'Women Images in Magazines'

Portrayals of Women Images in the Contemporary Magazine Advertisements in Bangladesh

Introduction

In this modern world that allows consumers access to dozens of instances of media advertisements every day, it is important to be able to recognize and interpret advertisements on a deeper level. These advertisements are comprised of several codes and conventions that are designed to attract attention to certain attributes of a product in order to sell it to the chosen target market. One effective method of targeting and selling a product to a specific demographic is through magazine advertising. Magazines have very specific niche markets in which consumers purchase a magazine based on their individual hobbies, wants, needs, social class etc. This allows marketers to target a specific market by placing an ad in a magazine that their target consumer may purchase on a frequent basis. Magazines in many cases are gender specific this allows advertisers to target their ads and products to a specific sex.

In studying advertising, special emphasis needs to be put on visual images as nonverbal symbols. As a socializing agent, the visual imagery provided by the media can have a powerful impact on our attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors, since it can contribute meanings and associations entirely apart and of much greater significance. The images conveyed by advertising have become so sophisticated and persuasive that they now organize our experiences and understanding in a significant way.

Modern advertising depends on images, and images are symbols which can convey meanings as efficiently as verbal symbols can. Like words, visual images also function as symbols that create multi-leveled meanings that have to be decoded to be understood. Since advertising reaches millions of individuals, it has become targets for heavy scrutiny by researchers interested in the effects of the woman's movement on the media. Advertising has been accused of stereotyping images of women, and they have been targets of various studies. It has been established in previous research that advertising messages about women are often stereotypical, like woman's place is in the home; women do not make important decisions or do important things, and men regard women primarily as sexual objects. Advertisements have consistently confined women to traditional household or beauty/sex oriented roles that are not representative of women's diversity.

These magazine's advertisements utilize very different codes and conventions to appeal to men or women in the gender specific text. Semiotics, which utilizes the analysis of signs in a societal context, is a very useful theory when dissecting various media content. Specifically, this essay will examine the usefulness of semiotics in reference to magazine advertising through the analysis of advertisements of the fashion and life style magazines from Bangladesh.

This research paper will be focused on the contemporary way of portraying women images in advertisements of four different fashion and lifestyle magazines found in Bangladesh. They are, ‘Canvas’, ‘Ice Today’, ‘Ananda Alo’, and ‘Shananda’. The purpose of this study is to determine if the women in the advertisements directed toward different audiences were portrayed in different ways. Portrayals of women in magazines may cultivate beliefs or expectations about physical appearance, sexuality, relationships or gender role.

Hypotheses

A main focus of this study is to see if there was a common theme across the magazines in portrayals of women's body type, expression, and pose. Another focus is on how fully models were clothed in the advertisements, what type of clothing they wore, and what body part was the focus in the advertisements. It is expected that women in ads in all those magazines would be portrayed as more or less thinner, would be dressed in sexualized way and some body parts would be focused in a seductive way. It is also expected that there will be very few advertisements in which women are found posed in a respectable position. 

Theoretical Framework

Semiology

Semiology is a science which seeks not the open, clear meaning of a text or an image, but the meaning which lies beneath. It is mostly interested in how the meanings are created rather than what the meanings are. Saussure describes language as a system of signs which have meaning with the relationship of each other. He defines a sign in two concepts, signifier/signified and assumes the relationship between those two concepts as arbitrary. According to Saussure, meaning is a matter of encoding and decoding. A person who speaks a language encodes his or her thoughts by the means of words and transmits them to another person who speaks the same language. This person then decodes the messages and recovers the original meaning (Cook, 1992).

Pierce suggested the further types of sign: icon, index and symbol. An icon resembles to the signified (for example, maps and photographs). For the index, there is a direct relationship between the signified and the signifier (dark clouds and rain, fire and smoke). An index includes natural co-occurrences.  As for the symbol, an object contacts with the sign within a consensus, agreement or a rule (for example, traffic sign, punctuation marks, etc.).

