how females are represented in television adverts
...ed to always to what so called ‘traditional’ female sex roles. The idea discourages people from accepting women who are “strong, independent and self confident” (Smith, 1997) According to Dow (Holtzman 2000) one of the reasons why television is resistant to the messages of feminism, is that they view those messages as conflicting with women’s desire to consume. Advertisers do not want to present a liberated women because this new women does not want and thus will not buy their products. For this reason the advertisers ‘homely’ image lives on. Another reason could be that men dominate the workplace. The advertising industry (Paten, 12th March 2002) has a particularly high men to female ratio. Women are still being portrayed as being dependant on men. In an advert for Toilet Duck, for example, the housewife’s attempt at cleaning the toilet proves unsuccessful. The voice over which is also female tells us that Toilet Duck provides active tablets to wash away the grime. It is not states that the Toilet Duck is male but from his top hat and tails, it is encouraged to believe he is male, which is indicating that the woman needs a man to invent products in order for them to work well. Beauty Women have always been very beauty conscious and insecure about their appearances and advertisers have exploited this by bombarding them with ways in which to ‘improve themselves’. Pressure on women to look good is not new but it is only in the last decade that women have felt pressurised into enhancing their natural looks. Advertising has encouraged a feminisation of culture, as it puts all potential consumers in the classic role of the female: manipulative, submissive and seeing themselves as objects. If women’s advertisements cry “Buy this product and he will notice you” (Barthel 1992) Adverts create illusions of happiness with women being beautiful and their household chores are seen as more beautiful, adverts put attractive women in beautiful homes. Theses adverts are going to attract women viewers more than they are going to attract men’s views. Most women want to conform to the norm of being ‘beautiful’ as seen in adverts. Most of these ‘beautiful’ women are represented by tall thin young women with no wrinkles. (Kilbourne) study found that women became more dissatisfied with themselves if they don’t look beautiful. Since many people expect all women to be thin and beautiful. Many women felt ashamed and unhappy if they were not thin as the women who are portrayed in adverts (“The best little girl in the world” by Dr Steven Leventron) In a study by Howard Laine, Duma Sweeny and Stephan H. Wagner, examines whether male and female observers had an increase in the dissatisfaction of their own body images after viewing adverts that showed women as sexual objects. Their hypothesis was that when women were exposed to sexist advertisements, three things would happen; firstly these women would judge their current body size as larger than the women in the adverts. Secondly there would be a larger difference between their actual and ideal body size and thirdly they would show a bigger difference in their own ideal body size and their perceptions of other women’s body size. They also predicted that feminists would show more negative attitudes about the sexist adverts than the non-feminist would. In order to test their theory, both males and females were exposed to three separate situations. The first group viewed 15 sexist adverts and 5 non sexist adverts, the second group viewed 20 non sexist adverts and the third group completed a body image and attitude test but no adverts were shown to them. The results of the study showed in the 1st category, attitudes towards sexist versus non sexist adverts, feminists had negative attitudes about the sexist adverts, than the non feminist’s participants. The second category was the effects of exposure to sexist adverts on body image; the results were the same for the non sexist adverts. Basically, women rated themselves as fatter than ideal. This study showed that sexist adverts had an influence on women. MMP research conducted in 1999 revealed that advertising perpetuates stereotypes about women undermine the struggle for gender equality women are more often confined to domestic selling or dependant roles. Women’s bodies have been used to market everything; alcohol advertising consistently portrays women as sex objects who exist for the viewing and consuming pleasure of men. Alcohol advertising consistently portrays women as sex objeects who exist for the viewing and consuming pleasure of men. The message is “drink x and you will get the girl/sex”. This is taken even further, with the hiring of “promotional girls” who visit popular bars when men can “meet” them and sample the product. An example of a sex symbol marketing strategy is the herbal essence shampoo advert; one particular advert takes place in a court room where a woman looses control of herself due to the sexual experience that Herbal Essence induces. Only after the women become increasingly excited, do the men begin to dance sing and celebrate. The message in this advert is that it is acceptable for woman to lose sexual control of herself in public. This is a direct criticism of women’s dignity in public. Women face different stereotyped than men in regards to their sexuality. Women are sent mixed messages because the media portrays them as so many things at once, they are suppose to