine? If so, what was it for?
What sticks in your head most about it?
9. Do the images in advertisements found in magazines of women and
gender roles represent you?
3.3 Interviews
The interviews were incredibly informal, held in peoples bedrooms or kitchens
or living rooms, this was the easiest way to access the respondents also I
knew them well enough not to feel threatened at being asked personal
questions in their own private space. By being in comfortable surroundings
with a person they knew well, I felt it would eradicate any feelings of
uneasiness that sometimes can occur in interview situations. I also knew my
interviewees intimately enough for them not to be intimidated about taking a
strong view or disagreeing with some of the points raised in the questionnaire.
I wanted it to be more of a chat to listen to their views, other than my own,
surrounding women in advertising. I did not want to use any recording devices
but asked them to fill out the answers to the questions themselves, I made my
own notes upon what was being said during the interview, picking out the
most important points.
I did not want to make the focus of this study to be using wholly quantitative,
or even qualitative data, but I did need both types of material to back up or use
as evidence against my own views and other critiques of women in
advertising.
The actual questionnaires can be found in appendix, however I will discuss
my findings in the results section.
3.4 Source data
Along with the original data collected through interviews I used official
statistics to arrive at my final selection of women’s magazines. The primary
reasons for choosing the final collection of magazines is basically that over the
past three years they have been the market leaders in magazines, making up
the top five of best selling women’s magazines consistently. This coupled with
the figures I found from my own set of informants I was able to confirm that
these were the most popular magazines for young women.
The following are the final selection of magazines I chose as a source of the
advertising material:
1 Cosmopolitan
2 Glamour
3 Company
4 Marie Claire
5 New Woman
These magazines are aimed at young successful women, I therefore based
any further assessments upon the assumption that magazines which were
specifically intended for a young, liberated, successful and egalitarian
audience, must consequently only feature articles, and, more relevantly
advertisements which are based from this stance.
Analysis
I wanted to look at certain specific things that were found in the ads. I firstly
needed to identify how the ads address and refer to women. I will look at
specific linguistic features of each of the ads, then also analyse the images in
an attempt to explain how the women are constructed. I initially expected to
find women in certain types of social scenarios. I thought that women would
be constructed as no longer dominated by men, that they would be
independent, career focused and possibly even rebellious. I took on board the
fact that a lot of the literature I have reviewed took a slightly dated view of the
representation of women, and those that did recognise the rise of a ‘new’
liberated view of women did not necessarily agree that it existed. I would hope
to challenge this view, and that the adverts which appear in women’s
magazines in the twenty first century would depict a new way of constructing
women.
Utilizing a pragmatic outlook in the analysis of ads will help me to explore the
way in which the ads create meaning and how the meaning of the ad is
interpreted. The words alone, would give us a fairly limited scope into the
creation of women’s identity, so it is obligatory to also use the images in the
analyses taking some of the theory of semiotics to support my ideas. The
words and pictures work together to create meaning. I will start by
categorising the ads which will hopefully highlight some major similarities and
patterns between them.
5.1 The Ads
Initially when I realised that not all women were portrayed in a way that fit in
with the “house-style” (Myers in Davis & Watson 1983) of the magazines I
tried to start the analysis by attempting to group the ads together under other
headings. In an attempt to look for ways of distinguishing similarities, I thought
I would be able to categorise the ads using which products they were
advertising. I grouped them under: fragrance; cosmetics; household; food &
drink; jewellery & watches; and finally cars, and imagined that certain products
were linked to certain things and so consequently would indicate a certain
type of women, e.g. cars marketed to women as women being independent.
However this was not the case, I needed to discover other ways in which
women were portrayed, and attempt to group them in different ways. To do
this I decided to define the roles in which women were portrayed into two
separate groups: those that were cast into traditional, stereotypical roles i.e.
women as mothers, subordinate to and dependent upon men, upholding the
domesticated ideal; and those who were shown as independent, dominant,
and rebellious to the traditional social roles. Having outlined these two
classifications, I will attempt to explain the ads.
5.2 Traditional Social Roles
I was quite surprised to find the proportion of women which were represented
in a traditional sense. Especially since the magazines from which they were
taken are definitely not aimed at ‘traditional’ types of women (readers of
Cosmopolitan are generally expected to be sexually liberated, young, single,
career girls).
