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 how gender is represented in both the Score and Maybelline advertising campaigns?
In this essay, I am going to talk about understanding gender through the Score and Maybelline adverts, and analyze how identity is established in an unrealistic repetition of acts. I am going to conduct a representational analysis of both the score and Maybelline advertising campaigns, and how they present gender and identity to the audience . Butler discusses the idea that gender is a ‘social construct’ and that our gender identities aren’t established at birth. She believes that we aren’t strictly ‘male or female’ but our identities are fluid and always changing, and our identity is shown through constant changes in behavior and personality. She states that ‘What it means to be a woman does not remain the same from decade to decade” implying that our collective expectation of how a woman should act, dress, speak etc, are constantly changing. She also states that “Gender does not exist inside the body” meaning that gender is created through what we present to society. Butler has a modern way of thinking, however stereotypically, society believes that gender is simply just male and female,but this is not what Butler agrees with.
In contrast to Butler’s Idea that gender is a ‘social construct’ Laura mulvey identifies the misogynistic sexualisation of women in comparison to that of a man, through an idea called the male gaze. Mulvey stated female characters are forced to identify with passive objects to be looked at and desired compared to men’s representation which is more focussed on how the characters body language reinforces the features they have. For example when a man is sitting with their legs apart, this is known as man spreading, whereas if a woman was to do this it would be uncalled for. She also believes that directors, bosses, authors, game makers etc, present women in a way that is sexualised through a males perspective, so that they can attract the attention of male viewers and therefore making them more money. For example, the classic ‘damsel in distress’ story comes from the idea that a girl is weak and incapable, and they alway need a big and strong man to save them. The male is almost always presented as the main character, this is done to make men feel empowered and strong, and by saving the girl they may get some sexual reward. However the male gaze does not suggest that men aren’t sexualised by society too, but Laura Mulvey highlights the extreme difference between the sexualisation of men and women to make men feel empowered.
The Score hair cream advert is a historical artifact from 1967, in which gender is presented as strictly male or female, contrasting to Judith Butler’s view on fluidity of identity. The score advert involves 5 women and only one man. The women are dressed in tight, revealing clothing praising the man using the score hair cream. This advert supports Laura Mulvey’s idea of the male gaze: A heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the heterosexual male viewer, and to objectify women for the benefit of empowering men. This is shown clearly in Score through the sexualisation of women , wearing tight clothing to please the men. Furthermore, this supports the idea of constructed identity, meaning the collective idea of society on how each gender should look, act, and behave. This supports the idea that gender roles were fixed in the 1970s, and that men and women were defined by their biological gender, and were confined to a collective identity of how they should act and what they were allowed to do. 1967 marks the time when second wave feminism was introducted, however the score advert much relates to the first wave of feminism. The first wave of 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 system 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. This is clearly shown throughout the score advert through the body language of the females. They are positioned in a way that implies they are praising the man, almost seeming like they are his slaves.
In contrast to the score advert, Gauntlet presents the idea of fluidity of identity: being able to decide who you want to be, whether that be male or female, and being able to change your identity freely. Fluidity of identity contrasts with the ideas presented in the score advert, as it allows there to be no defined line between male or female. There is positivity in this in the sense that you do not have to follow the strict ‘gender stereotypes’ allocated to you at birth, instead you can change the way you look, act, and dress to shape yourself into the person that you want to be, not what everyone else wants to be. This is supported by the quote “ Biological anatomies do not determine our gender”. She describes that masculinity and femininity aren’t defined by your biological gender, but instead are maintained by individuals through everyday acts meaning that an individual is not born neither male nor female, however your gender defines you through your actions all the time.
This theory can be applied to the maybelline advert, fluidity of identity can be show clearly through the diversity of characters in the advert. For example, the Maybeline boss life adverts feature a biological male, enjoying things that are categorically feminine. It is clear that fluidity of identity is used here, as stereotypically, a man wouldn’t wear makeup, but he has shaped himself into who he wants to be, regardless of his biological gender. As Well as this, another actor in the advert is a black female, this contrasts to the score advert as all females are white. This shines a positive view on the black community.The maybeline advert demonstrates the third and fourth wave of feminism. Third wave feminism was insiuated by Naomi wolf as a response to the gap between the feminist movement of the 1960s and 70s. She challenges and re-develops some of the definitions of femininity that remained.it presented women’s lives as intersectional and demonstrated a pluralism towards race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender and nationality when discussing feminism. It was described as the ‘rebellion of younger women against what was perceived as the prescriptive, pushy and ‘sex negative’ approach of older feminists. This concept is shown through the Maybelline advert because of the fluidity of identity presented by the man, and the non-sexualisation of the female through the advert. This contrasts to the stereotype of what it means to be a female in first wave feminism.
In conclusion, I agree with butler’s theory that gender is presented through stylized acts rather than your biological identity. It shows a positive light on identity and allows people to be who they want to be, even if it doesn’t fit the stereotypes.
