For the past two days in class we watched a film that discussed the different advertising ploys of many fashion companies, using men and women as the bait to lure in consumers. I have always found clothing, shoe, perfume ads, ect. to be overly sexual and promiscuous, yet never really thought about the deeper meanings behind these ads. Throughout the video, the narrator discussed gender roles and how they are used to catch the consumers eyes, in hopes that their product will strike them. Women are to be soft, passive, and overall, dependent on men. They often times act childish, never leaving their little girl roles behind once hitting womanhood.
He also discussed the different types of poses we usually see in these female models; finger biting, hidden behind walls, protected by men, laying vulnerable on the ground- kind of poses. These different poses show how women are culturally supposed to act: lesser than and dependent on men.
Men in these advertisements are to act masculine, in power, and tough. More recently they have begun to pose more like women due to an increase in interest of mens clothing. In order to even out the two worlds, women are strategically placed in with them.