be virginal and innocent, yet sexy and seductive at the same time. On television adverts women are shown as objects instead of human beings. The women in most adverts posses a body image that impossible for the average women to ever have, unless they starve themselves. The messages that the media send out are not always healthy ones. People are subjected to thousands of images and messages daily portraying the “ideal” body image. Females feel a constant pressure to live up to these ideals. Through out history, the female body has always been on display. In the early 1900’s, the trend was the corseted hour glass look. This was achieved by women wearing tight and often painful corsets. In the 1920’s, the trend was the flapper look. Women of style were flat chested and slim-hipped. The 1950’s and sixties brought on a full bodied look with an emphasis on the legs. Marilyn Manroe was the icon of the time and was a size eight. The early nineties was the demise of the ideal of a healthy body image. The stray like figure Kate Moss became the trend. A tall, very thin look with narrow hips became the look. Towards the end of the nineties the only addition to this look was big breasts. One can see that the “ideal” body image has changed over history into something that is essentially impossible for women of society to obtain. (Berg 1995) Throughout the twentieth century, women in advertising tend to shift from the image of being obedient to an image of being sexual and lustful. As women grow they deal with many obstacles such as changing bodies, defining themselves and looking at the future ahead of them. The media is one of the key influences in a woman’s decision process. According to Mario Hutchinson in his book Transforming Body Image, “the average person sees between four-hundred and six-hundred advertisements per day, amounting to forty to fifty million by the time they are sixty years old” (Hutchinson, 2000). This means that women are constantly being exposed to images whose portrayal creates an immense pressure to be slim. The message sent out that in order to be beautiful, you must be thin. This in turn can damage a young girl’s self-esteem, distort their sense of body image and can contribute to eating disorders. Many self-esteem issues that young adolescent girls have are direct result of the damaging effects of the unrealistic ideals and high expectations that the media sends out. When girls are constantly subjected to perfect body images and the idea of beauty is the skinnier the better, they begin to loose confidence in themselves. Sally Bordo reports about the effects of media on body image in her book, Unbearable weight: Feminism, Western culture, and the body. She states, “The shapes of model’s bodies have changes from an hour glass figure to a tall slender shape. Twenty-five years ago model weighed eight percent less than the average women, seven years ago models weighed twenty-three percent less than the average women. During the same time, the average woman’s weight increased by four percent”. (Bordo 1993) This shows how difficult it is for most women to live up to the ideals that have been thrusted upon them by the media. What a lot young women fail to realise is that the media enhances body features with props, lighting angles and computer techniques. When young women are constantly exposed to the perfect body image in the media, they begin to adopt to the idea that skinny is the way to happiness and success, and their own confidence in their own body begins to weaken. The main reason why advertisers use thin models is that they believe it is effective to sell a product by using a physical attractive model or product endorsers. “Beauty is one of the main platforms for social construction and maintaining sex differences” (Melosik 2001) Beauty adverts most often use mysterious names of creams attacking women with an image only one women in a thousand may have. Adverts force women to become prisoners in their home as well as their body. She also claims advert producers use erotic themes in ice cream. Women eating ice cream are always presented in the state of utmost excitement. Contemporary advertising increasingly uses conventions used in “soft porn”, ice cream and beer adverts in particular use this intensely. The images of bottle and female shapes often intermingle. She argues that by “eroticizing a product, women become a commodity. Advertising also gives women unrealistic notion of what we should like. Women and women’s body parts are used to sell every imaginable product. Girls and young teenage women are encouraged to be seductive. A study by Robert Gustafson, Mark Popovich and Steven Thomson from the marketing news looked at how the impact of female stereotypes in adverts, affected high school aged girls psychologically and physiologically. The study looked at the high school girls perceptions which might contribute to the development of anorexia and other eating disorders. The study looked at how adverts promote the ‘thin ideal’ compare to other harmful stereotypes. The study looked at how advertisers use a variety of female stereotypes which are believed to be psychologically and physiologically harmful. It was seen that women were portrayed as dumb blondes and sexual objects; however none is more dangerous than the ‘thin ideal’. The portrayal of super slim women as more successful and desirable can contribute to eating disorders that can kill and the mass media have been identified as one of