Advertising Women: Has It Changed?

Portraying women in media has been characterized by images that usually say more than the ad itself. Since advertisements have plunged into mass media, they are more likely to have a direct effect on people as well as specific groups of people (i.e., children, men, women).

I meant to analyze how women are portrayed in the advertisement world. I aim not to select one media advertisement but to analyze a pattern that has been constantly shown and public. As stated on the film Killing Us Softly: “Men basically don’t live in a world in which their bodies are routinely scrutinized, criticized, and judged whereas women do.” It is true, I think, that women have constantly been subjected to perfectionism and beauty with ads that highlight how being in shape always counts.

Image 1: L'Oreal's homepage. Excessive attention is paid to women's look and perfectionism.

In this matter, there has been a clear tendency of direct action message (Hanson, 386) which serves to bombard women with the idea that they have to be constantly worrying about her look and ways to keep it as it is suggested by society—perfect. This ads, as I aim to demonstrate have been in the public media for quite a long time.

Image 2: (*) Elizabeth Arden's advertisement published in the New Yorker magazine (p 50).

The advertisement ‘Elizabeth Arden,’ calls for women to do a treatment so that their skin becomes “naturally clear, fine and smooth,--lovely without the need of artifice.” This is the type of media we see in TV commercials and more but what is more important to mention is that the ‘Elizabeth Arden’ advertisement above shown was published in the New Yorker magazine on July 27^th 1927 (page 50). Has media changed in portraying women as needed to be perfect in shape? I think not. Likewise, other advertisements used clear sentences to target women in this same sense. A hair advertisement published on the same magazine as the ‘Elizabeth Arden’ ad (but on page 52) reads: “When Hair Falls—Youth Fades” and also “Keep your hair and stay young.”

Image 3: (*) Advertisement published on the New Yorker magazine on July 27th 1927 (p 52). Not only images but also direct sentences are targeted to women: "When Hair Falls--Youth Fades" reads this ad.

Image 4: (*) New Yorker magazine cover of the September 19th issue, 1925. An implicit way for attracting women to look like the the girl on the media.

This type of advertisements have placed clear stereotypes on women. It is usually thought that women are not as capable as men in doing any given thing. With inequalities in different fields, women are thought of as inferior when compared to men. As a clear example for this is the case of Sarah Palin. During the last election campaign, Palin arrived in the United Nations headquarters in New York City and was suddenly banned from being questioned by reporters at the site because she was thought to be incapable of handling the situation—answering tough questions. A YouTube video (at the end of this post) reports on this issue in more detail.

Are there any consequences to the way women are presented in media? I think some qualify as repercussions. Debrahlee Lorenzana, a 33-year-old single mother, was fired from Citigroup for looking too sexy as to distract her employers. The issue was based on her figure which was noticeably curved even when she wore pencil skirts and turtle necks. She, then, “filed suit against Citigroup, claiming that she was fired in August from the Citibank branch at the Chrysler Center for looking too sexy” says Maureen Dowd in the article “Dressed To Distract” published in the New York Times on June 4^th 2010. This can be an example of the excessive emphasis of beauty on women.

In a different instance, my niece (unconsciously) showed another example. She was watching the show iCarly on TV. This is a show for kids in which one of the characters—Carly—tries to make the other—Sam—more girly-like (Episode: iMake Sam Girlier). The story goes in making Sam wear skirts and be more “soft and vulnerable,” as Sam says, as well as doing her hair in a special way and wear more make-up when going out in a date.

Image 5: (*) Advertisement published on the New Yorker magazine on December 29th 1945 (p 10).

Do media do the same with men? Apparently not, but stereotypes are not fading away either. As also indicated in the film Killing Us Softly, stereotypes applied to men are less body-related. As depicted in the add shown ‘She’s after my money, like I care.’

Image 6: Stereotypes attributed to men are less body-related.

Image 7: (*) Advertisement published on the New Yorker magazine on December 29th 1945 (p 55). Business as well as decision making-related issues have usually been attributed to men more than to women. Though that has changed in the past years.

Image 8: (*) Cartoon published on the New Yorker magazine on October 2nd 2000 (p 109). Beauty or body-related issues are not usually attributed to men; as this ad suggests: can't men be determined to loose weight?

