What key theoretical approach would help you to think critically about the Score hair cream advert? Show a full and complete understanding of this theoretical area by applying your knowledge and understanding to the Score hair cream advert.

Score hair cream is an advert that emphasizes the continuous historical character of gender with the fact that it is constituted in time. In terms of Feminist Critical Thinking, the advert was created and advertised in the 1970’s, a prominent time for the second wave of feminism with the introduction of the pill, the decriminalisation of homosexuality, equal pay act and so on, which was seen as a radical view at the time due to the heavily patriarchal powered society there was in the 70’s. Within the advert, the women are wearing little to no clothing whilst reaching up to the only male in the advert in order to be sexualised and eye catching to the consumers of the advert (males), this can be seen as an example of the “Male Gaze”, a theory Laura Mulvey introduced that suggests that every piece of media that we consume is formed and structured around the dominant views of a white male hegemonic society and also and example of fetishism and how women are viewed as objects of desire rather than being respected and acknowledged as actual humans and in Score’s case, the women are not only in skimpy outfits, but are also purposefully positioned below the male, who is also on a throne, to connote the amount of superiority and power a female has (very little) compared to a man which is also apparently amplified if the male uses Score Hair Cream. Ariel Levy’s Raunch Culture can also be referenced to this advert due to the amount of exposure each woman inside of the advert has with how much clothing they are actually wearing further promoting the over sexualisations of women. This Score advert can be seen as an example of Gerbener’s cultivation theory for an advert of its time as other adverts, such as Tipalet’s cigarette advert “Blow in her face and she’ll follow you anywhere”, tended to repeat the dominant ideology that women are solely objects that only exist for male entertainment and with Score, the objectification of women is reinforced even more as they are perceived as trophies due to the m. this means that the audience reading and consuming this print advert is passive and accepts all messages this print advert is trying to promote which is the oppositional binary between men and women that men can gain more power by using Score hair products and more women will submit to you if you use it.In contrast to the Score print advert, “Oh..” is a magazine that celebrates authenticity and empowerment within feminism shown by its front covers that solely present women and only women and their articles that celebrate women for being the modern day feminists they are, for example, in issue 35 of “Oh..” magazine (Oh Comely at the time), they did an interview with Amali De Alwis, the CEO of Girls Code First and celebrating her as a woman of colour who is encouraging other females to start coding and join STEM, which tends to be a male dominated technology industry. Set up by three women who used to work for a popular publishing conglomerate, they felt that they could set up a magazine that constructs a representation of femininity with its focus on creativity and quirkiness. With this focus on femininity and quirkiness, Oh focuses on promoting body positivity and that all females are beautiful no matter what they look like which is very much outside of the male perspective and therefore can be seen as a radical hegemony suggesting that Oh magazine’s sole purpose is to empower women representing the main feminist message as women should feel comfortable in their own skin and that they should work together to power through modern day social injustices such as the gender pay gap.Judith Butler quotes “gender as performativity.” Which means that the actions deemed appropriate for men and women have been released and presented to produce a social impression that keeps and authenticates a “natural” gender binary. Butler is basically saying we associate these different themes with the genders, such as girls wearing pink, only exist because as humans, we collectively agree it exists; it is a social construct. In reference to Score Hair Cream, it supports Butler’s ideas that gender is just a repertoire of acts as the dominant ideology in the 70’s was that for something to be considered masculine, it needed masculine features such as, the one male within the advert with strong muscles, healthy looking hair and and a gun in contrast to the women within the advert in crop tops and mini skirts with long hair.Oh! And Score have very different views on the different binaries between men and women as Oh! Suggests a more feminist and radical approach on these binaries suggesting that women should feel empowered rather than inferior to men and that they should be equal, but, Score suggests otherwise solely from the mise-en-scene of the print advert with the women in little to no clothing exposing themselves, objectifying women and suggesting that they are only there to please men, carrying the only man who has stronge muscles and a gun to defend himself, radiating his masculinity that has been enhanced because of Score Hair Cream. Though 50 years apart, they are manifestations of the same ongoing process that is happening today due to the hypersexualisation of women on new media such as music videos like “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke contrasted with digital feminist campaigns such as the “MeToo” movement, creating the illusion of gender difference.

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