Dove Evolution

In this Dove commercial, the media uses the male gaze, the internalized gaze, and almost a type of heterosexual gaze, but not in the usual way that commercials do. Dove has made a name for themselves in representing real women, and this commercial does just that by showing that the unrealistic beauty ideal that almost every woman strives to reach is attainable-through Photoshop. In the commercial, Dove make-up artists, hairdressers, and Photoshop experts work to transform an average woman (who may be a model, it is unstated) into an unrealistic billboard model, which does not seem that unrealistic to those of us watching because we are so used to seeing this insane beauty ideal on the covers of magazines and in all types of commercials. The amount of time and effort spent changing this woman into what is thought to be beautiful to society is ridiculous. How the woman looks after the transformation is where the three gazes mentioned before come into play. Because women have been shown and told that this is what is beautiful, they have an internalized gaze on themselves to try to make themselves look this way. Most women feel the need to have perfected longer, wavier, voluptuous, and most times, blonde hair. Most women feel the need to have perfect, smudge-free make-up with shapely arched eyebrows and slightly rosy cheeks. And most women also feel the need to be thin. How the picture of the woman changed in Photoshop shows them making her neck longer, shoulders lower, and face thinner-all tricks to make the already healthy looking woman look even thinner. All of these things that are a part of the internalized gaze are also apart of the male gaze, because it is what a male typically prefers to see. I also mentioned the idea of a heterosexual gaze because what this woman is changed into is a very typical heterosexual woman, that heterosexual men would prefer. This billboard would not attract many lesbian women (let alone gay men); therefore, limiting the billboard audience to heterosexual males and females. (Brown).

I also feel that this commercial calls attention to the fact that most other means of advertising implicitly promote the idea of thinness, but this commercial I feel does not promote it itself. Dove addressed the idea of thinness by editing the picture of the woman in Photoshop just as any other form of media would. They made her neck longer, shoulders lower, and face thinner in order to implicitly promote the idea that if a woman is this thin, and looks like this, then she can be a billboard model too, and she can be as beautiful as any other model. I feel that Dove made very specific efforts to show that this woman as a “finished product” is what is seen more often than not in advertising, and that it is not necessarily what Dove feels is the most beautiful, or how women should be. The statement at the end of the commercial, “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted,” truly sums up what the media is doing to our society-distorting our ideas about beauty and thinness.

Again, Dove shows how many other advertisements implicitly call upon consumerism, but this time, they also implicitly call on consumerism, though in a different way. Dove shows how most advertisements promote, as I stated above in regards to thinness, that if a woman purchases a specific beauty or clothing item, then she can be just as beautiful as the models used in those advertisements. But what Dove also shows, is still an implicit call to consumerism, but as the anti-unrealistic beauty ideal. Dove tries to sell themselves to women as almost adding to their natural beauty, and promoting them to be themselves, and that they are just as beautiful as others when they are themselves. In the end as far as consumerism is concerned, Dove is just like any other company trying to sell their merchandise, but the way they do it makes all the difference. Overall, Dove succeeds at showing what typical commercials do by implicitly promoting thinness, consumerism, and unrealistic beauty ideals; while also making a statement about what real beauty is not.

Brown, Adriane. The Fat Body. 2009.

Brown, Adriane. WNTW and The Internalized Gaze. 2009.

Representation and Christina

For my texts I decided to analyze two Christina Aguilera videos from two different points in her career one from the beginning with her first hit “Genie In A Bottle,” and the second from her second album, which represents a stronger, and more defined Christina, with her video “Beautiful.” By examining the two different videos, I wanted to show how Aguilera exemplified her growth as a person, and in turn as an artist, by solidifying her views as an individual into her work. Both the idea of marked/unmarked identities being implicitly and explicitly addressed in the text, and Mayne’s idea of representation either functioning to reinforce oppression, or to create new possibilities, or a combination of both, are applied to each video.

In “Genie In A Bottle,” the main focus almost at all times is on Aguilera; however, when there are others in the scene I feel that there is an acceptable representation of different races, and both females and males. Unfortunately, marked identities, or any person who deviates from the identity “norms” of society that we addressed during class in the PowerPoint, specifically black men in the video are implicitly, or inferentially, used. In the video, the only time a group of black men is seen is during the chorus, which is also the “dance break” of the song. I feel that this is implicit use of the black male because it seems to state that it is only acceptable to view Aguilera with black men during what is supposed to be a more “hip hop” dance. In addition, during other parts of the video when Aguilera is associated with other men every one of them is white, implicitly stating that it is only allowable for Aguilera to be romantically interested in, and associate with, white men. There does not appear to be ay sort of explicit, or obvious, discrimination of any kind in the video. (Lull).

In regards to Mayne’s idea of representation, I feel that Aguilera affirms the idea of repression of women by representing herself as a sexual object with her low cut and cropped shirts, as well as presenting herself sprawled across the sand in what can be interpreted as a sexually suggestive position. The same can be said for the moments when she is on top of the car that her white male romantic interest is sitting in. (Mayne). Overall, Aguilera’s first video does not help fight oppression of representations or create new representations, nor does it stand against implicit use of marked identities.

Aguilera’s next video that I analyzed was a very different story than the first video. The second video is of the song “Beautiful.” Once again Aguilera does a decent job of representing multiple identities, both marked and unmarked, but this time she implicitly places typical self-conscious ideas for each particular identity on every single person in the video, including herself as she stands in front of a mirror. (Lull). In the video there are the following identities; two teenage white males one portrayed as striving to become a bodybuilder and the other belonging more to the emo/punk counterculture trying to ignore the judgment he faces from the world, two teenage white females one struggling with body issues and the second dealing with bullying, a teenage colored female also dealing with body issues possibly in regards to a lack of colored representation in popular media, a male gay couple fighting bigotry in society, and a white drag queen also fighting bigotry while trying to perform the gender that makes him happiest. Each of these identities are fighting the typical fights that society forces these identities to face, and by Aguilera bringing these issues into the limelight with her celebrity status she is helping to fight oppression of these identities and create new possibilities for each and every one of them. In addition, Aguilera also fights typical oppression of women as sexual objects by wearing an all black outfit consisting of a traditional tank top and pants, covering much more of her body than in most of her other videos. (Mayne). Overall, this video does the exact opposite of the first by fighting against oppression of all representations, and also against explicit and implicit discrimination of marked and unmarked identities.

Brown, Adriane. Privilege, Masculinity, and Race. 2009.
Mayne, Judith. “Women, Representation, and Culture.” In Reading Women’s Lives.
Lull, James. “Hegemony.” In Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-Reader. Eds. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez. Sage Publications. 2003. 61-66.