Judith Butler describes gender as “an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of 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 this essay, I am going to analyse and evaluate how gender is represented in the Score and Maybelline adverts we have studied in and outside of school. I will argue that the way that gender is represented in the Score advert conforms to the gender stereotypes of the 60s that we have thought to have “moved on from”. Contrastingly, I am going to argue that the advert Maybelline “That Boss Life” (2018) has a progressive view on gender representation because it seems to support to David Gauntlet’s concept that gender is fluid and presented throughout signs and expression.
Firstly, in SCP 4 (Maybelline’s That Boss Life advert, produced in 2018; promoting a mascara) there is a significant change in the way gender and identity is represented and gender is presented as fluid and free to self expression further supporting Butler’s ideas, in the ad there are three characters, the bell boy, Shayla and Manny Gutierrez: Maybelline’s first inclusion of a man in their campaigns, “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.” Through the cosmetic industry doing this it encourages a shift in the outdated stereotypes that makeup is specifically for women and that men should be allowed to express their identity throughout the application of makeup, and show a more feminine side to their masculinity or present themselves completely as feminine; trying to reduce the amount of toxic masculinity widely presented throughout men claiming they can not wear cosmetic products. This is cleverly expanded on by the use of the bell boy, as he turns from someone you could easily forget in the advert at the beginning to using the makeup when the two stars of the advert turn “Bossed up” showing men who we have no insight to their sexual preference can also accept men coming to terms of makeup being androgynous and use it. Manny or widely referred to as Manny MUA is also a very popular influencer or makeup guru (with a following of over 4 Million), by using someone with a high platform and a counter-typical choice of a model in a makeup advert can also attract more audience to the advert as his viewers would want to see his success as the first man in Maybelline’s campaign, even any haters would watch- by doing so the advert plants this subliminal message taking society one step closer to seeing that gender is a constructed idea and a product shouldn’t alter the expression of someone. Furthermore, Manny could be associated as a radical representation of gender and masculinity which connotes to Judith Butlers theory of gender being performative. The term Toxic masculinity can be used describing reactions from specific men as the product “promotes the dangerous sentiment that men are supposed to adhere to hyper masculine culture.” and presents people against Butler’s ideas and leaning more towards Laura Mulvey’s idea that gender is fixed. Additionally, the advert displays the product as being gender neutral as the whole presentation of the product connotes to luxury; the golden suitcase, the New York apartment described as everything, the golden packaging, and the room transforming into full golden and glam after the two use the product. All these features create a semantic field of wealth and luxury for the user to associate with the product- despite their gender, further enhancing the products androgynousness and promoting Butler’s ideas that gender is fluid and is more based on a expression of signs.
However, in SCP 3 (Score), an advert promoting male hair groom (note how it’s promoting it towards men, anti-progressive towards Butler’s ideas as it suggests females can’t express themselves with masculine hairstyles and are fixed to a lengthy style). The advert contains a man being lifted up by numerous females who fit the theory of the male gaze (Laura Mulvey), a theory that women are used in adverts in a sexualised, reactionary way to attract male attention and increase sales by exploiting a women’s sexuality. Although the man is surrounded by females he is still the one with authority and on the top- possibly a connotation to the patriarchal mindset that men are more powerful or have more status, again could reflect the way genders are treated throughout work and the difference in the wage gap; this can be backed up as in the 1960’s females were still fighting for equality in society, compared to the the Maybelline advert that is based after 2nd and 3rd wave feminism where adverts (some still are bad to this day) should more focus on how women are treated and exploited in the industry- 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, they are more accepting of newer ideas and of the idea of fluidity when it comes to gender as time goes on. This shows not only how time has changed but the difference that it makes with the representation of gender throughout the years in marketing campaigns, while older ones are more likely to be anti-progressive and cater more towards outdated stereotypes and ideologies- going against Butler’s ideas: While newer ones are more likely to be more inclusive with the idea of fluidity in gender and be more progressive to break stereotypical stigmas (such as the ones we can ink in to each score- SCP 4 being men can’t wear makeup and SCP 3 being women can’t use hair groom). The advert contains women wearing quite revealing short outfits in a jungle setting, exploiting their appearance for the benefit of the male gaze- the setting however seems to be a jungle which the man seems appropriately dressed for while the women wouldn’t be wearing that in a jungle, as well as the man holding a weapon- this gives us a huge insight to how corrupt the ideas of gender were back in the 1960s as the women in the advert are represented very sexually and unrealistically, in abundance almost making them seem replaceable or reliant on the one man while the man has a weapon asserting his power (once again reflecting on the patriarchal society that the campaign was created and advertised in). Clearly the advert goes against Judith Butler’s ideas due to it’s fixed reactionary outdated representation of women vs men which gives us an insight on how times have changed and the effects of the waves of feminism.
Maybelline doesn’t have many negatives to pick out on, however, one we could note about is that Manny MUA is given very stereotypical gay slang and presented much more feminine, as much as the advert including a man is a huge step forward we need to take account that he is already presenting himself or shown as feminine in the advert- this creates a slight stigma that makeup is still for femininity rather for straight/masculinity.
In conclusion, both SCP’s give a extremely different however useful insight to the expression of gender and how it links, compliments or disagrees with Butler’s ideas. Through score I can see with effects of the corruption of society takes a huge play in the advert while in maybelline I can see how society and idea’s on gender have progressed and further promoted/backed up Butler’s idea on the fluidity of gender.