Codes

Codes are complex systems which are learned in a society and culture, defines the norms accepted by the society and which relies on consensus. According to Fiske (2003), all the codes include a meaning and they are dynamically and mutually in relationship with the culture. Codes are not only systems which are used for getting data, but also elements which functions in communication and society.

Interpretation

Meaning is a negotiation process between the writer or reader and the text. That is to say, a sentence transmits different meanings to different people who are in different positions. In addition to this, Roland Barthes developed two concepts, denotation and connotation, which are accepted as basic levels of interpretation. Denotation refers to the meaning of signs in a text which is well-known and perceived in common. Connotation, on the other hand describes the interaction within the sign and the feelings, excitements and cultural values of the audience or the reader. Connotation is subjective, arbitrary and belongs to a culture.

Other concepts which are used in the process of the interpretation of signs are myth, metaphor and metonym. Myth is a collection of symbols and signs which describes a culture, a reality, basic beliefs, traditions and transmits them to the future generations. Within this sense, every society and culture have their own myths. The use of Roland Barthes' ideas regarding myths will also be utilized in explaining how mythic signs reinforce the dominant values of our culture in advertising. Metaphor is used for another expression except for the meaning of a word in a dictionary. Metaphoric meanings can also have national and regional meanings as they can have an international meaning.

Literature review

There are some researches already conducted on this topic in the context of different countries. But it is hard to find any work on this topic in the context of Bangladesh. One work is found on this regard, and it is about the overall scenario of the women representation in the advertisements. The research was conducted by a student of BRAC University, named shahida Akther Chowdhury with the title, ‘Representation of Women in the Advertisements’.

In the case of out side Bangladesh, the findings by Reichert and Carpenter showed that, sexual explicitness increased in women's magazines overall, but that most of the increase occurred from 1983 to 1993 (Reichert & Carpenter, 2004). The largest difference found in this previous research was the degree of clothing the models were wearing. In 1983, 28% of female models were sexually dressed compared to 49% in 2003. The way women were depicted in magazine ads also changed from 1983 to 2003. In 1983, women were depicted in a sexual way in 30% of the ads, and in 2003 it was 78%. It's obvious from the previous research that the sexual depiction of women in magazine ads has increased over time.

Other previous research outside Bangladesh in 2004 by Katharina Linder suggested that women in the female audience based fashion magazine ‘Vogue’ are depicted as more stereotypical than women in a more general-audience-based magazine like ‘Time’. The stereotypical depiction of women in such ads and magazines showed only a slight decrease over twenty years, in spite of the possible influence of the Women's Movement. The ways of stereotyping women in ‘Vogue’ and ‘Time’ magazines were found to be different. Women in Time magazine were stereotyped without using sexual images, and in Vogue the sexual images were the main way of stereotyping by portraying women in positions of inferiority and low social power (Linder, 2004).

In another research on this topic, Sırma Oya Tekvar (2006) found that in magazine advertisements female representations that are usually presented as fantasies are situated as sex objects. On the other hand, women are objectified by the product and promised a value, an identity. In advertisements the modernity and the independence of woman is associated with her sexuality. It was also stated that the consumers or readers are encouraged in ideal bodies.

Other previous research by Ilda Londo in 2005 about representation of gender in women magazine in Albania says that the portrayal of women in the magazines places a disproportionate emphasis on beauty, leading to the viewing of women first of all as sexual objects and not as complex human beings with a variety of features other than physical beauty. In addition the stress on beauty as essential to femininity also seems to place on women the burden of achieving this ideal at all cost, shifting attention from other important aspects of women in society and veering them towards consumerism.

According to the findings of Shahida Akther Chowdhury (2008) in the context of Bangladesh “the images of women found in the advertisements have the touch of the traditional homemakers or the sex object, women are seen as the beloved wife when she is able to cook good food, excellent daughter in law when she follows the tradition of the mother in law and a good mother when she takes good care of her children. Her role remains unchanged when she is portrayed as a career oriented woman. Though they are shown as a doctor in the ads, their only patients are their children. The gender discrimination is noticeable in the ads. Women are always shown in subordinate, subservient and male pleasing roles.”             