In sum, I think advertising women has always been in one direction—showing and highlighting beauty and external appearance. Is this bad? I think not, but that must definitely not fade away women’s capacity to do things equally well as men do. Amy Schriefer, discusses the use of women portrayed in classical music album covers in the article Selling Sex And Symphonies: The Image Of Women In Classical Music. There, the use of women is questioned as a strategy to sell more music. Such instances are clearly representing this point then—women must not be portrayed as objects for marketing but instead as capable of doing any given thing.

Video: Sexism against Palin during the election campaign, must she be treated as a delicate flower?

Resources:

Click here to read the Dressed to Distract article on the New York Times.

Click here to read the Selling Sex And Symphonies: The Image Of Women In Classical Music article.

(*) Note about the New Yorker images: The images from the New Yorker come from my own collection.

The Mass Amateurs - A New Class on Its Own

In the past the use of media was mainly used as a medium that allowed professional journalists and photographers to communicate with the masses. With the rise of the internet and other social media becoming more popularized among the public, particularly with the innovation of smart phones and social networking sites, we have all been able to shape the media in our own unique way, whether that is by uploading photos on Facebook or writing a new blog entry on Tumblr. The internet and social networking sites has revolutionized the way we express ourselves and communicate with each other. We have all become a part of a new class—the mass amateurs.

As Clay Shirky states in Everyone Is a Media Outlet, this rise of mass amateurization is a result of the radical spread of expressive capabilities. A new wave of journalists and photographers has emerged—us, the masses. Growing up in this new generation of mass amateurization, with my first experience as a blogger on Xanga, I was able to convey my thoughts on anything in this weblog. My friends and I used Xanga as a platform to communicate with each other online by constantly updating our blogs like journal entries. To us Xanga was much like the present day Facebook, in its startup stage, but in blog and journal entry format.

While I was abroad in Shanghai, Xanga became one of the primary sources that kept me in touch with my friends and family back in New York City. In the following days of the 2003 New York City blackout, after the energy was restored, I was able to read the blog entries of friends who had experienced the blackout. I was also able to blog about my first encounter with a typhoon in Shanghai, which inundated many of the city’s streets and districts. Despite the flood, my parents still insisted that I go outside and throw out the trash in knee-deep water. Being able to blog about experiencing a typhoon gave blogging a whole new twist. I actually felt that surge of adrenaline as I typed up that blog entry. Stunt journalism has nothing on this!

As Shirky argues anyone in the developed world can publish anything anytime, and the instant it is published, it is globally available and readily findable (online). Being able to experience the typhoon firsthand, already granted me journalistic privilege in a sense. I didn’t need to be a media professional to blog about my experience. In fact, anyone who had been through the typhoon in Shanghai had the same credibility as an on-site journalist or reporter did, to be able to blog about their experience. With this case in point, my publisher was Xanga and my subscribers or readers were my friends and the rest of the Xanga community. Everyone is indeed a media outlet because we all have the same capabilities as media professionals do by being able to capture anything on site with our cell phone cameras and other technological devices if we are at the scene at the right place and time. It is just merely the difference in the quality of the footage and overall presentation that separates the masses and media professionals. The video footage coming from the cell phone of a regular person most certainly cannot be compared to the clarity of video footage that comes from a professional video camera carried out by a professional cameraman.

In regards to the future of media professionals, they will somehow be able to find quicker methods of getting the story and arriving on site at the scene before eyewitnesses can present footage to the bigger media channels. Perhaps the future of the news will consist of satellite images zooming in on certain locations, resembling that of the zoom in component on Google Maps. Whatever the future of media professionals may be, they will certainly rely on the communication that the masses send out, whether that is through Twitter, Facebook, and video footage from a cell phone or any other source of cutting edge media.

Technology: A Right Tool in Our Hands?

Jared is a college student who just published his ePortfolio (a personal website) as part of a requirement in one of his classes. He put together a number of assignments from past classes, a bunch of pictures, and a big dose of creativity to come up with his final site. His ePortfolio showcases his educational and professional interests and it portrays a potential candidate to be hired (if an employer happens to be the reader). Is Jared a Web Design major? No. Is he a Media Studies major? No. He is a Business Management major who got the opportunity, as every student in his school, to build his own ePortfolio and thus become in a publisher himself.