The ad for Sony Walkmans may suggest that women that women are
technologically inferior to men “it’s a good job the man in the shop explained it
so well”. traditionally women are viewed as subordinate to men in most
aspects, especially in areas such as science and technology. This ad clearly
still holds this view, highlighting the old-fashioned image of women.
Other ads I looked at showed women in traditional social roles, such as house
wife, mother (which can be seen in the zanussi ad), in some of the ads they
are viewed as reliant and dependent upon men, especially for things such as
happiness and their well-being. Also, some of the ads appear to be ill-placed
in this magazine. The very fact that the following appeared “Free arts and
crafts materials for schools. Persil. Collect stars on packs now.” in a young,
single persons magazine seems to be wrong. However, even though it is
addressing a social role which involves ‘mother’, along with other washing
powder and conditioner ads, it has still managed to find its way into this
magazine. I am almost certain that this would not appear in a young man’s
magazine.
“Make her feel like a million dollars for under £80. Christmas gifts on every
floor, Debenhams” the assumed addressee here, I would suggest is male,
although this is not clear. If correct, it suggests that men are at the source of
women’s happiness, and that to make a woman feel “a million dollars” I.e.
extremely good about herself, if you go to this particular shop you can buy
everything she wants but also at a price which is surprisingly low. This I
believe portrays a traditional view of relationships, with women being treat to
gifts, being made to feel special and happy through men’s actions.
There are also other ads, which at first glance appear to be representing new
women, in their new light, however with more detailed analysis look to be
better categorised into the traditional group. I will discuss these in the next
section.
During the analysis of these advertisements I found that the images of women
did not necessarily construct any one kind of women, or any singular form of
femininity. Instead it created many identities of which women could associate
themselves with.
5.3 ‘New’ Social Roles
The ads which portray women, in non-traditional roles, all convey some kind of
independent, dominant, sexually liberated party girl. With certain semantic
fields developing e.g. breaking the rules/rebellion; liberation a independence.
The ad for Soft & Gentle deodorant definitely portrays women in their ’new’
role. The central picture being two girls laughing and appearing to be posing
for a camera in a way that they would if they were on a night out with friends.
The line at the top reads “Serious protection. Party girls.” by directly stating
party girls it immediately identifies who the ad is aimed at. “serious protection”
could have sexual connotations referring to condoms, or the literal meaning,
which is the protection from becoming sweaty. The final line of the ad reads
“Soft& Gentle. For natural confidence”, again this language works on two
levels, at the level of denotation it means, you can be confident it wont leave
you with sweaty marks, but it also suggests that natural confidence is desired
quality to have, and perhaps if you buy this particular product it will give you
confidence on both levels.
“Hair should be like men. Gorgeous, rich and full of life” the ad personifies
hair, giving it humanistic features, met aphorising it for men. The use of the
modal auxiliary “should” assumes this is what men should be like, and women
wont settle for anything less. The confident, face on picture of the model
displays her confidence, that apparently using this shampoo has given her.
The Garnier fructis ad is encouraging women to become liberated by
“Unleashing the rebel in you….setting your wicked side free”. Perhaps from the
constraints they may suffer in society. “Get hard. Go wild!” could be taken as
a sexual reference,
You may notice that the ads are telling people to declare independence,
unleash their wicked side and go wild. However, these all create inferences,
that women have previously not been allowed to do these things, and that
they may not dare to do these things without encouragement, or of course the
help of their products which will buy them the confidence.
Tag Heuer Ad challenges the reader “100% strength, 100% beauty. What are
you made of?” the connotations are that the watch will bring you whichever
you are lacking. The model in the is in a dominating pose, with her head up
high, looking the picture of both of these qualities. Claims that women can be
strong and beautiful. By hiring a celebrity to endorse the product also, means
that readers may hope that by sporting a watch like hers, they are becoming
equal to her.
