Judith Butler describes gender as “an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts”. How useful is this idea in understanding how gender is represented in both the Score and Maybelline advertising campaigns
Judith Butler a gender theorist stated within her book gender trouble where she said that gender is a performance where everyone is performing their own gender and that its a fluidity of identity which gauntlet coined for his own and that the use of identity isn’t based upon the gender and the score advert is the male gaze view of advertisement where the male stereotypical ideals of male ideals the male gaze was brought up by Laura Mulvey and that the male gaze the hyper sexualisation of women within advertisements and the heterosexual male point of view it also highlights the time the advertisement was made and that the advert was made in 1967
The Score hair cream advert is an historical artefact from 1967, as such it can be examined productively by considering its historical, social and cultural contexts, particularly as it relates to gender roles, sexuality and the historical context of advertising techniques. 1967 can be seen as a period of slow transformation in western cultures with legislation about and changing attitudes to the role of women – and men – in society, something that the advert can be seen to negotiate.
In many ways Judith Butler counterpoints earlier ideas of gender representation, for example, some of the ideas presented by Laura Mulvey seem to suggest that gender is fixed – male/female – that it is structured by institutions and those powerful individuals who are able to exert power and control – Weinstein. While still recognising those arguments presented by Mulvey, Jean Kilbourne, Sut Jhally and others, Butler suggests that gender is fluid, changeable, plural a set of categories to be played out and performed by individual subjects in individual moments in time and space.
Put another, it suggests that we have multiple identities that are performed to different people, in different social settings, under different social conditions. For example, look at categories such as lipstick lesbian, butch and femme, girly girl and so on, which illustrate the multiple, plural nature of identity, representation and performance with feminist critical thinking. Which can be explored and mapped out into similar studies on male identity.
Feminist = a political position
Female = a matter of biology
Feminine = a set of culturally defined characteristics
1st Wave Feminism
‘sexism was coined by analogy with the term racism in the American civil rights movement in the early 1960s. Defined simply, sexism refers to the systematic ways in which men and women are brought up to view each other antagonistically, on the assumption that the male is always superior to the female‘
Barry makes the point that although the women’s movement was not the start of feminism. In other words, the issue of women’s inequality has a history that pre-dates the 1960’s, see for examples: Mary Wollstonecraft, (1792) A Vindication of the Rights of Women; Virginia Woolf(1929) A room of one’s own; Simone de Beauvoir(1949) The Second Sex.
2nd Wave Feminism
‘the feminist literary criticism of today is the product of the women’s movement of the 1960’s’
Indeed feminist critical thought became much more prominent and pronounced during the counter cultural movements of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, which heralded, among other changes: the facilitation of of birth control and divorce, the acceptance of abortion and homosexuality, the abolition of hanging and theatre censorship, and the Obscene Publications Act (1959) – which led to the Chatterley trial. Nevertheless,
3rd Wave Feminism -Raunch Culture
‘rebellion of younger women against what was perceived as the prescriptive, pushy and ‘sex negative’ approach of older feminists.’
Barker and Jane (2016)
Third-wave feminism began in the early 1990s, coined by Naomi Wolf, it was a response to the generation gap between the feminist movement of the 1960’s and ’70’s, challenging and re-contextualising some of the definitions of femininity that grew out of that earlier period. In particular, the third-wave sees women’s lives as intersectional, demonstrating a pluralism towards race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender and nationality when discussing feminism.
Ariel Levy, in her book Female Chauvinist Pigs raunch culture is on the one hand, the idea of liberation involves new freedoms for sexual exhibition, experimentation and presentation, and on the other, it may well be playing out the same old patterns of exploitation, objectification and misogyny?
“Raunch” culture, also called the “sexualization” of culture, describes a hypersexualized climate that oversexualizes women while encouraging women to sexualize other women and themselves
3rd to 4th wave feminist critical thinking
The shift in critical feminist studies that reconciles exploitation against empowerment illustrates the shift in feminist thinking towards the 3rd Wave of feminist thought, see for example, groups such as Third Wave Foundation.
However, a 4th wave feminism also looked to explore these contradictory arguments and further sought to recognise and use the emancipatory tools of new social platforms to connect, share and develop new perspectives, experiences and responses to oppression, ‘tools that are allowing women to build a strong, popular, reactive movement online‘ (Cochrane, 2013). As such, from the radical stance of #MeToo to the Free the Nipple campaign, which Miley Cyrus endorsed and supported the use of new media technologies through her music video wreaking ball where she’s nude on top of a wreaking ball this has evidence of voyeurism and has been a clear demarcation for broadening out the discussion and arguments that are played out in this line of critical thinking.
