GWSS 1001 - Gender, Power, and Everday Life

To the right, we see a white woman, dressed in all white, looking pretty pissed off; however, there’s more power in her gaze than anger. To the left, we see a lowered black person, having to look up to meet the white woman’s eyes, washed out by the black of the billboard. Furthermore, the black person’s sex is non-descript; the viewer is unable to tell if the character is male or female. Contrastingly, the white woman’s sexuality is outwardly screaming at us: boobs bursting her buttons, and pelvic region highly visible. The black character can be interpreted as impure, or dirty in that the white woman is wearing a glove with the hand she is smushing his/her face with, while the hand that is not in contact with the black character is unsheathed. Outrageous.
In the marketing scheme, there is generally a dual between two products which enforces the idea that one product is better than the other. Here, they dote on the topic of race, enforcing the idea that whites must be better than blacks. This is blatant racism, folks.