I will mention the Fuji-film ad here, however it is not clear where this fits into in
terms of social roles. The text “for whatever pops your shutter” is a pun,
playing upon the fact it is for a camera ad, but also the phrase which has
many different versions but basically means “whatever you’re into” sometimes
expressed “whatever floats your boat”. The image is of a woman, sprawled out
on a sofa (which Goffman describes as a sign of sexual openness) eating a
box of chocolates. However, the significant point is, that in the background
there is a man wearing nothing but a pink apron doing the dishes, the reason
this sticks out so much is because it is deviant form the cultural norm, the fact
that housework and chores are usually a woman’s role could be the reason
for why the humour in this ad is created.
The model in the Renault Clio ad has almost the exact same demeanour as in
the Clarins ad and indeed many more. She has her nose pointing toward the
air in an almost smug way. She appears to be very much the independent
business woman, dressed in white power-suit. The text that stands out - “Va
va voom, for people who don’t do gear sticks” also has sexual connotations, it
could be said for example “for those women that do not need men” (with the
gear stick being a metaphor for penis). Which portrays a positive social role of
female career woman, yet the fact that she is driving an automatic car could
be fitting in with assumed stereotypes that women don’t drive as well as men,
therefore need a more simple version of the car.
The direct address using the second person pronoun “Your fragrance, your
rules.” works along similar lines as the Tommy advert, displaying a liberated,
young women, who appears to be straddling a desk lamp, though this is
unclear. Her pose is open, and animalistic (on all fours) and she is radiating
seductive energy. By directly addressing the reader, it is asserting that the
reader can break free from the social rules that exist and make your own up.
The ad works in the same way as many others which could suggest that by
using this perfume you will become confident and seductive.
The Swatch Skin ad attempts to recreate a quiz, similar to that which may be
found in a magazine. It has three sections, each with three single words,
labelled (a), (b), or ( c), and the reader has to choose the words which
represent her the most. By completing this apparently she can “discover the
way to being a woman”. however it categorises women, restricting the social
roles in which a woman can fit into, which could be argued is constructing just
three categories of how women ought to be. The words which describe how a
woman ought to be have romantic relations e.g. seducer, passionate,
romantic. The others are personality traits which must be desirable, they are
all positive, with the exception of shy which could be taken either way. The
quiz concludes to tell you which personality you are, therefore which of their
watches you should buy.
The boundaries between which social role an ad falls into has become blurred
and are no longer clearly defined. For example, in the case of the Tommy Girl
ad, the text reads “ a declaration of independence”, suggesting that it is
creating a lifestyle for which women to live by, also with the underlying theme
that should you buy this perfume, you are therefore declaring your
independence and buying into this liberated lifestyle where women are
autonomous and declare their new found grasp on the world. However, in
terms of what Goffman was trying to express, the pose and the slight tilt of the
models head suggests otherwise. This girly, young and naïve posture
(propped up on her elbows) does not exude confidence and domination, but
quite the opposite to what the tagline says. There appears to be a mismatch in
values that are trying to be shown here.
In the Givenchy pour homme ad the picture is of a smartly dressed young
woman stepping out of the car, with the semi-naked back shot of a man in the
corner of the foreground. He has taken off his shirt and laid it down on the
floor, for the woman to step out onto. My initial reaction was that I should
categorise this ad under “traditional social roles” the reasons for this being that
the woman appears to be dependent upon the man for support, and that they
are subordinate to men. However the text “The gentleman is back” makes
presuppositions on different levels, firstly that the gentleman had gone away,
which in this case he has returned, but secondly that being a ‘gent’ is a
socially desirable accent, and that women want a gent. The inferences that
could be made here being that if you buy this aftershave for your man
(assuming that you have one) it will make him act like a gentleman, and by
doing this you have the power to make him act how you want. Again
highlighting the difficulties at attempting to group together social roles. Things
that at first glance appear to mean one thing, can have many underlying
themes.
There are values of assumed heterosexuality found in most of the ads, they
refer to how you want your man to be, and preparing the boys for you, and
bringing the gentleman out in your man. Also the assumed norm is that to be
happy, confident, successful and liberated one must be young, white, thin and
gorgeous. With no images of large bodied people, black or any other ethnic
minority, or any gay or lesbians. Advertising romanticises everyday life, Ads
allow the viewer to dream, they assume the mundane position in which she is
placed and as Barthel mentioned play upon her unfulfilled desires (1988).
