acts.” In other words, it is something learnt through repeated performance.
How useful is this idea in understanding gender is represented in both the Score and Maybelline advertising campaigns?
In the essay, my aim is to present how feminism and gender performance such as Butler and the representation of such topics in the two SCP’s, score, and Maybeline, which were presented to me. during my essay I will argue that over time, the media have changed their perspective on gender and feminism and how now there is an even larger number of people who are supporting the ‘new media’ and how Judith butlers work can be applied to such advertisements.
Judith Butler talks about how in society, how gender roles play a part in day-to-day life. Butler suggests that specific qualities and other features do not define what gender you are and that gender is a choice. 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. Butler implies things like lipstick lesbian, butch and femme and girly girl and how these traits determine the gender of the people based on attributes behavior and that being born male or female will indefinitely be the way a person acts or chooses to associate to.
In SCP 3, score, we are presented with an ad promoting male hair groom. In the advert, the male is being carried be the females and although he is outnumbered, he is still the higher authority in the ad. In the 1960’s females where still very much below men in the social hierarchy. 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 the audience of this ad is going to be middle-aged men who wish to look good and get the attention from the woman that the male in the add has. The second wave of feminism relates to this as it started to question things that are wrong with the way the ad is presented. ‘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 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 birth control and divorce, the acceptance of abortion and homosexuality, the abolition of hanging and theatre censorship, and the Obscene Publications Act (1959) ‘All this should not be seen as a straightforward displacement of dominant conservative attitudes ‘-Johnathon Dollimore, this shows how people were wanting a change and not wanting to continue the idea that woman must listen to men and must cater to the male genders every need. This however was starting to be abolished due to the innovative ideas being accepted worldwide by many people and how they were trying to modernize the way woman where treated and used in the media to sell product to males.
In SCP 4, it is an advert promoting a mascara. In the ad we see that there are both a male and a female. “Maybelline’s first-ever partnership with a man as the star of a campaign. Manny’s encouraging everyone, no matter their gender, to “lash like a boss.” this shows how the cosmetic industry are trying to change gender stereotypes and not adhere to the usual toxic masculinity and the idea that men cannot use make up, this is seen when they come back to the hotel room and the bellboy is now using the make up this shows that people are now more accepting of the idea that men can use makeup. Also, the fact that they have a woman of color in the ad shows how time has changed and emphasizes the differences among women due to race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion and how now all these factors should not affect the was a woman is treated. This is spoken about in the third wave of feminism and how Naomi Wolf, challenged and re-contextualized 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 and they are more accepting of newer ideas and of the idea of fluidity when it comes to gender. Things such as “promotes the dangerous sentiment that men are supposed to adhere to hyper masculine culture.” and “he encourages people to think of makeup as genderless. he thinks boys deserve just as much cosmetic recognition as their female counterparts.” shows how people are trying to advertise the idea that gender isn’t fixed and so certain things shouldn’t be applied to one gender.
To conclude, butlers theory and feminism can both be identified in the two SCP’s I was presented with. It is seen in the use of a female person of color and a male being used in a cosmetic ad to move forward with the idea that gender and not letting your gender define who you are.
