In this week’s blog, we are asked
to find similarities and differences between the different strategies that
other ads used for hailing and interpolating. My blog last week was based on an
ad by Nike encouraging women to be confident in themselves and promoting that
they are still able to maintain a feminine side while participating in sports.
Based on reading multiple of my classmates blogs, I noticed that many of the
ads were geared towards encouraging women to look the perfect way like the
models seen in a makeup or skin care advertisement.
While
reading through different blogs, I came across Shannon McGinnis’s blog.
McGinnis discusses how the media is beginning to discourage young girls from
participating in athletics she states “Sadly,
we live in a world that teaches girls to judge their worth by what they look
like rather than their abilities” (McGinnis, 2013). The focus on the preferred
or perfect look is becoming more evident everyday. Teens today are more focused
on their appearance rather than showing off their true potential in sport. This is because there are so many ads that
are focused on the beauty of girls such as makeup and fashion ads. Teen girls
worry more about how society will perceive them rather than showing off their other
attributes such as sportiness, strength and passion.
Ads that are hailed towards teenage
girls more often then not are about beauty or having the perfect body. Females
are encouraged to look feminine rather than “sporty”, Classmate Madison Bygrave talks about the effects that wearing
cosmetics has on women and how it makes females feel more confident while
wearing make up because they believe they are seen as being more attractive. Bygrave notes, “we are willing to
“enhance” the way we look, in order to fit into our gender roles and come
across as attractive” (Bygrave, 2013). Due to the media, females are being
greatly encouraged to change who they are so they can enhance themselves and
feel confident in the way they are portrayed by others.
The media is becoming increasingly
powerful. Brittany Noel says “not only is the media influencing our self image, but it
is also enforcing our gender roles”. The media encourages femininity and this
is affecting young female’s self-confidence. Young women now are under great
pressure to present themselves in such a way the media sees to be what the
perfect teen female looks like. McGinnis’s
also states “At a young age, the media steps in and enforces that, “gender is
central to identity” (2013). The media is enforcing this “ideal” view of women
on girls at such a young age which discourages them to participate in things
such as sports because the media portrays being active and participating in
sports as a “masculine” activity, and young females do not want their identity
mixed up.
Stereotypes in advertising are
creating an unnatural picture of the ideal female. Many ads are directed towards
the teen female demographic, which is affecting the way that young women think,
act, and look. The messages in the ads are not always about the words used, but
rather the picture that is presented.
References
McGinnis, Shannon. http://www.sm13hm.blogspot.ca/2013/11/cpcf-1f25-what-hail.html
Noel, Brittany. http://cpcframblings.blogspot.ca/2013/11/what-hail.html
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