Results
4.1 First round questionnaires
I discarded one of the returned questionnaires as it said that the respondent
never read magazines and so could not really have gone any further on the
questionnaire. Had I had closer contact with this respondent I would have
liked to find out why she didn’t read or buy magazines. Of the remaining 19
completed questionnaires I found the following:
The chart shows the occupations of the respondents, there are no
unemployed respondents, but a large proportion of them are students. This is
inevitable given my method of data collection.
I found that the average age of the respondents was 22 and that two thirds of
them had studied beyond GCSE. The 5 most popular magazines that they
chose to read were (in order of popularity):
1. Cosmopolitan
2. Glamour
3. More
4. Elle
5. New woman.
The information gathered has given me some evidence to back up my ideas
that young successful women read certain magazines, which gives me some
basis for using those particular ones that I have chosen to study.
4.2 Interviews / second round questionnaires
The interviewees consisted of:
H: 22 year old university graduate working in HR
L: 24 year old primary school teacher
M: 19 year undergraduate
S: 22 year old admin assistant
SK: 21 year old undergraduate
6. How do you feel about advertising in magazines? (circle one or more of the
following statements that apply to you)
(A) Its annoying and a waste of space >H*, M*, SK*<
(B) It makes me want to buy the product >L*<
(C) It informs me of new products available >L*, S*<
(D) I rarely take notice of the ads >H*<
7. How do images you see of women in advertising make you feel?
(A) Jealous /envious/upset that you don’t look like them >L*, S*, SK*<
(B) I want to attempt to emulate them, or be like them >L*<
( C ) It doesn’t particularly bother me, I don’t really notice >H*, M*<
(*these letters indicate the respondents chosen answer)
8. (a) Off the top of your head can you recall any adverts you have recently
seen in a magazine? If so, what was it for?
(b) What sticks in your head most about it?
S: Garnier Body Cocoon. I don’t know why I remember it well, but it was
everywhere on T.V., on posters and billboards. I remember the woman being
bent over backwards in a vest and knickers, then lots of orange. I remember
thinking I wish I looked that thin. I did actually go and buy the body lotion as
well!!! Is that sad?!
H: I m sorry, I really cant bring one to mind. Ah I m crap!! >go on try and think,
what’s the last advert you remember seeing?<
That new Estee Lauder perfume, I cant remember the name of it.
I remember the colours and the bottle
>do you remember anything else?< Yeah I think there was a woman in it, the
colours were all in her hair
L: Yeah! it’s a series of ads by Kodak or someone, erm it was some camera
company anyway with the tag line “for whatever pops your shutter” I
remember it cos it was quite funny.
It was a picture of a woman who’d obviously tied this bloke up to the bed then
taken lots of photos and left so he had all these photographs covering his er,
parts!
M: Those E45 ads where its of a woman but each of her arm and leg and torso
are all different skin tones. Its quite good. it’s a bit like those Benetton ones.
SK: I remember seeing one for a pregnancy test with this woman and pictures
of babies in the reflection of her pupils, or something like that and I once had
to have a test and it is totally true, everything becomes ‘babies’ everything
around you. I remember it saying something like whichever the result is at
least if you use this certain brand then it’ll be accurate.
9. Do the images in advertisements found in magazines of women and gender
roles represent you?
S: No not really, well definitely not with the pictures anyway!! They don’t use
real people do they, they’re all stick thin and beautiful models.
>but it made you buy the product didn’t it?< Yes but that was cos they made it
sound really good, not cos I actually believed if I bought it I could look like the
model.
H: No they are all glamorous women brought in solely to sell a product, its half
naked women sprawled across pages, its all about selling, not about making
me feel some kind of affinity with the girl or the product. I don’t see an ad and
oh yeah she’s just like me, doing normal things like me. Advertising is all
about grabbing attention and they usually do that with a naked girl, even if
advertising to other girls. Its stupid.
L: To some extent yeah. Its not like you know women hoovering up or
anything like the old days, but I’ve seen a few where its like, a woman in an
office and I work in an office so I suppose that kind of represents me. And
those galaxy ads where it’s a woman trying to hide the remnants of chocolate
wrapper under a cushion and that, that’s like what I do.
M: No its either of couples all over each other, I m not in a couple and a bit
bitter about it! ha ha! I don’t really remember any ads where there were any
‘gender roles’ as such. Just either a picture of a woman looking all made up,
or a picture of the product.
