Symbolic Annihilation or Alternative Femininity? The (Linguistic) Portrayal of Women in Selected Polish Advertisements
The year 1989 marks the beginning of sweeping political, economic and social changes in Poland. Since that time an expansion of women into top professional positions can be observed. Data from the last national census (2002) clearly indicate that women in Poland are better educated than their male counterparts, increasingly careeroriented as well as aggressively pursuing managerial occupations. A modern woman is, by popular belief, no longer obliged to conform to the so-called dominant (Coates 1997) or emphasized (Connell 1987) [i.e. hegemonic] form of femininity. There appears to be greater social latitude for her professional development. The paper explores whether print advertisements (playing a crucial role in the construction of social identities) of certain products incorporate new powerful discourse of femininity. The three advertised products and services (cars, telephones, and banking) selected for the analysis have been commonly associated in Poland with the dominant form of masculinity. Consequently, it is interesting to examine whether women function there, and if so, how. The analyzed advertisements have been collected over the period of one year from three magazines addressed to the emerging Polish middle class. Drawing on Goffman's concepts of function ranking and ritualization of subordination as well as Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), I will attempt to determine whether the selected print advertisements reflect the new femininity in Poland.
References
Aries, Elizabeth. Men and Women in Interaction. Reconsidering the Differences. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.Search in Google Scholar
Arnheim, Rudolf. The Power of the Center. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1982.Search in Google Scholar
Barthel, Roland. Putting on Appearances: Gender and Advertising. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998.Search in Google Scholar
Belknap, Penny and Leonard Wilbert. "A conceptual replication and extension of Erving Goffman's study of gender advertisements." Sex Roles: A Journal of Research 23 (1991): 101-135, doi: 10.1007/BF00289848.10.1007/BF00289848Search in Google Scholar
Bucholtz, Mary. "Theories of discourse as theories of gender: discourse analysis in language and gender studies." In The Handbook of Language and Gender, edited by Janet Holmes and Miriam Meyerhoff, 43-68. London: Blackwell, 2003, doi: 10.1002/9780470756942.ch2.10.1002/9780470756942.ch2Search in Google Scholar
Carli, Linda. "Gender, language, and influence." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 59/5 (1990): 941-951, doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.59.5.941.10.1037/0022-3514.59.5.941Search in Google Scholar
Census 2002. http://www.ceo.org.pl/mojapolska/przeczytane/spis-200210.1145/504689.504690Search in Google Scholar
Coates, Jennifer. "Competing discourses of femininity." In Communicating Gender in Context, edited by Helga Kotthoff and Ruth Wodak, 285-314. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1997.Search in Google Scholar
Connell Robert. Gender and Power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1987.Search in Google Scholar
Connell Robert. Masculinities. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.Search in Google Scholar
Cook, Guy. The Discourse of Advertising. London/New York: Routledge, 1992.Search in Google Scholar
Craig, Stephen R. "The effects of television day part on gender portrayal in television commercials." Sex Roles: Journal of Research 26 (1992): 197-211, doi: 10.1007/BF00289707.10.1007/BF00289707Search in Google Scholar
Das, Mallika. "Men and women in Indian magazine advertisements: A preliminary report." Sex Roles: A Journal of Research (2000). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2294/is_2000_Nov/ai_75959822?tag=content;col1 (accessed November 2003). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2294/is_2000_Nov/ai_75959822?tag=content;col1Search in Google Scholar
Eagly, Elizabeth. "More women at the top: The impact of gender roles and leadership style." Paper given at 6th Interdisciplinary and International Symposium on Gender Research at Kiel University, 2002.10.1007/978-3-322-80475-4_11Search in Google Scholar
Eckert, Penelope and Sally McConnel-Ginet. Language and Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.10.1017/CBO9780511791147Search in Google Scholar
Fairclough, Norman. Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992.Search in Google Scholar
Fowles, Jib. Advertising and Popular Culture. London/New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1996.Search in Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony. Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991.Search in Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. Gender Advertisements. New York: Harper & Row, 1976.10.1007/978-1-349-16079-2Search in Google Scholar
Guendozi, Jackie. "‘‘You'll think we're always bitching’: The functions of cooperativity and competition in women's gossip." Discourse Studies 3.1 (2001): 29-51, doi: 10.1177/1461445601003001002.10.1177/1461445601003001002Search in Google Scholar
