Denotation And Connotation

In “The Fashion Industry: Free to be an Individual” by Hannah Berry, Hannah emphasizes how social media especially advertisements pressure females to use certain product to in order to be considered beautiful. She also acknowledges the current effort of advertisement today to more realistically depicts of women. In addition, these advertisements use the modern women look to advertise products to increase women self-esteem and to encourage women to be comfortable with one’s image.

The claim presented in the article is how ads often set unrealistic beauty standards, and how the author encourages them to “break free” from these standards by giving two examples on how ads should be compelled.

On a clothes advertisement, well shaped and beautiful women came out to introduce new clothes. In hair, clothes, and other many advertisements, usually glamor and really good looking women are main models of the advertisements. Not only in advertisements, but also in many films and dramas, the main character is always a tall, thin and beautiful woman. This situation can be explained by John Berger’s book, “Way’s of seeing”. John Berger is an English art critic, novelist, and painter, and this book is about how people can see something critically and find deep meaning of things, especially art paintings. In chapter 2, there are only paintings and photos, and no words. However, pictures in this chapters show explanation about the phenomenon. According to chapter 2, women always consider themselves and other people’s eye and are treated as objectives as sexual ones.

In our society today a business is not a business without an advertisement. These advertisements advertise what American’s want and desire in their lives. According to Jack Solomon in his essay, “Master’s of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising,” Jack Solomon claims: “Because ours is a highly diverse, pluralistic society, various advertisements may say different things depending on their intended audiences, but in every case they say something about America, about the status of our hopes, fears, desires, and beliefs”(Solomon). Advertisers continue to promote the American dream of what a women’s body should look like. They advertise their products in hopes for consumers to buy them, so they can look like the models pictures in the ads. Behind these ads, advertisers tend to picture flawless unrealistic woman with the help of Photoshop. In our society today to look like a model is an American dream and can be the reasons why we fantasizes and buy these products being advertised. “America’s consumer economy runs on desire, and advertising stokes the engines by transforming common objects;signs of all things that Americans covet most”(Solomon).

For many people in the world to see an advertisement and move past it because they find them rather annoying has become the normalcy of today’s society. However, if people actually paid attention to those advertisements the readers would find that they think some of the ads should not have been allowed. An ad for Miss Dior perfume was presented in a late issue of Vogue with a model who looks to be about twenty-four years old. The model has shoulder length blonde hair, a clear skin tone, and a facial expression that could be considered provocative. The model is naked and only covered by a dress that she holds up which still only covers a portion of her top, middle section, and private area. Despite this dress, her complete right leg, thigh, arm, neck, and shoulders are revealed. In the foreground is a Miss Dior perfume bottle with the words “Miss Dior and you, what would you do for love?”. In Jean Kilbourne’s Killing Us Softly 4, she states that advertisements often send certain messages about women. Kilbourne claims that unrealistic ideas of women are often proposed within ads, such as symbolizing women as objects and not people, or even the idea that if you are not beautiful, then you are nothing. In the Dior advertisement, a few of its aspects uphold statements made by Jean Kilbourne such as sexualizing models to sell a product, emphasizing the idea of looking young and attractive, and placing models in vulnerable positions.

The images of this ad include four females in their bra and panties holding each other. There is a gray background with the words “I Love My Body." When looking at this ad, one may see just that – only four girls displaying lingerie. However, there is so much to this picture than what meets the human eye. To some it may seem like it is nothing, they are just posing; however, some may change the meaning because they are in their bra and panties. All the women in this ad are tall, lean, and fit. They

3) In this essay, Bordo discusses how and where one is positioned, as subject or object, and in the moment of vision. The section, “Rocks and Leaners”, Susan Bordo presents an argument that the gaze and position of men in advertising give off a message of masculinity. She describes the gaze, and how it can show dominance. The male models are the objects in the advertisement and meant to create a certain reaction depending upon there position. There is the “face up, face down, and stare down” (182). She also discusses how often in advertising, the lean is used in a seductive way. The angle of the camera is used as a powerful tool in advertising to capture certain moments and feel that the product is trying to convey. Whether it is a seductive lean with a face of stare, the male model is trying to get the viewers to remember and focus on him, therefore selling a product.