SK: Not really, they’re all of really posh women going out to posh dos or on
glamorous dates. It doesn’t really remind me much of my life at all!! >does it
make you want all that, the posh appointments and all?< no not particularly.
With this information I can conclude that generally women I talked with do not
feel inspired to become independent or aspire to live like the images they
see in adverts. It has been said that advertisements represent society as it is
today, this is obviously unfounded and untrue. It even appears that I may have
been mistaken when assuming that advertising promotes this image of a ‘new‘
independent and liberated woman, apparently as far as I have seen
advertising does not promote any gender roles, traditional or not. Out of the
women I have interviewed none of them feel they have a strong link with any
of the women who are shown in adverts. In later discussions not annotated
they said that it wasn’t really the ads that persuaded them to buy a product,
the ads simply highlighted what was on offer. Then they made a decision
whether to try it out or not. It seemed unanimous that it was comments written
in editorial features or articles recommending a product or a personal
recommendation from a friend that would make them go out and buy a
product. One of the women said that she believed she know how advertising
works, and would not succumb to their idealised versions of reality. She
claimed she was “not dumb enough to buy into it” (quote, personal
interaction). In the discussion all of the women regarded the images of women
as being too perfect to be true, they recognised that airbrushing and computer
editing created this perfect image of ‘woman’ which was just not real. Many of
the girls said that they did not particularly notice the language in some
advertising as it is very minimal, but it was usually the images, they did
mention some cases where there were very few images so language was
inevitably the focal point. One woman mentioned the Mars bar ads and the
Baileys ads (appendix??) where it was just the language that caught your
attention. The same woman also reminded me of the Wonderbra ad (refer to
appendix ??)with the infamous phrase “Hello Boys” which attracted a lot of
media attention and criticism. The only other mention of language was one
woman’s account of a particular product she had bought due to its advertising.
She couldn’t recall exactly which product it was, but said that “the ad made it
sound really sumptuous and luxurious, I think it was a lipstick, one of those
moisture rich ones. I really wanted one but when I bought it, it wasn’t different
to any other lipstick”, advertisers often try to differentiate their product,
claiming it’s the best one on the market and attempting to mark it above other
competitors, however often it is all hype. The same woman said she was now
wary of buying decisions based wholly upon the advertising, she said she
would trust a write up by a beauty editor in a magazine. I suggested that
perhaps these write-ups were funded by the companies and that it was could
be another form of advertising, the answer to this “Oh no don’t say that!”.
It seems that according to some of my sample advertising only fulfils the first
two points in Lund’s structure of an advert (1947) these are firstly to attract
attention and secondly to arouse interest. Adverts featured in magazines
simply did not get the results, that is to “get action” I.e. for the reader to go out
and buy the product. This sample of women are not representative and as
business and sales figures may show this is simply not the case, (particularly
figures complied by magazines trying to attract advertisers), however it was
interesting to listen to a few of the women who reject the ideology of
advertising and the ideals of women which they present. It completely
contradicts the notion that women are passive and believe what ever is thrown
at them. The general consensus from my discussions with these women was
that due to past experiences of advertising and their understanding of the way
it works, the believed that they did not take much notice of them.
Ads in Magazines
4.3 A closer look
When collecting the advertisements I noticed a few common occurrences, I
decided to look a little closer into them to see just what types of product are
aimed at women and what proportion of the magazines were devoted wholly
to advertising. I noticed a few patterns when scanning the magazines, certain
adverts were placed alongside certain features and articles, just one example
adverts for underwear ranges Wonderbra and Triumph were placed close to
articles about sex, and seducing your man. Buying ‘sexy’ underwear from one
of these brands could make you more attractive and sexy.
Here is a break down of what ads were in the magazines, then I shall discuss
the significance of them.
