Judith Butler – Gender performance

Judith Butler suggests that gender is fluid, changeable, plural. She believes that the way people are represented are not strictly based off of our assigned gender at birth. She states that the way we act and the choices we make don’t specifically decide if we are female or male, we can act in a more feminine or masculine way but specific gestures or speech and acts don’t determine if we are a man or woman. She is trying to break out of typical gender stereotyping where specific acts decide who we are. Such as a sport like football being considered a male sport to play or makeup being regarded as a female thing to use, she tries to break out of this idea and allow anyone to do anything they like to live and embrace their identity.

This is contrasting to some of the ideas presented by Laura Mulvey which seem to suggest that gender is fixed – male/female.

Maybelline advert

The dominant signifiers of a recent advertisement campaign had stirred up a conversation, the recent ad titled “boss it up” features 2 people, one male and one female. This is significant because it is advertising eye liner, both the male and female are wearing this product. This is a radical approach to marketing and Maybelline now know that the focus on make up shouldn’t just be on females. You could see this as a genuine radicalism to fight against gender stereotypes, but more likely it is a realisation that there is a new market for men in the beauty makeup market. This follows ideas of Judith Butler that makeup shouldn’t be represented as a female only thing to use and we are now seeing a larger influx of influencers and people using makeup to portray their identities. Makeup is now considered a neutral choice. The ad also features a black female which is used to oppose normalities or straight white females being the main choice of models for these adverts. An example is Johnny Depp, a straight man who wears eyeliner, there should be no constructed reality idea on clothes, cosmetic products and peoples actions.

Score advert 

Score, the printed advert, shows a completely different view to gender representation. It shows men and women as separate identities, an identity where woman are shown to be socially beneath men in the hierarchy. Woman are used as a tool in advertising to market a health and beauty product to men. It shoes women holding a man above them, clean shaven, portraying the use of their product. To put it simply, this is a clear opposite view of gender representation, a view where men are viewed as the more powerful and stronger gender and women are beneath them both metaphorically/ socially and literally in this ad.