Data Collection Method and Sample

Content analysis or to be more specific Semiotic analysis of the images would be used here for data collection method. Qualitative data would be collected for this purpose. Because of time limitation a total of 40 magazine advertisements of different products and services are coded randomly from four different renowned magazines, which included ‘Canvas’, ‘Ice Today’, ‘Ananda Alo’, and ‘Shananda’. Two issues of each magazine were used and the issues are of November and December, 2010. For the advertisements these four magazines are chosen because these magazines are quite famous and follow the modern trends, and these contain many advertisements of different products and services.      

Coding System

The coding system looked at many different aspects of the advertisement. The categories that are coded included degree of face shown, gaze, expression, body pose, weight, body part focus, degree of clothing, type of clothing, product type, and whether or not the ad was seen as respectful towards women. The other category is body part focused.

The purpose, value and ethics of the study

The study is important because it will help to find out what is the present scenario of representing women images in the magazine advertisements in Bangladesh, and in a society like Bangladesh how sexually women images are being portrayed. This study is also important because these kinds of studies haven’t occurred that much before, and it will be helpful for some other research work in future.

This study has a possible limitation in a sense. The limitation is in terms of selecting the sample. Advertisements only from four magazines of two different issues have been selected as sample for the study because of the time limitation. As a result some fractional results may come from the study.

Results  

Weight or Body Image

The weight coding was divided into two different categories of thin and average. And it is found that in most of the advertisements the women models are thinner. The ratio of average body images is found less than that of the thin body images.   

Body Pose

The category of body pose was divided into two different categories of respectful and submissive or sexual. It is found that the ration of respectful body pose is quite less than the submissive or sexual body pose. Among the 40 ads at least in 25 ads the women are found posed in a sexual or submissive way. And in the other 15 ads the female models are found posed in quite a respectful way.   

Percentage of Face Shown

The portrayal of percentage of the female model's face category was divided into whole or most of the page and less than half of the page. No ads were found in which the face of a model covers the whole page. In some ads the face of the models covered the half of the page, and in most of the ads it is found that the face of the model covering less than a half page.      

Gaze

The gaze category was divided into two categories of direct and away from the camera. And it is found that at least in 30 ads the women models gaze is directed at the camera. In the rest of the ads the models’ gaze is away from the camera. And there not a single advertisement was found in which the gaze was not visible.     

Expression

The next section was expression of the model's face. It was divided into three categories of neutral, smiling, and seductive. It was found from the study that in 8 ads the models were found in a smiling expression, in 15 ads the models are found in a neutral expression, and in the rest 17 ads the women models are found in seductive expression.    

Degree of Clothing

The section of degree of clothing was divided into two categories of scantily dressed and fully dressed. From the study it is found that in 14 ads the women models are found in dressed up scantly. In 11 ads models are found in formal dresses or saaris, and in the rest of 15 ads the models are found dressed in a casual way.       

Body Part Focused

From the study it is found that in at least 25 ads the torso of the female model was focused. And in the ads where the women are wearing saaris, the waists and hips were focused there.

Discussion

The hypotheses were more or less supported by the data collected in this content analysis. It is seen from the above result that the out come of my study is quite similar to what I mentioned in my hypothesis. It was expected that women in ads in all those magazines would be portrayed as more or less thinner. And it is found from the study that in most of the ads the female models were found thin, although in some ads they were found in average body size. It was also expected that women models would be dressed in sexualized way and some body parts would be focused in a seductive manner. Some 14 ads of different products were found in which the models were dressed up in a sexualized way. So this hypothesis is supported by the collected data, too.    

Another thing was mentioned in the hypothesis that there will be very few advertisements in which women are found posed in a respectable position. And from the study it is found that in 25 ads female models were found posing in a sexual or submissive manner, and the rest 15 ads they were found. So this hypothesis is also quite supported by the collected data.

