WOMEN

Georgia - Since we analyzed men yesterday, today it's time to bring on the women! Just like the men, me and George will analyze the gender signifiers and stereotypes in Cosmo. We will compare them to some of the ads in Maxim to see if the gender stereotypes are the same.




George - This is one good looking woman! I love blondes! Stereotypically she is white, good-looking, and thin. She is pointing and looking at whoever is looking at her which connotes that you too can be like her, just buy these Cover Girl products!

Georgia - It's interesting to see the products being sold in a very small size in the bottom right hand corner of the ad. The main part of this ad is the beautiful woman!

Beauty ads today emphasize beauty and the message that every woman should be beautiful. There has been a democratization of beauty in the twentieth century. It is everyone's responsibility to be beautiful because they can! You use beauty products to become "who you want to be!" Does the face and body really represent one's inner self. No, but this is what most people have begun to believe. Beauty is so important in today's society and many people are judged upon their looks alone. Someone who is beautiful is more likely to get a job than someone who isn't. Ofcourse women struggle to be beautiful and go to extremes like cosmetic surgery. The are pressured by society to be beautiful and to conform to the ideal body image! The ideal body image featured in advertisements is not even close to the average woman and mostly unattainable for most people. "Most fashion models are thinner than 98% of American women. The average American woman is 5'4" tall and weighs 140 pounds. The average American model is 5'11" and weighs 117 pounds," (Eve Ensler Reader, 2004). This fact is from the website About-Face (link on the side panel).

FACT
"Women and girls are also consistently taught from an early age that their self-worth is largely dependent on how they look. The fact that women earn more money than men in only two job categories, those of modeling and prostitution serves to illustrate this point," (Wolf, 1992). (About-Face).




George - Here's another white thin good-looking woman!

Georgia - She's extremely thin. These are the images that women are bombarded with. There's no wonder that so many women are trying to lose weight with an ideal woman like this!

FACT
"Richins (1991) found that exposure to idealized images lowered subjects' satisfaction with their own attractiveness. Stice and Shaw (1994) studied subjects' reactions to pictures of thin models in magazines. Their results indicated that exposure to the thin ideal produced depression, shame, guilt, body dissatisfaction, and stress. Stice et al. (1994) found a direct relationship between media exposure and eating disorders symptoms," (About-Face Facts).



George - I'll repeat myself this last time. WHITE, THIN, BEAUTIFUL WOMAN!

Georgia - After looking at a beauty products ad, a clothing ad, and an alcohal ad, the women are all pretty much the same. These three ads are just like most of the other ads in Cosmo. Compared to men in Maxim, it looks like there's less diversity in the depiction of women in advertising than the depiction of men. Women are all represented in the same way, like George said. There is the biggest emphasis on beauty!

George - This ad is represented in the About-Face website in the top ten hall of shame advertisements.

FACT
"Alcohol advertising is linked to patterns of heavy drinking, drinking in dangerous situations and deaths from alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes," (McKenzie, 2000). (About-Face Facts).

Georgia - Not many advertisements are positive in any way!

George - Now looking at a couple Maxim ads with women, let's see if the representation and stereotypes are the same.




Georgia - SEX SEX SEX!!! This ad screams that connoation! This woman is white, thin and beautiful with large breasts. One difference, she's displayed in a more sexual and demeaning manner towards women by her pose, wetness, and desire for the man/alcohal beside her.

George - I wish I was that business man!

Ads for SKYY Vodka are also featured in About-Face's top ten hall of shame. About-Face includes this quote regarding SKYY Vodka advertisements, "An example of food making its appearance as an erotic encounter, alongside alcohol. There Ìs not much subtlety in these images--melons and balls and phallic bottles, oh my--nor in pairing alcohol with sexuality," (Retzinger, 2004).




Georgia - This is a special advertisement for Trojan Condoms. Back in March they searched the beaches of Cancun for the 100 hottest women. This is the winner. They've used these "hot" girls to advertise their condoms.

George - This should be the ideal woman instead of those stick models with no curves or breasts. She's curvy which is hot! She has huge boobs and nice hips and she's very real looking.

Georgia - This ad is clearly connoting sex especially since condoms are being advertised. There is a quote of this woman saying her favourite type of Trojan condoms. Advertising condoms doesn't get any better than that! Thiis woman is used as eye candy for men. The male gaze is definitely apparent as she has to-be-looked-at-ness! She is there for the visual pleasure of men.

George - Most of the ads in Maxim containing women are there for the visual pleasure of men. The women grab our attention! So it's not surprising to me that women are displayed more as sex objects in Maxim than in Cosmo since Maxim appeals to men.

Georgia - In Cosmo, the women are displaying ideals and desires for what women want to look like. The ads are grabbing women's attention to sell products. Women's beauty products are not sold in Maxim since the magazine attracts men. In Maxim, the women are there for the entertainment of men.

Although the representation of women is slightly different in each magazine, the stereotypes of women being tall, thin and beautiful remains the same.

George - It is important to note that homosexual women could buy Maxim for their visual pleasure and entertainment so beauty advertisements may not reach homosexuals in magazines as much as they reach heterosexual women.

Georgia - Since the majority of ads in Cosmo are of women, homosexuals may buy Cosmo for the visual pleasure as well. Sexual identity could definitely shape the way one looks at advertisements.