Jared's ePortfolio at LaGuardia Community College

The technology today has evolved so much that it has become in a powerful tool for everyone. Today, almost everyone has access to a computer. As mentioned in class, it may be possible to consider a person illiterate if not technology savvy. This overwhelmingly availability of tools to become a publisher without being professionals in the field is discussed by Shirky. The limits set by what professionals do and what amateurs do are fading away with the advanced technology available to anyone who can afford to have a computer. People, suddenly, have become in a primary source of news for others by using means of mass reproduction such as Twitter. News through this popular microblogging site have become popular and even required for many journalists (I follow CNN journalists and find myself informed by their tweets without having to watch the News Shows where they appear). Likewise, bloggers become an important source of news and critique available to the public. In sum, no matter how we make a specific piece of information available to the public, we are literally publishing content. Does Shirky’s statement ‘if anyone can be a publisher, then anyone can be a journalist’ make sense then? In my opinion, it does.

Shirky embarks in his ‘Amateurization Breaks’ discussion by explaining the examples of both journalists and photographers. In the first case, journalists by profession (those who went to college and majored in journalism) seem to be outnumbered by those who are doing the same job, amateurs, using the new media technology available. A clear example is the iReport segment offered by CNN which allows first-hand witnesses to send footage or videos of news events for public broadcasting. The latter example, photographers, seem also to be outnumbered by those who can afford to purchase a digital camera at a mall. Not only someone who can take a high-resolution picture and take it to sites such as www.iStockphoto.com becomes in a photographer but also those who learn how to improve those photos for sale by using software (also available to everyone) such as Adobe Photoshop.

But not only how the content becomes available is what counts but also the content itself. A proper use of technology is desirable to taking advantage of it. What Shirky calls a ‘civic’ use of media is important to highlight because that’s what reaches society in its entirety. This type of media becomes crucial when it is for the better of not only the participants (i.e. those who send the tweets) but of the society as a whole (those who read the tweets). This proper use is what makes media and technology an important tool in our hands.

I owe the title of this post to an old posting I did back in 2007. In it, I spoke about how technology usage is increasing and how we can better use it for educational purposes in reference to a program called ‘One Laptop per Child.’ This program offers a laptop for children who cannot afford to buy one. It also offers children free access to the internet within a device that also supports open source software and applications to run. In accordance with Tim Berners-Lee’s vision of the web, free access to the web (Hanson, 353) is crucial for learning the content available which, added to the free device provided by this program, makes this a clear example of how technology can be used to improve and enhance education.

I work as an ePortfolio consultant at LaGuardia Community College (CUNY). My job is as an instructor in what we call ‘Studio Hours’ (a lab session affiliated with a college-required class) where students build their own ePortfolios. Jared was a student in my summer 2010 class and is one example of how students get to become in publishers by having access to a tool provided by the school. Just like the ‘One Laptop per Child’ program makes a device available to children, the LaGuardia ePortfolio project offers students the opportunity to become in authors of their own work. Without the need to be a computer science-related major, students are able to publish their own work on the world wide web. As a consultant, I also found myself being a publisher by publishing my own personal website as a resource to my students. In it, I also post tutorials and more links available to them. This, in my opinion, demonstrates how our work as publishers can be a good resource for others to publish their own work as well. In this sense, and according to Shirky, the vast number of resources available on the web is fading out the ‘mass professionalization’ and is creating instead a ‘mass amateurization’ (79); thus, making us all publishers.

My Studio site serves as an external resource for my students in building their own ePortfolios

Indeed, technology has been made increasingly available to everyone to the extent of turning every user into a publisher. But it will up to each user, in my opinion, to make good use of this tool. In the end: ‘Everyone is a Media Outlet.’

Resources:

In this presentation, Shirky talks about civic and communal media. Click here to watch the video

Click here to visit the 'One Laptop per Child' program site

Click here to visit Jared's ePortfolio

Click here to visit the ePortfolio project at LaGuardia Community College and see more ePortfolios

Click here to visit my Studio site, a resource for my students

Click here to visit the iStock site