Laura Mulvey's theory of women being objectified and viewed through the eyes of heterosexual men is most relevant to the group's fashion advertisement production. According to Mulvey's theory, women are portrayed as passive objects to be looked at, while men act as the active viewers. This matches the dynamic needed for the group's target female audience to view models advertising clothes in a passive manner to be actively looked at. While other theories of empowered or performed gender may apply in other contexts, Mulvey's theory of the passive female best achieves the group's goal of persuading their target audience.

1. Representation of
Females
By Millie, Jenny,
Olivia and Katy

2. Laura Mulvey’s Theory
Laura Mulvey’s theory based on the fact that women are objectified
and viewed through the eyes of a heterosexual male. This male
would be seen as active, which would be looking and the woman
would be passive, meaning she is being looked at.
This theory can be applied to our production because by
creating a fashion advertisement, and considering the target
audience being around the similar age to ourselves, the whole
idea of genre is female fashion, therefore the models we use
would be in the male gaze, considering that the male would be
watching the advert and seeing the females showing their
clothes off.

3. Janice Winship’s Theory
This theory states that the female is complicit in creating the ideal
version of herself for a male audience, because of the gratification she
will receive.
This does not necessarily apply to our production because the models
will not be creating an ideal version of themselves for a male audience,
as that is not what our product is aiming to achieve. However, the
gratification they receive will come naturally the better they look, as it is
attracting more and better jobs for themselves. It could then therefore be
argued that the models may want to create an ideal version of
themselves, so that they so attract that gratification.
David Gauntlett’s Theory
Gauntlett’s theory can be applied to our production. this is because this
theory states that women are in control of their sexuality, however their
sexuality isn’t for men, it’s for themselves. This is because the models are
showing off their sexuality for themselves, to attract promotions and
better jobs for themselves. This can be applied to Gauntlett’s empowered
female idea.

4. Judith Butler’s Theory
Butler argues we are born a certain sex, but gender is
performance. A man is not inherently masculine or a female
inherently feminine. We perform aspects of different genders.
Gender does not exist outside of these performances. For
example, the act of wearing make up defines a person’s gender,
rather than their gender defining the act.
This does not apply to our production. This is because regarding
the fact that gender is performed, in relation to our production,
the act of a model showing off the clothes they are wearing in
order to persuade people to buy them can not be described as
performance, as the idea of getting dressed up and wanting to
look good is very stereotypically popular for our initial target
audience of 16-26 year old females. Having said that, for
example the act of wearing make up, as previously mentioned,
defines a persons gender, rather than the gender defining the
act could be applied here as there can be a number of models
who are very unstereotypical regarding their interests and the
way they act, for example.

5. Representations of females in advertising is very
broad, as there are a lot of aspects to consider.
We think that for our particular production,
Mulvey’s theory is the most convincing because
of the passive nature of the model advertising
the clothes. This is what we want to aim to
achieve, not for our models to be in the male
gaze, but reach out to our target audience. In
order to do this the theory of the passive female
must be applied, with the audience’s active
nature of being persuaded, and looking into
what the model is doing whilst wearing our
clothes.