1. Binming Li | 27428486 | University of Southampton| Postgraduate
Feminism in Contemporary
Visual Culture

2.  Brief introduction of the history of feminism
 The influence of media on feminism
 Visual analysis
 Explore how women are portrayed in cotemporary advertisement
 The use of feminism in advertising
 Conclusion
Introduction

3.  Concept
 Activities and actions that aim at gaining equal political, social, personal, cultural
right as well as opportunities of employment and education for women (Beasley,
1999).
 The development of feminism
 1ST wave: from 19th century to early 20th century
 2nd wave: mid 20th century
 3rd wave: late 20th century to early 21st century
Feminism ≠ Man-hating
Feminism = Gender Equality
A brief history of feminism

4. A brief introduction of history of
feminism
History
Krolokke & Sorensen, 2006

5.  As a means of disseminating feminist information
 The intersection between feminism and media was increased
 Mass media has played an important role for the feminist
movement
(Bradley, 2003)
 However…
 The adoption of stereotypes and promotion of opposite ideas
exaggerated the antifeminist movement
The role of mass media during the 2nd wave

6.  Advertisement:
 has essential influence on the content and shape of media in contemporary society
(Gill, 2007)
 Is a representation of popular culture that both reflects and produces social
meanings (Williamson, 1978)
 Reflects the common sense of society and social life (McCracken, 1988)
 Portrayal of women:
 The description of women in advertising is presented as accompaniment of
masculinity, inferior and dependency (Blloshmi, 2013)
 Women’s magazines: emphasize on beauty, sexuality, motherhood and domesticity
(Winship, 1980).
The representation of women in advertisement

7.  Different ways women being depicted in advertising
 Materialized: objectifies women’s body, present them as objects and accessory of men
fragments women’s body, present only a single part, deny the humanity of
women (Gill, 2007)
 Sex object: present women’s body as posture of sexual implication
highly emphasis on appearance and exaggerates the display of women’s body
 Inequality: shows images of men violently abusing women—inequality in power
implicates violence against women
disparage the value of female
The representation of women in advertisement:
1. Patriarchal
(Loose Garment, 2012a) (Loose Garment, 2012b) (Loose Garment, 2012c)
Examples

8.  The representation of women in advertisement is an important part of the
history that affects the consciousness of female of everyday life (Goldman,
1992)
 Feminism becomes a single icon to enrich the content of commodities
 Two ways to use feminism in advertisement
 As a visual style: Signs relate to feminism are utilized by advertisers to sell commodities, make
them lose their political meanings, i.e. Independence, freedom, narrows the ways feminism is
being portrayed (Gill, 2007)
 Use feminism ideologies as a promotion of the product: advertisers attempt to reflect
feminism in their advertisement to sell product, feminism become a tool for advertisement
just as female bodies (Gill, 2007).
The representation of women in advertisement :
2.Commodity feminism

9.  Materialization
Visual analysis
Figure 1 (Loose Garment, 2012) Figure 2 (PERFECTLYdull, 2011)
Figure 3 (Stampler, 2014)• Presents a woman’s body as
clothes stand
• Naked body suggests sexuality
• Men’s shoes trample on her body
suggests depreciation of female
status
• Covered face suggests the deny of
her personal identity
• Cutting lines are drawn on the
woman’s body suggests
disrespectful of her humanity
• The slogan implies
animalization of female
• The presentation of unrealistic
body style
• Fragmentation of female body
• Visually dissects female body
(Gill, 2007)
• Suggests female body as an
attached object to male

10.  Sex object
Visual analysis
Figure 4 (Loose Garment, 2012) Figure 5 (Marginal Musings, 2013)
Figure 6 (Weibo, 2015)
• In both images, male are presented in a dominant position, either physically or verbally
• The presents of female possess sexual implication
• A denial of the independent personality of female, treat them only as sex objects
(Job=woman,
do what you
want to do
most)

11.  Inequality
Visual analysis
Figure 7 (Green, 2013) Figure 8 (Green, 2013)
Figure 9 (Caixin, 2015)
Figure 10 (Weibo, 2015)
• Figure 7 and Figure 8 indicates violence against women
• Figure 9 is a comparison of the advertisements posted on 2015 Women’s Day between Baidu and Google. While
female was objectified as a doll standing on a music box in Baidu, Google presented female in different career
• Figure 10 was an advertisement of Beijing Civil Administration, it said ‘why competing with men in such a great
effort while the best work for women is to be a good housewife and mother’.

12.  Commodity feminism
Visual analysis
Figure 11 (uelvistheories2012, 2012) Figure 12 (Advertising & Society, 2014) Figure 13 (Burgess, 2015)
• Using female empowerment as a selling point to sell products
• Relating self-confidence and freedom to consumption
• Reducing the political meanings of the concept of feminism and connects it to a personal life style

13.  Advertisement reflects the common sense and public aesthetics in contemporary
society, in this case, how female are treated by the public
 Advertisement reflects the stereotypes of female, from mother and wife to sexual
signifiers
 Female has been objectified, treated as sex object and violently against in
advertisement, and nowadays feminism is utilized as a selling point to promote
products.
 Commoditized feminism lessens its political meanings
Conclusion