Table 1
Cosmo Glamour Marie Company New
Claire Woman
Fragrance 25 29 23 3 15
cars 6 6 4 1 3
Watches/jewellery 1 9 5 1 1
Alcohol 6 2 4 5 4
Food/drink 11 6 4 3 6
Financial services 1 - 1 - 1
Mobile phones 6 - - 1 1
holidays 2 2 1 - -
underwear 4 6 5 3 4
footwear 2 6 4 1 2
Brands/shops 5 14 10 3 2
skin 15 8 10 3 6
makeup 16 12 15 6 10
Hair products 10 11 10 7 9
Other toiletries 7 6 5 2 1
(deodorants,
shower gel)
Pregnancy testing 1 - - - -
Morning after pill 1 1 - - 1
Washing powder 2 - 1 - 2
Book/music/dvd 2 4 4 4 -
releases
Products for men 5 7 5 1 2
Other 10 16 15 8 8
The proportion of magazine space that is for the use of advertising:
Table 2
Magazine % of magazine devoted to advertising
Cosmopolitan 47
Glamour 35
Marie Claire 41
New Woman 35
Company 27
(n.b. these figures do not include classified advertising and adverts for future issues of the
same magazine)
In the cases of the top 3 selling monthly glossies almost half of their magazine
is dedicated to advertising space, this is not including feature articles
promoting a certain product. This appears to be a high proportion of ads that
women are subjected to, propagating what to buy and what to wear to be seen
as a successful woman. There are some noticeable patterns that I would like
to mention regarding what types of products are advertised and also, where
they are placed within the magazine.
In table 1, I have not accounted for every single advert that appeared as some
did not seem relevant to mention, as only one of its kind featured in only one
magazine. However there are some that I have counted under the heading
‘other’ , that I feel are worth mentioning. For example there were ads for T.V.s,
cameras and computer games yet they were very few in numbers. There may
be some reasons as to why such products are marketed at women, they may
not appear to be very ‘feminine’ products, yet as its widely known there are
increasingly more single households in Britain than there are families, and
assuming that half of these must be female it seems odd that companies for
these kinds of products would exclude young successful women as a target
for their advertising. It has been found that affluent singles with no
dependents tend to spend a higher percentage of their disposable income on
consumer goods such as these
(http://www.the-infoshop.com/study/dc14709_needs_live_alone.html).
I also felt it necessary to notice certain products which are advertised that give
indication to values in society such as the morning after pill, the contraceptive
pill and pregnancy tests, which give women more choices. It would be looked
down upon in some societies to have these products, let alone be so open
about them to advertise them in magazines. It may also suggest the
acceptance of women’s in role sexual activity, no longer viewing women for
their reproductive function, but recognising the possibility that they may take
part in sexual intercourse for pleasure and nothing more, they now have
power and control in making such decisions.
It did not surprise me to see that the greatest proportion of ads were
promoting beautification products such as cosmetics, toiletries and perfumes.
The discussion surrounding why women are constantly seeking to improve
their self-image is ongoing, and so I will only mention it briefly.
Another aspect of advertising which I would like to mention are those products
which seem to be mismatched with the presumed audience. On one hand I
found ads which were for men’s products (such as aftershave) in women‘s
magazines, and the images that came across appeared to appeal to women.
This could imply that “by buying [insert product name here], you could turn
your man into [insert desirable quality]”. On the other hand, there were ads
(seemingly) addressed to men, e.g. “make her feel like a million dollars for
under £80 at Debenhams”. this obviously being placed here under the
assumption that men secretly read their girlfriends women’s magazines, or,
women will see the ad and show it to their significant others.
Discussion & Conclusion
It has been said that advertisements represent society as it is today, but I feel
that these claims are unfounded and untrue. It even appears that I may have
been mistaken when assuming that advertising promotes this image of a ‘new‘
independent and liberated woman, apparently as far as I have seen
advertising does not promote any gender roles, traditional or not. The women
which I discussed these points with, said they felt that they did not associate
themselves with the women and the social ideals of women in adverts, and
therefore they do not adapt their own identity accordingly. I think that perhaps
women feel this way, because they see so many different images of women
across such small spaces, women are constructed in very different ways, at
extreme ends of the spectrum. One of these ways being the socially inferior
gender, being dependent upon men, or in traditional roles of housewife and
mother. The other way in which I have found they are constructed is in a very
liberated, and independent way. These conflicting messages can be
confusing, and therefore reduce the effect of either interpretation of women
being taken as the norm. Not only do these contradictory ideals vary across
the ads of the same magazine, but as I have previously highlighted, in some
cases the messages of the same ad can be mismatched. Take the Tommy
Girl ad (appendix??) for example, the text reads “Tommy Girl, a declaration of
independence” which suggests that perhaps by wearing this fragrance one is
setting themselves free from the constraints of society and their social role,
and encouraging women to be independent, yet the picture is in terms of
Goffman’s study, is displaying a young, naïve girl and apparently the tilt of
her head marks her out to be powerless. Which perhaps makes the assertion
about independence void, subliminally we may be receiving mixed messages
about women.