Intersectionality:
‘In an attempt to understand what it means to be oppressed as ‘a woman’, some feminist scholars sought to isolate gender oppression from other forms of oppression’. Put another way, there was a tendency to be either ‘preoccupied with the experiences of white middle-class women or to ignore completely the experiences other women’ (Sigle-Rushton & Lindström, 2013,) It is from this that the development and articulation of intersectionality began to take shape. The early ideas around intersectionality can be traced to theoretical developments from the 1980’s, see for example, the work by Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989) or some of the propositions asserted around Queer Theory that brings together a set of complex ideas around the ‘multidimensionality of subjectivity and social stratification’. in other words you cannot ‘understand Black women’s experiences of discrimination by thinking separately about sex discrimination and race discrimination
the history of the male being above females is seen throughout the score advertisement the women are holding the man on a sedan mainly used by those of power or royalty suggesting the man is above the females and the females are wearing very little to no clothing going with Mulvey’s point of the male gaze as well as voyeurism the sexual pleasure of seeing someone naked or near naked. the levels within the score photo were the man is higher than the women also contributes to Laura Mulvey’s theory of male gaze as well as male patriarchal society where men were deemed better and stronger where women were seen as inferiors and treated as objects.
in the Maybelline advertisement the advert includes a male and female where they both put on make up on where is goes against the stereotype that men aren’t allowed to wear make up otherwise its seen as frowned upon although the advertisement has gone against the stereotypical trope of that only women are only allowed to wear make up the theory of that gender is performed helps support this as well as the use of fluid identity that gauntlet talks about and that the identity and gender of a person changes overtime as well as the fact that it performed as you get older or the situation changes depending on who you are talking to
Van Zoonen talks about how gender is not a homogenous group but sub groups under the name gender where gender isn’t a defining quality of what you are this can be related to the Maybelline advert where the inclusivity of class and gender where males and females are wearing make up and the bell boy wears the eyeliner and gets “Bossed Up” and everything turns gold representing power and wealth and royalty on the other hand the score advert is bland and has some green foliage with the man being held up. the man has a gun in his hand as to say he’s hunting for women and the green foliage is meant to be a jungle where he is “hunting” and he’s wearing the hair cream making woman want him.
harry styles said that “The mission of this venture is to bring joyful experiences and products that excite the senses and blur the boundaries” this is proof of gender being a performance and that has constructing a identity by blurring the lines of constructed Gender which gauntlet was saying as well as the thought of fluidity of identity there are many things that support this idea but there is many that go against this ideal.
the score advert brings a negative stereotype that men are all hunters and that they are all looking for women and that they are above men and that it highlights the patriarchal society that the score advert was made in where men are above women and that women are only objects and there is highlight of voyeurism that women are only good when they are wearing skimpy clothes there are two girls that stand out one is reaching out for the man and one girl has her had on his calf the man is sitting upon a sedan that is mostly used by those of power and royalty. with in the text on the score advert it talks about all the positives of the product and it doesn’t highlight any allergens there is a huge presence of the male gaze and raunch culture within this CSP. the Maybelline adverts product is coated in gold with purple writing which is a symbolism of royalty and richness and the purple colour is a big significance in the 1800s where purple is the most rich/wealthy colour. the text on the mascara says ‘BIG SHOT Mascara’ suggesting its the best mascara the bell boy at the start is dressed within old dull grey clothes with a gold suitcase bringing our attention to the suitcase. once the suit case was opened the two main characters throw the make up on the bed and jump into the make up as if it was money suggesting the worth of the make up. the two characters who get ‘Bossed UP’ have a gold glint within their eyes after applying the mascara suggesting a change they end up dressed up in gold and the rom changes from dull white to a exuberant gold hue and the bell boy at the start even gets bossed up and dons a gold suit which suggest that the make up is for everyone and the mascara is for all classes and there is no exclusion within the advert. the advert procures a positive stereotype that all people can wear make up black white rich or poor no discrimination the three characters are all different in some way the woman is black and the most discriminated against of all of the characters and the male is white and the bell boy is working in a low paid job suggesting poverty the reason why I highlighted the white male is that there is a Negative representation of white males where the have to a straight hetero sexual male but the advert pushes this stereotype away by creating a new label where the male is gay and he wears make up and he is white. there is a second advert where there is the two main characters and this one lonely girl who seems upset and she is by herself within a cab then the two characters act like two hero’s and ‘Swoop in’ they end up giving her mascara and the lonely girl becomes a model with perfect lashes and is happy this suggest that make up heals anything they end up all in gold suggesting importance and wealth. they end up going to a club and get accepted due to the mascara and then a lady with a silver platter holding a triangle formation of this ‘BIG SHOT Mascara‘ the triangle is the strongest shape and is the most stable. the lady that is holding is of oriental heritage this shows the inclusivity of class, gender and ethnicity creating a big label for them selves . the Maybelline SCP has many features of gauntlets theory of fluidity of identity as well as Judith Butlers theory of performative gender and the perceiving your own identity of who you are which relates back to gauntlets theory.