A Perspective on the Evolution Marketing Management Essay

Over the years women’s beauty has been a subject of fashion magazines, since what looks good results in larger sales and, therefore, greater profits. It is not a secret that an attractive advertisement duly appreciated by the consumers facilitates the promotion of a product and brings fame to the manufacturer. However, the desire to get more profits often leads to an opposite result, especially when it comes to women’s representation in magazine advertisements. The matter is that “sexual revolution promoted discovery of female sexuality” (Wolf 11), and these days women are ready to demonstrate every single part of their bodies with the purpose of proving that they are liberated and independent on everybody else’s judgmental opinion. Some people keep to the point that indecent representation of women in magazine advertisements is a mere display of their attractiveness and sexuality whereas others state that it is offending, humiliating and demeaning to women, both represented in the magazine and those who, looking at the picture, strive to correspond to modern beauty standards. It is necessary to discuss one of such magazine advertisements in order to find out how it reflects dominant ideas of gender and whether there are people who approve such a representation of women in the advertisements.

To begin with, one of the magazine advertisements that caused ardent criticism was Dolce & Gabbana’s advertising campaign featuring ‘fantasy rape’. In her article “Gabbana on Why D&G Pulled ‘Fantasy Rape’ Ad” Susanna Schrobsdorf discusses what exactly the designers meant by this picture and whether it indeed “indisputably promotes violence against women” (Schrobsdorf). Aiming to present authentic information about the designers’ intentions, the author publishes the interview with Stefano Gabbana obtained via e-mail. Despite Gabbana’s stating “It was never our purpose to cause any controversy and instigate violence against women” (Schrobsdorf), dominant ideas of gender are vividly reflected in this advertisement. Only the very fact that the picture represents a woman in a bathing suit and five half-naked men is demeaning. The woman is depicted as lying down on her back with blank look on her face and this definitely does not emphasize her sexuality or “recall an erotic dream, a sexual game” (Schrobsdorf). The dominant ideas of gender are reproduced in the advertisement by depicting the men’s superiority over women since the men are standing while the woman is lying on the floor with her eyes closed and her face expressing submission. This reminds of those times when women were dependent on men, and when the restriction of women’s rights was acceptable since the men were the ones who were stronger physically.

Apart from demonstrating violence, the advertisement brings about another negative point for discussion. This is representation of a woman’s ideal, most of women find hard to follow. Here, it is worth mentioning that before the Industrial Revolution, the average woman could not have the same feelings about “beauty” that modern women do who experience the [beauty] myth as continual comparison to a mass disseminated physical ideal” (Wolf 14). True women’s beauty used to consist not in her slimness but in her manners and behavior. Today’s fashion models look more like dolls, like something unnatural, something fake rather than an example of true beauty. Moreover, the fashion industry is more oriented at the representation of body, not the representation of beauty: “beauty is no longer seen as a sustained category of capitalism in a fundamental theme. Instead, “the colonization and the appropriation of the body as its own production/ consumption machine in late capitalism is a fundamental theme of contemporary socialization” (Hooks 71). The modern fashion industry set standards for body proportions which ordinary women are unable to correspond to. All this results in vain diets which harm health and lead to neuroses but never help to attain the desirable: “By these standards women and girls are always inadequate and they’re always buying the next beauty treatment trying to catch up, trying to be something they can’t ever be” (Schrobsdorf). Thus, Dolce & Gabbana’s representation of a slim half-naked woman is not only demeaning to women in terms of dominant ideas of gender but insulting for those who will never be able to reach the “right” proportions of a woman’s body.

In general, the article “Gabbana on Why D&G Pulled ‘Fantasy Rape’ Ad” tries to present a fair view on things concerning the indecency of Dolce & Gabbana’s advertisement. The author of the article simply tries to find out whether the designers wanted to depict “glorifying gang rape or tapping into a sexual fantasy” (Schrobsdorf). By the way, it is not the first time that these designers have been criticized for indecent advertisements: “Provocative images have been a staple for D&G, whose other ads have featured sexy scenes” (Schrobsdorf). D & G’s ‘fantasy rape’ was banned in Spain and later in Italy but it is not likely that the designers would change their methods of attracting the attention to women’s sexuality since “the feminine market represents 60 percent of [their] worldwide sales” (Schrobsdorf). Nevertheless, it still can be noticed that the article disapproves the advertisement and, despite Gabbana’s stating that they did not mean the photo to be offensive, the criticism can be felt while interviewing the designer: “Can you talk about how you navigate the border between what’s considered sexy and what’s considered offensive?” (Schrobsdorf). Sexuality, indeed, is a very controversial issue, for it is difficult to determine where it ends and where depravity and dissipation begin. Any way, when discussing D & G’s advertisement, it can be stated that possible present sexuality in the picture is “desirable only to the extent that it is idealized and unattainable” (Hooks 65), and it is more of dissipation rather then representing a woman as an ideal of beauty.

Taking into consideration everything mentioned above, it can be concluded that from the moment of women’s gaining equal rights with men, they tried to demonstrate it in the every possible way. Using their beauty as a product of fashion industry has become a common case these days, but the beauty itself is not as valuable as the presentation of the woman’s body. Some magazine advertisements, such as D & G’s, use women’s bodies to attract attention to their products though, in fact, they sometimes cross the line between sexuality and dissipation. D & G’s advertisement is insulting for women since it reflects dominant ideas of gender and depicts women’s beauty in a way that is offensive for those women who cannot correspond to the “standards of body proportions”. Spain and Italy were right by criticizing and banning this magazine advertisement. This would make the designers think twice before planning their advertising campaign next time.

Works Cited

Hooks,B. Black Looks: race and representation. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Wolf, N. The Beauty Myth. Ancor Books, 1991.

Schrobsdorf, S. “Gabbana on Why D&G Pulled ‘Fantasy Rape’ Ad”. My Opera. 2007. Web.