Name:
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Adele Pierce
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Email:
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ap251876@students.leeds-art.ac.uk
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SUBJECTS OF CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH
ALREADY UNDERTAKEN
Level4:
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Females in
Fairytales
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Level5:
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The effect modern
culture has on gender equality
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AIM AND/OR OBJECTIVE OF YOUR PROPOSED C.O.P.3 PROJECT
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Gender biased advertisement vs equality
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1.
What research needs to be undertaken into the general
and specific contexts of your practice?
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- Different forms of advertisement e.g photography, magazine covers, online articles, radio, youtube
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Gender biased companies : Tom Ford, Yorkie, Snickers 'get some nuts', Nivea,
Fifa, Heineken, Carlsberg, Tipalet, Bic Pen for her, Burger King, Drive like
a girl, Dr Pepper, Dove for men, Lynx, Dolce and Gabanna, Kenwood, BMW etc.
Is it reverse psychology to pushing the opposite sex to buy it or are they
splitting their target audience in half?
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Gender neutral companies, unisex clothing -
Sketchers, American Apparel
Unisex fragrance – Tom Ford, Calvin Klein, D&G
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Use of gender and sex within advertisement and how
this sells
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Gender neutral advertisement in comparison to biased,
which one is most popular?
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Androgynous dress, fashion advertisements, magazines,
books
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Articles on the subject : online, newspapers, essays
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Subtle sexism – Gerard Butler ‘man of today’
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Celebrities and how they influence sexism :
Jaden Smith wore dress to prom
Brad Pitt and Angelina’s children
dressing as the opposite sex
Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner in advertisement :
Vanity Fair
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Advertisement timeline – how it has changed over the
years. Has this had an effect on culture?
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Books :
Gender advertisement : ‘Gender Advertisements’ Goffman, Erving 659.1 Advertising Cultures : gender, commerce and creativity . Nixon, Sean 659.1 Gender Bias : ‘The beauty bias : the injustice of appearance in life and law.’ Rhode, Deboroah, 301.412 Gender representation : ‘Public bodies – private states : new views on photography, representation and gender’ Brettle, Jane, Rice, Sally and Rice, Stanley 770.9 ‘Music video and the politics of representation’ Watson, Paul and Railton, Diane 302.23 ‘The power of the image : essays on representation and sexuality’ Kuhn, Annette 791.1 Sex in advertisement : ‘Soap, sex and cigarettes : a cultural history of American advertising’ Sivulka Juliann 659.1 ‘Sex appeal : the art of allure in graphic and advertising design’ Heller, Steven 659.1 ‘Best Ads: Sex in advertising’ Saunders, Dave 741.67 General rules of advertising : ‘Advertising’ Yeshin, Tony 659.1 ‘Contemporary Advertising’ Arens, William 659.1 ‘Victorian Advertisements’ De Vries, Leonard 741.67 |
2.
What approach(es) will you take and what
processes, methods, materials and tools are to be involved in
research into your practice?
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Research wise contextually looking at texts, articles, images, quotes,
illustrators, advertisement, photography, books, magazines, online articles,
billboards. Reading essays, watching videos on the subject matter.
Physically I will be drawing out my ideas, re creating advertisements, looking at stereotypes, sexism. Experimenting with ‘gender neutral’ through colour and character. Recording people, their conversations, their behaviour. Experimenting with poster formats, typography, collage. Research on location : restrooms, cinemas, television, radio, on the streets, nightclubs, fashion stores, fragrance stores, beauty counters, |
3.
What
preparation or investigations do you need to undertake for your creative
practice to take place?
All of my research will allow me to produce ideas
that may perhaps mock these values or highlight how these attitudes are
changing, or perhaps not changing, celebrating gender neutrality through my
own style of advertisement. Exaggerating products that do not have a gender
but giving them a gender such as food, as a way of mocking advertisement.
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4.
What research
do you need to undertake regarding who your creativity is for?
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Audience : who am I targeting?
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What is the route of advertisement I want to go down,
focusing on the most i.e if I chose to focus on billboard posters – who do
they target? How can I then target the same audience but give off a different
message?
