CMNS 223W Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Foot Locker, Femininity, Deodorant

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Communication
• Course: CMNS 223W
• Professor: Jody Baker

Document Summary

Feminism, femininity and consumer culture + masculinities in. Gender is performative; we produce gender display. Sex is natural substructure which gender is overlaid social/cultural differences laid on top. Gender can take on the appearance of biological/natural. Naturalizing the culture + the meaning of a product. Economic exploitation of women in the workforce is replicated in advertising. Advertisers step in to frame domestic labour, give up expertise. Role as a domestic labour is seen as natural , as a biological necessity: ex. Deodorant - men"s and women"s that serve the exact same function. Women are bearers of meaning; meaning is thrust upon them. Represented as objects of male gaze recipients of meanings, not the makers of meaning. Shown as enigma, mysterious, eternal, unchanging, exotic. Fetishizes women - equates her body with an object. Women exist outside the social, not engaged in any social aspect. Advertising has to be engaged in history in order to be relevant.