the most socio cultural factors contributing to anorexia. This study supports previous findings that indicate young women are familiar to seeing ultra slim models and don’t see the danger in the ‘thin ideal portrayal’ of beauty and success. The thin ideal is so overlooked as a socio cultural norm that we believe that there other stereotypes which are more dangerous to younger women. The media is a powerful tool, however not everyone is affected in the same way by the same media. Some people are more affected by the media than others. This is usually because some people are more vulnerable than others. For example one person with a high self esteem may see a television advert differently to a woman with a low self esteem. The chances are that if someone has a low self esteem, they are more likely to compare themselves to the media images, which can make them feel lower about themselves. If they feel they do not meet the same standard of beauty that the advert is representing, a womam may develop a negative body image. A negative body image is something that a person feels usually as a result of low self esteem, until a woman learns how to value themselves; they will continue to be affected by the media. (Jowell 2000) http://www.edauk.com/sub_effects_of_the_media.htm Girls and young teenagers are perhaps the most vulnerable to beauty-industry propaganda. For them advertising is like a window into adult life, a lesson in what it means to be a women. Girls are less likely to distinguish between fact and advertising fiction. Marketers increasingly target teens and the preadolescent market with adverts for beauty products. Kilbourne argues that television adverts like the Fetish perfume advert imply “women don’t really mean ‘no’ when they say it, that women are only teasing when the resist men advances”. The advert copy reads: “Apply generously to you neck so he can smell the scent as you shake your head ‘no’. The obvious implication here is “he’ll understand that you don’t really mean it and he can respond to the scent like any other animal”. Female role models in television advertising have evolved from wholesome, to in some campaigns, nymphets and groups of people who look like they are coming down from a heroin high. These images go beyond selling the brand; they can affect the self image, self esteem and even the physical and emotional health of women who see them. The mass media has been identified as one of the most influential socio-cultural factors that cause anorexia. Researchers have linked television adverts of women’s beauty, fashion and fitness with eating disordered thinking. The emphasis on appearance is believed to lead many women to internalise an unrealistic and unattainable thin “ideal body” stereotype. This in turn, leads to the development of body dissatisfaction and potentially, to eating disorder symptoms. (Guastafson et al, Women in Advertising, Marketing News, 1999) There is high amount of pressure that is put on women through adverts to be sexually attractive and sexually active. The National Eating Disorders Association reports that one out of four television adverts send some kind of “attractive message”, telling viewers what is and is not attractive. Television adverts also distinguish gender in professional activities. For example, one advert advertises vitamin formula to “increase intellectual activity” by presenting a man sitting at a computer. Women are hardly ever shown as being professionally active, only 7percent of adverts portray women in this manner. Women have always been beauty conscious and insecure about their appearances and advertisers have exploited this by bombarding them with ways In which to improve themselves The independent published an article on (29/02/2004 called “five clichés of women” by ‘Ciar Bynes’). The article showed how advertisers interpretation of the 21st century women is a turn off to people they are trying to attract, research that was done by a research agency “Enterprise IG” found that 91 per cent of women believe that advertisers do not understand them and 58 percent are annoyed at the way in which marketers target them. Before the 1970s it was rare to see women in advertising who were not doing housework. In the 1980 as women started to establish themselves, advertisers started to reflect this trend the 1990’s there was another shift with advertisers portraying women as sexual predators. Women come in an endless array of shapes and sizes, but you’d never know it from looking at the adverts. In every generation, advertisers issue a new concept of female perfection. The very rigidity of the ideal guarantees that most women will fall outside of it, creating a gap between what women are and they learn they should be. To stop some of the gender stereotypes, there was a campaign that Dove did called ‘real women’ which uses women as varying shapes and sizes to advertise the products, this is a positive way of advertising as it shows real women an their real lives. The firm is using ‘real women’ in its beauty product promotion because it says, “stick thin airbrushed models make women feel bad about themselves. The dove team spoke to a number of women while developing their new firming range and found that the vast majority wanted to see more realistic-looking models in adverts and the media. (www.unilever.co.uk/ourbrands/beautyandstyles) A survey that was done for Dove firming moisturiser found that two thirds of UK women feel depresses about their figures have low body confidence as a result of beauty advertising. The study therefore found three quarters of women wanting to see more realistic looking models in beauty adverts. These women rated Renee Zelweger in her more curvy appearance as their healthiest celebrity role model. This then led to the Dove campaign which Dove argues is designed to celebrate real women and boost their body confidence.