How Women Are Portrayed in Lynx and Cosmo Essay

Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women specify themselves being looked at John Berger, Ways of seeing.For my seek probe I intend to explore to what extent specific media harvest-times use equivalent representations of women to appeal to their put audiences. The examples I have chosen to focus on atomic number 18 the iconic, international womens fashion and life style clip oecumenical and catamounts controversial beach campaign. I give at that placefore be exploring what similarities and differences they embed due to their oppositional target audiences and content. Throughout my research the primary(prenominal) conjecture I will be linking to my texts is that of Laura Mulvey, her theory explores ideas of sexism and manlike gaze within the media industry.Hearst the publisher of widely distributed describes the magazines target audience as Fun, Fearless Fe anthropoids, the tout ensembleiteration of the F sound connotes a sense of attitude and fierce behaviou r. Alongside the brand proposition celebratesa passion for life and inspires young women to be the best they can be certainly supporting women by portraying a sense of dominance and ambition. In contrast, Unilever, owners of the Lynx brand state their brand prospect is that all their overlaps are designed to give our customers the edge in the mating crippled establishing itself as UKs leading male grooming brand.Cosmopolitan are iconic for telling their audience about two main topics lifestyle and sex. Just by looking at the magazine covers, it is discipline that these two topics dominate. I researched the April 2012 cover of Cosmopolitan, it fol baseborns the generic conventions of a typical magazine format for a womens fashion and lifestyle magazine. In hurt of the colour scheme the pink fonts and neutral clothing convey a sense of femininity and perhaps the everyday interior(prenominal) lifestyle of women, although the lifestyle aspect of the magazine seems overpowered by the topic of sex. The cover features an attractive women in this case the iconic Megan Fox, posing some mildly alluring be language, showing a lot of skin, all whilst looking directly at the camera (audience) with a sexy, serious facial facial gesture with the eyebrow wantonly raised, and declarative parted lips.Although the model is simply posing the latest fashion, the low cut, tightly fitting dress connotes an over intimateised view of the celebrity who is universally known as a sex symbol in the media world, pickings her place in FHMs sexiest women each year and continuously playing the business office of the sexy female in various popular films. It is overhaul that Cosmopolitan use bold sexual connotations surrounding women, although argue that their intentions are in fact to empower women through their sexuality. Notice the models strong personify language , the hand on hip look used on board taglines such as Naughty or nice? You decide, and sexual puns are even adde d in regarding none sexual subjects such as career advice You on top, these are bold sexual connotations implying that fair sex should dominate to get what they want, mostly regarding the topic of sex. Perhaps fighting the controversial debate of sexism towards women in media by surprisingly embracing Laura Mulveys theory of male gaze.Cosmo put across the idea that if men uprise women attractive then it should accredit them by making them feel right about themselves, knowing that they look sexy and attractive. The magazine are conscious to do this in a sophisticated manor, opposed to other ratty and over sexualised magazines. Mediaknowall.com state that Womens magazines have moved on and declare visions of independence and confidence as well as beauty and domestic concerns, yet women are still encouraged to look good. luggage compartment image and size have become a growing inconvenience in society in result of magazine content. The overuse of petite, word picture shopped mo dels passim magazines has resulted in these images becoming the dominant ideology. Over the years images ingrained in womens magazines have contributed to this universal feeling to look good and be a certain size.Lynx are known for their voyeuristic product advert, this element of the company is what attracts their buyers, yet is also their downfall. Lynx have been in public criticized for their overuse of objectifying women, using sexualized and provocative imagery and overall blunt sexism. The BBC intelligence activity state that in 2011 six of Lynxs advertising campaigns were ban after mass numbers of complains were made they added that the 113 complaints said it was sexually suggestive and demeaning to women. I researched Lynxs recent TV advertisement and accompanying print advert titled The cleaner you are, the dirtier you get. Although I believe this is one of Lynxs milder sexualised adverts even the title itself contains a sexual pun, suggesting the promise of sex if yo u shower with the product.The girl on the print advertisement is no doubt an attractive young female, fitting the iconic blonde bombshell look. The girls enticing facial expression creates the impression she is inviting the audience (male) into the shower with her. Although the girls expressions look confident, there is a contrast between this and her body language. For example the way she has to cup her bikini top to stop it from falling. This vulnerability of the woman standing half nude for a male audience completely visually portraiture her as a female, making her a passive object of male visual pleasure. A comment by Jean Killbourne (a popular media activist) backs up my point by stating that womens bodies are often dismembered into legs, breasts or thighs, reinforcing the pass that women are objects rather than whole human beings.Killbourne suggests that women have become dehumanised into erotic objects for male pleasure. One element of Lynxs campaigns which continues thr oughout is the idea of fake portrayal. In each advert the male part is played by your everyday, not overly-attractive man, contrasted with the female role being a desirable, young beauty. In an everyday world the changes of the male role attracting that fictitious character of woman are very slim. Despite this the main message that Lynx put across to their audience throughout their advertisements is that if men wear the product women will find them irresistible False portrayal. Of course this element adds body fluid to the advertisements, although all at the expense of objectifying women in the process and promoting the gender role of the dominant male.BibliographyWebsiteswww.mediaknowall.comHearst, http.//www.hearst.co.uk/magazines/Cosmpolitan/5-about.htm Cosmopolitan, http//www.cosmopolitan.com/celebrity/exclusive/megan-fox-april-cover-cosmopolitan Exploring the media representations and responses