I Have an Exotic Secret...
Context: I found this image in the May 2007 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine (on page 216). This is an advertisement for Secret deodorant and therefore Secret is the creator of this image.
Content: This image is selling deodorant to women and it portrays a very specific type of woman. The specific deodorant advertised in this ad is called ‘jasmine orient.’ The woman or model in this image is classified as ‘oriental’ in a very stereotypical manner. Also, the images surrounding the woman imply certain characteristics of an ‘oriental’ culture. The woman is the only real subject in this image. She is surrounded by artwork and make-believe images of flowers, butterflies, incense, lanterns and other symbols of beauty and stereotypical oriental lifestyles. This implies that foreign women live in a beautified, sexual fantasy world. The woman appears to be skinny, dressed up, groomed and she has a pale, smooth complexion. She is also gazing at the viewer in a very mysterious, sexual manner. This implies that foreign women are exotic, sexual and a fantasy of desire.
Form: The woman in the image is positioned in the center of the page and is framed inside of an oriental-looking structure. She is also framed or surrounded by images of an ‘oriental’ nature. These images are defining the environment that encompasses her. She is literally framed inside of a foreign fantasy world.
The woman seems to have been photographed in a studio with soft lighting that compliments her skin and her structure. The rest of the image is artwork with the source of light coming from what looks to be a sunset in the background which gives the image a feel of dusk or evening. It looks almost hazy and mysterious.
The color that most sticks out is red. Her dress is red. The structure framing her and the lanterns are red and the label on the deodorant is red. Red is often associated with love, lust, sexual desire and sexual drive. The spots of red bring your eye from the girl to her surroundings and then down to the deodorant.
This woman is positioned in a manner that resembles a dance pose. She is positioned as a performer or entertainer. Her head is positioned slightly to the left which accents the gaze of her eyes which is aimed at the viewer rather than in the direction that her head is pointing. It seems like her entire body, down to her fingertips, is focused on a specific pose. Every part is positioned.
This woman is obviously in a costume. It almost resembles that of a geisha. The red silk and bare arms, implies that this is a sexy woman. Also her waist is bound with rope and a black sash. Not only is she wearing a costume, but it has been altered with artwork or special effects. The dress is split into two areas of fabric around the level of her knees that are floating on either side of her. These sections form a sort of V-shape which may imply a phallic symbol of her vagina. Along the lines of phallic symbols, I noticed that the deodorant stick, which resembles a penis, is positioned so very nicely between that V-shaped fabric.
My Take on the Secret: First of all, the reading at the top of the image that states, “When you’re strong, you sparkle.” implies so much about the strength of women. I see strength as a word that defines power or will. This message implies that women can’t be strong without being pretty too. It also implies that women’s strength lies in beauty. Women are the strongest or hold more power when they are pretty. Women only have power over pretty things. Women gain strength through their looks.
The image itself implies a lot about women, especially foreign women. The choice of the word ‘orient’ or ‘oriental’ is a conscious move to attach exotic meaning to the product. Would it be viewed differently had they used the word ‘Asian?’ This image therefore makes a statement for all ‘oriental’ women. All ‘oriental’ women are skinny, pale entertainers. ‘Oriental’ women surround themselves with flowers, butterflies incense and other pretty things. There is a secret desire behind the eyes of ‘oriental’ women. Foreign women have a mysterious, exotic sexual power. Finally, Jasmine orient deodorant by Secret will give you this mysterious, exotic sexual power.
