'Keep her where she belongs': Gendered codes and sexist

representations of the female figure in advertisements

Maria TroullouResearcher in Cultural Studies

CulturalStudies.nured@gmail.com

University of Western Macedonia Greece

www.uowm.gr http://semiotics.nured.uowm.gr

Gender is a human invention, like language, kinship,religion, and technology; like them,

gender organizes human social life in culturally patterned ways.

Gender organizes social relations in everyday life as well as in the major social structures […] is embedded in the images, ideas, and

language of a society and is used as a means to divide up work, allocate resources, and

distribute power.Judith Lorber (1994: 6)

>>>Gender refers to the culturally and socially constructed differences

between females and males found in the meanings, beliefs, and practices

associated with "femininity" and "masculinity.“

Judith Lorber (1994: 6)

Gender identity is a person's perception of the self as female or male.

Although this identity is an individual perception, it is developed through interaction with others. As a result, most people form a gender identity that matches their biological sex.

Body consciousness is a part of gender identity. Body consciousness is how a person perceives and feels about his or her body; it also includes an awareness of social conditions in society that contribute to this self-knowledge (Thompson, 1994).

Virtually everything social in our lives is gendered. Gender is an integral part of the daily experiences of both women and men (Kimmel and Messner, 2004).

A microlevel analysis of gender focuses on how individuals learn gender roles and

acquire a gender identity.

Gender role

refers to the attitudes, behavior, and activities that are socially defined as appropriate for

each sex and are learned through the socialization process

(Lips, 2001).

A macrolevel analysis of gender examines structural features, external

to the individual, that perpetuate gender inequality.

These structures have been referred to as gendered institutions, meaning that

gender is one of the major ways by which social life is organized in all

sectors of society.

These institutions are reinforced by a gender belief system, which includes all the ideas regarding masculine and feminine attributes that are held to be valid in a society. This belief system is legitimated by religion, science, law,

and other societal values

(Lorber,2005).

Sexism is the subordination of one sex, usually female, based on the assumed superiority of

the other sex.

Sexism directed at women has three components:(1) negative attitudes toward women; (2) Stereotypical beliefs that reinforce,

complement, or justify the prejudice;

(3) discrimination-acts that exclude, distance, or keep women separate

(Lott, 1994).

The media, including newspapers, magazines, television, and movies, are

powerful sources of gender stereotyping. Although some critics argue that the media simply reflect

existing gender roles in society, others point out that the media have a unique

ability to shape ideas.

advertising has been called: the most influential institution of

socialization in modern society

advertising as a cultural form: displays a preoccupation with gender

that is hardly matched in any other genre

(Sut Jhally, 1987).

A study by the sociologist Anthony J. Cortese (2004) found that women-

regardless of what they were doing in a particular ad were frequently shown in advertising as being young, beautiful,

and seductive. Although such depictions may sell

products, they may also have the effect of influencing how we perceive

ourselves and others with regard to issues of power and subordination.

Advertising

has the power to change a set of values held by the collective majority.

It can influence people to switch their attitude regarding things which they might ordinarily think of as morally

wrong – to an attitude that it’s morally right or acceptable.

Previous research on images of women has suggested that:

Fail to portray a representative range of women's real skills and occupations, particularly in positions of authority;

Fail to reflect the increasing diversity and richness of women's lives, or the range of women's contributions and achievements;

Fail to represent the real variety of women's ages, shapes, sizes and colours.

The sexist representation

of women is problematic

because it can generate adverse perceptions of women:

validation of masculine behaviours, language and values as though they

represent the universal norm

reinforcing perceptions that may legitimize violence against women

limit the range of behaviour considered acceptable for women

Sexism in the portrayal of women in advertising has been studied in a variety

of different cultures including the

United States, Australia, Britain, Italy, India, Japan and Kenya.

A number of broad patterns in the portrayal of women can be discerned from this body of

evidence.

Ford, Vooli, Honneycutt, & Casey 1998, Gilly 1988, Lysonski 1985, Mazzella, Durkin, Cerini, & Buralli 1992, Bretl & Cantor 1988, Furnham & Voli 1989, Gilly 1988, Livingstone & Green

1986, Mazzella, Durkin, Cerini, & Buralli 1992, Mwangi 1996, Ferguson, Kreshel, & Tinkham 1990, Griffin, Viswanath & Schwartz 1994, Kilbourne 1987, Lysonski 1985,

Sengupta 1995, Wyckham 1987, Wyckham 1993.

SEXISM- PATTERN No1

Women are more often portrayed as young and concerned with physical attractiveness than their male counterparts

Women are less likely than men are to be portrayed as authority figures and more likely to be shown as product users

SEXISM- PATTERN No2

There is a tendency for women to be shown: as subordinate to men, as decorative objects,

or as alluring sex objects

SEXISM- PATTERN No3

Shaming has proven to be a quite successful advertising technique. By sending the message that women are flawed, advertisers seek to convince us that we somehow “need” their product in order to be liked by men and at the

same time be socially acceptable.

Ads never let us forget that

a woman's worth is determined by her appeal to men.

She is an object to be judged, evaluated and deemed desirable

enough by the observer.

Her only power lies

in controlling and

manipulating her appearance and even in that she is set up to fall short of the perfect ideal.

