According to the Oxford English Dictionary feminism is “the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.”As
I see it the basic idea behind feminism is that, women want to live in a
society where men and women are treated equally, where they don’t face
disadvantage or discrimination due to their Gender. A society with an equality
of the sexes. Where men and women are paid the same for the same jobs and given
the same opportunities responsibilities and there for consequences.
Although Feminism
started well before the 1940s but until then, advertisements especially
widespread and certainly televised adverts did not appear until around the
1940s. The first official, paid
television advertisement was broadcast in the United States on July 1, 1941.
And the term Feminism was not widely used until the 1960s.
During the 1940s, a lot
changed in the way women were viewed and more so, a lot changed in what they
were allowed to do. In almost all countries directly involved in the war women
volunteered or were conscripted to work a variety of different jobs. During the
war women were generally used for industrial or non combative roles but, the
British services enrolled 460,000 women, many used in anti aircraft roles. In
Germany women joined the ‘German Girls League’. Thus via the war women took on
many roles that were previously denied them not only in their joining of the
war effort but, especially in that many women had now become working women.
After the World War II
in 1945, and in to the 1950s women were moved from being an essential
workforce, certainly across Europe and within America, to becoming
predominantly homemakers and mothers. As
most of the factories used during the war for munitions and arms were shut down
shortly after the war, and other factories replaced many of their female
workers with returning war veterans who were given priority for the jobs. There
for it would seem to me that during this period of time there was not overmuch
going forward in the way of feminism, as women’s rights rather than continuing
to improve as they did during the 40s, mainly due to the war, Seem to have
rather taken somewhat of a decline, as
although some women did remain a part of the workforce many women did not.
Either leaving the jobs they had been given or having them taken away and
returning to their domestic or household responsibilities.
The second wave of Feminism,
began in the early 1960s all the way through until the late 1980s. This is
where feminism began more predominantly to focus upon women cultural
equality. From the 1960s
through to the 1980s Feminism was clearly influenced by the climate of the
times. The 60s notably being a time of peace and free love, especially in
America with protests against much more than just the rights of women. Many
people, not just women were starting to stand up to the inequalities faced in
life. This was also a very important time for the fight against racial
segregation and discrimination. As well as protest action against the American
war in Vietnam.
From the end of the 1980s
until the present day the Feminism movement has continued to grow and develop
and address many issues across a wide variety of platforms, within the
workplace, media, sports and much more.
As a good example of a
way to view how feminism has changed within advertising in the past I have
looked at shampoo adverts over the course of the past 50-60 years. As a product
that in my opinion is predominantly aimed at women I think the advertisements
and the way they may or may not change will give an interesting scope to look
at what feminism has achieved in the past.
If you look at this ‘Halo
Shampoo’ advertisement from 1952 the female mermaid character within the
advertisement complains that due to her dull and lifeless hair, no men have
whistled at her recently and she also states that this is a bad thing. This
implies that the women, mermaid, shown in the advert, puts the attention of men
as a high priority within her life, and then when she does not receive
attention, such as whistling from men; she becomes unhappy or unfulfilled
within her life. The advert continues to show a Poseidon like character, a
crowned male mermaid holding a trident. He says “Hey Toots” and then offers her
the ‘Halo Shampoo’ explaining that this will not only make her hair look great
but also that men will begin to whistle at her again. Of course her hair
becomes much better and before you know it she’s getting all the attention she
wanted and she couldn’t be happier about it. Reinforcing the idea the she needs
this attention from men in order to be happy. The ad finally ends with a filmed
message from a real woman rather than the animated mermaid. She goes on to
state that if you want men to whistle at you to then you should use this
shampoo. Once again implying that as a women, any women would of course want
men to be whistling at her. Although this ad is clearly aimed at women you
could say it was filmed with the male gaze at least to an extent. A scantily
dressed mermaid who is sad because she hasn’t received any attention. The idea
that this mermaid, and if not all, or at least most women, what they want, is
in fact men or male attention. There for reassuring men that women do want them
and that they are superior.
After seeing a few of
these ‘Prell’ Shampoo Adverts you can see some changes to the ways women are
referred to within advertisement. There is still without doubt a sense of the
‘male gaze’ at work. For example in the “Soft Woman” ad for the entirety of the
advert all you see is a beautiful naked woman, nothing is exposed but there is
an element of sexuality to the way she behaves. However I would say that this
Ad for shampoo from the 70s is more minded of women’s rights, than the “Halo
shampoo” ad from the 50s, there are still elements of anti-feminist ideas at
play. Throughout the whole of the ad the women says nothing she is just
displayed as the ‘Soft Woman’ while a male voice over describes the soft woman
and goes on to plug the shampoo as it is supposedly part of what makes the
‘Soft Woman’ so soft. I think you could read from the fact that the women is
purely for display purposes and that she herself is not actually capable of
selling the product herself. Or that people are more incline to pay attention
to male voice rather than a female one, hence the need for a man to do the
voice over for the advert. Although I would say that this is a particularly
misogynistic view of the advert, implying that women are incapable etc or
should be seen as not heard.
I think this ad show
clearly how feminism has adapted the way women are thought about in the time
between the “Halo Shampoo” advert from 1952 through to 1996 when this
advertisement was filmed. The ad stars ‘Liv Tyler’ who herself is a successful
and well respected woman within her own right. There for showing something that
in my opinion was not evident in the more dated shampoo adverts. Just by having
‘Liv Tyler’ as the star for this advertisement, in itself, shows that now women
can be successful, have money and be glamouress etc. Although, referring once
again to the ‘Male gaze’ the advertisement is hosted by ‘Liv Tyler’ who is an
extremely attractive actress who is actively in the public and a object for
men’s desire, and of course there is at least one scene where she is depicted
as having just come out the shower, potentially, for all the viewer knows is
naked. Which I would say is an example of how women are viewed objectively
within advertisement.
I think Advertising in
the past began as a much more dominated profession and was originally quite
anti feminist if you look at the way women are referred to and depicted within
the advertisements themselves. Although I would say things have improved to
some extent , in the way that quite quickly women were no longer being referred
to with names like ‘toots’ but were still depicted as an object for male
desire.
No comments:
Post a Comment