Selling Feminism?

“this commercial is not exactly feminist”

Read  Feministing article about choice feminism, which the author, Katherine Cross, calls the “the commodification of empowerment.”  

This Vogue advertisement “ caused a lot of back lash a couple years ago. What do you think? 

“They talk about empowerment when they are themselves slave to consumerism.”

A sociologist perspective on using feminism in advertising. 

“Femvertising is a term used to describe mainstream commercial advertising that attempts to promote female empowerment or challenge gender stereotypes.”

Landmark 1994 Wonderbra ad--Is this feminist? 

“How is it that women’s arousal has come to be tied so closely to pleasing men?”

Rosalind Gill’s article on Midriff advertising, which “re-sexualizes women’s bodies, with the alibi of a feisty, empowered postfeminist discourse that makes it very difficult to critique.”

Gill, R. (2009). Supersexualize me. Advertising and the ‘Midriffs.” In F. Attwood (Ed.), Mainstreaming sex: The sexualization of Western culture (pp. 93-99).

“the track simultaneously refers to women as bitches.”

What do you think?

 “Commodity Feminism” describes how advertisement for women have adopted feminist language to seemingly invoke female empowerment, yet they are still objectifying women’s bodies and attempting to make a profit. It misuses the concept of female choice on how to present themselves. Women ultimately have to use their bodies as tools for self-expression and freedom. This means women can ultimately use only their bodies to maintain power. They become objects.  This article explains how female  advertisements capitalize on this by promoting female choice through the ability to gain wealth, beauty, and power through things or commodities (e.g. the company’s products). 

Get on Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/Were-Feminists-Once-CoverGirl®-Political/dp/1610395891

Description: Feminism has hit the big time. Once a dirty word brushed away with a grimace, “feminist” has been rebranded as a shiny label sported by movie and pop stars, fashion designers, and multi-hyphenate powerhouses like Beyoncé. It drives advertising and marketing campaigns for everything from wireless plans to underwear to perfume, presenting what's long been a movement for social justice as just another consumer choice in a vast market. Individual self-actualization is the goal, shopping more often than not the means, and celebrities the mouthpieces.