FEMINIST DISCOURSE AND REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN CONTEMPORARY

Running head: FEMINIST DISCOURSE AND REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN
CONTEMPORARY ADVERTISEMENTS
Feminist Discourse and Representation of Women in Contemporary Advertisements
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FEMINIST DISCOURSE AND REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN CONTEMPORARY
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Since the late 1970s, the representation of women in media, especially in advertisement,
has been a burning issue. Advertisers, in a changing era of social and political identity, stand
accused of promoting inappropriate and degrading gender stereotypes to portray women, which
essentially elicit a prejudiced and biased image of women in the society. Although some scholars
argue that this objection is exclusively pertinent to societies that are essentially conservative and
orthodox in their approach, a major section of feminists claim that stereotyping and prejudice
against women are prevalent in the western countries as well. By and large, advertisers are
accused of promoting unrealistic beauty standards veiled as the criteria of an ideal womanhood.
Most importantly, in promoting their brands and commodities, they have employed stereotypical
images of women, such as the caregiver, homemaker, ideal mother, ideal wife etc. and thus have
diminished the identity and individuality of women. Moreover, they are stand accountable for
using women as the objects of sexual fantasy and gratification (Grau and Zotos 2016). Over
time, the social perception and self-identity of womanhood has gradually changed with multiple
waves of women’s liberation movement and changed socio-economic and political scenario.
Subsequently, the representation of women in media and advertisement has also undergone a
paradigm shift, where it has discarded the conventional gender stereotypes to a significant extent.
A new genre of advertisement, known as Femvertising, has emerged that essentially carries the
messages of women empowerment and has been widely acclaimed by people (Drake 2017).
However, little research has been invested to analyse the feminist discourse of the Femvertisings.
In the light of the perceived gap in the academic effort, the present study aims to discuss
the feminist discourse as embedded in the Femvertisings. In this regard, the study focuses on the
theoretical understanding of both ‘advertising discourse’ and ‘feminist discourse’ while
considering femininity as a social construct. It analyses three images of the advertisement

FEMINIST DISCOURSE AND REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN CONTEMPORARY
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campaigns of leading global brands, namely Budwiser’s International Women’s Day campaign,
P&G’s #LikeAGirl campaign and Reebok’s #BEMOREHUMAN campaign.
The social and cultural content of advertisement, and its expression through the narratives
and rhetoric exclusive to contemporary society, has a strong connection with the social
perception of issues and subjects addressed by those advertisements (Teodorescu 2015). With the
wake of social media and with the advent of internet, people nowadays are swarmed by
commercials and advertisement campaigns, where the context of advertisement discourse has
come under renewed scrutiny for their impact on the society. However, both gender and
language remain as controversial issues in the domain of advertisement. Moreover, in the context
of ‘personalized format’ of contemporary advertising, where the relation between the consumer
and the commodity is interpreted through the explicit and implicit interpretation of their relation
with the world and the commodity, the advertisement discourse is more relevant than ever.
Consumers derive meaning not only from the product, but also from their values, beliefs,
experiences as well as social and cultural contexts. Therefore, the language used in the
advertisements are set keeping in mind their target audience, so that they can relate with the
campaign (de Waal Malefyt 2015).
In light of the language of advertisements, Femvertisings create a new genre of
advertisement discourse. It is apparently a marketing and communication strategy used by the
brands with an apparent goal of empower and inspire women. However, it is evident that the
target audience for such campaigns are essentially women, who, in a progressive world, are
looking for self-identity and recognition (Drake 2017). However, the gender discourse in media
and advertisement is majorly influenced by the social and cultural context, as it is essentially a