Naiste kujutamine ajakirjade Anne & Stiil ning Pere ja Kodu reklaamfotodel 2010. aastal

Abstract

The aim of the present BA thesis „Representation of women on advertisement photos in women’s magazines Anne & Stiil and Pere ja Kodu in 2010“ is to analyze how women are represented in the women magazines Anne & Stiil and Pere ja Kodu advertisements. The goal was to find out the stereotypical roles how women are represented and portrayed in women magazines. The keywords of these thesis are: women portrayal, gender stereotyping and vistual content analysis. Visual content analysis involving elements of Kress & van Leeuwen’s (2006) and Goffman’s (1979) theories was carried out among 195 advertisements from Anne & Stiil and 104 advertisements from Pere ja Kodu magazines. Prerequisite for the advertisments was that it must depict at least one woman and the woman has to be at the principal focus of the photograph. Kilbourne (2000) refers that advertising sells more than just a product, it sells values, images, and concepts of love, succsess and normalcy. Nowadays advertising tells to the women how they should look, thats why representation is a relevant issue. Advertising tells to women that most important thing about them is how they look. That is the main reason why advertising impacts women’s self confident (Kilbourne 2000). Results of this study showed that portrayal of women was quite silimar in both Anne & Stiil and Pere ja Kodu magazine, but still some remarkable differences were revealed during the analysis. For example, women in Pere ja Kodu magazine were more likely to be depicted in a mother role than women in Anne & Stiil magazine. Anne & Stiil included mostly cosmetics and beauty products advertises whereas in Pere ja Kodu magazine the women were more often depicted in medicine and health advertisements. In both magazines women were more often represented as decorative objects. According to previous researchers (Goffman 1979, Kang 1997) decorative object is one of the most stereotypical way that a woman has been portrayed in history. Decorative role claims that women has no other purpose besides looking attractive. 59 Women depicted in professional roles practically didn’t exist, that shows that the new way in sterotyping women is not popular in Anne & Stiil and Pere ja Kodu magazines. Women in both magazines were often shown in ritualized subordination positions, meaning that they were laying, sitting or bending over someone or something. Head and body cants can be read as a mark of acceptance, compliance and submissivness. Dominant race, according to research results, was european. This shows that white oriented magazines usually use in their advertisements women from the same race. In conclusion it can be said that women in Anne & Stiil and Pere ja Kodu are often represented in a traditional stereotyping way.