Representation of women in advertising

1) How does Mistry suggest advertising has changed since the mid-1990s?

Mistry suggested that since the mid-1990's advertisers have employed an increasing amount of gender ambiguous models, with this, there has been a growing amount of homosexual images.


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

women were suffering their own identity crisis. Prior to the war, feminists had been articulating the
idea of women having their own plans and careers; but soon after 1945, women were made to feel
guilty by warnings of the 'dangerous consequences to the home' that had begun to circulate

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

It led to women being increasingly portrayed as objects, an example of this would be perfume advertisements where the model would be shown as a fair maiden and any rude contact could harm her innocence 

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

Laura Maulvey came up with the theory; what it refers to is the idea of women being used purely to gain the attention and observation from men, making them nothing but objects.

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

from passivity to independence, the 1970's saw the rise of a new representation of power for women, showing them in a new light, thinking for themselves and getting jobs.

6) Why does van Zoonen suggest the 'new' representations of women in the 1970s and 1980s were only marginally different from the sexist representations of earlier years?

Zoonen state that the new representations of women are only marginally different from previous years after dissecting an advertisement with the following tag line " A woman should look forward to dressing for the office"; showing that physical appearance is still the main importance for women.

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

Barthel suggests that while there is an innocent and pure representation of women, there is also a dark lady representation of knowledge and sexuality for their own pleasure.

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

Dyer suggests that femme fatale representation often mistake sexuality with liberation. And with that female viewers often conform to that over sexualisation mistaking it for liberation.



1) What was the Protein World 'Beach Bodies' campaign?

It was a campaign for a weight loss product that featured a slim model with that tag line "are you beach body ready?"

2) Why was it controversial?

People thought that the model and her figure was not a realistic representation of what real women look like; it also implied that with Protein Worlds products would transform users to the same extent shown in the advert

3) What did the adverts suggest to audiences?

The advert suggested that in order to go to the beach and to be comfortable with your body, it has to look like that, otherwise you're below average.

4) How did some audiences react?

Most audiences decided to stand up against the advert by both creating a campaign to battle the advert and to also pose in their own swimwear to show protein world what a real woman's body looks like 


5) What was the Dove Real Beauty campaign?

The dove real beauty campaign was a viral campaign that revolved around real women showing what real female bodies look like by showcasing different women of different ages and backgrounds.

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

Due to the social aspect of social media, audiences have more power due to the ability to share and react to adverts rapidly. Gives audiences the ability to protest or promote content quickly.

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

I think that a combination of zoonen's negotiated gender and stuart halls reception theory can be used together to understand and explain the difference of opinion and how audiences react to media texts.

8) Through studying the social and historical context of women in advertising, do you think representations of women in advertising have changed in the last 60 years?

I believe that there has been a combination of both changed and retained stereotypes. While independence and power for women have become mainstream in advertisements, sexualisation of women is still a selling point for many adverts made today.