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What avenue of sexism I want to go down e.g food,
fashion, music, television, fragrance – which will distinguish the target
audience for that.
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Primary Sources of Information
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1. Description
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Books
on advertisement and gender representation
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Location
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Library
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2. Description
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Primary
drawing – sketching people and their behaviour, their conversations. Role of
genders
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Location
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Everywhere
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3. Description
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Location
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Secondary Sources of Information
1. Commerical advertisements 2. Products and packaging 3. Billboards 4. Film and television - posters 5. Promotional art 6. Websites and videos : |
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http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/apr/22/gendered-toys-stereotypes-boy-girl-segregation-equality
http://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2013/aug/30/women-yogurt-connection-advertising http://www.fastcocreate.com/3021258/swedish-theaters-now-using-bechdel-test-to-rate-films-on-gender-bias | |
http://magazine.good.is/articles/intermission-what-if-gender-roles-in-advertising-were-reversed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZkC_fNxmQk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZkC_fNxmQk
Colour Association   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJffi1TgM2M Red connotes : 
Green :
Blue :
Use of celebrity endorsement to increase sales :
Feature celebrities selling products as if they use them when in reality they don't.
  
Sexism
Cleaning products :
"Ovenpride - so easy, even a man can do it"
Cooking / food :
Pizza Hut - Dad's making dinner? Oh it'll be fine… maybe. (Dad orders in a pizza hut)
Snickers - Builders heckling about equality to women
However, the ending is still the slogan ' You're not you when you're hungry ' Does this mean that they are not being themselves and they don't really want equality?
Subway - Women having to stay in shape for the sexy halloween outfits; showing Subway is healthy and can adhere to that
BRANDS VS OTHER BRANDS USING SEXISM
Microsoft vs Mac - How touchscreen is better for women to 'plan their wedding'.
Microsoft - Women 'actually' businesswomen ; like that is a surprise. The music slogan 'Honestly, I wanna see you be brave' showing the woman to be brave and standing up to the delivery guy.
Sodastream vs coke and pepsi - Scarlett Johanssen strips from her dressing gown being seductive and says ' Sorry coke and pepsi '
 
Sexist Superbowl :
One of the largest viewed sporting events in America with 58,000,000 male viewers in the US in 2010 alone.
Food products, technology advertised by over sexualised females and celebrities
   
Until 2013 one company decided to focus on humour instead
Saturday night live mocked the sexism used in Superbowl ad's with this ad for food. It features an activity pack for women to play whilst waiting in the kitchen for when the guys ask for more beers or food.
Target
Store took away signage for boys and girls down, fox news mocks this. The newsreader added that if the toys were in a 'blended section' he would not be able to go in and distinguish whether the toy is for a boy or a girl, resulting in him probably buying the 'wrong gift' and thus making children 'unhappy.' Which is of course ludacris, and raised the question that if the toy could not be distinguished between gender then it would be suitable for both and would not matter.
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/could-targets-move-away-gender-based-signs-kick-start-trend-166315 --- advert on Target's move in gender neutral direction, look at the comments box where there are mixed views about this.
Marks and Spencers
Question asked : Should all marketing to children be gender neutral. 1/6 Responses was yes.
  
Current ads
Bodyform 2012 - responding to a Facebook comment from a male about recent ads and how they offer a false representation about women's behaviour on their period, telling the truth about periods. I think it is hilariousBreaking stereotypes : http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2015/may/26/eight-ads-shatter-gender-stereotypes   Always 2014 - Puberty. ' Like a girl ' opposed to masculinity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs#t=113 The message at the end - rewrite the rules highlights how these rules and perceptions are subtly put in place without us even realising. |
Vintage ads
Gender Neutral ones      Sexist : 1960s Folgers coffee "How can such a pretty wife make such bad coffee?" 
