FILM big row over Barbie movie casting

The Barbie doll is an icon of feminist struggle - an actual woman with the Barbie shape wouldn't be able to walk with the crippling back pain she'd suffer. Makers Mattel finally updated the doll with some new body shapes and skin colours recently, but now its an actress who's facing heat - for being too fat for the role in a live-action barbie movie ... and she's come out fighting.
Amy Schumer says trolls' backlash over Barbie casting shows she’s right for role.

Mind the gender Gap: ad sparks fury

A point we'll raise frequently in Media is how gender is socialised or encoded from birth, with established commercial, retail logic and expected behaviour and aspirations signified through the prevailing binary of toys and clothing.

This Gap ad is an especially clear example of this, putting the future scholar (boy) in an Einstein tee-shirt but the 'social butterfly' (girl, presumably aspiring to become reality TV or gossip mag fodder) in a showy splash of pink...

How a sexist T-shirt harms us all.

Ad enough of stereotyping women

A useful overview of the common stereotypes of gender used in advertising.

Unilever, the firm responsible for brands such as Dove, Lynx and Magnum, has promised to shake up its portrayal of women, after a research project the company carried out found that just 3% of women in adverts are shown in professional, managerial jobs; 1% are shown as being funny and 2% intelligent. 

During the two-year research project, 90% of women Unilever spoke to felt they were presented as sex objects in the adverts and 30% thought adverts were made for the male gaze. Curiously, however, just 40% said they felt that women in adverts did not represent them. Which leaves 60% who presumably think: yep, I too get extremely excited by a reduced-price gateau. 

So, without further ado. Here are 11 top female stereotypes found in advertising – all of which we should really see the back of.

Read Eleven women in adverts who are past their sell-by date for more...

Photographer depicts impact of male gaze in daily life

The photographer's work, Boundaries, is edgy material; relevant to but not suitable for younger teens.

For A-Level or Year11 students, especially if also studying Art, this could be an interesting reference to widen the filmic or other mass media textual analysis you undertake.

According to The Huffington Post, 1 in 4 women will be a victim of sexual assault in their lifetime. Is this a result of mainstream media’s beligerent objectification of women? Many suppose so. After all, the brain cannot differentiate between what is real and what is imagined. 

As a result, it has become almost normal for the average female to be viewed as an object, rather than a person worthy of respect and a glance above breast-level. 

The photo series “Boundaries” seeks to expose just this. Reports GOOD, the controversial compilation, created by photographer Allaire Bartel, draws attention to the oppression of male entitlement that women feel on a daily basis in everyday life.

See the FilmsForAction article for more.

Agents of SHIELD cafe meeting

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Semiotics of the mini skirt over history

NB: the article contains some moderate strong language and is an opinion piece, provocatively written.

In 2015, a city in Alabama proposed that the miniskirt be banned. Council members argued that it was really all about respect. They argued that God just wouldn't be a fan. "I prayed about this," one of them said.

Just months later, a Kansas state senator told his female staff that miniskirts were simply not up to code in the office. He said that they were inappropriate, he'd seen women dressed provocatively in this manner before and he considered it all very distracting.

Clearly, the miniskirt and the women who still boldly wear them are powerful. And as it turns out, when you look back in history, they really always have been powerful — and a symbol of how much of it women have.

Women Not Objects campaign

What does advertising stand to do? Sell an idea? Product? Brand? This can’t be so bad. But it’s what is used and how it’s used that makes advertising such a detriment to our society. Women have long been the focus for selling things. Tall and skinny, perfect hair and smooth skin — these are all what we’ve been told time and time again are what makes something desirable, from a bottle of perfume to a run on the beach. There’s no doubt this facade is see-through. We flip through the pages of magazines, turn the TV channel, scroll past an ad on Facebook, and know that what we see is “touched-up.” But we continue to remain brainwashed by this nonetheless. We make our future feel grim when we allow ourselves to believe we cannot meet these expectations set by our society.

Women have become objects. Big lips, thigh gaps, revealing clothing, and so much more are making young women the focus of sexual desires. These ideals are continuously making it difficult for women to walk down the streets by themselves safely. They are making it impossible to feel beautiful without a threat coming their way; without feeling like they’ll ever be enough.

Last year, a quarter of a million teens alone underwent cosmetic surgeries. What is this saying about the culture we have created for women?

Be aware that the video linked in the article has 1 use of strong language and some disturbing images, as it frankly tackles the social impact of the normative sexualisation of females across our media, not least advertising.

Can such campaigns work? Media content won't be transformed by this, but it will increase awareness of the issue and maybe lead to more single issue campaigns such as the anti-page 3 campaign that has seen topless, often teen, models removed from The S*n, with Murdoch himself tweeting that this was maybe an idea beyond its time.

The difficulty of addressing such issues without being censored by the very same media that are being protested against is notable, with social media offering a distribution outlet independent of the old media giants (all of which are gradually being dwarfed by the new media giants though!)

(The S*n hasn't exactly gone PC; it recently invited readers to submit cleavage selfies for a boobs of Britain competition. Unilad reported on some of the satirical responses this generated, often men photographing their chests; as with the video, be aware that there are sexualised images, and that comments, as with so much of social media, are often crude. See this UniLad article)

Right hand WOman on TV sofa

Great example of the invisible hand of ideology. A TV host spoke out against the TV habit of placing the man in a man/woman chat/news show setup on the left, seen as the senior position within the industry (and unconsciously by the audience is the idea).

BBC Breakfast seating bias due to 'misogyny', says ex-Countryfile host.

Pink products cost 37% more in UK

...and women's products are priced 7% higher than men's equivalents in the US too...

In December, an investigation by the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs found that in a study of nearly 800 products – from toys to personal items like shampoo – many were priced differently for men and women. Men’s razors went for $14.99, for example, while the same razors marketed toward women were being sold for $18.49. A pink Radio Flyer children’s scooter in pink was double the price of a red “boys’” version. In total, the investigation found that of the products they looked at, items were priced on average 7% more for women than those for men.

A report this month on products in the UK found something very similar: when it came to the same products marketed differently for men and women, there was a whopping 37% difference in price. Beauty products, toys, everything. It doesn’t even get better as you age: adding insult to injury, women are even charged more for adult diapers.

Women are overcharged every day. Imagine if that happened to men.