(www.annova.com/news/story/sm_905522.html) The psychological costs of advertising encouraged self- consciousness, which are difficult to quantify. As Susan Brown miller writes in Femininity “a women is never free of self-consciousness. She is never quite satisfied and never secure, for desperate unending absorption in the drive of perfect appearance call it feminine vanity- is the ultimate restriction on freedom of mind” In assessing how important media representations of gender are, many models of media effects, assume that the audience is a passive consumer of media representations. This may not necessarily be the case. We also need to remember that femininity is not a fixed category; it changes over time and so does the media representation. METHODOLOGY The primary objectives when undertaking the following research are as follows: what women aged between 19 and 24 think about the images that are portrayed in the media, how do women react to certain television adverts, do television adverts affect the women in today’s society, does the media affect how men feel about women. To meet the aims that was set out in the introduction, the induction approach will be used in order to conduct the research on men and women in today’s society. This approach allows you to get a better feel of what people think and feel about the problem. It also allows you to take a more informed decision about the kind of evidence that is gathered. This approach provides a convenient and efficient way of analysing data. The research strategy that will be looked at is exploratory study; this is a helpful way of clarifying your understanding of a problem. There are three ways if conducting exploratory studies; firstly a search of the literature, secondly talk to people who know a lot on the subject and lastly conduct focus groups. Multi-method will be used be used in order to conduct the research, there are two advantages to this, different methods can be used for different purposes, this would help you achieve the assurance in order to address the most important issues for example interviews can be done in order to find out important concerns and then hand out questionnaires too. The second advantage is it allows triangulation to take place. Triangulation refers to the use of different data collection to ensure that data is accurately interpreted. It also enhances the validity and reliability of the research. Two types of Research There are two types of research methods which can be undertaken which are quantitative and qualitative research. Quantitative research is mostly concerned with numbers and data that are easily quantified. The most popular quantitative technique is the survey, which is based on a large number of cases, where a broad overview of a market is required. Surveys can be done by mail, telephone, face to face or more recently by the internet or World Wide Web. While qualitative research focuses on data that is subjective and not easily coded into numbers. Qualitative research tends to work with fewer subjects or respondents, however analyses each case to a deeper level. It is a useful technique which can also be useful to management in businesses when they need answers to questions relating to motivation and emotions such as consumers needs and testing of adverts. Quantitative research involves large numbers of respondents typically more than 100 and yield respondents that are representative of the whole population while qualitative research is done mainly in terms of focus groups between 6 to 10 people which is usually carried out by a moderator. Another form of qualitative research is dept one-on-one interviews. Qualitative research has two primary advantages, firstly it allows the interviewer to interact with respondents, i.e., the interviewer can ask questions based on previous responses. Secondly also allows interaction between group members this then stimulates discussion. The main disadvantage of qualitative research methods is that they are unreliable predictors of the population. That is, they can expand our list of possibilities but cannot be used to identify the best of the possibilities. Quantitative research on the other hand has the following advantages. The results are statistically reliable, therefore, quantitative research can reliably determine if one idea, concept product is better than its alternatives. The results are projectable to the population, the proportion of respondents answering a certain way are similar to the proportion of the total population that would have answered that way if they all had been asked. The main disadvantage of quantitative research is that issues are issues are only measures if there known before the beginning of the survey or questionnaire. There are different types of quantitative research like questionnaires and surveys. Questionnaires are very cost effective when compared to face to face interviews, they are also easy to analyse. Data entry for nearly all questionnaires can be done with many computer packages. Questionnaires can also reduce bias; the researcher’s own opinions can