Comments
I totally love these ads! I think they are really fun, colorful and really catch my eye; however, I do find them a little cheesy. I mean c'mon... "When you're strong you sparkle."?! I know they're just trying to advertise to women and sell their product, but hopefully women know they can still be strong if they don't wear glitter uder their amrpits. haha
Posted by: Cassie Setter | October 18, 2007 12:37 AM
Are you kidding with this? How about "it's a beautiful illustration" (it is) or "exquisitely styled" (it IS) or even just "pretty colors" (they are!)? MUST the author suck the fun out of every last thing ? Who WOULDN'T want to live in "a foreign fantasy world"? Has the author taken a good look around at the real world lately? And as far as the "real subject" of the composition goes, it's not the model; the model is there to illustrate a mood (god forbid, it's an exotic mood, yes, exotic to most bland-living Americans, exotic,and ORIENTAL, there I've said it, and I'm proud). The "real subject" is the very real photograph of the tube of Secret, dropped collage-style into a larger collage of images to form the centerpiece of a pleasing composition. Deodorant's what they're selling, that's what stands out. I mean, the damn thing IS selling women's deodorant, for gods sakes, and it's a blue package standing against much red, coral, and pink. It doesn't get mor contrasting than that. OMG red, coral and pink are colors often seen in traditional representations of Asian (oriental) cultural expressions - OMG they're also colors often associated with the inner folds of a va-GINA! Conspiracy! How damning - what an affront to correct-thinking persons everywhere. Those colors should be stricken from the color wheel. Or, maybe, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, sometimes good design comes from a place deep in our brains where we all instinctively know that what appeals to us, is hardwired into us, and taps into the most primal visual cues, including sex, and sometimes, during periods in this country when Asian design motifs are all the rage, a free-spirited fantasy illustration is simply meant to invite the potential buyer to a happy place where they might want to spend a few bucks. Wait - I suppose there's also a problem using women to sell a product marketed to women, mostly heterosexual women in Middle America who are not the least bit interested in sexualizing Asian women. Not every last media image in America is designed to subvert the female psyche. And as far as how some pakcage of deodorant suggests a penis, I think the author had best get to looking at a few penises. 'Cuz I've seen literally thousands of them (you read me right - thousands), and let me tell you, NONE of them ever made me think of a blue tube of women's deodorant, or vice versa. So there. Sorry to go off like that; to make up for it, I'm sure there's a child's birthday cake somewhere that the author can go pee on, or some other fun you he/she can quash. Humorless feminists? No such thing!
Posted by: DoItRightOrGoHome | February 27, 2008 12:18 AM
(Dictionary.com. Phallic. Look it up.)
I'm going to address this issue, directly. Let me begin by simply saying that this entire entry was written in the style of a student attempting to sound elaborate and concise, while overusing words like "implies" to draw unneeded attention to small facts that, otherwise, would not bear no resemblance to anything anti-feminist.
Let us first address the title. "When you're strong, you sparkle". A cheesy line, of course, but by no means anti-feminist. To even suggest so is the same as saying "Why history? Why not herstory?".
It "implies" not that beauty is a woman's only strength, but that women being strong is beautiful, rather than their only source of strength being beauty. The problem here is there is a gap between gender that has not bee crossed yet. Men do like strong women, women who can stand on their own two feet. Are you to tell us we're misogynistic because we address one strength in women per advertisement, instead of all of them?
Perhaps you'd prefer something along these lines:
"When you're strong, you sparkle. But you're always strong, and you always sparkle, even if you're not trying. You're both gorgeous and strong at the same time, but that pales in comparison to your enormous intellect, which is nothing compared to your humility. All in all, you're the picture of paramount perfection in everything you try."
However, well... obviously we'd have no room for the actual picture if we tried to fit all of that in. Of course, it would also seem just a tad bit like our entire gender is laying down at your feet, rolling over onto our backs, and whimpering.
So, on that basis, until the day I see advertisements for men emphasizing not only our strength and natural gift for physical exertion, but also our keen intellect, humbling need to protect and sacrifice to provide more, and sturdy will that it takes to grow up to be the right kind of man, in a world where you're told regularly "all men are dogs"...
Why don't we go ahead and focus on one strength at a time in advertisement, without accusing us of short sighted misogynistic tendencies because we don't always address all of your strengths all at once.
On the subject of the actual deodorant. When a man fantasizes about a woman, he does not close his eyes and imagine the scrunched together puckering of a literal vagina. Instead, he fantasizes about the entire area of the hips, the thighs guarding an entrance that, while vexing, is still vague in our imaginations.
I assure you, seeing the actual wavering line of a vagina is in no way frenzying, as is the idea of it. So, forming a literal shape with cloth does nothing. As for the deodorant looking like a penis, it's a cylindrical primitive shape. Perfume bottles are phallic, bottles are phallic, brooms are phallic. Your own arm is phallic.
So, let us explore the possibility of both the wavering skirt, which shoes NO leg, and NO entrance at the bottom (which, incidentally, would ACTUALLY be a symbol of invitation) is just a skirt in the wind, as the deodorant is just deodorant.
Equally, are they trying to sell Jasmine Orient deodorant to men? Is it for me? Will it sell to men? No. It will sell to women. So, attempt to make it seem as if it is pitched toward men?
Or is it, perhaps, you are suggesting it's pitched toward women, and you're upset because it's targeting women who are interested in attracting a man, and are drawn to this product with that skirt-vagina deodorant-penis.
And if so... is that really our gender's problem? Is it even your gender's problem? I think that, before posting it here, you should address the women who so selfishly are drawn to the thought of being attractive enough to attract a penis (or deodorant, whichever you're feeling most comfortable with), and would buy this product because of it.
Posted by: Alex | April 3, 2008 03:13 AM