Gender Culture in Accessories

Word count: 1785

Introduction

As a special kind of mass communication media, advertisements underta

ke the important task of promoting commodities and usually cater to and inf

luence audiences' perceptions of gender roles in their communication, and t

hey often deliberately or inadvertently shape gender ideology to convey the

value or added value of commodities by stimulating audiences' emotions or s

entiments, so that audiences can obtain emotional satisfaction, such as ima

gination of social status, wealth and beauty, thus attract public awareness

and favorable feelings toward the product, which in turn leads to positive

brand attitudes and corresponding consumption behavior, while advertising m

anagers also usually incorporate advertisers and their own ideologies to cr

eate consumerist utopias that gradually detach from the real world.

An Analysis of SABYASACHI

Source: Instagram - @sabyasachiofficial, Oct 4, 2022

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 Sabyasachi is a brand founded by Indian fashion designer and jewelry

designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee. The Indian women in the picture are wearing

a variety of jewelry and the same style of clothing. Their bodies are simil

ar and proportionate, with clear collarbones and slightly exposed breast co

ntours, they stare at the camera or avoid it, their movements are gentle an

d reserved, using the curves of the female body, one of the important chara

cteristics of the differences between men and women, to create a sensible i

mage of women who are virtuous and caring. Moreover, what is revealed in th

eir eyes is not confidence, but more like "subordination". It is not surpri

sing that this ad was taken by Indian male photographer Bikramjit Bose. Und

er the male gaze and Indian patriarchal socialism, only young and slim wome

n with restrained postures and introverted personalities are the role model

s for women. Under the various male gazes, women are alienated and commodif

ied, and women are ritualistically subordinated to men, even in advertiseme

nts where no men are presented, and the code of femininity seems to be kept

under the control of male authority, who tacitly acknowledge that women sho

uld be subservient to men and serve them and their families. Furthermore, a

dvertising, as a way to promote consumption in the marketplace, usually pro

motes an image of the good life in the viewer's mind, and even though the c

onsumer marketplace cannot directly offer real products to its audience, it

can provide a beautiful fantasy associated with the product, wrapping and s

elling people's emotions by reflecting their "dreams" (Jhally, 2018). Sabya

sachi does just that, using three women dressed in the brand's jewelry and

clothing, with different depths of view, with the intention of shaping and

mapping a female society full of Sabyasachi through a miniature female soci

ety in the image, as if Sabyasachi should be an essential accessory for Ind

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ian women. Femininity is influenced by the culture and psychology of the so

ciety. In the ad, the women with large earrings, hands full of rings and br

acelets, and the conspicuous handbags in the rear view convey a consumer va

lue of beauty and luxury. The two women in the back row are more like women

whispering in the community or on the roadside, gazing, talking and judging

others, especially young women like them, as the ad brings out the beauty a

nd comparison mentality of women, conveying the ideology that "buying Sabya

sachi makes women envied and admired by their peers.

As a designer member of the Indian Fashion Design Council and a board

member of the National Film Museum of India, Mukherjee's designs are not an

awakening of Indian culture, but more of an Indian style with various inter

national elements. In the pictures, the women are wearing Indian style clot

hes which are exotic and indigenous to European ethnic art, imitating the c

olor choices of European impressionist painters, incorporating some element

s of Europe in their clothes and accessories, accompanied by a unique color

landscape. Such designs are more like a desire for the other, localizing Eu

ropean elements in India, hoping to maintain the myth of personal and natio

nal identity as "tolerant" and benevolent pluralist culturalists (hooks, 20

00). This cultural appropriation often exists around us, subliminally influ

encing consumers' definitions of local culture, gradually confusing local e

lements with foreign ones, and causing the continued commodification of eth

nic and racial differences. Such commodification will shape an inclusive an

d pluralistic ideology through the demands of the social market and the dis

semination of mass media, and increase the social recognition of internatio

nal localization. On the one hand, such consumer advertising will promote a

more diverse consumer market in India, which can be seen as an excellent lo

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cal integration of foreign cultures, but on the other hand, the development

of an Indianization of European elements will become a cultural devouring,

unknowingly eating and forgetting them. When looking back at the cultural b

ashing, perhaps we should reflect on whether cultural development needs to

constantly promote and retain the true part while adapting to the modern so

ciety, to strike a reasonable balance between tradition and modernity, and

to create two paths of development that are both parallel and cross-fertili

zed.

