Positive representation of Women

The advert begins with the subject in a complete black outfit, which would stereotypically be a skirt and a short top, however here this stereotype is challenged, and we see the female in clothes we associate with the dominant sex (male). Her hair is tied black in a sleek pony tail, and she wears no jewellery, which again does not conform to the stereotype of women wearing earrings or necklaces to promote their femininity. We see in the background, images of eyes, which connotes all the attention on her, however rather than gaining the attention through the male gaze (Mulvey), by objectifying her, we see that she gains this attention as she challenges the male dominancy. As she scratches the floor with her heel, everyone turns to see her, and she is clearly in control, as all eyes are on her. Though she gains the attention through her powerful actions, we can still say that she somewhat conforms to the stereotypical female attitude, as she uses her heel to gain attention which is a very feminine iconography. Also she wears a very bright Pink lipstick and she squints her eyes to give a cat like affect, therefore connoting that women are sly, and very sexual, as we commonly now see how cats in specific are extremely sexualised in adverts.

She reaches for the perfume bottle which in this case if represented as a phallic symbol, as she lets out an orgasmic sound as she pulls it out from her pocket. This specific shot can both portray her in a positive and negative way. In one way we can infer that she is shown as an independent woman, who can please herself without having a male figure there (this can also represent her as the femme fatale), or it can show, that regardless of how powerful the woman is, she always needs a phallic symbol to please herself. When she starts spraying the perfume everywhere, the soundtrack kicks in, and we see shots of lights turning on, this can suggest power, and show that now that she has the perfume is in control, and therefore does not need a man. She starts to jump about, and in the end we see her in a very masculine stance, as she spells out “Elle” with her perfume, which means girl in French. This can suggest that though she is a female she can always have the control she wants as long as she has the perfume, which then represents her in a negative light as we can understand that a woman can get nowhere without her charm.

We are given a very feministic view on women in this advert. The subjects costume is very masculine, and we get a shot where she jumps and you have a high angle shot, and is looks as if she’s not even wearing a bra, which all lot of women decided not to wear after World War 2 as they wanted to be as equal as men.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTWmUItM01c (Link to the advert)