ASA 141
Franchesca Flores
Photo from HerWorld
When women are seen in advertising, magazines, and TV there is always the question if the women are being portrayed because of their looks or the actual product and or story they’re telling. In the article by Katherine Frith, Hong Cheng, and Ping Shaw, “Race and Beauty” the authors want to get a critical analysis on Western and Asian women in the media and why there is a set look and identity for each race. The hypotheses that the authors came up with revolved around the theory that, “…advertisers in each country will attempt to display women in ways that are socially and culturally resonant with local fashion and beauty norms.” The authors took research and data based on the magazine's people bought in Singapore, Taiwan, and the US and reflected their five different hypotheses around them. Three out of five hypotheses were relevant to the research about the beauty looks, the models’ race, and what they were wearing in the magazines.
Although, I do want to point out some factors to consider when reading this article. The researchers took data based on the type of magazine people are interested in reading to obtain their research, but not all women take an interest in magazines nor can all women afford to buy magazines. So, there is a misconception of about the type of looks, preference in race and clothing in this study because it does not consider women from different social classes and other forms of media, just magazines and the women who purchase them. With that being said that question I want to pose is, do you think media reflects what is actually happening right now or what people are interested in seeing/hearing?
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