The advertisement also uses emotional appeal to gain sympathy from the audience. The woman in the advertisement is staring right into the eyes of the viewers. Her eyes reflect years of struggle and despair and the tragic moments of when she is considered nothing but worthless. The audience of this advertisement is intended towards women because they are the ones being treated unjustly. The way the woman is positioned in the advertisement

The most conspicuous part of the advertisement is the image of the woman in front of a black background so that only her face is visible. This in itself is important because it is automatically making her face the focus of the advertisement and not her body. Unlike most advertisements in which a woman’s body is exploited to sell products to men, the UN Women advertisement draws attention to her eyes, therefore making her your equal, since you have to make eye contact with her instead of looking anywhere else on her body. She is completely expressionless, looking at the viewer with a blank stare, a totally blank slate onto which viewer’s reflect their own views. Even more important, the woman pictured is a Muslim woman, as displayed by her hijab. The hijab is widely seen in western society as a form of oppression by men, to make women subservient to them, and by juxtaposing an ad for equality with the

4. Students examine photos by Madrid-based artist Yolanda Dominguez which show just how distorted fashion, and expectations for women can be. Class discussion: What do these poses suggest about the characteristics and behaviours that the advertising industry attributes to females?

Applying a negotiable code. The audiences assimilates the leading ideology in general but opposes its application in specific cases.

Amongst all of these advertisements, a natural link is developed between the visual representation and the product/idea being sold. In the first ad, a masculine link of control and success was created between the picture and job, targeted for both elder men and women. For man, their natural state of superiority would increase if he took this job. For the woman, her natural lower class state would move up to that of manís. The perfume ad, on the other hand, is attracting female customers only. The feminine feelings of happiness, peace, beauty and truth are linked through objects from nature, such as the sky and clouds; and these feelings are stereotypically viewed as feminine. The third ad selling a vacation trip is directed mainly toward college students. The presentation of freedom, adventure and relaxation grab studentsí attention, especially for those who really need to get away from school stress. The ad targets all sorts of students, those ìmasculineî ones who are seeking adventure and those

Stuart Mill’s article on Denotation vs Connotation emphasizes the meaning of words which are a way for us to communicate with one another. He had his own theory on this article. His view on the meaning of words was that there was a distinction between the connotation and the denotation of a term. There are two kinds of descriptive values according to Mill. Denotation is the literal meaning of a term whereas connotation is the idea or feeling that the word implies; the conceptual representation of it. For example he states, “The word white denotes all white things, as snow paper, the foam of the sea, etc., and implies, or in the language of the schoolmen, connotes, the attribute whiteness. The word white is not predicated of the attribute, but of the objects, snow, etc.; but when we predicate it of them, we convey the meaning that the attribute whiteness belongs to them” 167). What Mill is implying is that the term “white” it characterizes the thing denoted by the expression. When we say the word “white” we think of these other things (snow, paper, wedding dress, white flowers) because they are defined as the color white. For instance, take the word home. The connotation of the term “home” would be a place of warmth, comfort, affection etc. “She feels like home”. It means that the person gives us a comforting vibe in which we can rely on to feel peace within ourselves. How it is denoted; the place where one lives (family members) for a certain period of time. It is

     The appearance of these models is the primary concern of the ads and entails many different elements. Every model portrays a different characteristic through the pose they are in and the clothes that they wear. One ad depicts a sexy young woman who shows confidence by extending her arms out and exposing her flat stomach. Her hips are thrust to the left side, her long beautiful hair is gently blown back, and her facial expression and eye contact hint at sexual desire or acceptance of the viewer. Another female model also has her hips out to the left, but her hands express a different idea. While one hand is used to play with her hair, the other is up to her face with her pointer finger right below her bottom lip. Her hair partly covers her eyes and with her head slightly down, she comes off as shy but confidant. The confidence comes from her exposed stomach and direct eye contact that she makes with the viewer. These two women are somewhat opposite in how they come off which shows that Calvin Klein is trying to appeal to what different guys look for and appreciate in a woman.

The real purpose of a nude image is to show the woman’s beauty, not her sexuality; this is the iconology of the image. This image of the woman in a seductive pose in the advertisement is meant to draw the reader’s attention to the product. The advertisers want to show how “beautiful “ this new fragrance is by having a beautiful nude woman pose for their ad. The art of the past that depicted nude women were meant to show their beauty also. For example, the statue of Aphrodite by Praxiteles depicted the goddess in a seductive pose, but the statue was interpreted as a symbol of enchanting beauty. Beauty is shown through sexuality and seductiveness, as evidenced by the nude women in the art pieces. This is also shown in the advertisement for the fragrance.