I have started to construct a rough essay plan with some points I would like to talk about. I have come up with a hypothesis, which is a direct response to my question: "To what extent does advertising construct our ideas of gender?"
Hypothesis - Advertising has a huge impact on the way our ideas of gender are constructed. Women are shown to be highly sexualised or domesticated. Men are shown to be very masculine and must be dominant. These are the ideals that are put in front of us every day and show us how to live our lives, as society becomes more enveloped into consumer culture.
INTRO -
- Address the question
- Hypothesis
- Link to body
BODY -
- Consumer Culture
- Social norms and ideals
- The History of Art + Advertising and how it was used to oppress women for the interests of men
- Specific Advertisements
- Women are highly sexualised or domesticated
- How advertising affects men too
CONCLUSION -
- Sum up points and conclude
- Re-visit my hypothesis
Berger, J, Blomberg, S, Fox, C, Dibb, M, Hollis, R, (1973) Ways of Seeing, Chapter 3, Page 45 - 51
This chapter addresses the issue of how both women and men are viewed by one another. A mans presence is governed by the promise of power which he embodies. This power could be moral, physical, sexual. A mans presence can suggest what he is capable of doing for you, where as a woman's presence is governed by her own attitude to herself. This presence can define what can and cannot be done to a woman.
A few interesting examples were given in this chapter, such as:
"If a woman throws a glass on the floor, this is an example of how she treats her own emotion of anger and so of how she would like to be treated by others. If a man does the same, his action is only read as an expression of his anger".
This chapter states that women are always conscious of how they appear. A woman's self being has been split into two. There is the surveyor and the surveyed. A woman can scarcely avoid imagining herself while she is walking down the street, or crying over her dead father.
"Men look at women. Women watch at themselves being looked at."
Men survey women before treating them. For a woman to take control of this, she must treat the surveyor side of her personality of that of a man, and ensure that the surveyed shows others how she would like to be treated.
The chapter then goes on to talk about historical paintings - nudes of women. These paintings were created by men, for men to enjoy and look at. They continuously chastise women and make them appear vain, when it is in fact the man who has portrayed her that way.
It also covers the religious aspects of this, where god condemns the woman to a life of serving man. Adam and Eve did not realise they were naked until they ate the apple, the nakedness was in the eye of the beholder. This image was painted a number of times, until it became a display.
Overall I feel that this chapter touches on a lot of important issues that face women, and as a woman I can relate to them. It explains that women are always aware of how they portray themselves, as if to please men, while a man is never questioned for how he acts or is portrayed. He has a presence of power, so he should not be challenged about the way he presents himself.
In this weeks COP seminar we were discussing ideas about our chosen theme and made a mind map. I think this helped with getting my ideas all in one place and coming up with new ones. We also discussed points with people who have chosen the same starting point as us, which helped generate more ideas.
Some of the ideas I focused on were the way women were represented in advertising, for example they are either hyper-sexualised to the point of being objectified, or they are domesticated and have to cook and clean in order to be a successful woman.
I thought about what kind of work I will produce, and I came up with a few ideas, such as making an information leaflet, a poster series, an info-graphic piece, or taking some previous work and altering it in some way to fit in with my theme.
After discussing ideas with other people in the group, I thought about basing my ideas around not conforming to what these adverts are telling us. I feel that the question "to what extent does advertising construct our ideas of gender?" has a very clear answer. I feel that advertising constructs gender norms, and people feel uncomfortable or scared when someone is different from that. I would like to break down the ideals that are presented to us daily where ever we are, and just say that its okay for people to live how they want, not how we are told.
