The portrayal of women in Cleo magazine perfume advertisements
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Date
2002-03
Authors
Felix, Jacinta
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Abstract
Perfume advertisements sell feelings, fantasies and relationships by turning the woman's
body into an object of desire suggesting that purchasing the right perfume will mean that the
woman will acquire the feelings, fantasies and relationships portrayed in the particular
advertisement and thereby fulfill the expectati,on demanded by the patriarchal system. My
research hopes to come to an analytical understanding of the patterns of representation of women
in the perfume advertisements in Cleo magazine.
Chapter 1 will provide a general outline of how women are portrayed in the global and
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the Malaysian context. Apparently, there is a great deal of similarity in the portrayal of women in
.' the media both in the West and Asian context according to the stUdies done by researchers
specifically when .women are ponrayed as objects of masculine gaze. However, the main
difference is that the Asian media· predominantly characterize women within the confines of
home. Similarly, western media researchers also found that advertisements reinforces such
stereotypes by various strategies through male superiority, dismemberment and clovvning
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women's images according to the parameters of patriarchy.
In order to place my research on perfume advertisements in its proper context, I conduct a
brief survey of studies undertaken by some prominent researchers across the globe in Chapter 2.
Many researchers from the United States of America, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Korea,
Philippines and Malaysia state that the representation of women's images have not made any
drastic progress over the years, but is still haunted by traditional representation of powerlessness
in terms of male-female relationships and family. The research undertaken in this thesis hopes to
study within the conte:>..i of Malaysia, perfume advertisements in Cleo magazine.
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Keywords
Perfume advertisements by turning the woman's body , fulfill the expectati,on demanded