The Madonna/whore complex
A Freudian concept, the Madonna/whore complex demonstrates a patriarchal desire for women to simultaneously be virginal, pure, and yet sexually available.
It presents an impossible expectation of women
Interpellation and how media subjectifies us
The Marxist theorist Louis Althusser argued that media/culture/society doesn’t simply address us, it shapes us.
This idea is also fundamental to Stuart Hall’s work on representation AND audience. But, if nothing else, Althusser gives us this particular word for this very particular phenomenon: interpellation.
Media theorist David Gauntlett argues that "interpellation occurs when a person connects with a media text: when we enjoy a magazine or TV show, for example, this uncritical consumption means that the text has interpellated us into a certain set of assumptions, and caused us to tacitly accept a particular approach to the world."[11] – Wikipedia lol
How does social media interpellate us?
Social media content is dictated through complex algorithms which are powered through our interactions and engagement. This method of shaping audiences allows audiences to come to the common assumption that our likes and dislikes can be measured
A mode of relatability is constructed through agreeable content that poses foregone conclusion
Controversial arguments and viewpoints gain precedence, constructing an ideology that the world in a binary and divided
It is hard to even remember our engagements, reinforcing a worldview that our interactions have no meaning
We are also interpellated as consumers, consumers of promoted posts, of paid for adverts and consumer products, situating us within a consumerist ideology, and reinforcing the ideology that we are weak, easily influenced targets
How does Woman magazine construct a brand identity that is distinct from competitors like Vogue? And how does it shape, position, construct and interpellate audiences?
Interpellation refers to how a media product addresses an audience in a way that shapes its ideological perspectives
- Vogue is high end, and constructs a sophisticated mode of address through the MES of the costume of Lauren. The jewellery is out there, and signifies confidence and sophistication. However Woman magazine constructs a working class woman who is far more stereotypical and even relatable to the target audience.
- Both models construct completely different address/ In WOman, the nameless model looks directly at the audience with a nervous yet friendly smile. Not so for vogue, which constructs an intimidating and judgy mode of address. Vogue situates the audience with an aggressive address, which intimidates and forces them to want to improve. Additionally, Vogue is exclusionary. The cold stare of the model, anchored through it’s hefty cover price, 6x the price of woman, constructs an exclusive brand identity.
- Vogue is more progressive… even if the model is wearing dark makeup to connote foreignness! It encodes a sense of exoticism
- The colour schemes are fundamentally different. The soft pinks and yellows construct stereotypical femininity, that women are gentle and soft. Vogue on the other hand uses dramatic, clashing, vibrant colours, especially blue which has connotations of masculine. Here the model is constructed as strong and powerful.
- In Woman, the MES of makeup constructs an ideology of natural beauty, of a beauty standard which is realistic and attainable for the female target audience. However, Vogue presents a vision of beauty which is unattainable for many social classes. Here the model’s beauty is constructed through expensive jewellery and bold makeup that subverts the hegemonic norms of the time
- The facial expression of the vogue model is relaxed, yet in control. She views the audience with a domineering look of contempt. Vogue here constructs an audience who desperately wish to attain these prestigious standards. However, the model in WOman addresses the audience with a representation that reflects the audience. The model’s nervous expression also suggests the audience get along with her
- Finally, woman reinforces the social myth constructed where working class women can only identify with other working class women. By constructing a sense of working class identity, it constructs and appeals to a working class target audience
An exploration of the Breeze soap advert: how does this advert interpellate, subjectify, talk to its audience and construct complex ideological perspectives using media language?
Positioning
Anchorage
Voyeurism
The male gaze
Intra/extradiegetic gaze
Spectacle
Dominant ideology
(Patriarchal) hegemony
Lexis
The main image uses a hegemonically attractive woman. Appearing to be in her 20s, she is younger than the majority of the target audience, constructing a hegemonic and aspirational representation for the target audience. This aspiration is clearly unattainable for the vast majority of the audience.
The model is extremely hegemonically attractive. She is slim, yet has curvy features, including large breasts. She has a full face of makeup, and the MES of her kiss semiotically encodes desireability, and being sexually available to men.
Her hair is stylishly messy, and she does not resemble a drowned rat, constructing a hyperreal representation of having a bath. Here baths function solely to allow women to appear desirable to a perceived male audience.
