RUNNING HEAD: FEMALE BEAUTY PORTRAYED IN SAUDI ADVERTISEMENTS 1

Exploring the idea of female beauty portrayed by advertisements in Saudi Female DIFC female

students

[Student’s name]

[Name and section # of course]

[Instructor’s name]

[Date]
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Exploring the idea of female beauty portrayed by advertisements in Saudi Female DIFC female

students

Beauty and its perception have varied for quite some time across the people of different

cultures all across the world. Even though this perception has seen much innovation across the

centuries, the most variation that we see is across boundaries. In a similar fashion, the

discernment of beauty sees much different between the media of America and that in France.

Pamela K. Morris, K. N. (January 2013). Conceptualizing Beauty: A Content Analysis of

U.S. and French Women’s Fashion Magazine Advertisements. Online Journal of

Communication and Media Technologies , 49-74.

Selection:

Even though the article is not relevant to the perceptions of beauty in the females of

Saudi Arabia in particular, it does however compare how the perception varies across different

cultures taking the very common countries of America and France. As far as the question of

credibility of the source is concerned, the ‘Online Journal of Communication and media

technologies’ is one of the very prominent journals that specializes in theory, research and in the

evaluation of the media and its perceptions. Both of the magazine’s writers on the other hand are

affiliated with the very renowned Loyola University in Chicago, United States and all of the

above qualities make this article very quite reliable as far as the reliability of any sources go.
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Summary:

The article summarizes a study that investigates the differences between the concepts of

beauty amongst the Americans and the French. America was selected as a study subject because

of the importance that it places in the investment in advertisements and France because it is a

very illustrious cosmetic powerhouse. The study analyses more than 570 ads from the two

countries to evaluate the content for similarities and for variations in the ideas of beauty across

the two cultures. On comparison, the research found that American publications focus vastly on

hair care and makeup products while the trend was towards the lower end in France. The French

advertisements in contrast focus greatly on perfumes and lotions as beauty products. In terms of

appearance and expressions, the America media shows more smiles while those in French

Magazines displays bizarre and sexy postures.

American magazines lay great emphasis on trendiness in non-working women compared

to the perceptions in French media. The French magazines on the contrary show men with

families.

Evaluation:

The article very concretely explains how the concept of beauty is not uniform amongst

different people. Just like cultures seen it in different lights, people’s views of this attribute can

also different and sometimes more so amongst people who fit in the same culture. As useful as

the article might be at explaining these differences, it does not however shed any light on how

the concept is interpreted in women of the Dublin International Foundation or even in Saudi

Arabia for that matter. The article does explore one of the three objectives of the paper and

would therefore secure placement in my essay.

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McLoughlin, L. (2013). Crystal clear: Paler skin equals beauty – a multimodal analysis of

Asiana magazine. South Asian Popular Culture , 15-29.

Selection:

This article explores the topic from a closer perspective by presenting an analysis of how

beauty is displayed in ‘Asiana’, a magazine dedicated to British Asian women. The article comes

from a magazine named ‘South Asian Popular Culture’. The journal is a form of print media that

comes out with three issues a year. An article retrieved from this journal would therefore be

considered reliable.

Summary:

This article explains how lightness in skin is seen as an evidence of apparent beauty and

how Asian British women use different products to enhance this aspect of beauty. The article

also explains the downsides to the use of these skin lightening products and labels it as a price

that these women pay for their perceptions of attractiveness. The article also describes how

whiteness in skin has become a universally recognized sign of beauty.

Evaluation:

The article very successfully zooms in on one single attribute that has become the

generally recognized display of beauty and explains how different products can be used to attain

this feature. The editorial however is not helpful in the way that it does not shed a great deal of
The Female beauty portrayed in Saudi Advertisements 5

light on the actual topic under discussion. Rather than highlighting the features of beauty in

Saudi females, the piece of research focuses on a culture that is not under discussion and would

for this reason not make it on the list of my references.

Katherine Toiand Frith, H. C. (January 2004). Race and Beauty: A Comparison of Asian

and Western Models in Women's Magazine Advertisements. Sex Roles , 53-61.

Selection:

This article describes the relationships that are represented in the media regarding the

roles of men and women in the society. The article has been extracted from the magazine ‘Sex

roles’ which affords insight into the roles and stereotypes surrounding men and women. This

article again describes beauty in the two sexes but focuses on the people of Asia.

Summary:

The article once again compares how beauty is displayed in the people of Asia compared

to those in the west. According to the editorial, women towards the west are more frequently

presented in sexually provoking dresses than they are in Asia. In addition to their dressing, the

western model also posed more seductively compared to the models in Asia. The category of

commodities that were highlighted in the media also differed extensively across the two cultures.

Where the Asian magazines showed women posing for hair and skin care products, those in the
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west focused on clothing and accessories. The article basically highlights how the perception of

beauty is analyzed in two different parts of the world.

Evaluation:

Even though this piece of writing outlined very crucial differences in the beauty

depicted by the media in the west and the east, there was very little that laid down the

characteristics of the beauty in Saudi Arabia. The article is for this reason not very relevant to the

topic under discussion and does little to highlight the matters that are the main focus of the

research paper and for these reasons and a few more, the source is not going to make its way to

the references page of my essay.