Modern media patterns show feminist narratives being used to market different consumer products in the name of female empowerment and emancipation. Typically, the industries targeted have historically been dominated by male perspectives and aim to perpetuate a capitalist consumer culture. The newly legalized cannabis industry in North America, has seen an increase in female participation both in production and consumption. This thesis takes Broccoli, an all-female produced magazine about cannabis, as a case to textually analyze how feminist narratives are used to appeal to their majority female and non-binary audience to a cannabis consumer lifestyle. In the analysis I have found that the magazine is critical to postfeminist notions of consumer culture, while simultaneously working within them in order to act as pioneers, holding a female-oriented space within the industry.

The traditional notion of the Male Gaze, first conceptualized by feminist film critic Laura Mulvey in 1975, focused on the objectification of women through depictions structured to gratify a male heterosexual perspective. In this chapter we will revisit this concept and investigate how that gaze may have shifted away from a primarily heterosexual perspective to a socially dominant male perspective (maleness here referring to dominance rather than specific gender, just as “whiteness” might refer to privilege rather than race). With gender roles in an increasingly global and mobile society becoming more fluid and complex, opening up visibility to LGBTQ communities, along with a substantial post-feminist backlash, we will consider how the male gaze is shifting and how subsets of objectifying “gazes” might overlap. I will explore whether the traditional heterosexual male gaze has shifted due to power backlashes and other developments. New gaze developments may take the form of the “bromance” as well as athletics and advertising. Included in an investigation of this “dominant gaze” will be an exploration into the possibility of a lesbian and transgender gaze – does each subculture have the propensity to fall into this pattern of objectified looking and if so, where is the evidence and what are the implications? That evidence will be explored through photography, film, dance, and other visual media as this subject is expanded through the emergence of variant sexualities and gender identities.

Si la littérature et la critique se sont abondamment intéressées aux figures du clown et du saltimbanque depuis le XIXe siècle, force est de constater que les artistes féminines n’ont connu ni la même gloire ni la même légitimation. Tandis que leurs homologues masculins peuplent les romans, les femmes saltimbanques sont peu mises en scène dans les œuvres littéraires et n’ont en général qu’un rôle secondaire. À sa publication en 1901, Lulu, roman clownesque, de Félicien Champsaur, change cette donne en plaçant au centre de son récit un personnage féminin fort. Le roman relate alors l’ascension et la gloire sans précédent de Lulu la clownesse. En nous attardant plus spécifiquement au traitement du corps de l’artiste féminine dans le roman, nous dégagerons le rôle essentiel que joue l’enveloppe charnelle dans la réussite du parcours de la saltimbanque, ainsi que dans les rapports qu’entretient cette dernière avec le public. Nous verrons dans un premier temps que le corps s’impose dans l’œuvre comme un puissant outil d’agentivité. Par la suite, nous constaterons que ce travail est mis à mal dès lors que la chair du personnage féminin devient l’objet du spectateur masculin. Lulu n’est plus définie selon ses actes, mais plutôt selon les termes de celui qui l’observe. Nous montrerons que le corps féminin constitue un enjeu primordial et ambigu dans le roman de Champsaur dans la mesure où il se situe au cœur de la construction du personnage romanesque et de son parcours.

In a heteronormative society where hegemonic masculinity prevails, beauty is often synonymous with, and presented as, feminine. For example, pictures of tall, thin women with perfect teeth and perfect skin gloss the covers of magazines and other forms of media as representative of some beauty ideal. This “ideal” is the barometer by which, on many levels, all women are judged. While some women may choose to ignore these messages, few women can always escape comparison. Our society constantly informs us that appearance matters. More specifically for women, a feminine physical appearance is often considered “ideal.” But what exactly does this construct, feminine, signify? Fundamentally, femininity is not static. To speak of it as a logical, simple construct is problematic for it means different things and is expressed in different ways in different environments. Furthermore, to assert one definition by which all others will be measured is difficult in that it presumes a homogenous population and/or idealizes one specific representation. In this research project I conducted in-depth interviews with 43 non-heterosexual women to discern how they constructed “femininity.” What did it look like? What meanings did it connote? When was it important and how was it negotiated? Applying a cognitive sociological lens and using grounded theory methods, I describe what femininity, or arguably femininities, look(s) like within this subpopulation. This project contributes to and extends the literature on gender, sexuality, and appearance. It does this by demonstrating the importance of analyzing non-heterosexual women’s experiences and understandings of femininity within a patriarchal society that valorizes hegemonic masculinity. Most literature contemplating appearance and related misogynistic messages emphasizes a heteronormative perspective. However, feminine and femininity uniquely impact non-heteronormative women. Non-heterosexual women must negotiate both misogynistic and heterosexist messages concurrently. By simultaneously addressing this “double” subordination or marginalization, this research endeavors to provide a more comprehensive overview of meanings and ramifications of appearance choices.

