Putting on appearances gender and advertising Diane Barthel
Material type: TextSeries: Women in the political economyPublication details: Philadelphia Temple University Press 1988ISBN:- 0877225281
- 659.1 BAR
Item type | Current library | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Standard Loan | LSAD Library Main Collection | 659.1 BAR (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 39002000101353 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
In this lively critical analysis, Diane Barthel reveals the previously overlooked and underestimated depth of cultural meaning behind contemporary American advertising. Focusing mainly on ads for beauty products directed at women, she demonstrates how stereotypical gender identities are emphasized and how advertising itself creates a gendered relationship with the consumer. She explores psychological, sociological, and cultural messages in advertising to show how "Putting on Appearances" is anything but a purely personal matter, and how the social realities in which we are forced to live are conditioned by the personal appearances we choose to create.
Most advertisements are not sexually obvious, but rely instead on sexual story-telling in which seduction, deception, and passion are portrayed as acceptable means for achieving selfhood. Advertisements that proclaim, Now is the time to paint your knees speak with one form of authority: those that present the voice of the all-knowing scientist or the nurturing mother rely on others. Celebrities figure as professional beauties and wise older sisters, sharing their secrets with the consumer. The Gentle Treatment Great Model Search Made Me a Star. Now itOCOs your turn.
Inseparable from the clothes we wear and the products we use are our ideas and fantasies about our bodies. Beauty products present beauty rituals as transcendent occasions, and diet products call up religious imagery of guilt and salvation. The body itself is to be anxiously manipulated and systematically worked over until the consumer turns her body into...an advertisement for herself, a complicated sign to be read and admired.
In the series "Women in the Political Economy," edited by Ronnie J. Steinberg."
Bibliography: p. 197-211
Includes index
Table of contents provided by Syndetics
- Acknowledgments (p. ix)
- 1 Introduction (p. 1)
- 2 Madison Avenue: Method and Madness (p. 15)
- 3 the Voices of Authority (p. 39)
- 4 the Self Observed (p. 57)
- 5 Sex and Romance (p. 71)
- 6 Beauty Status / Social Status (p. 87)
- 7 the Geography of Beauty (p. 103)
- 8 Woman in a Man's World (p. 121)
- 9 the Accursed Portion (p. 139)
- 10 Beauty Rituals (p. 151)
- 11 a Gentleman and a Consumer (p. 169)
- 12 Conclusion (p. 185)
- Appendix (p. 193)
- Notes (p. 197)
- Index (p. 213)