Week 9 - Race and Beauty

Elaine Yang
Week 9
ASA 141


This week's reading, Race and Beauty discussed several topics surrounding the depiction of women in the global advertisement industry. This article went in depth with talking about the similarities and differences between different commercial depictions of women throughout the globe. For example, more women are portrayed in more professional settings in Sweden, while more women in Japan are portrayed in household settings in Japan. It was interesting to learn about how these portrayals directly reflect women's gender roles in different societies. From my knowledge, Japan is one of the societies where women take a large part in household duties, therefore it makes sense that they are displayed in these settings to make certain advertisements more relatable.

Image courtesy to the article below.

(https://jpninfo.com/66836 - an article that explains the phenomenon: Why are there many women in Japan stay-at-home wives)
There is a rich literature on the visual presentation of women in advertising. While we do understand that gender roles have an extensive influence on the way women pose, dress and look in general, there are more to explaining similar societies in terms of other aspects.