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Title:
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GAZING AT THE BODY: A SEMIOTIC READING OF ADVERTISEMENTS |
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Author(s):
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Diana Damean |
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ISBN:
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978-972-8924-63-8 |
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Editors:
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Yingcai Xiao and Eleonore ten Thij |
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Year:
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2008 |
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Edition:
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Single |
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Keywords:
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body; gaze; gender; ideology; power; semiotics. |
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Type:
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Full Paper |
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First Page:
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167 |
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Last Page:
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172 |
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Language:
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English |
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Cover:
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Full Contents:
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click to dowload 
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Paper Abstract:
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The paper is focused on analysing the construction of male and female bodies as objects of voyeuristic pleasure in
advertisements, by employing semiotics. The core concept of my study is power, understood as resistance to viewers
gaze. Since media constructs womens bodies as objects of the gaze in a much more obvious manner, I will primarly
focus on the representation of the masculine body and on the devices employed in order to protect it from becoming an
object. On the one hand, the study reveals how power is negotiated between the actors in the ad and their viewers, and on
the other hand, the study analyses ads at three levels (denotative, connotative, and ideological), by employing a gender
perspective. Besides the denotative and connotative levels (dealing with cultural codes and myths), my interest lies in
revealing the ideology beneath the ads. It is there where power and gender are integrated in deeper messages promoting
the dominant social order as the normal one. |
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