Female Identity and Fashion Advertising

The average American woman is confronted with images of ideal femininity on a daily basis. Various forms of media introduce the desired look, attitude, and role a woman should possess in modern society. One of the most influential media for the modern woman is the printed fashion advertisement. Fashion advertising has the power to define desired gender roles, female identity, and characteristics of upcoming generations of young girls. This advertising poses some harm to women as it reinforces stereotypical female roles of domesticity while associating self identity with consumerism. If the American woman is more aware of fashion advertisements' inherent attempts to influence her, then she can be better able to make more informed choices when it comes to personal identity.

The very essence of advertising is to send the viewer a message. At the surface an advertisement may simply be sending the message to buy a product, but often more complex societal implications can be found in an ad. One major concern with advertising messages is the depiction of women and then what this depiction implies. Alice E. Courtney and Thomas W. Whipple report in research findings that advertising portrays the majority of female figures as passive, insubordinate wives and mothers who never leave the domestic sphere (Sex Stereotyping in Advertising, 25). They also include the results of research by Venkatesan and Losco, who found that over a three decade period, women in advertising "...were [portrayed] as sexual object, woman as physically beautiful, and woman as dependent on man" (Courtney & Whipple, Sex Stereotyping in Advertising, 9). Depicting women in the role of domestic servant sends the message that idealistic women should desire domestic perfection that can only be achieved with the help of the product in question.

In contrast to domestic servant, women are also depicted as sexual creatures with a lust for physical and material satisfaction. Jean Kilbournes's film Killing Us Softly: Advertising Images of Women argues that advertisements use "...blatant sexual imagery" to "...imply that sexual access to the female is the reward for buying the advertised product" (Courtney & Whipple, Sex Stereotyping in Advertising, 11). The effect of this sexualized imagery may encourage the product's eventual purchase, but it also displays a degrading view of female identity.

Fashion advertisements may have women in sexual or degrading roles, but they remain pleasurable to women and inspire them to consume. In her essay "Women Recovering Our Clothes", Iris Marion Young argues that women find pleasure in fashion advertising because it encourages the possibility of male approval and fantasy (67). Young sees female pleasure in the fantasy of a male gaze but also the narcissistic female gaze as a woman looks upon herself and sees perfection (70). She states that women take pleasure in "...looking at clothes, and looking at women in clothes, because they encourage fantasies of transport and transformation" (Young, "Women Recovering Our Clothes", 70). An ad displaying a woman in a dress may satisfy a sense of fantasy that the average woman cannot find when she looks in the mirror. The successful advertiser will seize the opportunity to make an ad more fantastic to satisfy both the viewer and the clothing company if the viewer buys the product.

Every woman is searching for identity and advertising is quick to offer the average woman means to achieve identity through consumerism. Leslie W. Rabine argues in her essay "A Woman's Two Bodies: Fashion Magazines, Consumerism, and Feminism" that the female identity in advertising simultaneously projects two messages: "One accords with the meanings that the dominant culture assigns to the feminine body, while the other is read by the implied readers of fashion magazines as freeing their body from that position" (62). Since advertisers are aware of changing cultural movements for women (like the Feminist Movement), they must appear to be current while still keeping the ability to influence women to buy the desired product. The dual messages Rabine describes inevitably come in conflict since

...the contemporary woman of fashion is expected to become a self-reflecting subject, but reflective about her own status as object...the more she is portrayed as independent, the more she is portrayed as an object of the male look ("A Woman's Two Bodies: Fashion Magazines, Consumerism, and Feminism", 65).

Such a conflicting message is nearly impossible to achieve, and can only result in disappointment and frustration.

Madonna has become a powerful female icon of popular culture. She is also an example of advertising's message of the ability to change identity with a change in physical appearance and fashion. Author Douglas Kellner states that "Madonna's image and reception highlight the social constructedness of identity, fashion, and sexuality" ("Madonna, Fashion, and Identity", 159). Madonna's ability to remain a popular singer is certainly impressive; after nearly twenty-five years she still attracts attention in 2007. As her identity has changed, so has her entire appearance, ultimately sending a message that real identity is linked with fashion (Kellner, "Madonna, Fashion, and Identity", 162). Madonna has also had the power to influence the appearances of her fans as they purchased Madonna clothing, makeup kits, and whatever products required to match her current style (Kellner, "Madonna, Fashion, and Identity", 166).

Young Madonna fans of the 1980s were certainly not a single phenomenon. Advertisers are aware that they can reach young girls to teach them to desire the pleasure and identity found in fashion. Girls are exposed to advertising that can be thinly veiled as a media for entertainment. Barbie Magazine is produced for girls aged 4-12, and as Ingeborg Majer O'Sickey states, the magazine's "primary function is the production and reproduction of images of certain kinds of femininity in order to train girls to become perfect consumers of beautifying commodities" ("Barbie Magazine and the Aesthetic Commodification of Girls' Bodies", 23). Little girls are used in the magazine to model current fashions and the desired identity. Its message is that girls' bodies are "...in perpetual need of renovation" with the help of beauty guides and advice on fashion (O'Sickey, "Barbie Magazine and the Aesthetic Commodification of Girls' Bodies", 24). The little girl who enjoys magazines like Barbie Magazine may not realize that they are being trained to look for their personal identities within the images of advertisements.

Fashion advertising may include some degrading or superficial messages of female identity, but that does not mean they are so harmful that society should rid itself of them. What is most important is for the consumer to be better informed on just what an advertisement is attempting to do. The informed woman can be aware that what an advertisement tells her is fashionable may not be the best choice for her. The real danger of advertising lies in the possibility of a woman allowing advertising to make all of her identity choices for her. If women could be better informed about advertising tactics, they could make better choices as they consume and perhaps even change the stereotypes portrayed in many current advertisements.