El factor humano en la construcción

This section analyses how feminism impact women's representations, specifically women's representation in advertising. This section contains an outline and review of previous media research into relations of feminism and women's representations. The review of previous studies is organised both historically and through a cross-national lens. This section firstly provides a broader picture of how feminist researchers studied women's representations and helps to understand how feminist theories have been applied into women's media studies, which contribute to examining women's representation and gender stereotypes in British and Chinese advertisements in the discussion chapter. Secondly, this section concludes the new trend 'feminism sells' in marketing which contributes to understanding the representation of 'new women' in advertising in Chapter 9. This section, on the one hand, emphasises the importance of considering feminism in reading women's advertising representations and explains how to apply feminist theories into the discussion of woman's representations, on the other hand, it supplements the theoretical considerations of feminism discussed in Chapter 3, therefore co-provides the feminist approach for the following case analysis.

Nicholson (2013) states that women's representations have a long and rich history that coincide with the development of feminism. The rise and development of feminism are considered to be the key and primary factors of the dramatic changes in women's

representations in recent decades. Since the second wave of feminism swept the Western world in the 1960s and 1970s, feminists have been questioning the 'political correctness' of the depiction of women and female body in media (e.g. Wagner & Banos, 1973; Sexton & Haberman, 1974; Belkaoui & Belkaoui, 1976; Sullivan & O' Connor, 1988; Gill, 2007: 9; Cortese, 2016; Mendes & Carter, 2008). The central idea of feminist media criticism is that 'hierarchical gender relations (re)produce social inequalities across time and cultures, thereby making it difficult for men and women to be equal partners in democratic society' (Mendes & Carter, 2008), and the primary goal of feminist media criticism is to 'fill in the gaps' in knowledge about gender-setting-gaps made by the prior male bias (Pilcher & Whelehan, 2016: xiii). Western feminist media criticism focuses on the following themes: how women are represented in media, which generally proved the portrayals of women tended to be heavily stereotyped (e.g. Hole & Levine, 1971; Butler & Paisley, 1980; Gallagher, 1990; Dow & Condit, 2004: 448); how media practitioners strengthened and perpetuated gender inequities (Mendes & Carter, 2008); how audiences understand 'gender' through media representations of gender display (e.g. Friedan, 1963; Gallagher, 1992); how feminism influence media industry (e.g. Barratt, 1992); how culture and power shape women's representations (e.g. Wolff, 1990; Hooks, 1990; Franklin et al., 1991); how media construct gender identity and subjectivity (e.g. Rakow et al.; 2015; Press, 1991); the experiences of women working in the media industry and the difficulties that female faced in seeking career development (Chambers et al. 2004; Robinson, 2005); the relationship between woman and media studies (e.g. Toth & Aldoory; Oleksy, 2001; Humez, 2002; Dines & Humez, 2003; Esser & Hanitzsch, 2013; Wood, 2002; Jansen, 2002; Defrancisco et al., 2013; Byerly, 2006; Charlebois, 2016; Krolokke & Sorensen, 2005; Vinnicombe et al., 2013). With the theoretical development of feminism and post-feminism, some researchers start to question the relations between the construction of the concept of woman and gender-related issues of media (Barrie, 2002; Pilcher, 2017).

The representation of women is one significant critique object of feminist media research, and researchers made many qualitative and quantitative studies on the images of women and gender relations in the mass media. They found that the mass media has strengthened gender stereotype in insidious ways. The constructed female photos did not really represent the complexity and diversity of woman's subjectivity but often conveyed the information of alienation, objectification, prejudice, and distortion (Van Zoonen, 1991; Li, 1993).