not influence the respondent to answer questions in a certain way. There are no verbal clues to influence the respondent. However some of the disadvantages are the possibility of low response rates. Another disadvantage of questionnaires is the inability to probe responses. They allow little flexibility to the respondent, with little space for comments. One other disadvantage is questionnaires are not suited for some people. An example of this might be a written survey to a group of people who are not educated therefore cannot work because of reading skill problems. In order to undertake the research qualitative research will be used, as better findings will be possible when using qualitative research. Using semi-structured interviews and focus groups will allow the main objective of this project to be achieved. Interviews Qualitative interviewing is usually intended to refer to in dept, semi-structured or unstructured interviewing. These types of in interviews are usually characterised by: an informal style, it is more like a conversation or discussion rather than a formal question and answer format. Qualitative interviewing may involve one to one interactions or larger groups. The most common way of conducting interviews is to be non-directive: to refrain from offering opinions, to avoid expressions of approval and disapproval. There are many advantages of interviewing. Interviews are more flexible than any other research method. They can be used to extract simple information. They can also be used to ask people about their attitudes, their past, present and future behaviour, interviews also allow close collaboration between interviewer and interviewee. However there are also disadvantages of interviewing, the information that you get may be neither reliable nor accurate. The responses given may not be accurate and may not reflect real behaviour. Respondents may lie, may forget or may lack the information that is required. I will be using open- ended questions, as this will allow the participants to define and describe the event. An open-ended question is designed to encourage the interviewee to provide an extensive answer and may be used to reveal attitudes. Focus Groups The second research method that I will be using is focus groups. Focus groups is a way of collecting qualitative data which involves engaging a small number of people in an informal group discussion ‘focused’ around a particular topic. The informal group is usually based on a series of questions, and the researcher acts as a moderator for the group posing the questions and keeping the discussion flowing enabling the entire group to participate. The focus group that will be done for this project will be 6 to 10 males and females from the ages of 19 to 24. Focus groups have a number of advantages; they provide a way of collecting data relatively quicker from a large number of participants. Focus groups are more ‘naturalistic’; they typically include a range of communication processes like arguing, teasing and debate. Focus groups are well suited to exploring sensitive topics. They also allow respondent’s to react and build upon the responses of other group members. Another advantage is the free flow of discussion and debate between members of a focus group offers researchers an excellent opportunity for hearing the language used by respondents. One other advantage of focus groups is that a wide range of information can be gathered in a short period of time. However there are also disadvantages with focus groups, focus groups can be time consuming as it is a discussion that could last hour. Another disadvantage is the problem of complexity as it is more difficult to locate the viewpoints of the individuals, as some people might not involve themselves as much as another. The interviews will be between 5 to 10 people and focus groups will consist of 6 to 10 people. Sampling Methods The method of sampling that I will use is self- selection sampling, self selection sampling occurs when you allow an individual to take part in the research so you therefore ask people to take part and collect the data from those who want to take part. Problems with methods There are a number of issues to consider when undertaking research by the methods mentioned above. Reliability is a key issue, methods like interviewing and focus groups can be unreliable because the method can be unsystematic, the results are hard to quantify and there is no way of replicating and checking the reliability of the findings. Another problem is the validity of the research, validity can be seen as a question of whether the researcher sees what he or she thinks he or she sees. In interviews and focus groups people can lie and not be truthful. Interviews cannot be used to make generalisations about the entire population. Another problem is practicality, as you cannot interview the whole population, you can only take a sample of people because of practical limitations. Tape Recording A good way of allowing findings to be more reliable is to tape-record my interviews and focus groups. The advantages of tape-recording the interviews and focus groups: it allows the interviewer to concentrate on questioning and listening, it also allows the interviewer to re listen to the interview, it is also is a permanent record for others to use. However there are also disadvantages: it is time consuming to transcribe the tape, the interviewee might feel uncomfortable with being recorded. Interview Questions