Marketing Under Feminist Scrutiny

Authors

• Andrew Harris

Publication Date

1-1-2009

Abstract

At first glance, an ad in a magazine may appear harmless when left critically unexamined, but when studied closely, patterns start to arise that express male dominance which habitually goes unnoticed because male dominance has long been taken for granted. Laura Mulvey writes on phallocentrism in her essay entitled “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” and explains how to recognize the distinction between men and women in popular media. The most dominant theme in her essay is that marketers depict female characters so they seem like man’s opposite, suggesting that women only exist when defined by their “castration” or penislessness. This essay will project Mulvey’s observations on an ad for Diesel Clothing taken from the popular men’s magazine Esquire. This essay was originally submitted as an assignment for the completion of ENGL 3400: Literary Criticism and Theory. The class primarily centered around various forms of literary theory (e.g. Historical, Formalist, Feminist, etc.).

Recommended Citation

Harris, Andrew (2009) "Marketing Under Feminist Scrutiny," XULAneXUS: Vol. 6: Iss. 1, Article 9.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.xula.edu/xulanexus/vol6/iss1/9