Rachel Bowlby points out that the growth of stores dragged out women from their homes to the public sphere. This produced to them a pleasure in looking and buying, making them be the responsible in evaluating and making decisions, something totally revolutionary at the time. This acquired position of consumers had quickly an effect in the emerging mass media in Britain as well as in USA. In 1930's the 80 and 85 per cent of all consumption was attributed to women according to advertising trade journals.
Alfred Harmsworth (also known as Lord Northcliffe) started two weekly magazines for women that became very popular: Home Chat (topicality in feminine sphere and discourse) and Daily Mirror ('for gentlewomen'). These magazines had as goal to sell rather than supporting any kind of feminism. Harmsworth claimed that 'women are the holders of the domestic purse-strings... They are the real buyers. Men buy what women tell them to' (quoted in LeMahieu, 1988, p.34).
Famous actors and actresses set standards of appearance that affected women's choices as consumers. As Jackie Stacey identified, 40's and 50's female fans identified with these idols, objectifying them as something desirable and imitating hairstyles and clothes. Soap operas was the obvious combination of film and advertisement, selling certain products in an addictive narrative that kept women interested.
In this period there were three main constructions of femininity that were above the rest: the capable household manager; the guilt-ridden mother; and the self-indungent 'flapper'. These stereotypes were just 'manufactured versions of feminine responsibilities or aspirations that had a particular resonance for women of the period'.
In another section called 'Independent but still feminine', where in 1970's the feminists began the war against sexism, Macdonald highlights that feminists were criticised for ignoring the reality. For instance, that most women see themselves as housewives 'and a high proportion of products are aimed at women in their traditional role rather than in their business role' (ASA spokesperson quoted in The Guardian, 26 June 1978). Moreover, there were commercial reasons to keep this 'reality' alive rather than ideological ones.
In 1970's advertising agencies were not entirely closed to a debate about women's new roles and aspirations, and although they were quite reluctant with feminist demands, advertising techniques started to change the way women were represented, now as individuals rather than mere established stereotypes. Those advertisers that addressed young women as unique in style and aspirations had way more sales in cosmetics and fashion. For instance, 'Triumph advertised bras 'for the way you are', but the images were still of feminine women'. In the mid 80's the type of caption remained the same, but the images embraced different kinds of women: the tender mother, the holiday-maker or the art lover, to name a few. Daily Mail exploited different set of identities to engage with its caption 'behind every successful woman there's a Daily Mail'. Other products like perfumes also jumped onto the back of the individualism idea. Cachet illustrated the caption 'A fragrance as individual as you are' (She, November 1978). Or Blasé with another similar caption: 'It's not what you wear: it's the way you wear it'.
These were hints that feminism was around, but not the only ones. An androgenic style also got into the picture to supply the "need of a man". A Revlon caption in 1973 claimed: 'Independent and not needing a man, but still feminine, not into women's lib'. Some female models were dressed like men in advertisements in roles of power, which increased their sexual appeal - despite the opposite was expected. This ideas are far from feminism, as they mean that 'women's equality meant becoming more like a man'.
Many of the advertisements of 1970's completely ignored feminism and remained reproducing women as good wives and mothers. Although, in this period it was uncertain the representation the advertisers wanted to give to women, and feminism was not very attractive for them. It was then when the Equal Opportunities Commission in Britain published the results of their own research where they compared traditional and modern adverts to sell the same products. As expected, women would be inclined to buy products that are advertised from a more updated perspective.
The following Camay soap advert is written by an all-woman team and it was released in early 1980's. An EOC study confirmed that it was much preferred than previous ones. Although, in 1983 a man was reintroduce to the advert as a market research pointed out that women 'wanted romantic connotations to be more explicitly articulated. Pleasing oneself was not very acceptable at the time within advertising discourse, even less acceptable if it involved rejecting a man.
