Culture Jamming
The Original Ad
The Meaning Behind The Ad
This is an advertisement for Weyenberg Massagic Shoes, which was featured in Playboy Magazine in the 1970s, a magazine that is meant to target specifically a male audience. This advertisement is problematic because it attempts to uphold women to traditional gender roles. It also encourages the negative stereotypes that women are less intelligent and their compliance can be bought with material possessions, like shoes. These will be the main issues I address with my jamming.
Noami Klein explains how the product being sold “is an idea, [and] a life style,” and in this case it is selling the concept of keeping women from excelling in society (Economics Documentary, 2015). The lifestyle being sold is the idea of sticking to the traditional gender roles, limiting women in the labour force. During the time of this advertisement, women were trying to move out of domestic settings and demanding more economic equality (Nicholas, 2010). This advertisement not only tries to discourage their advancement in society, but also mocks the intelligence of women, by saying, “keep her where she belongs,” while portraying a woman who looks distracted by a material object. This is problematic because it implies a man’s intelligence to be superior and that he can silence a woman by simply distracting her and keeping her away from the bigger roles in her society. The interesting part is that her facial expression in a different situation, for example caring for a child, could make her seem to be kind and compassionate. However, this advertisement takes that same expression and manipulates it to make her infatuated by material goods someone else has bought her to keep her compliant.
This image, combined with the caption, implies that women are economically dependent on the males in their lives and by creating this dependency; women will be less threatening to men and their traditional gender roles, as the breadwinners of the household and leaders of society. The woman in this picture is underdressed, implying that if a man buys women things, she will obey him and owe him sexual favours. This nudity is used to demean and strip women of their power. This further encourages the views of the superiority of men and the objectification of women in society.
The Jammed Ad
My Jamming Philosophy
In my jamming, I added “Or else she will take your job and manhood,” to explicitly and bluntly point out what the advertisement is implicating. I think that when the threatening issues of women being in the labour force and a loss of traditional gender roles where only men benefit, is surfaced, it makes this advertisement seem even more ridiculous. It also demonstrates the oppression women face because of the insecurity patriarchal societies have of women succeeding as leaders and workers, and the subsequent possibility of losing the power to control them.
In the image I altered the eyes of the women in this image to make her look like she is being hypnotized. I did this because it indicates manipulation and trickery, which is the way patriarchal societies continue to keep women oppressed and in traditional gender roles. I also did this because I wanted to remove the compassionate and genuine expression that was manipulated to make her look less intelligent, weak and inferior in comparison to men.
Though this advertisement is from the 70s, I think it is important to realize that there are still fewer women than men in leadership roles in both the corporate and political world. Women still do the majority of domestic work in a household. They continue to be oppressed, by the “sticky floor” and “glass ceiling,” affecting their experiences in the labour force (Immen, 2010). These terms are used to explain how women and minorities groups have barriers and difficulties standing in their way of advancing in their careers. Traditional gender roles still exist in our culture, with power being held by men. The idea of buying women things in exchange for sexual favours is still an expectation often seen in the dating culture of our generation, even many years later after this advertisement was featured in Playboy Magazine. The reality of the matter is that there needs to be systematic change, because our system is rooted with the best interest of white males in mind.
References
Economics Documentary (2015) No logo: Brands, globalization & resistance. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8O2BLeBguo&feature=youtu.be (Accessed: 25 February 2016).
Immen, W. (2010) Glass ceilings and sticky floors. Available at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/career-advice/glass-ceilings-and-sticky-floors/article1213630/ (Accessed: 25 February 2016).
Nicholson, L. (2010) Feminism in “Waves”: Useful Metaphor or Not?, New Politics, XII(4).