Grabowska, Magda. "Nowy kontrakt płci w Polsce." In W drodze do Unii Europejskiej, 15-17. Warszawa: Fundacja im. Heinricha Bolla, 2002.Search in Google Scholar
Holmes, Jennifer. "Women, language and identity." Journal of Sociolinguistics 1.2 (1997): 195-223, doi: 10.1111/1467-9481.00012.10.1111/1467-9481.00012Search in Google Scholar
Hupfer, Maureen. "Communicating with the agentic woman and the communal man: Are stereotypic advertising appeals still relevant?" Academy for Marketing Science Review. http://www.amsreview.org/articles/hupfer03-2002.pdf (accessed December 2003). http://www.amsreview.org/articles/hupfer03-2002.pdfSearch in Google Scholar
Jhally, Sut. The Codes of Advertising: Fetishism and the Political Economy of Meaning in the Consumer Society. New York: Routledge, 1990.Search in Google Scholar
Kress, Gunther and Theo van Leeuwen. Reading Images. The Grammar of Visual Design. London/New York: Routledge, 1996.Search in Google Scholar
Kwiatkowska, Anna. "Siła tradycji i pokusa zmian, czyli o stereotypach płciowych." In Męskość-Kobiecość w Perspektywie Indywidualnej i Kulturowej, edited by Jolanta Miluska and Paweł Boski, 143-172. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Instytutu Psychologii PAN, 1999.Search in Google Scholar
Lazar, Michelle. "Consuming personal relationships: The achievement of feminine self-identity through other-centerdness." In Gender, Identity and Discourse Analysis, edited by Lia Litosseliti and Jane Sunderland, 111-128. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins, 2002.Search in Google Scholar
Litosseliti, Lia and Jane Sunderland. Gender, Identity and Discourse Analysis. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins, 2002.10.1075/dapsac.2Search in Google Scholar
Meyers-Levy, Joan. "The influence of sex roles on judgment." Journal of Consumer Research 14 (1988): 522-530, doi: 10.1086/209133.10.1086/209133Search in Google Scholar
Meyers-Levy, Joan. "Gender differences in information processing: A selectivity interpretation." In Cognitive and Affective Responses to Advertising, edited by Patricia Cafferata and Alice Tybout, 219-260. Lexington and Toronto: Lexington Books, 1989.Search in Google Scholar
Mclaughlin, Tara. "Gender advertisements in magazines aimed at African Americans: A comparison to their occurrence in magazines aimed at Caucasians." Sex Roles: A Journal of Research (1999). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2294/is_1_40/ai_54250819?tag=content;col1 (accessed November 2003). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2294/is_1_40/ai_54250819?tag=content;col1Search in Google Scholar
Modelski, Tania. "Femininity as mas(s)querade: A feminist approach to mass culture." In High Theory/Low Culture, edited by Colin MacCabe, 37-52. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1986.Search in Google Scholar
O'Barr, William M. Culture and the Ad: Exploring Otherness in the World of Advertising. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1994.Search in Google Scholar
Piller, Ingrid. "Identity constructions in multilingual advertising." Language in Society 30.2 (2001): 153-186.10.1017/S0047404501002019Search in Google Scholar
Siemieńska, Renata. "Rola rodziny w sferze życia prywatnego i publicznego. Akceptowane modele i czynniki je kształtujące." In Męskość-kobiecość w perspektywie indywidualnej i kulturowej, edited by Jolanta Miluska and Paweł Boski, 208-222. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Instytutu Psychologii PAN, 1999.Search in Google Scholar
Strinati, Dominic. An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture. London/New York: Routledge, 1995.Search in Google Scholar
Środa, Magdalena. "Być kobietą w Polsce. Kobieta domowa." Wysokie Obcasy 16 czerwca (2001): 30-34.Search in Google Scholar
Tuchman, Gaye. "The symbolic annihilation of women by the mass media." In The Manufacture of News: Social Problems, Deviance, and the Mass Media, edited by Stanely Cohen and Jock Young, 169-185. London: Constable, 1981.Search in Google Scholar
Twardowska, Anna and Eliza Olczyk. "Kobiety w Polsce w latach 90-tych. Kobiety w mediach." (2003). http://free.ngo.pl/temida/rapmedia.htmSearch in Google Scholar
Williams, Raymond. "Advertising: The magic system." In Problems in Materialism and Culture: Selected Essays, edited by Raymond Williams, 170-195. London: Verso, 1980.Search in Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth. "Preface to Critical Discourse Analysis in postmodern societies." Folia Linguistica XXXV (2001): 1-10.10.1515/flin.2001.35.1-2.1Search in Google Scholar
van Leeuwen, Theo. "Genre and field in Critical Discourse Analysis: A synopsis." Discourse & Society 4 (1993): 193-225.10.1177/0957926593004002004Search in Google Scholar
Vigorito, Anthony, J. and Timothy J. Curry. "Marketing masculinity: Gender identity and popular magazines." Sex Roles: A Journal of Research (1998). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2294/is_n1-2_v39/ai_21136466?tag=content;col1 (accessed November 2003). http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2294/is_n1-2_v39/ai_21136466?tag=content;col1Search in Google Scholar
This content is open access.