In the interviews 8 questions will be asked which will hopefully allow the objectives to be reached. The first question is: what sort of image do you think the media in particular television adverts give women of today, the aim of this question is to find out what women think about adverts and how they perceive the adverts. The second question is: how do women on TV adverts affect the way you feel about yourself? The objective of this question is to see how women look at the stereotypes on television and how women look at themselves once viewing the adverts. The third question is: in what way is society influenced by the way women are portrayed in t the media especially in television adverts. The aim of this question is to see what women think about other people in the society we live in and how they are affected by the media. The fourth question is: have you seen “special K” advert, this is the advert where there is a slim women wearing a red dress eating special K as part of a slimming routine, what are your initial thoughts on seeing the “Special K” advert in relation to the way women are portrayed on television? The main goal of this question is to find out women’s initial first response after seeing a stereotypical advert. The fifth question is: have you seen the “dove” advert, this advert is where there are different shapes and different sizes of women who are in their underwear aiming to sell dove products, what are your initial thoughts after seeing the “dove” advert in relation to the way women are portrayed on television. The main objective of this question is how women will look at this advert and what their opinions are and compare what they think on the two completely different adverts. The sixth question is: would you say women are reflected positively or negatively in television adverts? In what way? The aim of this question is to see how women look at the adverts and whether they think the women are shown in a good way or bad way. The seventh question is: do adverts reflect the way your consumer spending, for example if you saw a product that was in an advert and a slim beautiful woman was advertising is, would you purchase the product? The aim of this question is to find out how women look at adverts and then purchase the product after just seeing the advert. The eighth question is: are there any adverts that you can think of which portrays a stereotypical women? The main objective is to see, which adverts women see as “stereotypical” on women in the media. Focus Group Question The focus group will contain approximately seven people. The group will consist of four women and four men, this will be an informal focus group which will start with a question about what the audience both men and women perceive and think about the use of stereotypical adverts in the media. Then they can discuss the topic and bring new ideas into the discussion so people’s views from a men and women’s point of view can be seen. Men have different ideas and think differently to the way women think therefore it will be very interesting to what points and issues are raised between the men and women in the focus groups. Findings and Discussion From looking at the primary objectives and undertaking the semi structured interviews and focus groups, which are listed in appendices. The following data was found when people were interviewed individually. Individual Interviews Girls aged between 19 and 24 from De Montfort University were interviewed individually in order to discover what they thought about how women are portrayed in the media especially in television adverts. The interviews were undertaken confidentially so that the girls could talk freely about their view. Question one talked about what kind of an image TV adverts give women, many women said that women in the media always had to look thin and slim and pretty. Looking at appendix 2 interview 3 question one, the girl said that women had to be slim, sexy and independent. However she felt that women of different sizes should be used in television to model clothes. Jean Kilbourne a feminist found that women were dissatisfied with the way they look, as women are expected to look good by being slim and beautiful. Also a study by Dr Steven Leventron called “The best little girl in the world” said that women felt ashamed if they were not thin like the women who are portrayed in television adverts. Question two talked about how women feel about themselves after looking at how women are perceived in the media. A majority of the women felt depressed once seeing the adverts. They felt that all women in the media and in particular in television adverts, showed women who all looked the same. The women want to be like the women in the adverts who are thin and pretty therefore it affected them (Appendix 1 interview 1 question 2 line 2/3) However one girl in particular felt very strong minded and felt that the television adverts did not really affect her. She would not stop eating or go to they gym every so that she could have a flat stomach like girls on television. (Appendix 2, interview 3, question 2, line 1/2/3/4). A study by Gustafson et al from the marketing news looked at how television adverts have an impact on girls psychologically and physiologically. The findings proved that slim women in the media who are more successful and desirable contribute to eating disorders that kill young girls and the media have been identified in the study as one of the most socio-cultura...