The thought behind this bachelor essay regarding gender and rhetorical feminist criticism developed years ago out of the fact that I read just a little too many dirty chick lit-pockets as a teen. Those chick lit-pockets were my first introduction to sex, to gender roles, to how men and women react and are supposed to react to each other and, in some sense, even to feminism. Those chick lit-pockets, later turning into hardcore Harlequin-books, became my benchmark when I started to contemplate the fact that this is a man’s world, produced and reproduced by a male gaze which influences everything from sex, porn, advertising, gender roles, jobs and payment to dirty pockets for teenage girls. The essays aims to show how the male gaze-phenomenon could be to use for the rhetoric discipline: first combined with other rhetorical theories as a way to analyze and understand gender and objectification. The main question asked; How to put the male gaze on a rhetorical leash? This bachelor essay consists of a qualitative literature study focusing on four articles and one book in which five different male gaze-perspective appears. Every article presented will be followed by an explicative chapter in which the articles, specific male gaze- perspective will be combined with relevant rhetorical theories and applied to pop cultural example cases in order to demonstrate its academic potential. The conclusion of this essay establishes that the rhetorical discipline indeed could have great use of the male gaze-perspective while analyzing different kinds of artifacts, if combined with different kinds of methods. It confirms that it is possible to put the male gaze on a rhetorical leash and explains five specific ways to do so.

Si la littérature et la critique se sont abondamment intéressées aux figures du clown et du saltimbanque depuis le XIXe siècle, force est de constater que les artistes féminines n’ont connu ni la même gloire ni la même légitimation. Tandis que leurs homologues masculins peuplent les romans, les femmes saltimbanques sont peu mises en scène dans les œuvres littéraires et n’ont en général qu’un rôle secondaire. À sa publication en 1901, Lulu, roman clownesque, de Félicien Champsaur, change cette donne en plaçant au centre de son récit un personnage féminin fort. Le roman relate alors l’ascension et la gloire sans précédent de Lulu la clownesse. En nous attardant plus spécifiquement au traitement du corps de l’artiste féminine dans le roman, nous dégagerons le rôle essentiel que joue l’enveloppe charnelle dans la réussite du parcours de la saltimbanque, ainsi que dans les rapports qu’entretient cette dernière avec le public. Nous verrons dans un premier temps que le corps s’impose dans l’œuvre comme un puissant outil d’agentivité. Par la suite, nous constaterons que ce travail est mis à mal dès lors que la chair du personnage féminin devient l’objet du spectateur masculin. Lulu n’est plus définie selon ses actes, mais plutôt selon les termes de celui qui l’observe. Nous montrerons que le corps féminin constitue un enjeu primordial et ambigu dans le roman de Champsaur dans la mesure où il se situe au cœur de la construction du personnage romanesque et de son parcours.

The purpose of this thesis is to shed some light on the stereotypical ways of portraying women in advertising. The thesis studies and analyses the eventual change in the perception of the woman in pictures for advertising, but also investigates the change in the business of marketing and advertising. The thesis assumes a method of a qualitative approach, with both induction and deduction applied to the study. The data used for this study’s analytical work derives from three semi structured interviews with representatives for the marketing business, and an analysis of advertisements pictures for cosmetics products from the last ten years. The study’s result has shown that the perception of the woman in advertising is stereotypical. In addition, the study has not been able to detect any change in the advertisements for women for the past ten years. However, the material shows a small change in the attitude towards a wider range of ethnicities. / Syftet med denna uppsats är att utreda och analysera förändringar i bilden av kvinnan i reklam för skönhetsprodukter de senaste tio åren. Tre forskningsfrågor har även formulerats vilka är följande: Vilka karakteristiska inslag finns i bilden av kvinnan? Hur har bilden av kvinnan i reklam förändrats och sett ut de senaste 10 åren i skönhetsbranschen? Har bilden av kvinnan i reklam skapat en stereotypisk kvinnorepresentation? Uppsatsen utgår utifrån en kvalitativ metod samt genom ett växelspel mellan deduktion och induktion. Studien avslutas med en analys som grundar sig i empiriskt resultat från en intervjustudie i tre delar samt en bildanalys av annonsbilder. Enligt arbetets resultat är bilden av kvinnan i reklamen en stereotyp sådan. Utefter studiens resultat har ingen egentlig förändring i bilden de senaste tio åren uppmärksammats utan kvinnans karaktäristiska drag förblir de samma idag som för tio år sedan. Däremot visar resultatet indikationer mot en mer inkluderande etnisk framställning av kvinnan.

