advertising and self identity

advertising ‘encourages us to create our self identity through consumer goods and relate to one another through the language of our possessions’. For example, I might purchase doc martens not because they are a practical shoe, but because I feel they reinforce my identity as a queer leftwing artist type character.

adverts reflect social development: I have chosen to set my advert in the 80s - a time of financial boom (before the crash), a time of ‘you can have it all!’ Women are now feeling empowered to take up full time careers, however they are still the ones doing the majority of ‘unpaid labour’ (childcare, house work, caring for relatives). 

(This is still true today, where ‘Women carry out an overall average of 60% more unpaid work than men. On average men do 16 hours a week of such unpaid work, which includes adult care and child care, laundry and cleaning, to the 26 hours of unpaid work done by women a week.’ (office of national statistics))

‘From 1972 to 1985 women's share of professional jobs increased from 44 to 49 percent and their share of "management" jobs nearly doubled growing from 20 to 36 percent.’

Many women began taking more high pressure, male dominated jobs. This was empowering, for clear reasons, however it saw female liberation as women entering mens spaces instead of creating new spaces in society where equality was built in. Women becoming hugely financially successful in business is of course empowering to them, but they are still part of a capitalist, racist and misogynistic structure which exploits poorer women. 

This is shown in the 1988 film ‘Working Girl’, where a woman’s idea is stolen by her female boss and she takes revenge. The film shows that to be a successful woman, you have to fuck over other women. The film uses the classic 80s business woman aesthetic of the time - huge hair, big jewellery and suits with padded shoulders. 

This can also be seen in our current ‘girlboss culture’ - the idea that women need to be like men in order to be treated with decency and respect is toxic. ‘Feminism has been thoroughly mainstreamed as an individualist pursuit of success under capitalism rather than a collective liberation of women’ (bitch media)

“Girlboss culture is now ubiquitous. Somewhat miraculously, it has become a mainstay of contemporary feminism over the last few years. I see it everywhere: in adverts, emblazoned across notebooks and, ironically, printed on T-shirts made in countries where it’s likely a woman was underpaid for her work.” -refinery29

Men have created a society where only a select few are allowed to live comfortably and safely, whilst the rest are exploited and traumatised. Many modern feminists argue that we don’t need to carve out spaces for females in existing male spaces; we need to build new spaces all together where everyone is equal. 

We don’t need more female CEOs, we need no CEOs at all.

The idea that the way for women to achieve equality is to have a successful career is also damaging - this is inherently competitive, which means not everyone is able to succeed. It encourages women work themselves to the point of exhaustion whilst throwing other women under the bus.

So the idea being sold to women in the 80s was this - dress this way, be mean, and work until your exhausted - thats how you'll achieve equality!