In terms of advertising, research shown that female advertising characters were more often placed in the private sphere than in the public sphere: female characters were more often used in the advertisements of household detergents and cosmetics while male characters are more often shown in non-domestic products' advertisements (Hennesse & Nicholson, 1972; Gill, 2007a). This situation is remarkably similar all over the world (e.g. Bresnahan, et al., 2001; Luyt, 2011; Michelle, 2012; Nassif & Gunter, 2008; Paltzer, 2010). Some studies state that female characters are outnumbered by the male overall in media, but the images of women are often absent in some specific media types such as political news and sports (e.g. Creedon, 1995; Meeks, 2012). Additionally, some research indicate that the mass media often focuses on showing women's beautiful appearance and sexual appeals (Seidman, 1992; Sommers-Flanagan & Davis, 1993) and the female images are more easily objectified in media representations compared to the male images (Aubrey & Frisby, 2011). The reasons of the objectification of women are multiple, ranging from the symbolic annihilation of women to the social structure of patriarchal power (Van Zoonen, 1994; Gallagher, 2003; McQuail, 2010).

Building upon findings of feminist studies in the 1970s, Gaye Tuchman put forward with theories of 'reflection hypothesis' and 'symbolic annihilation'. According to Tuchman (1978: 3-38), the commercialised essence of mass media determines its characteristic of using the dominant social values to design media content through a symbolic performance of the mainstream social and cultural phenomenon. In terms of

the gender representation, media representations of woman play a significant role in 'transmitting a patriarchal ideology concerning the place of women in society' (McQuail, 2010: 120-121), as it distorts some parts of the complex situation of woman's life and woman's social roles, creating the so-called media 'symbolic annihilation' of gender or the misrepresentation of woman. In the process of the 'symbolic annihilation' of woman, regulations and social norms of gender identities and gender roles represented in media texts have further deepened the influence of the power and gender discourse on the construction of our understandings of woman and woman's social roles (Manchel, 1990: 450-460).

From the late-1970s onward, new theories put forward by poststructuralists provided feminists a new conceptual direction that made the feminist media critique take the angle of arguing the signification position that media takes in constructing reality, rather than trying to find out 'a pre-existing reality to the meaning of the categories masculine and feminine' and how 'the media were involved in actively producing gender' (Gill, 2007: 12). As discussed in Chapter 3, post-feminism suggests that the understanding of masculinity/femininity/gender/sexuality a dynamic and unfinished process; it is a place where various forces are struggling with each other. Gender identity is seen to be partial, fragmented, fluid, and performed, rather than immutable and ahistorical (Long, 1991; Kaplan, 1992; Mendes & Carter, 2008).

However, it is worth noticing that both traditional feminist media criticism and post-feminist studies have pointed out that advertising campaigns often use misrepresentations to objectify women and reinforce sex differences/stereotypes in order to stimulate consumption (Berger, 1977; Betterton 1987; Irigaray, 1985; Goffman 1979; Kilbourn 1999, 2000; Bordo 1993; Manca & Manca 1994; Cortese 1999; Williamson 1978, 1986; Kim & Chung, 2005), because advertisers need to grab audiences' attention and convey certain messages in a concise amount of time (Krijnen & Bauwel, 2015). Advertising was argued to have distorted the imagery of female bodies to meet the pleasure of the male gaze, condoned or encouraged

violence and stereotypes against women, and belittled the feminist movement (Mulvey, 1975; Sheehan, 2013).

Many scholars suggest that the stereotyped gender images usually work as a technology of constructing gender identity (e.g. McQuail, 2010; Krijnen & Bauwel, 2015: 73). Feminists believe that the function of stereotype in shaping our gender identities is negative, as stereotypes deny the dynamic nature of gender, and promote an essentialist concept of gender (Van Zoonen, 1994). Under the logic of gender stereotypes and the male-dominated power system, women are often linked to the 'domestic situation' as mothers and wives, or as sex objects to titillate and entertain male audiences; female characters usually are young, slim, emotional, have perfect body parts which conform the image of 'ideal' beauty and traditional femininity (Hole & Levine, 1971; Butler & Paisley, 1980; Gill, 2007; Meyers, 1999; Gallagher, 1990; Mager & Helgeson, 2011; Lindner, 2004; Collins, 2011; Frith & Mueller, 2010). However, Goffman (1979) noticed that the advertisements which are problematic and reprehensible in the eyes of feminists actually did not make most audiences feel disgusted, because the stereotyped depiction of the setting of gender roles is based on the real world. In other words, the stereotyped gender advertising representations are the reflection of the reality as the production of representations is basically consistent with the experience and information about gender and woman preconceived in the society. In this sense, the idea expressed by advertisements is the strengthened reflection of the common understanding of pre-existing gender roles and gender relations.