Forskning visar på en lång historia av sexualisering och objektifiering av kvinnor i reklam. Vad forskning inte fokuserat på är sexualiserat våld i reklambilder. Den här studien är en sammanfogning av forskningsfälten genus och våld i reklam. Vad studien vill ta reda på är om sexualiserat våld används vid framställningen av kvinnor i reklambilderna samt den manliga blickens perspektiv. Studien använder sig av kvalitativ semiotisk analys för att undersöka om sexualiserat våld existerar i sex stycken reklambilder från tre stora modeföretag. Reklambilderna är från Calvin Klein, Diesel och Tom Ford 2016 och 2017. Det teoretiska ramverk för analysen är Hirdmans, med fleras, genusteori, Ekman och Mulveys den manliga blicken samt semiotik i form av Barthes fyra nyckelpunkter för konnotation och Goffmans kategorier om framställning av genus i reklam. Analysen visar slutsatser på att kvinnor objektifieras och sexualiseras i reklambilder och framställs som sexobjekt. Denna sexualisering och objektifiering mynnar ut i tecken på att sexualiserat våld normaliseras i samhället. / Research shows a long history of sexualization and objectification of women in advertising. What research has not focused on is sexualized violence in commercials. This study is a merger of the research fields gender and violence in advertising. The study wants to find out if sexualized violence is used in the portrayal of women in the advertising and the male gaze perspective. The study uses qualitative semiotic analysis to investigate if sexualized violence occurs in six commercials from three major fashion companies. The commercials are from Calvin Klein, Diesel and Tom Ford 2016 and 2017. The theoretical framework for the analysis is Hirdman’s, among others, gender theory, Ekman and Mulvey’s the male gaze and semiotics in the form of Barthes’ four key points for connotation and Goffman’s categories for gender advertisement. The analysis shows that women are objectified and sexualized in commercials and are illustrated as sex objects. This sexualization and objectification results in signs that sexualized violence is normalized in society.

Si la littérature et la critique se sont abondamment intéressées aux figures du clown et du saltimbanque depuis le XIXe siècle, force est de constater que les artistes féminines n’ont connu ni la même gloire ni la même légitimation. Tandis que leurs homologues masculins peuplent les romans, les femmes saltimbanques sont peu mises en scène dans les œuvres littéraires et n’ont en général qu’un rôle secondaire. À sa publication en 1901, Lulu, roman clownesque, de Félicien Champsaur, change cette donne en plaçant au centre de son récit un personnage féminin fort. Le roman relate alors l’ascension et la gloire sans précédent de Lulu la clownesse. En nous attardant plus spécifiquement au traitement du corps de l’artiste féminine dans le roman, nous dégagerons le rôle essentiel que joue l’enveloppe charnelle dans la réussite du parcours de la saltimbanque, ainsi que dans les rapports qu’entretient cette dernière avec le public. Nous verrons dans un premier temps que le corps s’impose dans l’œuvre comme un puissant outil d’agentivité. Par la suite, nous constaterons que ce travail est mis à mal dès lors que la chair du personnage féminin devient l’objet du spectateur masculin. Lulu n’est plus définie selon ses actes, mais plutôt selon les termes de celui qui l’observe. Nous montrerons que le corps féminin constitue un enjeu primordial et ambigu dans le roman de Champsaur dans la mesure où il se situe au cœur de la construction du personnage romanesque et de son parcours.

The purpose of this study was to examine which kind of expressions of the woman that were present in the selected advertising images and how they could affect how women are represented. A qualitative content analysis was conducted. The six most liked CAIA Cosmetics Instagram posts from their lipstick campaign in 2019 were chosen and analysed. The study used a denotative and connotative analysis of the pictures. In conclusion this study showed that the analysed pictures contained a sexualised, objectified, and stereotypic way of portraying women. We found expressions that showed that looks were more important than skills and that the woman’s place was at home being good-looking. We also found the expression of that the pictures sold the feeling of desire. The desire was built on a narcissistic notion of selfimprovement and an illusion of that acquiring a product will make you beautiful, sexy, successful, and thereby desirable.