Also one of the important points we must consider is that women are also
aware of the selling function of advertising, they realise the ideas behind
advertising, even when not coming from that academic discipline women were
still conscious of the fact that these were models hired to look pretty and
promote a product, and that they could distinguish the real world from that
portrayed in advertising. They also were not made to feel physically inferior as
Bignell (1997) has suggested. The group of women which I spoke to
understood that computer editing and airbrushing both play a big part in
creating images of women, and similarly they rarely read the text that featured
in advertising. They also recognise that ads compose an extorted view of
reality. This contradicts almost everything that has been previously studied
upon women in advertising, but it does appear that the women I discussed it
with did not feel that they used ads to form their own identities, nor did they
long to emulate and aspire to the social roles that some ads illustrated. I think
that the way in which women are portrayed in conflicting roles, is one of the
fundamental reasons why women do not feel particularly inclined to pay much
attention, or desire to re-enact the social roles presented in ads through the
language and images.
In retrospect there are several things I could change about this exploration of
language.
My major weaknesses arose due to my time management, I started by looking
in depth at many different authors work, leaving little time to form a definite
argument and unable to carry out a focused and coherent analysis. Looking
into many different academic studies made it more difficult to use any one
particular perspective from which to analyse the ads. If I used just one
influential author, I could attempt to prove or disprove their ideas using it
together with distinct examples. I found it quite difficult to separate my own
views from those that had been previously highlighted in other studies.
If I were to carry out the study again I would follow one of two routes: make it
more narrow, by analysing the ads using one definite perspective; or make it
wider, by using a larger sample of women to get a wider . I now know that I
should have focused specifically on certain areas, rather than starting with
such broad ideas. I feel that I should have made direct comparisons by
looking at ads focussing upon a narrow range of specific linguistic features. I
think that by choosing the construction of women and their identities is a good
starting point, but now I feel I should have picked out fewer features to focus
more intensely upon.
On the other hand, I could have made my research more extensive putting
more time and effort into collecting different women’s perspectives. Had I
arranged much larger focus groups, instead of the more confined practise of
one on one interviews, I would have been able to get a much broader sense of
how women thought. I have managed to get a very much one-sided view of
advertising, and it is probable that some women do construct the way they
view themselves according to how advertising portrays women.
There are other more practical weaknesses, surrounding the interviews.
Perhaps had I tape recorded them I would be able to pick up on issues that I
didn’t first time around. Also I feel that should I be able to do this study again I
ought to use textual cues, i.e. having specific examples of ads in front of them
which they would be able to concentrate their comments upon.
I feel that I have taken too much on in my attempts to research language and
women in ads, that in the process I my visions have become blurred in what I
was trying to achieve. I feel there are some interesting points that have
emerged from this study, however had I narrowed these down from the
beginning it may have been more beneficial, than coming to this conclusion at
the end of my study.
There are further studies that could be carried out with as this one as a basis, I
would like to go on to compare how women are constructed differently in
men’s magazines from in women’s magazines. I would expect to find women
to se seen as sexual objects, with language implying such values. I think that
the construction of women when ads are aimed at men would differ pretty
dramatically from how they are when addressing women. Other suggestions
for further inquiry would be to take a wider selection of women’s magazines,
I.e. compare how they are constructed using teenagers magazines as
opposed to those targeting housewives.
To conclude this exploration into the construction of women using the
language and images of ads as a guideline for social roles, I have discovered
that there is no one clear depiction of women in advertising, similarly there is
no trend to stick to the construction of one type of woman, even though the
medium might be targeted at one type of woman. I have also found that even
though many influential studies have been carried out in order to explain the
language of advertising and representation of gender, I have exposed
evidence which suggests women in fact, do not necessarily suffer from identity
crisis as a consequence of women in advertising.