However, this advert features a void of male representation. In fact, the article begins with the telling lexis “because you are a woman”, which interpellates the audiences as women, and suggests that soap functions only to clean women. Soap serves the function of making us clean. However in this advert, soap serves the function of making the model, and by extension the target audience feminine.
The lexis is highly leading, and seems to take the perspective of a mother, a maternal mode of address that interpellates the audience as a young and naive child who must be told.
The model is sexualised through the combination of her hegemonic attractiveness, her seductive pose, the shape of her breasts, the curve of her buttocks, all emphasised through the MES of wet soapy water, and she resembles a Playboy model
Comparing this advert with a contemporary cover of Playboy magazine raises a number of observations. One is that in this advert, the model is completely nude, unlike most Playboy covers of the time, leaving the Breeze soap model arguably more sexualised, though to a completely different audience. Additionally the Breeze soap advert has an almost fetishistic emphasis on the body of the model, with the model’s breasts being fetishistically and voyeuristically encoded. The audience are also encouraged to adopt a voyeuristic mode of address, taking pleasure at seeing a nude woman. Contrasted with Playboy cover, we see a model who actively acknowledges an active audience, constructing a simulation of consent and agency. Additionally, the Playboy model does not have wet skin, while the wet skin of the Breeze soap model reinforces a fetishistic and hypersexualised ideal of women .
However, the model has drawn a rabbit on her midriff, the MES here being connotative of childishness, and even being underage.
Why??
It is assumed that the target audience are married, and thus cohabiting with their husbands, a middle aged hetrosexual secondary audience who may read the magazine at some point. The scandalous image therefore could be intended for a secondary male audience.
Additionally, this hypersexualised representation of a woman could function as an aspirational norm for the target audience. However, this hyperreal simulacrum constructs a sense of anxiety and confusing, while also distracting us from the very real problems facing us.
By forcing the audience in to an anxiety over trivial matters, a redirection of anxiety over world events is funnaled ack into a capitalist system of profit, a manipulation of the populace in general
In addition, the magazine constructs an anxiety about existing as a woman in a patriarchal system. The only way to alleviate this anxiety is to purchase the magazine every week. A self-perpetuating feedback loop.
The main image presents a highly sexualised representation of a hegemonically attractive woman., The selection of the model is crucial to this construction, as the model appears to fulfil a male fantasy. Firstly she is naked. She covers her body in a manner that symbolically suggests her vulnerability, presenting a hegemonic patriarchal fantasy. Additionally her facial expression is performatively pouty, constructing a seductive address for the heterosexual female audience. Here, the mode is aspirational, yet it is also explicitly sexual.
This is further reinforced through the lexis. “To be sure you’re all over feminine, all over fresh’, constructing an ideology that to be feminine is to be clean. This sexist stereotype is presented to audiences to position them as dirty, unclean and therefore unfeminine. Like the rest of the magazine, the advert cultivates insecurity and anxiety. This anxiety is therefore a key mechanism of a capitalist society.
The model is hunched and sitting in a position that is performatively modest. This connotes that she is concealing her nudity. THis constructs an ideology of purity and innocence. Even though this model is heavily sexual, she is also constructed as virginal. This example of the Madonna/Whore complex reinforces unrealistic expectations for both men and women
Additionally, the model positions the audience in a voyeuristic manner. We are positioned watching the model, front on, mid shot, invading her privacy. However the model is unaware of the audience, with her unawareness counting a childlike innocence. This childishness is emphasised through her playful and childlike gesture, Additionally, the model is clearly taking a leisurely bath, symbolising a lack of important things to do
The model selected has a full and curvy body, while also being skinny: a hegemonically desirable and difficult to obtain body type. Her shape is emphasis through the MES of water, causing her body to glisten, symbolically encoding eroticism
The lack of a bath allows the audience to view her body without distraction, again emphasising a voyeuristic mode.
This hypersexualised representation presents an aspirational mode of address. It presents women at the time as passive subjects, who construct their lives not by active engagement with the world, but through the pleasure of consumerism
The model also has a full face of heavy makeup, and carefully made up hair, constructing a fantasy of always being beautiful, of always being desirable in any situation, even where it is completely unattainable and impossible. This hyperreal construct constructs a sense of overwhelming confusion and anxiety
