Week 9 - Qiuying Lin (Britney)

Qiuying Lin (Britney)
ASA 141
Week 9

It's not surprising that gender portrayals in advertisements mirror gender roles in society. The research in the article "Race and Beauty: A Comparison of Asian and Western Models in Women’s Magazine Advertisements" in the topic of the difference between Asian and Western women in advertisement attracts me a lot. Western women are found more often in Asian advertisement than Asian women in Westen advertisement because Western women represent more in the beauty of body shape and seductive look whereas Asian women represent the beauty of demure. Therefore, in South Korea advertisement, western women models are used to advertise lingerie. Because the liberty in women right is increasing in modern society, women models in the advertisement look directly to the camera frequently and become more confident for all countries, which influenced by globalization. Furthermore, the western women models and Asian models are used to different type of products in advertisement.

There are two points leave me a deep impression. The first one is that depictions of women as strong, professional, and independent are less in the advertisement. The image of women is always related to the household as the social status of women. I resonate with this because women could be a housewife and rely on the income of men in some family. In addition, the high-level position such as CEO is often occupied by men rather than women. This gender bias is shown in advertisement too. But women are gradually depicted in a professional image recently. I think this is beneficial from the women's liberation movement. I agree that women and men should have equal humans right so that we should break the stereotype. The second point is that openness in Asian societies to foreign models and beauty trends is revealed from advertisement because the western women models are used frequently in Asian advertisement. This show the interest in embracing globalization. I'm so glad to know that globalization brings positive influence to Asian society. But I still wonder if the globalization has a bad influence in Asian women advertisement? Why the difference between western and Asian women beauty has developed? I want to know more about the difference between men and women advertisement.