Q1: How is the female
representation constructed to sell products? Focusing on advertisements such as
Gucci Guilty and Paco Rabanne's Lady Million.
In
my investigation I will analyse the representation of women in the media,
specifically focusing on perfume advertising campaigns Yves Saint Laurent’s
“Cinema” and Paco Rabanne's “Lady Million”. I will specifically
analyse billboard and advertisements within popular magazines to see how women
are objectified to sell products.
Women
are often objectified in the media and the audience is frequently given the
role of the male gaze.
“The determining male gaze projects its phantasy
on to the female form which is styled accordingly. (1)
Firstly
I will investigate if this is the case in my specific texts and will support
this study by applying Mulvey’s theory of the Male Gaze.
I
will secondly question what these products are selling apart from a smell. I
will analyse what ideologies the products attached to themselves in order to
make them appealing to consumers. Finally I will investigate if this type of
advertising links to the contribution of a patriarchal society.
Paco
Rabanne:
It is often dictated that female
objectification assists in selling products to a specific targeted audience. I
will now analyse if my two texts conform or subvert to this method of selling
products. Within the Paco Rabanne, Lady Million advertisement, the image is a
long shot, with the model placed directly in the center. The model is presented
with her cleavage revealed directly to the camera with her being the main focus
of the advertisement as she is shown to be alone. By parts of her body being
revealed, she is shown to be glamorous and attractive to the male audience. The
audience is able to feel that they are taking the role of a heterosexual male,
seeing what they want to see in a woman. By interpreting the Male Gaze theory,
this point can be established as we look at females the way men want to see
them.
Quote from Laura
Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory:
‘In their traditional
exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their
appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said
to connote to-be-looked-at-ness.’ (4)
By them being sexualized for a male’s pleasure,
we are able to see what we must look like to be classed as the “ideal woman”.
This encourages the targeted audience to purchase the product so they
subconsciously feel that they are taking the role of the model in the campaign.
This showing that this advert conforms to the objectification of the female to
be able to sell the product. Also, an active male audience, could achieve
elements of the Uses and Gratification principle, that they receive physical
pleasure by the article as they are looking at a beautiful woman. They could
get this from the hand gesture she is positioned with, that could show her to
be inviting a male into her attention. The image also shows, that she is
showing a side to a woman that is not often shown through advertising. It’s a
side to every woman that they tend to not show in the public view. It could be
the confident and playful woman who shows they are available and should be desirable.
Most women don’t like to act like this so this shows that men want women to be
more outrageous and lustful. Evidence to this is a study as to what men want to
see in a woman, the top of the list is confidence.
‘Nothing is sexier than a woman who's
comfortable in her own skin.’ (5)
By her doing this, this audience would want to
purchase the product, as they could want the female in their reality to behave
in this way towards them. This could also encourage a passive female audience
to purchase the product as they
Image (6)
Girls are socialized to feel that the way they
look is very important as to get attention off others and specifically males.
This is supported in a quote from Miss Representation:
Girls learn from a very early
age, the most important thing is how they look. (2)
The female shown is being
specifically represented as the ideal woman, as the audience is judging her
from a male perspective. The audience is able to see this by many connotations
displayed that are relevant to a perfume advertisement. The advert is in black
and white, apart from the golden diamond shaped perfume bottle and the
glistening golden text across the centre. The golden diamond bottle is relevant
to the connotations involved with the word ‘million’. Such connotations
involved could be wealth, power, glamour and luxury. Diamonds are specifically
relevant to these connotations, as they are the most expensive jewel to
purchase. This layout is typical of the conventions associated with perfume advertising;
the bottle is always featured along with a model for an extra meaning. An
active audience would see this as the model is also being sold as well as the
fragrance itself. This is what makes consumers purchase such products. You are
unable to smell a perfume through an advertisement, so by attaching these
ideologies a passive audience is able to believe that by purchasing the
fragrance, they will feel that they have all of these connotations.
Jean Kilbourne quoted that: “ Girls learn to see
themselves as objects”. (3) By females realizing this is how they should portray
themselves, they make this ideology their reality, which could lead to
insecurities. Images like the above (6) from a Men’s Health magazine, show the
ideal parts of a woman, put into one picture. The fragmented parts of the woman’s
body show what a man tends to focus on in a woman to class them as perfect.
Females are constantly made to see themselves as not the ideal image for what a
man truly wants. This is relevant to the image (7), as a female audience are
made to see what a man really wants in a woman; to have blonde hair, large
breasts, confidence and a sense of sexiness about them. This relates to the Male
Gaze theory as once again, the female audience is made to see things in life
through a male’s perspective.
Some people may believe that we live
within a patriarchal society, meaning that society is male led. We are made to
believe things through the perspective of a male for example: ‘97% of publishing companies are owned by
Males’(8)
This
shows that advertising could be biased towards males desires from an
image and how the model could be constructed to pose in a specific way. This
could show that advertising is to please the desires of a male audience as well
as a female. The model featured in the
image (7), has messy and wild hair, which could show elements of sexual desire
and lust. This makes the model desirable
to a male as she is showing a sign of sexual pleasure. These connotations are
attached to advertising purely to be able to sell a product and it seems to
work. Evidence of this is shown in an essay called: Sensuality and Erotism:
Advertisement Strategies for Perfumes Consumption
‘The biggest sex appeals
expression in modern advertisement is found in products and services directly
connected to sensorial perception, the five basic senses: vision, audition,
tact, smell and palate.’(9)
The audience is unable to smell
the perfume from an advertisement, so they attach connotations associated with
it such as sex appeal to be able to sell it. With an essence of sex present
within this particular advertisement image, it follows the typical use of
sexual desire to be able to sell the product. This specifically targeting a
males uses and gratifications, when it is in fact a fragrance for women.