Final Remarks and Recommendation

So it can be said from the above semiotic analysis that in a society like Bangladesh the women are being representing almost in the same manner in the magazine advertisements as they are being portrayed in those of the so called advanced societies. Women are being treated as sexual objects, who are only there to attract the audience and to sell the products and services. In those ads women are represented in a sexual way only because they are treated as just a tool which could connect with the audience and attract them towards the products and services of different corporate houses. The women are just being the victims of the corporate capitalism.

One limitation of the analysis was that the categories were difficult to define because people differ in their views as to their definitions of sexual, submissive, serious, and so on. The data may have been different to other researchers. Individual differences and the way one person codes an ad may have been different than the way another person coded an ad even if the categories were specifically defined. Another limitation was only 2 months of the ads that were chosen. It would be better if the study could be conducted on the magazines’ issues of 2 or 3 years. 

In this regard further research could look at the audience's reactions to the models in the ads. Since the codes in the texts are nor universal and there is an arbitrary relationship between the signs and their meanings, it causes different analysis and readings. For this, it is recommended that further behavioral impact or perception research should be carried out in the future in order to reveal those readings. In this context, further research on this area would provide a valuable insight on the reinforcement or transformation of stereotypes in society, and hopefully with a solution on improving the situation.

References

• Text Book: Daniel Chandler (2007) Semiotics: the basics, Routledge Press.   <http://books.google.com/books?id=T3yKcMnQzE0C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false>

• Roland Barthes (1964), Elements of Semiology. Publication: Hill and Wang Internet Source:  <http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/barthes.htm> retrieved on November 22, 2010.

• Shahida Akther Chowdhury (2008), ‘Representation of women in Advertisements’, BRAC University, Bangladesh.

• Posavac, H. D., Posavac, S. S., & Posavac, E. J. (1998). Exposure to media images of female attractiveness and concerns with body weight among young women. SexRoles, 38, 187-188.

• Ilda Londo (2005), Career Beauty and Motherhood: Representation of Gender Role in Women Magazine in Albania

• Linder, K., (2004). Images of Women in general interest and fashion magazine advertisements from 1955 to 2002. Sex Roles, 51, 490-421

• Reichert, T., & Carpenter, C., (2004). An update on sex in magazine advertising: 1983 to 2003. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 81, 823-838.

• Julie M. Stankiewicz and Francine Rosselli, Women as Sex Objects and Victims in Print Advertisements.  Sex Roles, 2008, Volume 58, Numbers 7-8, Pages 579-589

• Women in Media advertisements (2008, June 06). Retrieved 21november, 2010 from 

• Mee-Eun Kang, (1998), The portrayal of women’s images in magazine advertisements: Goffman’s gender analysis revisited. Retrieved 21 November, 2010 from

Arafat Bin Asad

Regional Masters in Media Communication & Journalism (2010)

University of Dhaka

'Street Children'

Making a Little Space, Making it a Better Place

The location is ‘Rabindra Sharobor’ at Dhanmondi in Dhaka, a happening place for hang out. A boy aging 12/13 with dirty and ragged clothes is moving from people to people who come there, and begging for some money. One young man, who is a regular person to come there and knows that boy, gives him two taka; but that boy refuses to take that. He wants more saying that, “only two taka! Give me five taka. I want to have a cup of tea. Two taka isn’t sufficient for buying a cup of tea.” That young man says laughing, “buy a candy with that two taka.” But that boy again refuses to take that note of two taka saying, “you all r having tea, I want to have some. And two taka nowadays is nothing. You have to give me five taka.”

This is the story of a street child whose name is Rajib, a poor little boy who spends his days on the streets of the capital city of Dhaka. He has got a family, which is quite like having no one in the world. Because, no one is interested to take any care of whatever he is doing. He has got some friends around who are just like him, the street children. Rajib already has experienced so much in his life already in this very early age. It is a very common scenario in this city, like Rajib there are many other boys and girls in this city who are just fated to be on the streets.

Picture: a street child on the left, and on the right a mobile school for primary education for the street children.

