Portrayal of Women in Advertisements
In advertisements, artificial women are constructed to attract the female gaze, while portraying what is supposed to be the “ideal” woman today, in order to sell their product.
Advertisements in magazines that are targeted towards women are the ads that are the most prone to attract the female gaze, by using a constructed woman. High fashion magazines that are known to be the worst at portraying an unrealistic woman include Elle, Vogue, and Cosmopolitan. In these magazines, it is known that the gaze is going to be from a female spectator, which makes it worse.
One lingerie company that could easily be known as the epitome of fantasy females is Victoria’s Secret. The ads consist of mostly naked women who are five feet-ten inches, about 120 pounds, with heavy makeup and perfectly tousled hair. They all wear towering stilettos which brings them well over six feet, and almost always have giant angel wings on their backs. These unrealistic ads seem to almost degrade women. Do women have to look like this to be sexy? Or are they getting to another message: If women wear Victoria’s Secret lingerie, then they will look like this ad. But apparently these ads are doing something right because Victoria’s Secret sales have gone up in recent years. Some could argue that the advertisements are also targeting men, to buy the lingerie for their significant other, but this argument is silly. When men look at the picture, they will be looking at it through a voyeuristic gaze, thinking about their own pleasures. Men will buy the lingerie because they want to see it on their girlfriend or wife, not because of who is modeling it.
The women in the ads are objectified; they are no longer seen as a real person but as an object of desire. In E. Ann Kaplan’s article, “Is the Gaze Male?” Kaplan touches on this subject: “Objectification may be an inherent component of both male and female eroticism.” Here, she talks about the female gaze towards the female: “Women receive and return a gaze, but cannot act on it. Second, the sexualization and objectification of women is not simply for the purposes of eroticism; from a psychoanalytic point of view, it is designed to annihilate the threat that woman poses.” (Kaplan 120) It is known that women often feel jealous or threatening of other women. But this is not the dominant feeling that the female spectators have towards the Victoria’s Secret ads. It may be an underlying feeling, but the dominant feeling that girls have towards the ads is envy; which is why they end up purchasing the product. They are not jealous of the model because she does not pose a threat; she is not reality. She is a fantasy or idea. Therefore, they do not feel threatened by the model because she is not a real person. Some girls realize this, but what about the other millions of girls who don’t realize this and they see the model as a real person: This is where the problem lies, because the model is not real, she is constructed.
Another series of magazine advertisements that are targeted towards women, and tell a unrealistic message at the same time are perfume advertisements. Perfumes are fragrances made for women, that are promoted by telling a woman that if they use a certain perfume then they will become something they are not now; for example, Clinique Happy. All of their ads are brightly lit, and contain women that are very happy. The underlying message here is, “If you use Clinique Happy, you will be happy!” A recent ad for Emporio Armani Diamond perfume has Beyonce Knowles promoting the ad. Everything from the lighting, to the setting, to Beyonce is constructed in this photograph. “If you use Diamond, you will be as glamourous as Beyonce.” Calvin Klein’s Euphoria perfume tell the target audience that they will be brought to some sort of euphoric state while wearing their perfume. The ad consists of a supermodel montage of her body wrapped in silk, touching her lips, and a purple background setting.
Almost all of the perfume ads contain the woman touching herself somewhere that is not too provocative, but does suggest something. Common places are around the mouth, hips, or chest area. These are very sexual places that would be more likely to appear in ads that target men. But these perfume ads are trying to get the spectator envious of the woman: Then, if they buy the product the will be just like the model!
Advertisements for reality TV shows do a very good job of portraying a very unrealistic view of something that is supposed to be “real.” The actual shows are already manipulated by the directors and producers, and then they go a step further by constructing misleading advertisements. The Real Housewives of Orange County is a show aired on Bravo that is supposed to let the audience in on what housewives of Orange County, California do in their lives. The advertisement of the show can be found on the back cover of the November 12th issue of US Weekly. This ad consists of five women wearing cocktail dresses and standing on a giant Monopoly board. Some of the props they are holding are an ipod, a martini, thousands of dollars worth of hundred dollar bills, and a huge shopping bag. The main subtitle reads, “CAUTION: Adults at Play,” suggesting that their life is a game board. Some of the spots to land on include, “Time for plastic surgery,” “New mansion,” “Engaged to a millionaire,” and “Celebrate your husband’s promotion.” These messages promote the idea of patriarchy by leading us to believe that they live off of their husband’s money. They are not celebrating their own promotion, they are celebrating their husband’s promotion. They are proud of the fact that they do not have to work to make their own money. All they need to do is look good by having plastic surgery, and stay hip with all the latest fashions that they buy with their husbands’ money. What the ad chooses not to focus on any problems that may arise. If they were to focus on any problem, then the show would loose it’s “fantasy” appeal.
All of these advertisements that were talked about contain women that have been digitally retouched. Their waists have been made thinner, their lips bigger, their hair fuller, and diamonds more shiny. They all look like Barbie, and they are like Barbie because they are all fake.