The next steps

Advertisements that objectify and sexualised women in a domesticated kitchen environment reinforce old societal stereotypes (for which some are still relevant stereotypes today). There is an ongoing question to weather advertisement influences stereotypes or whether society and the stereotypes influence the advertisements. However, this is not my main focus. My mind focus is to look at how women are perceived through a male lens and whether that has influence on these advertisements. Something I feel links is the correlation between female being objectified for male consumerism. Objectification typically happens in a controlled environment, and when these advertisements were initially first created, they were created by men. Therefore, the women are being portrayed through a male gaze, a male lens. An idea I want to explore is how female body parts are represented by fruit in modern day society; how women are seen as something to be consumed reinforcing my idea that how men can literally be a consumer. A theory that links to this idea is the Marxist feminist theory and how female body is used for profit and capital within advertisement and marketing.

• Define what objectification is sexualization is:

Objectification: When searching the term objectification the first thing that comes up is a definition: "the action of degrading someone to the status of a mere object." (google, 2022). This term obviously applies to both men and women and is also done to both, however through my own observation I feel that is happens more to women which is why it is a key word within this project.

Sexualization: Cambridge dictionary (2022) defines sexualization as "the act of sexualizing someone or something" despite this definition not being gender specific all the examples the dictionary uses only involves women which reinforces my idea that it happens to women more.

·• Research the actual stereotype of women involving the kitchen:

With the setting of the kitchen being "traditionally associated with female roles" (de Lemus, S., Moya, M., Lupiáñez, J. and Bukowski, M., 2014) job roles that are associated with this stereotype are heavily domesticated and showcase women in a maternal light. These roles typically include "cooking, and cleaning" and " child-rearing" (Women's Health, 2016) due to women's supposed fragile and delicate nature. However there is the question to how this stereotype then lead to it being associated with the sexualized stigma. "there are many kinds of oral pleasures, and the associations between eating and sex" (The guardian, 2011) which is and has been part of our culture for some time despite it being taboo to talk about in public. However, "food-talk slips so easily these days into sex-talk might be interpreted as part of the more generalized pornification of everything" (The guardian, 2011) making it easy for the link between food, sexualization and women's kitchen stereotype to be linked.

• Find out what emojis represent female body parts:

Emoji's are commonly used in today's digital age and they are now used as a form of communication; this includes the use of emoji's to represent women's body parts and body types.

"the cherries as a euphemism for breasts and balls" (mashable, 2019), " Taco: Vagina" (Bestlife, 2019) oranges also have connotations due to its internal shape, peach for butt, apples and pears for different body types, etc. Other emoji's are used to represent women's bodies for example flowers; these other emoji's are something that I could explore within an practical output if my initial experimentation isn't successful.

• What is consumerism?:

"Consumerism is also a theory that places great value on the continuous consumption of goods and services. This theory encourages the excessive purchase or consumption of goods and services." (The business professor, 2022).

• What is Marxist feminist theory? How does this theory linked to marketing an advertisement?:

"Marxist feminists argue that working-class women are exploited by both patriarchy and capitalism. Most feminists think that gender is the most important division/conflict in society, but Marxist feminists see social class as being of equal importance." (tutor2u, 2022) Advertisements highly influential position on society is problematic and "many researchers have already proved that the image of ideal women as presented by the media today is harmful" (Kafley, K.N., 2016) not only does it influence men's expectations of women but it also creates a desire for women to achieve such standards set by the media. Advertisement links to this theory because advertisements not only create desire it also "creates gender distinction which is the key assumption of feminism" (Kafley, K.N., 2016).

References:

Best Life (2019) 18 Dirty Sex Emojis to Heat Up Your Sexts. Available at: https://bestlifeonline.com/sex-emoji-combinations/ (Accessed: 20/11/22)

Cambridge Dictionary (2022) sexualization. Available at: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/sexualization (Accessed: 20/11/22)

de Lemus, S., Moya, M., Lupiáñez, J. and Bukowski, M., (2014). Men in the office, women in the kitchen? Contextual dependency of gender stereotype activation in Spanish women. Sex Roles, 70(11), pp.468-478.

Google (2022) objectification. Available at: https://www.google.com/search?q=objectification&source=lmns&bih=714&biw=1536&rlz=1C1CHBF_enGB893GB893&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj1-abAt7r7AhUJQRoKHY3ZCsIQ_AUoAHoECAEQAA (Accessed: 17/11/22)

Kafley, K.N., (2016). Exploitation of Female Beauty in Visual Advertisement: A Marxist-Feminist Study (Doctoral dissertation, Department of English Janapriya Multiple Campus, Simalchour, Pokhara).

Mashable (2019) The cherry emoji and 14 other emoji you can use to sext. Available at: https://mashable.com/article/emoji-sexting-peach-dead (Accessed: 20/11/22)

The Guardian (2011) Let's end our obsession with making food sexy. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/dec/11/sex-food-obsession-nigella-steven-poole (Accessed: 20/11/22)

The Business Professor (2022) What is Consumerism?. Available at: https://thebusinessprofessor.com/en_US/economic-analysis-monetary-policy/consumerism-definition (Accessed: 20/11/22)

tutor2u (2022) Marxist Feminism. Available at: https://www.tutor2u.net/sociology/topics/marxist-feminism (Accessed: 23/11/22)

Women's Health (2016) People Still Believe Women Belong in the Kitchen and Men Belong at the Office. Available: https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a19934409/gender-stereotypes-study/ (Accessed: 20/11/22)