Yves Saint Laurent “Cinema”: image
(10)
Within this particular advertisement (10), the
male gaze theory is happening within the image itself. The female within the
image is shown to be surrounded by intrigued males who look at her with desire,
lust, and love. She is also the light within the image and the males are within
the shadows within low key lighting. By her being highlighted with high key
lighting, she is shown to stand out and that all audience attention is
instantly drawn to her. By the producer making the image in this way, a female
passive audience would believe that this perfume attracts many of the opposite
sex and they then become a desirable figure.
This is relevent to the male gaze theory by Laura Mulvey, as the
audience is able to take the role of another male featured within the campaign,
who is also focused on the female. This showing that even though it is an advertisement
for a female perfume, it needs to have features that are what a male would want
to see. However, the female is not objectified by the males view, she is honored
and gazed upon, making males feel extremely attracted to her. The woman see’s
herself as desirable and high maintenance as she doesn’t show any eye contact
with either male and embraces the attention.
An example is from an analysis
of the perfume campaign:
“Obtaining its
positioning through the female superiority archetype, Yves Saint-Laurent
conquers its target-public through its identification with these attitudes, in
other words, the woman who approves (through experience or observation) using
beauty, womanliness and demonstration of superiority to keep men under control.”(11)
By the female seducing all the males within the
image, she is able to gain their full attention.
These connotations of sex, beauty and power are
typical genre conventions of perfume advertisements, as they are also shown in
my other campaign Lady Million. Attaching these ideologies, the audience is
more likely to consume the product as they feel they are gaining more things
other than a nice scent.
“As such, women wearing these types of
perfumes instill greater sexual desire in the men surrounding them, and in
return, boosting her own self-esteem as her feelings of being attractive and
adorned grows.”(12)
This is evident that perfume enhances the
sexual desire from the opposite sex. Fragrances often stimulate hormones in our
body which can make us feel more aroused and alive, or relaxed and sedated.
“The natural chemicals
in essential oils, released through scent, are the ones that actually trigger
our emotional and physical responses.”(13)
Pheromones are scent triggered hormones which
enhance sexual arousal. These can be triggered by the scent of female perfumes
especially. By perfume attaching these conventions, they are able to be seen
within advertisement images portraying males desire over beautiful and
confident women.
However, on the other hand, the female focused
on within the image can be viewed as a sexual object to the male eye. This
showing elements of Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory and that society is in fact
patriarchal. We are able to see this in the image as the males surrounding her
sees her as an object as they are intrigued with her beauty. They do not look
into her as a person or her personality, all that can be shown in an image is
how someone looks and how beautiful they are.
Similarly to the Lady Million advertisement,
the perfume bottle is highlighted in gold. This colour is associated with
connotations of wealth, luxury, beauty and desire. This is also a common feature and convention
of perfume advertisements, with the fragrance pictured bottom right of the
image. A passive female audience could feel that by purchasing the perfume,
they can feel wealthy, as the bottle is golden. A Quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“The desire
of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit.”
This showing that people have a
strong desire for gold because it can give them power, status and self benefit.
By the perfume bottle edited in gold, makes it look more expensive and a
desirable piece of treasure.
Conclusion:
To conclude
my research investigation, I found that women are continuously looked at
through a males perspective. They are judged on their beauty, their confidence,
what they wear and evidently the fragrance they wear. As an audience, we take
the role of the male gaze and see women through a fantasy of a male. However, this
concluded my research as I was able to fully understand that perfume attaches
many other connotations to be able to sell a scent through a poster, billboard
or magazine advertisement. Perfume has connotations of sex, wealth and desire,
which every woman seeks to achieve. Women are led to believe that perfume
attracts the opposite sex and makes them more desirable, by how women are
portrayed when featured in an image. Therefore I can answer that not only the
perfume is being sold, that the ‘ideal woman’ is also metaphorically being sold
to give women more self-confidence. I have also been able to see how images are
constructed to also please the views of a male for his entertainment and
pleasure (uses and gratifications). The females I have analysed are shown to be
objects to the males eye as we are only able to see what they look like not
what their personality is like. Beauty is what sells products, and beauty is
what females are made to compare themselves to.
Bibliography
(1)
Quote
from Laura Mulvey’s essay on Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema
(2)
Quote
from Miss Representation
(3)
Jean
Kilbourne quote
(4)
Quote
from Laura Mulvey’s essay on Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema
(6)
Image
– Mens Health Magazine of Ideal Woman
(7)
Image-
Paco Rabanne Lady Million Google Images
(8)
Statistic
from Miss Representation
(10)
Image
Yvez Saint Laurent Cinema perfume- google images
(12)
Article
“Why do people wear perfumes and other fragrances?”
(14)