1960's Goodyears
" This flat tyre needs a man. But, when theres no man around.. Goodyear should be"
Having women represent the majority of domestic products advertisers are reinforcing socially constructed gender roles. It suggests women should be domesticated, and that all women will enjoy and find satisfaction in cleaning, want to cook and look after the family and that all women want to look good to seek the attention of men. On the contrary, men are portrayed through the stereotype of being powerful, muscular, have a love for beer and women reinforcing the idea of what it means to be a man.
See Heineken advert to back that up - walk in wardrobe vs walk in fridge
 
Women are also sexual objects to pleasure men. Young women can be used as rewards for purchasing the products. Eg if they buy the burger, the sexy woman comes along with it, or they may attract her, creating underlying stereotypes.
Bud light - How to make your marriage work. Women doing all of the 'manly' jobs
Because it 'works?'
Because it's highly profitable?
Books
These are the books in the library I searched :
The ones I took out after reading them briefly :
Media Gender & Identity - David Gauntlett, Routledge London & New York (2008)
Page 1 : "With the media containing so many images of women and men, and messages about men, women and sexuality today, it is highly unlikely that these ideas would have no impact on our own sense of identity. At the same time, though, it's just as unlikely that the media has a direct and straight forward effect on it's audiences. " - Talking about how media effects people
2 : " We know from various studies from individuals - especially young people - are spending less time with the traditional media, such as television, and more time online. "
5 : " New scientist (2005) reported that British fathers of under fives spend an average of two hours per day on child-related activity; int he 1970's it was just fifteen minutes. " - Speaking about men in the home
7 : " Society clearly changed a great deal in the second half of the 20th Century, and sexual equality is something that almost everybody in power at least says they are in favour of. On the everyday level, as noted above, women and men expect to be treated equally and are frustrated if this does not happen. "
7 : " Magazines for women encourage their readers to be assertive and independent. Pop stars like Beyonce and other media icons such as Oprah Winfrey, convey the same message. Magazines for men, whilst sometimes going overboard with macho excess, encourage men to understand women and face up to modern realities. "
9 : Anthony Clare comment on 'Masculinity in crisis' "men need to renegotiate their place within this new culture."
12 : " Sales of the barbie doll are reportedly falling because only the youngest girls will accept such a 'girly' toy nowadays, and the pretty-but-passive barbie doll is easily beaten at Christmas time by toys and games related to Dora the explorer, the inquisitive and multi-lingual adventurer whose animated TV series is highly popular." - Talking about toy sales which links with toy stores bringing neutral toys in
13 : " The meaning of 'femininity' now is just a swishy kind of glamour - and ideally just a masquerade, utilised by a confident woman who knows exactly what she is doing."
15 : " Identities, of course, are complex constructions, and gender is only one part of an individuals sense of self."
22 : Media power vs people power
" Does the mass media have a significant amount of power over its audience, or does the audience ultimately have more power than the media? " - Saying popular culture is taking over; we are consumers brainwashed by the media.
" Adorno would say that we are still drones, manipulated by the system to want the pleasures which it offers. "
25 : " So it is the passivity which media consumption brings to peoples lives that is Adorno's main concern. In addition there is a belief that the medias content encourages continuity.
The concepts of order which (the culture industry) hammers into human beings are always those of the status quo... It proclaims : you shall conform, with no instruction as to what; conform to that which exists anyways, and to that which everyone thinks anyway as a result of its power and omnipresence. The power of the culture industry's ideology is such that conformity has replaced consciousness."
26 : Speaking about Pop Idol and X factor " this all shows that the public will buy any old rubbish if they have been shown it enough times on TV."
Opposing Adorno and Horkheimer is John Fiske's 'Understanding Popular Culture,' that suggests 'Popular culture is made by the people, not produced by a popular culture industry.'
28 : "Fiske does not deny that we live in a capitalist and patriarchal society, but suggests that it is silly to think of Popular Culture as a manufactured thing imposed by capitalists upon unsuspecting masses."
38 : Talking about modelling - how we imitate same sex gender roles.
