Assignment 6

 

Gender is represented in a variety of ways in this particular ketchup advertisement. Some stereotypes of women are seen through the text and image such as glamour, desire, and stupidity. The image has a well groomed woman (perfect hair, painted nails, lipstick) acting surprised as if she couldn't open ketchup before this particular brand's bottle. They give viewers a sense of desire for this ketchup because the image pictures it as glamours. The woman's expression implies that she is surprised that she can open the bottle herself. The text implies that women are incapable of opening a ketchup bottle because they aren't smart enough. If the woman isn't able to open the previous bottles of ketchup, then who did? Must have been a man in the eyes of gender studies. 

Readings:

Chapters five and six of FIFE are both strongly about women's image, self love, and rights to their bodies. The issue of free love brought women to open themselves up in the sexual sense, which led to the fight for reproductive rights. This topic leads to education because of the issue of class. The women in the ad above looks like a middle class women who could afford these rights to contraceptives and sexual education, but on the other hand, the advertisement brings up the issue of a woman's intelligence and these readings basically stated that the lack of sexual education caused many unplanned pregnancies and many classes could not afford the consequences of that. 

As times went by, contemporary feminism came about. They really pushed the agenda of body image and challenged the fashion industry and even rebelled by burning bras. The ad above has a very "dolled up" woman in it which feeds the body image problems that are still occurring today. There are so many eating disorders still, which the contemporary feminists helped push for women's healthcare to rid some of the issues of body disorders. They also pushed for more clothing options for women as men dominated the industry and women used to wear mostly dresses, as pictured above most likely even though we can't see the entire outfit. It has been socially pressed into women's heads that they have to look, feel, and act a certain way about their bodies and it is still occurring although feminists have helped the issue a lot.

Note: D2L isn't working so I was unable to get Wolf and Scott.