An Analysis of Cartier

Source: Instagram - @cartier, Sep 25, 2022

As an international luxury brand that specializes in designing jewelr

y watches, Cartier is a well-known brand, and the role of Cartier's adverti

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sing is not to be underestimated. In September of this year, Cartier releas

ed an advertising blog featuring a male model of the designer - Chang Chen

The sharp eyes, serious expressions and cold and seemingly aggressive movem

ents of the male on the poster are extremely in line with society's expecta

tions of men (serious, mature and resolute) and their self-positioning (men

as the dominant society, responsible for controlling society). Society gene

rally believes that women should be subservient to men and that the norm of

masculinity is ritualized domination, so the media draws on its discourse t

o guide audiences into a male-dominated society and to show male power thro

ugh images and textual communication (Kellner, 2018). This can be seen as a

form of hegemony, where all managers of the media industry have the right t

o produce and reproduce content and are more likely to generate and promote

ideas in their favor than other groups, especially in the advertising indus

try, which is flooded with consumer products, and where media practitioners

manage key social structures, thus ensuring that their ideas are constantly

and attractively presented in the public sphere ( Lull, 2018). In addition,

the ideology of mass media is constantly confirmed and reinforced through t

he interweaving and connection of a large number of information disseminati

ng institutions and audiences, allowing hegemony to mature from the express

ion of ideology. In advertisements, men are usually portrayed as responsibl

e, self-sufficient and often solitary; they are often successful, shoulderi

ng responsibility, having a greater influence or voice-power in a certain f

ield, and dashing. The masculinity revealed in the ads suggests that men ar

e the backbone and pillars of society, symbols of strength, creativity, str

uggle, conquest, and the successful men who sustain society. By continuing

to shape and reinforce such ideology through advertisements, it gradually g

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ained social acceptance and recognition that men are always more powerful t

han women, and that men are always wiser and more successful than women. Vi

rtually, such a social identity is a more effective means of control than c

oercion or force, and a society's primary messaging and the ideology create

d and maintained will guide and promote hegemony.

Comparative Analysis

Any symbolic text contains a large number of social conventions and c

onnections, which are hidden behind the text and actively participate in th

e construction of the meaning of the advertising text. Usually, advertiseme

nts incorporate materialism into the consumer behavior, which is dominated

by consumerism to satisfy people's endless desires and unsatisfiable materi

al needs, and is a symbol of status and taste. As presented in the Sabyasac

hi ad and the Cartier ad, creating a desire for a beautiful image in the vi

ewer's mind sets off a wave of emotions in the audience and stimulates the

consumer's desire for the goods. Further, consumer behavior is also rendere

d and stimulated by the merchants in pursuit of fantasy satisfaction, which

is reflected in both ads. For example, in the women's ad, the business port

rays women who love to dress up and have a sense of comparison. Women want

to be more beautiful than their peers, and the Sabyasachi ad takes advantag

e of this by creating a dream that "women will be more beautiful if they bu

y the corresponding accessories and clothes" to stimulate women's desire to

shop. In the Cartier ad, the company portrays the image of a successful man

and sees the Cartier ring as a symbol of a successful man, creating the ide

ology that "wearing a Cartier ring is a successful man", which makes them l

ook more successful and attracts more male consumers to buy.

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 Other than the consumer behavior rendered by commercials, the present

ation and shaping of gender roles in commercials usually differ according t

o the inherent social perception that men have a grand posture and women ha

ve a graceful posture. In terms of gender role expression, society generall

y believes that men are mostly physically strong, decisive and intelligent,

while women are often given the stereotype of being gentle and sensible, fa

mily-oriented, virtuous and soft-bodied. On the one hand, advertising can s

erve as a window to see the current situation and values of women's existen

ce, and on the other hand, it is also conveying specific gender concepts an

d female values, influencing the development of women's existence and the f

ormation of social gender concepts. Anthropologists argue that consumption

is not a social control, but a cultural and psychological construct that is

produced through everyday people's active engagement with the goods they bu

y and is a symbol of cultural values (Scanlon, 2000). Sabyasachi uses commo

dity culture through a male lens to create consciously chosen femininity, s

haping and transmitting femininity and ethnicity through elaborate (Alys Ev

e Weinbaum, 2008). Cartier, on the other hand, is more directly presented a

s a symbol of male success, and male merchandising culture more directly pr

omotes a male-dominated social ideology. All advertisements are produced by

the director or producer through planning, cleverly creating a world that a

ppears to be real but is not, through obfuscation, to influence the viewe

r's perceptions (Aufderheide, n.d.).

Conclusion

The female aesthetic cultural atmosphere created by the interaction o

f commercial culture and traditional concepts in the interests of women mak

es the subjectivity of men in the aesthetic culture and gender relations vi

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sible, while the passive position of women in the aesthetic relations is st

rengthened. With the development and progress of society, although the trad

itional stereotypes are dissolving, at the same time society is generating

new stereotypes. The pursuit of gender equality in advertising should not f

all into the misconception of female subordination and male domination, thu

s intensifying the unreasonable stereotypes. In general, it is the responsi

bility of both individuals and society to continue to work for gender equal

ity in the ongoing pursuit of consumerism.

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