Photo credit: Rashed and facebook group “street children –  Bangladesh’ vs. Child rights”

Rajib lives on a street area at Rayerbazar of Dhanmondi with his family consisting of his father and an elder brother. His mother died at time he was born. His father is a begger. And, to help support his family like his elder brother instead of going to school he was forced to look for earning some money that he could manage to have something to eat in the day. In a familiar routine, Rajib and his elder brother get one the street, walk around, looking for empty bottles that they would later sell. They started their morning by begging for food at local cafes. On a good day, the boys get some leftovers. On a bad one, they go hungry.

According to a study covered by UNICEF the Estimates of the number of children living on the street in Dhaka just like Rajib vary from 250,000 to 400,000. Rapid urbanization in the country has created pockets of dense slums and squatter settlements, each of which is home to thousands of street children. Children living in these conditions grow up on the margins of society, without appropriate protection, education, health care or guidance.

A large number of street boys have got involved in different types of crime as criminals use them as convenient accomplices. Poverty and wayward life of their parents, loss of shelters due to natural calamities such as floods and cyclone, drug addiction, bigamy or polygamy of parents and missing during journey from one place to another are among the factors that are responsible for a large number of street children get involved in crimes. Many of these hapless street children are being picked up by criminals for keeping arms, throwing bombs at targets, selling drugs and pilferage of food grains for small amount of money.

A key insight from the last two decades has been the crucial role of education in lifting people out of poverty and most importantly, as economist Amartya Sen has put it, ‘enabling them to live a life they have reason to value’. The Bangladesh government has made a strong commitment to achieving universal primary education and has been extremely successful in meeting that goal with a gross enrolment rate of 98 percent. However, these figures in many ways mask a grim reality. Poor children may be going to school but they don't do it often enough, which leads to poor performance and high drop-out rates. Reports show that in Bangladesh nine million children are out of school, five million of whom are engaged in forms of work, many in exploitative and dehumanizing conditions.

But, a good thing is some NGOs are coming forward to help these street children. For example the drop-in centre run by the NGO Aparajeyo Bangladesh and supported by UNICEF. NGO Aparajeo Bangladesh, which works for welfare of the disadvantaged children, has undertaken a project styled 'Protection of children at risk'. This project under supervision of the Ministry of Social Welfare is mainly aimed at bringing the deviated children to the right path and normal life by providing them with necessary supports to build up their career, said Project Manager Shikder Hadiuzzaman Bony.

Civil societies and some individuals who has got the capability of funding, are coming forward, too. A Dhaka-based civil society organization, is looking to make a real and purposeful change in the lives of the city's street-children. As Anita Aparna Muyeed, founder and director of Streetwise Education Foundation, points out, Bangladesh's poor children deserve the best schools because they need an education that compensates for multiple disadvantages. According to Muyeed, “The issue here, I believe, is about confronting stereotypes and perhaps also overcoming notions that only the privileged should have access to ‘privileged schools’. These are children without shelter, without mentors, without access to health services and food; these are children who need access to the best schools, not the other way around.”

Rajib wants a better life just like other underprivileged street children do. Rajib said, he has big plans for the future. Hearing about the UNICEF supported center, where they can sleep, eat, can continue their informal education and, most importantly to receive vocational training, Rajib got so excited. He wants to go there along with his brother.

“I want to earn money and buy a house for my family. I want to get married one day, and want to do something for my society.” The eyes of Rajib tell a thousand stories. When he looks at you, at first suffering and survival stare back. But, you can also find hope in those eyes. Hope for getting a better life, hope for doing something special and making some contribution for the society just as the other privileged children of the society. Because, may be from the birth assignment there is classification of privileged and under privileged children, but every child in this earth is special, and the can make some contribution for the society for sure.

It is just the matter of giving them the opportunity. Just as the great pop singer Micheal Jackson sang, “…..there are ways to get there.. if you care enough for the living.. make a little space.. make a better place.....”

Arafat Bin Asad

Regional Masters in Media Communication & Journalism (2010)

University of Dhaka

.