However, after the crit I had a lot more insight and ideas for direction, and came up with this plan:
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STUDY TASK 3 –
PLANNING & STRUCTURING AN ESSAY
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Suggested Research
Question.
This can be a topic
or theme, but please try to be as precise as possible.
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'To what extent
does advertising construct our idea of gender?'
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'to what extent' basically means 'do you agree?'
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Look at traditional gender stereotypes and how adverts
portray (or don't) them.
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Sex and sexualisation/objectification of people (women
in particular)
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Which Academic
Sources will you reference?
Include a Harvard
Referenced bibliography of at least 5 sources.
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Berger, J. (1972) Ways of Seeing, London:
British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books
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Crewe, B. (2003) Representing Men: Cultural Production and
Producers in the Men's Magazine Market, London: Berg
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Jackson, P., Stevenson, N. and
Brooks, K. 2005 Making Sense of Men's
Magazines, Cambridge: Polity Press
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Macdonald, M. (2003) Representing Women: Myths of Femininity in
the Popular Media, New York: Oxford University Press
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Rogers, M. F. (1999) Barbie Culture, London: SAGE Publications
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Sivulka, J. (2012) Soap, Sex and Cigarettes: A Cultural
History of American Advertising, Boston: Wadsworth Publishing
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Wolf, N. 1991 The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women,
London: Vintage
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What Images Illustrations will you analyse?
Include at least one piece of Graphic Design to analyse in
depth (but no more than three)
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The first one is an American Apparel advert. They have
numerous misogynistic adverts to choose from but I chose this one because of
the similarity of the woman's body position to the second one (an advert for
organ donation from P Magazine, a Belgian men's magazine) as well as the
viewpoint (male). The last one is Dolce and Gabbana, and from a quick skim
through of The Beauty Myth by Naomi
Wolf (which I had already had a skim through when I chose it for the book
cover brief in Visual Skills), she claims that rape is the current
advertising metaphor, which I think is prominently portrayed in this image!
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Essay Map
Using the Study Task Handout, construct an essay map
outlining the FOUR main points of your argument.
This essay map should include a sentence which states your
thesis, and how it will be addressed. It should also include FOUR sentences,
each outlining a different element of your central argument.
You should also refer to how this essay map links to the
key sources that you have highlighted and the example(s) of Illustration
practice.
My essay will focus primarily on the
sexualisation and objectification of women in advertising. My main points
will be that advertising continues to advocate the following myths in terms
of constructing our ideas of gender:
1.
Women are sexual
objects - their only purpose is to please men sexually and be visually
appealing.
2.
Men must be
traditionally masculine; unfeeling, strong, muscular etc., and in control of
women.
3.
Men are dominant
and women are submissive, in all areas of life.
4.
'Sex sells' and
sometimes rape too. Violence against women is okay.
I will analyse each image based on things like their
audience, context, history, aesthetic qualities etc. and then based on brief
analyses start to incorporate quotes I find in my sources.
I find, from having studied a lot of essay subjects at school,
that I work best by keeping things separate at the beginning and then
bringing it all together coherently. For example, here I'll analyse the
images, then gather quotes from sources that I think could be useful for my
arguments (since I know the themes I'm looking at in the essay), and then
bring them together to form paragraphs.
My conclusion is basically going to be my own opinion (in
third person!!) on how advertising continues to advocate traditional gender
stereotypes, but things are beginning to change. Some adverts don't portray
traditional gender roles or even subvert them, and although a lot of them do
use sex (naked women) to sell products, there's been a lot of backlash for
this in recent years.
I actually find that writing my introduction and
conclusion first really helps. Writing the end first may seem a bit weird,
but from my research I kind of know what I'm working towards and where I
stand. I write a basic conclusion and then add in specifics relating to my
essay body once I've finished it.
Quite a few of my initial sources relate to magazines,
where adverts often appear, and there are a couple on advertising
specifically, but also feminist books on beauty and body image, which I've
found useful quotes relating to general portrayal of women in the media or in
real life.
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