Although many types of research have proven that stereotypical representations of gender are still easy to find in contemporary media, some studies have shown contradictory results (Krijnen & Bauwel, 2015; Mcrobbie, 2010). Studies prove that fewer stereotypical representations of women appear in advertising, and women are being represented in a broader scope of powerful and professional roles as a global phenomenon (MacDonald, 1995; Wollin, 2003; Bruce, 2015). Another evidence is the

increasing number of images of 'superwoman' in mass media, which is usually simultaneously portrayed as a good friend, lover, mother, wife, boss or employee, and overall is an available and 'self-assured sexual being' (Gill, 2007b; Krijnen & Bauwel, 2015). These are several examples of a new trend in advertising: using feminist ideas and women's power as the branding strategy to meet the new consumer psychology. Many studies suggest that feminism is a tool of modern marketing (e.g. McQuail, 2010; Lotz, 2006; Goldman, Heath & Smith, 1999; McRobbie, 2008; Reker, 2016). In fact, the appropriation of feminist beliefs for commercial purposes is not a new thing. It harkens back to the 1920s with Edward Bernays' campaign encouraging female consumers to break gender limitations of smoking (Goldman, Heath & Smith, 1999) and has been revived recently with the increasing of 'femvertising' which uses huge numbers of women/girls' images as forms of empowerment (Bahadur, 2015; Reker, 2016). In the post-Fordist society, advertising is positively trying to attract audiences' interests through convincing them to identify with the ideas of the product/brand (Johnston & Taylor, 2015). With the global awareness of feminist ideas and women's power, feminist messages are used as a means of sales promotion (Goldman, Heath & Smith, 1999; Reker, 2016).

The study conducted by Silverstein and Sayre in 2009 states that 'women seek to buy products and services from companies that do good for the world, especially for other women. Brands that—directly or indirectly—promote physical and emotional well-being, protect and preserve the environment, provide education and care for the needy, and encourage love and connection will benefit' (Silverstein & Sayre, 2009; Reker, 2016). Reker (2016) also finds that the post-Fordist society has reshaped the logic of consumption; the new branding strategies encourage consumers to make purchases based on the idea that the product/brand supports rather than on the product itself. Reker (2016) suggests this new trend is becoming increasingly popular due to the great influence of women's purchasing power, and women's power will continue to increase in the coming years. Goldman, Heath & Smith (1999) states that common

strategies used by advertisers include a 'subtle reframing of the male gaze shifting the power as such a relationship from the surveyor to the surveyed' and 'validating an image of the new woman defined as independent and equal to men'. Feminist ads encourage the self-empowerment of women and claim that 'the female body as a site for women's pleasure and as a resource for her power in a broader marketplace of desire than marriage' (Duffy, 2010; Reker, 2016).

By encouraging feminist beliefs and women's self-empowerment through signified ideology, advertisers are able to target the female market rather effectively. The findings of Stampler (2015) have indicated the statistical success of the appropriation of feminism for commercial purpose which is defined as 'commodity feminism' by Goldman, Heath & Smith (1991) and Goldman (1992). Therefore, Lotz (2006) reminds us that advertising is a tool of capitalism and the initial purpose of feminist advertising is to earn business benefits rather than breaking gender stereotypes.

Apart from commodity feminism, 'popular feminism' has also infiltrated women's advertising representations and the consumer culture. Popular feminism is media-friendly and consumer-oriented. The usage of feminism by advertising is hardly surprising given the characteristics of advertising as it has been discussed in Chapter 3. For example, advertising absorbs feminist critiques against the sexualisation of female in advertising as well as elements of social change (Dyer 1982; Goldman 1992; Williamson, 2003; Reker, 2016). McRobbie, in her article 'Young Women and Consumer Culture: An Intervention', explains the instrumentalisation of feminism in mass media. McRobbie (2008) takes the commercialised girlhood as the example and argues that the invocation of girlhood in the current commercial culture has 'now occupy a critical place in the formation of the categories of youthful femininity'. And this appropriation of the commercialised girlhood 'draws on a quasi-feminist vocabulary which celebrates female freedom and gender equality' and 'many of the forms directed towards girls and young women seem to have embraced what has been troublesomely labelled 'popular feminism"'. McRobbie (2008) suggests

