Rosalind Gill's Portrayal Of Women

In Rosalind Gill’s book “Gender and the Media” she addresses the shift in advertising’s portrayal of women. Originally women played a very submissive role, often times appearing as a sexual object. Gill highlights that in postmodern feminist advertising women have taken on a new role, one of power and dominance. These women no longer appear as sexual objects but rather as desiring sexual beings. Often times this will mean women appear to be more masculine or controlling men with her sexual power, as if to say being sexy is liberating. This appeal to women’s liberation and feminist ideals is also seen in the emergence of what Gill calls “commodity feminism” which is a marketing strategy that uses the feminist agenda to sell a specific product.

Aerie released a number of advertisements captioned “The girl in this photo has NOT been retouched // The real you is sexy”. The company advertises to an audience of girls in the age range of 15-21 while specifically highlighting their appeal to “real women”. This campaign appears to take a risk and step out of the box by speaking against the frequent and excessive editing in the fashion industry. However, the commodity of feminism within the campaign greatly benefited the company with a 20% sales jump last year. This campaign holds the interests of the body positivity movement at stake by advertising in the name of diversity without any actual diversity within the ads themselves. Moreover, the ad pictured above carries both denotative and connotative weight. If the word “real” is taken at face value it would appear that the advertisement is making an effort to appeal to all women because all women are real. It means the model in the picture is portrayed exactly like her real life self with no edits or alterations. It seems to connote a positive and inclusive message. However it fosters the ideology that conventionally attractive women are young, thin, and white. It maintains the understanding of beauty that exists in our