Wednesday, 28 March 2012

Articles

  • Frith, Katherine, Ping Shaw, and Hong Cheng. “The Construction of Beauty: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Women’s Magazine Advertising.” Journal of Communication 55.1 (2005): 56-70.
    This study examined the cultural differences of female beauty ideals in the US, Singapore and Taiwan in the context of magazine ads. The study found that, based on magazine advertisements and depictions of female beauty, the US places more importance in terms of beauty on the female body, whereas Singapore and Taiwan focus more on a pretty face. They were able to come to this conclusion because US ads focused more on clothing, whereas the Asian ads focused more on cosmetics.


  • Lavine, Howard, Donna Sweeney, and Stephen H. Wagner. “Depicting Women as Sex Objects in Television Advertising: Effects on Body Dissatisfaction.” Pers Soc Psychol Bull 25.8 (1999): 1049-1058.
    This study examined how women’s and men’s perceptions of their own body image changed as they viewed sexist or nonsexist ads. Both men and women that viewed sexist ads had a more negative perception of their body than those who viewed nonsexist or neutral advertisements. The study found that sexist advertisements cause women to want to be thinner and cause men to want to be more muscular, indicating that depression or loss of self-esteem may be indirectly exacerbated or caused by exposure to sexist TV ads.


  • MacKay, Natalie J., and Katherine Covell. “The Impact of Women in Advertisements on Attitudes Toward Women.” Sex Roles 36.9 (1997): 573-583.
    This study examined the link between negative images of women in advertising and attitudes about sexuality and feminism. The study found a link between increased viewing of negative female sex portrayals in advertisements and attitudes supporting sexual aggression and a lower acceptance of feminism in both males and females. This implies that if women are shown as sex objects in advertisements, violence against them is seen as more acceptable, and that, overall, these advertisements are undermining major advances made by the women’s movement.


  • Reichert, Tom et al. “A Test of Media Literacy Effects and Sexual Objectification in Advertising.” Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising 29.1 (2007): 81-92.
    This study analyzed how subjects’ responses to advertisements changed after watching a media literacy video. The study found that, after viewing the media literacy video, women respondents were more likely to be offended by ads containing negative images of women, compared to women respondents who did not watch the video. Conversely, men who watched the video did not have any different response than those that did not watch the video. The study proves the effectiveness of media literacy education, but also perhaps something else needs to be done to better reach men.


  • Wiles, Judith A., Charles R. Wiles, and Anders Tjernlund. “A comparison of gender role portrayals in magazine advertising: The Netherlands, Sweden and the USA.” European Journal of Marketing 29.11 (1995): 35-49.
    This study compared gender role portrayals in advertising in The Netherlands, Sweden, and the USA, and found that each country had similar portrayals. Specifically, the study found that all countries were more likely to depict men in working roles than women. The Netherlands and Sweden in particular were more likely to depict men as high-level executives.


  • Zimmerman, Amanda, and John Dahlberg. “The Sexual Objectification of Women in Advertising: A Contemporary Cultural Perspective.” Journal of Advertising Research 48.1 (2008): 71-79.
    This study interviewed female undergraduate students, gaging their responses to female portrayals in advertisements. The students agreed that females are portrayed as sex objects in advertisements, but they were less offended than female respondents in 1991, if not entirely indifferent. This suggests that female portrayal as sex objects may have increased since 1991, causing women to become more accustomed and thus desensitized to the image. The study also found that a company’s use of negative female portrayals did not change the students’ desire to buy their products.
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