Women are held to this standard and are bombarded with shaming messages that remind them that they will not succeed, be loved, secure or happy unless they conform to the icon’s identity, which is flawless appearance.

The response evoked is guilt, fear and shame.

As a consequence ads have the power to create a limited standard of beauty – young, thin, white – that is impossible for most

women to attain.

Naomi Wolf (1992) says that the beauty myth isn't good for men or women.

It prevents (men) from actually seeing women...in suggesting a vision in place of a woman, it has a

numbing effect, reducing all sense but the visual...

As John Berger (1973:47) has put it:

men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves

being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the

relation of women to themselves.

The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female.

Thus she turns herself into an object – and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.

Feminity is signified by the female figure, an icon connoting attractiveness through several modes. Basically, every characteristic that could detract

from the beauty myth has been erased.

Attractiveness- beauty

Acceptance, success, security, love

Female figure

content

Sign vehicle referent

sign

Ads that revolve around women’s appearance usually make use of one of

the following conventions (Berger, 1973):

woman with mirror

woman displayed for viewing

woman appearing and man doing

Infantalize women- while turning them into sexual objects:

Baby pink accessories and a matching teddy bear.

The real message here seems to be "innocence" rendered as helplessness. Such ads hold out the possibility of being

both sexy and childlike. Adult women pretending to be children pretending to be adult women. (Retzinger, 2004.)

Again the stereotypical image is that of a powerless female figure that has nothing to offer but looks and sex. Portrayed like

a sex object – a product to be consumed, innocence play is connoted by the baby-face appearance and childish gestures

gaze and pose.

Ads offering young women with the face of a small child posed in a sexually suggestive manner are appealing

both to men and women.

SIZE

As Goffman (1976:28) explains one way in which social weight- power, authority, rank, office, renown-

is echoed expressively in social situations is through relative size, especially height.

Rarely do we see women looking straight at us and meeting our gaze, unless they are crouched, nearly naked, or otherwise

restricted or vulnerable (Dittrich, 1999).

•

ATTENTION

Concerning positioning women are often portrayed lying, bending, slumping and reclining or posing in awkward ways.

POSITIONING

People in charge of their own lives typically stand up straight, alert and ready to meet the world. In

contrast, the bending of the body conveys unpreparedness and submissiveness.

A classic stereotype of deference is that of lowering oneself physically in some form or other prostration.

Correspondingly, holding the body erect and the head high is stereotypically a mark of unashamedness,

superiority and disdain’ (Goffman, 40).

When women are shown in positions of powerlessness,

submission, and subjugation the message to men is clear. Women are always available as the targets of

aggression and violence, they are inferior to men and thus deserve to be dominated, and women exist to

fulfil the needs of men. (Kilbourne, 1999).

Dismemberment or body-chopping Women's appraisal of self-worth

is determined by appearance, particularly as revealed by the female body or body parts.

Women's bodies without heads, faces or feet

lead us to believe that all that truly matters about woman lies between her neck and her knees

(Cortese, 1999)

Hiding or severing a person's features, particularly facial features (which often reveal cues about a

person's identity/uniqueness), enables the observer's attitude to shift towards objectification:

treating and thinking about the subject as an object without needs, feelings or humanity (Dittrich, 1999).

The objectification of women (Schur, 1983)

Women are often seen as the objects of sexual attraction, not full human beings- when they are stared at

Women are seen by some as depersonalized body parts

Women are seen as being “decorative”

Women are evaluated according to prevailing, narrow beauty standards and often feel pressure to conform to appearance norms.

Objectification based on cultural preoccupation with “looks”

Jean Kilbourne, a nationally known expert in raising awareness about how women's bodies

are depicted in the media says that:

turning a human being into a thing is almost always the first step in justifying violence against

that person.

The ads from the past were blindly chauvinistic.

What is noticeable in more recent ads is the level of sexual violence.

TECNIQUE Women putting on a show for an outsider, not having a passionate lesbian love affair for

themselves

Girl to girl action

Degrading bondage positionsWomen being bound, twitched and literally controlled by men. Women appearing in passive roles accepting violence.

Being raped

Being killed

>>>>With the transfer of those conventions seems comes sexism

comments

Sex stereotyping is not a matter of intuition or self-evidence

detection of sex stereotypes requires knowledge of gender codes or of how gender messages are encoded in ads or other media

The codes or signs are not gender-bound, and so role reversals are possible

A woman portrayed in a MCU shot looking up right. Blonde hair, lip-stick on, neck and shoulders naked.

She is positioned on the left part of the picture diagonally placed. Her gaze is directed upwards to the right corner.

The object of her attention is not seen but is somewhere above her, in a position higher than hers.

Behind her, in the background, faces of women imitate the same posture. All females are concentrated to the same object of attention.

As Richard Dyer (1982) has observed when a model is looking upwards it always connotes a spirituality. Maybe she is there to show her face or her body, but her mind is somewhere else.

On the upper level of the image several signs inform us about the object that attracts the female attention. Photos of three men in military outfits portrayed like heroes honored with medals serve as connotations to the women’s thoughts. Admiration, worship and devotion to men is the second meaning of the picture transferred to the reader through the interrelations of iconic signs and written text.