In the section called 'Postfeminist Utopias' MacDonald points out that in the later 80's and early 90's there was a common belief that feminism was something from the past, an already won battle, a harmless ideology. The stressed woman doing domestic affairs magically evolved into the executive superwoman, always in absolute control. 'Making the most of oneself' became a requirement to be a modern woman. Self assertiveness and achievement through individual consumption was the top unconscious priority of the average woman at this point in time. The iconography then of the superwoman, an utopian individual disposing of an endless panoply of products for herself, is based on the idea of spending money, and therefore, irremediably associated with middle-class women. If a false interpretation of feminism was being assigned to a certain social class, then the real purpose of feminism would not go far. Most of the audience was tricked by the advertisers, who used a process of 'recuperation' (Brunsdon, 1986, pp.119-20), 'co-option' or 'incorporation' acting like they responded to a competing ideology but actually ignoring the ideological challenge. It would be counterproductive for the agencies to promote the real feminism, which also promotes the freedom of consumerism. Foucault (1980, pp.56-7) has another opinion from Brunsdon. In MacDonald's words: 'Recuperation is not a single actoin, but an ongoing process, subject to constant review… 'Making the most of your self' does begin to transform the passivity of narcissistic self-contemplation into the dream of active and dynamic self-fulfilment even as it reins that dream back into the feminine activity of 'going shopping'.
For many women feminism is now a historical ideology, rather than a current one, and they normally have the first contact with it through consumerism. There are three forms of recuperation that emerged between the 80's and 90's: the appropriation of quasi-feminist concepts; the redrafting of 'caring' to make it compatible with self-fulfilment; and the acknowledgement of female fantasies.
In 80's and 90's the liberties movements of 'freedom', 'independence' and 'pleasure' within political and cultural theory were reduced to lifestyle and consumption. This was represented, for instance, with male voice-overs and letting the woman had the last word to sell the illusion of 'having control'.
A Boots 17 advertisement in 1992 showed two images in sequence: the face of a beautiful young model with her lips pursed in a kiss and the caption 'how to kiss chaps'; the second, just her nose and mouth with lipstick being applied with the caption 'goodbye'. This advert was addressed to 'heterosexual desires of young women, anxious to learn how to please their men'. The man is always a necessary part of the story in adverts of the time, keeping traditional female preoccupations, such as man or body-care, but with the new urge to indulge themselves.
Feminists questioned the 'natural' female characteristic for caring and pointed out that it was a social imposition for men's convenience. Seemed that women had to go out and consume to develop their full potential, lowering the status of the domestic sphere as something that should be not liked by real women. There was a reconstruction of fashion integrated within a feminism perspective, but it did not happen with domesticity. If we relate domestic activity with cleaning the house and endless cooking is of course something obnoxious, but the pleasure of creative aspects of domestic life, such as baking, decorating and interior design, entertaining or gardening to mention some of them, have been ignored.
Annie Leclerc was a feminist that defended the pleasures of domestic activity, something not very welcomed by their fellow feminists, as it represented the idea what they were escaping from. But the truth is that there is pleasure in this activities, and we are the ones who give the negative connotations of a woman enjoying them. For this reason, feminism was limited supported, as women that stayed in the domestic sphere were not included in feminists plans. In the mean time, advertisers were able to exploit these feelings.
The domestic sphere was out of date and its traditionalism was not challenged enough to be called 'new'. In the 80's the 'caring man' figure came up. A man wheeling baby buggies and shopping trolleys, buying Lean Cuisine menus for two to cook in the microwave. This kind of advertisements suggested that it was so simple that even a man could do it. And this new presence in the kitchen was welcome, but 'perversely reinforced the belief that women complained unduly about their lot'.
'Even in the interwar period, the car could symbolise escape for women. In the wake of Thelma and Louise's box-office success, Peugeot's agency devised a campaign for its 106 model featuring two British women discarding the trappings of their consumer lifestyles and the security of their past for a carefree life on the open road in the American West'.
Pages (74-100)
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