This is just for me(n)

Abstract

This article argues that the official process by which advertising is regulated in the UK, when applied to the advertising of women's underwear, restricts and undermines, rather than encourages, attempts to renegotiate the discourse that surrounds the representation of women in advertising, particularly when it seeks to construct a discourse that questions the centrality of men to female sexual pleasure. This process judges ads on the basis of whether they are likely to cause ‘serious or widespread offence’. The regulators' interpretation of this ensures that lingerie advertising that represents women as objects for the male gaze remains acceptable, as do ads in which women are deliberately offering up a sexualized self-presentation, while images that seek to negotiate a discourse outside a heterosexuality governed by the coital imperative are considered problematic. This encourages the perpetuation of a conservative framework in which women can be viewed as objects rather than subjects.

Femvertising or femwashing? Women's perceptions of authenticity

“…Windels et al (2020) posit that these advertisements employ postfeminist discourses that lead to disempowerment rather than empowerment. Postfeminism is characterized as the reappropriation of some feminist arguments and the erasing of other feminist claims (Amy‐Chinn, 2006; Windels et al, 2020). Halfway between feminism and anti‐feminism, postfeminist discourses taint the authenticity of femvertising campaigns (Windels et al, 2020).…”