Feminism In Advertising Essay

2.3 Studies on Feminism and Feminism in Advertising Discourse

The word feminism can be a concept, an ideal, a theory or set of theories, an appeal, or a movement depending on the context of usage while it general concerns with gender relation, especially status of women, and propositions that women should enjoy the same status and rights as men with a fundamental presupposition that women are not treated as fairly as they should be. As a specific point of view, a trend of thought, and a theoretical weapon of critique, it has been employed in almost every single field of academic research. Although thoughts over gender relations and gender identities are as old as the mankind, it is the development of modern philosophy, psychology, sociology,

The writings and propositions of the British writer Virginia Woolf and the French philosopher and sociologist Simone de Beauvoir have laid down the foundation of modern western feminism. In Beauvoir’s The Second Sex published in 1949, she distinguished gender from sex, and proclaimed that the female gender was shaped by social factors rather than born. Since then feminist advocates and researchers have been working to disclose the social construction of gender differences and to criticize the suppression of females by a patriarchal society. Sexism and gender inequality have become the common themes of feminist propositions ever

They further suggest that there were two polar stereotyped images of women in advertisement at that time: 1) good wives and mothers in traditional sense and 2) epicurean “modern vases”. They appeal to the readers for paying attention to the effect of mass media over the living conditions of women in China. Their report of Female Portrayals Research of Advertising in China comprehensively analyzes this issue and has become a milestone in the relevant