Reinforcement - behaviour society approved of is well received; and 'cognitive development theory' which also regards gender roles as learned, but sees the child as more active in the creation of their own gender identity. In this model, the child's own cognitions (thought processes) are imperative, as they organise and make sense of the messages about gender which they receive. Once a child has acquired 'gender consistency' - the understanding that they re expected to have a continuous gender identity which does not change between different situations - they will then seek to develop their personality within an appropriately 'masculine' or 'feminine' mould. (Kohlberg, 1966)
39 : Developing on from that, is 'gender schematic processing theory' (Martin 1991). Which 'suggests that children initially learn that certain activities and interests are appropriate for one sex or the other - that's the gender schema of the title; and then they learn about and interpret the world in terms of this schema, paying most attention to material which will reinforce their own gendered identity.'
"They make it sound like a natural and necessary part of child development, that a young boy has to recognise the importance of cultivating a masculine identity, or that a young girl has to reach a point where she realises the need to develop feminine traits."
"People who did not want to conform to gender conventions could be seen to have 'failed' to have acquired 'gender consistency' which children interested in non-stereotypical activities could be said to have an incomplete gender scheme."
41 : The male gaze - Laura Mulvey
"Male viewers identify with the (male) protagonist and the female characters are the subject of their destiny gaze. Female viewers, Mulvey says, are also compelled to take the viewpoint of the central (male) character, so that women are denied a viewpoint of their own and instead participate in the pleasure of men looking at women."
42 : Denying female gaze?
"But since their earliest days, movies have included and often celebrated physically attractive men, whose sexual allure has surely drawn women into cinemas." - Speaks about James Bond posters of Daniel Craig in his trunks.
182 : Naked men in magazines
" Some magazines for women do the same thing back to men these days - in the UK celebrity magazine Heat delights in showing the pictures of semi-naked hunks, and sells more copies than Nuts and ZOO combined."
Gender Trouble - Feminism and the subversion of identity, Judith Butler. Routledge New York (1999)
Page 9 : The distinction between sex and gender serves the argument that what ever biological intractability sex appeal seems to have, gender is culturally constructed."
10 : "When the constructed status of gender is theorised as radically independent of sex, gender itself becomes free-floating artifice, with the consequence that men and masculine might just as easily signify a female body as a male one, and women and feminine a male body as easily as a female one."
11 : "Is there a gender which persons are said to have, or is it an essential attribute that a person is said to be." 12 : (Culture determines our gender, our sex, who we are and how we should be). "When the relevant 'culture' that 'constructs' gender is understood in terms of such a law or set of laws, then it seems that gender is as determined and fixed as it was under the biology-is-destiny formulation. In such a case, not biology, but culture becomes destiny." Gender & Popular Culture, Katie Milestone & Anneke Meyer. Polity Press, Cambridge (2012) Pg 152 : " The earliest theoretical model attempting to understand the power of the media to affect the beliefs, knowledge and behaviour of audiences is the 'direct-effects theory,' also known as the 'hypodermic syringe model' (Livingstone 1996). It stipulates that media texts contain certain representations and messages, which are directly, uncritically and passively absorbed by the audience. Hence the media directly affects audiences, who simply believe what they are told and shown." "The model of power underlying this theory is simplistic and one-dimensional as the media have all power to impose their messages on an entirely powerless audience (Gauntlett 1997)." " Early feminist researchers into gender and the media in the 1970s, such as Germaine Greer or Gaye Tuchman, saw the mass media as maintaining patriarchy by indoctrinating women with stereotypical images and narratives which construct femininity as different and inferior to masculinity (Ang and Hermes 1996). " " The assumption of such research is that female and male audiences simply accept these messages and thereby become complicit victims of the sexist media." (Opposing this idea - women are clued up to how sexist and stereotypical the images are..) 153 : " Rosalind Ballaster et al.'s (1991) research with female readers of women's magazines has found that many women are very critical of the ways in which these magazines present women. The narrow feminine beauty ideal reproduced in images and descriptions is rejected by many readers as stereotypical, objectifying and unrealistic." Men have different views in research by Rosalind Gill et al (2000) some of them 'aspired the male beauty norm of a toned, slim and muscular body' whereas others perceived it as 'shallow' or some perceived it as shallow yet aspired to having a good body. |
