Praxis or performance: does critical marketing have a gender blind-spot?

138

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a history of critical marketing studies

Tadajewski

2010

138

“…This article suggests, based on its literature reviews in this article, that there is strong evidence that 'masculine' values continue to attract greater prestige and remuneration than 'feminine' ones, and that these 'masculine' values are typically expected from men, and 'feminine' values are expected from women. Indeed it would be hard not to be sceptical about whether marketing has become more 'feminised', as previously noted by Maclaran et al (2009), and any discussion of the multiplicity and fluidity of gender roles and identities in a so-called postmodern, post-structural world may not actually match the lived experience of men and women in terms of the marketing roles they fulfil in the workplace. After all, material, structural and institutional realities are deeply embedded cultural ideologies that shape our work and life experiences, and employers can easily apply sex-typing criteria when assigning and filling marketing roles.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nigellissima: a study of glamour, performativity and embodiment

Stevens

Cappellini

Smith

2015

Aesthetic labour and emotional labour are neglected topics within the marketing field, despite their relevance to services marketing, and to date none of this work has found its way into the marketing literature on gender. This is despite the fact that there is a significant and growing body of work that explores the intersections of gender and marketing. Taking this latter literature as a starting point, the article seeks to incorporate the literatures on aesthetic labour and emotional labour into that discussion, as taken together these literatures offer us a fresh opportunity to consider where we are, where we've been, and where we have yet to go in marketing in terms of the 'gender issue'. Above all, the article reintroduces a 'trailblazing' (Bettany et al, 2010) feminist element into discussions of gender in marketing, by raising concerns about the deployment of 'feeling bodies' in key customer service roles. It concludes by arguing that there continues to be a gender dichotomy in marketing, and that sex role typing is alive and thriving in our marketing practices, particularly in service roles. The article calls for greater critical awareness from professional bodies, employers and employees in the marketing field about gender issues in our discourses and practices, and suggests areas for empirical research into this important topic.

“…Some early examples of ACR Gender, Marketing and Consumer Behaviour conferences challenged essentialist and stereotypical assumptions about sex, gender and gender differences, and was subsequently published in leading journals, such as the Journal of Consumer Research (cf. Bristor and Fischer, 1993;Hirschmann, 1993;Stern, 1993a The introduction of such feminist perspectives became a catalyst for edited books (Catterall, Maclaran and Stevens, 2000), feminist critiques of marketing's disciplinary developments (Catterall, Maclaran and Stevens, 2005;Maclaran, Miller, Parsons and Surman, 2009), marketing industries (Maclaran and Catterall, 2000), and education (Stern, 1993b;Catterall, Maclaran and Stevens, 1999;. Similarly, women's portrayal in advertising remains an important area of study at Gender, Marketing and Consumer Behaviour conferences to this day (Gurrieri et al, 2014).Marketing and consumer history has been analyzed explicitly from women's, and implicitly from structural feminist, perspectives (Maclaran, 2012;Tadajewski and Maclaran, 2013), though rarely in relation to theories of patriarchy.…”

Section: Gender In Mcr As Fundamental Difference and Structuring: Linmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reframing gender and feminist knowledge construction in marketing and consumer research: missing feminisms and the case of men and masculinities

Hearn

Hein

2015

Abstract:Gender has been theorized and studied in many ways and across different disciplines.Although a number of these theorizations have been recognized and adopted in marketing and consumer research, the significance of feminism in knowledge construction has been largely remained what we would call 'unfinished'. Based on a critical reframing of gender research in marketing and consumer research, in dialogue with feminist theory, this paper offers theoretical and practical suggestions for how to reinvigorate these research efforts. The analysis highlights dominant theorizations of gender, relating to gender as variable, difference and role; as fundamental difference and structuring; and as cultural and identity constructions. This reframing emphasizes various neglected or 'missing feminisms', including queer theory; critical race, intersectional and transnational feminisms; materialdiscursive feminism; and critical studies on men and masculinities. A more detailed discussion of the latter, as a relatively new, growing and politically contentious area is further developed, to highlight more specifically which feminist and gender theories are mainly in use in marketing and consumer research, and which are little or not used. In the light of this, it is argued that marketing and related disciplines have thus far largely neglected several key contemporary gender and feminist theorizations, particularly those that centre on gender power relations. The potential impact of these theoretical frames on transdisciplinary studies in marketing and consumer research and research agenda(s) is discussed.1 This paper builds on the paper, What's Love/Sex/Gender/Gex Got To Do With it? Gender, Men, Masculinities, "Marketing & Consumer Behaviour", 12th Conference on Gender, Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, Helsinki, June 2014. 2 Statement of contribution:This paper contributes to marketing and consumer research through presentations of neglected gender theories, based on reframing previous gender research in the marketing discipline. It finds that marketing has marginalized gender and feminism as political, and that various theorizations have been sidelined. In particular, it draws on developments in the field of CSMM to illustrate neglected theorizations. It concludes with a discussion of future research directions that centre on gender and power relations, and the potential impact of alternative gender and feminist theories on marketing as a discipline.Keywords: gender, feminism, critical studies on men and masculinities, marketing, consumer research 3 IntroductionGender knowledge construction is a central concern for marketing and consumer research (MCR), as reflected in this special issue. As a construct, gender has often been linked to feminism (Oakley, 1972). However, while research on gender advanced in marketing disciplines, feminism has often become muted, implied or sidelined, despite the opportunities it offers. The fundamental questions this paper addresses are: how is gender theorized in MCR? And, how do these conne...