After discussing my ideas for my final piece, my tutor pointed me towards this advertisement below, which I found here: x. I find the concept of the advert really interesting, as it shows that we are all controlled by society - especially the way that we interact with the opposite sex, the advert shows that quite clearly.
But does it not just reinforce other stereotypes? Julia Roberts is shown wearing a white dress and entering a room where everyone is dressed in black. Does this reinforce the 'whore'/'virgin' polarisation of the female gender? Since all the women in the video are shown to be flirting with men, and Julia Roberts does not at all interact with anyone, it could be. But maybe it is also meant to show how everyone else is corrupted and stained by society, therefore wearing the darkest colour, but she isn't, therefore wearing a 'pure' colour. It seems like a little bit of a cliché, this choice of colour symbolism. What's missing in my opinion is that Julia Roberts is wearing white, being non-corrupted, but is being controlled by strings, and when she breaks the strings, her dress does not change. If the director had chosen to use clothing in such a symbolic way, it would have made sense to change the colour of her dress accordingly to the 'breaking free' of the strings.
She then looks around at notices how everyone is controlled by strings - rather pretty ones, which look almost like diamonds. This suggests that we as society use our money to buy us just a more comfortable 'prison'. The camera then focuses on two women talking, where one is shown to brush her hair over her shoulder in a sensual way, then two men talking, using big hand gestures. This could be interpreted as our 'strings' by society dictating how we interact with people, and how our interactions differ depending on our gender and the opposite's gender. Next, the camera shows some 'couples' consisting of a man and a woman. Mostly, the man is standing with his back to the camera, and the woman is facing the camera, like below. It kind of seems like her strings are moving her arms, which she uses to draw attention to her body, and positions very carefully in order to achieve a certain look.
Julia Roberts then realises, that she is also controlled by these strings - but she is the only one aware of it. She breaks the strings, similar to how you'd take off a bracelet, which is fitting because the strings look a lot like jewellery.
Julia Roberts then leaves the party, and smiles knowingly at the camera. We are being shown the advert for the perfume, and the little animation shows the perfume bottle breaking the strings attached to it - subtext: buy this perfume, and escape society's pressure on you. Buy this beauty product, and you will be free. And since it is directed at women, it sounds a little like what I was looking at in previous posts, that women are shown to decorate their body in order to gain independence or power. A la: become a sex object and you will have power/(only) when you are being a sex object you will have power.
Though I like the initial direction that this advert is going in, it does still carry some of the stereotypes it wants to break free from. This reminds me of some research I did about Beyonce, that only being a sex object will give a woman power, and that this is the only kind of power she is ever able to gain. Women are always 'at risk' of 'loosing' their femininity when they are in powerful positions - look at Angela Merkel, a very powerful woman in control of an economically powerful country in a time of recession, so it seems that she is good at her job. Yet, she is still criticised for not being female enough, not being pretty enough. Interestingly, her nickname in Germany is 'Mutti', a pet name for your own mother, which makes her inherently non-sexual to the entire population. And that might be a good thing, since I doubt people would take her as serious if she happened to be younger and (since everyone's looks deteriorate with age) also more attractive.
I think what this advert is struggling with is the exact same struggle that feminists face today, that sexual 'liberation' or the okay for women to be freely sexual is all that women are allowed to do. Whenever women want to assume a position of power, if in a company or wherever, her surroundings are always very conscious of her sex, and her gender, applying standards that nobody would ever think of applying to a man in the same way.
Charlie Crxsh
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