that popular feminism is 'celebrated in such a way as to suggest that the politics of feminist struggles are no longer needed' because advertising creates images of women who have already won the freedom but in fact, these representations often simply act as 'a therapeutic mechanism for women to feel empowered through their capitalist values' (Reker, 2016). Therefore, this kind of advertising could not be seen as a genuine progressive of feminism.

Today, researchers find some paradoxical facts about women's advertising representations. Luck (2016) finds the ads containing feminist messages work to empower women by sending the message that they are more than their appearance while telling women they are still deficient (in order to encourage consumption). Gill (2007: 1) argues that the construction of women in today's media is extraordinarily contradictory: 'confident expressions of "girl's power" sit alongside reports of "epidemic" levels of anorexia and body dysmorphia [...] feminist ideas have become a kind of common sense, yet feminism has never been more bitterly repudiated'.

Reker (2016) holds the view that advertising is fundamentally incompatible with the goals of radical feminism as it is not an agency through which gender-power change could be achieved. But the advertisements offer up a post-feminist view in which the empowerment of women is enacted through their ability to choose what they want to be like or what products they would like to buy, and tensions between feminist and post-feminist approaches to issues of empowerment, emancipation, and identity offer such possibilities for advertisers (Lazer, 2007).

Another new phenomenon in women's advertising representation which has been increasingly noticed is the representation of female masculinity (e.g. Cooper, 2010; Fink, 2015; Bruce, 2015). Part of the reasons lies with the global spread of feminist thoughts and the rise of the third wave of feminism (Bruce, 2015). Feminism has long timely emphasised women's empowerment. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between female masculinity and the new form of modern femininity (Gillis et al.,

2004). With the rise of the third wave feminism, some feminists further proposed an ambiguous conceptual framework to discuss implicit political representations of gender oppression which challenges the traditional feminist positions that passively oppose the determined relations of woman and femininity (Bruce, 2015).

Although there are considerable debates about what the third wave of feminism is, it comprises a set of generally accepted concepts (Gillis et al. 2004). It strives to be non-judgemental and anti-essentialist, welcoming a variety of identities both within and across us (Cocca, 2014: 98), and embodies an aversion to labelling (Chananie-Hill et al., 2012: 46), and questions how to abolish the ideas which have 'crippled' our ability process and perceive representations outside culturally-defined gender binaries (Brunce, 2015). Among recent examples are Chris Beasley's (2005) use of Halberstam's concern with 'female masculinity' to criticise the gender hierarchy and sexualities in which 'masculinity and men are severed altogether' (Beasley, 2005: 233). Beasley concluded that masculinity is an identification. It is not tied to a sexed body and apparently escapes the biological. It also appears to escape the social, since it is no longer conceived in historical terms and aspects of masculinity's social production, as a positionality whose definition rests upon the subordinated status of women, seem to disappear' (2005: 233). Markula (2009), drawing on Derrida, discusses 'what it might mean to think "outside" of a category of feminine/masculine' and 'reach beyond the hierarchical binary structure', and concludes that 'this remains a very difficult task' (Markual, 2009: 103-104).

However, advertisers keenly caught the trend of breaking the boundaries of the binary gender concept of male/masculinity and female/femininity. The post-feminist slogans which advocate the fluidity of gender have been cleverly used by advertisers to defend for the advertising representations of male femininity and female masculinity, which successfully covers up the initial purpose of using the untraditional and rare depictions of sexes - to sell products.

In summary, feminism is closely related to media criticism and advertising representations of gender from the beginning. Current advertising representations often show the phenomenon of the co-existence of gender stereotypes and feminist rhetoric. The advertisements containing feminist messages merely offer a cursory look into feminism, but these advertising representations can still reflect levels of social acceptance and recognition of feminism in consumer cultures. The next section will further focus on previous research of women's advertising representations from specific perspectives.