Mollie Stevens - wbsdigital

Fashion, Media, and Sex: Are Fashion Marketing Practices Hindering the Feminist Movement?

Mollie Stevens — Fri, 08 Apr 2022 12:22:14 +0000

Marketing in the fashion industry can be seen all over the world, on social media, billboards, magazines, and more. With the craze surrounding the newest trends and collections, the industry holds power and influence like no one else. So, how is it that there are still so many issues with using the over-sexualisation of women to hike sales?

‘The Male Gaze Theory’ – Laura Mulvey

‘Olympia’, Manet – A discussion of visual culture

#MoreWomen – Discrimination of women at the top

Pride and Prejudice – Stereotypes used in fashion marketing practices

The End – How we can put a stop to the over-sexualisation of women in the media

‘The Male Gaze Theory’ – Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey published the ground-breaking ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ in 1989, in which we are faced with the first instance of the ‘Male Gaze’ Theory, a concept many were not ready for at the time of its release. The theory, in its essence, states that women are depicted from a heterosexual male point of view. They are portrayed as sexual objects for the pleasure of male viewers. In media (e.g. film, literature, art. etc) women are subjected to seeing other women depicted as nothing more than an object to be admired; dehumanising and objectifying them based on their beauty and sex appeal [1]. The ‘Male Gaze’ theory can be found throughout countless fashion campaigns, including, but not limited to:

Tom Ford
Boohoo
Fashionova
American Apparel
Dolce & Gabbana

Nude women often placed with fully clothed men show the use of the male gaze to create a pleasurable viewing experience for male consumers, whilst expecting female consumers to desire the effect produced by the scantily clad woman. For example, the image below from a Tom Ford campaign shows clear intent to place the focus on the female in a sexual manner, despite the campaign being aimed at men’s glasses, making the requirement for nudity or sexuality void and irrelevant to the image.

Tom Ford Men’s Eyewear Campaign

The Male Gaze Theory is seen far more often than we would initially expect in all types of media, specifically film, music, and fashion communications.

‘Olympia’, Manet – A discussion of visual culture

To see the Male Gaze in action outside of the fashion context, the classic painting, ‘Olympia’ is an exceptional example. ‘Olympia’ – created in 1863 by Édouard Manet – was a rebellious piece of artwork during its time. It was negatively received by its audience due to it lacking the elevation of classical art [3], taken as a mockery of traditional nude art. One of the main points in ‘Olympia’, is that the woman in the image is not depicted as doing anything. Whilst many nude paintings of the time had women bathing or dressing, etc. Manet left ‘Olympia’ doing nothing. Simply staring into the viewers’ eyes; not suggestively, simply looking. This was strikingly contrasting to the demure nude women in paintings during the 1800s, shying away from their painter, and their eventual audience. Manet often experimented with the subject of his paintings looking directly at the viewer, however, ‘Olympia’ was different, as it acted as a confrontation to the audience. Male viewers were often used to viewing women in art as objects of attraction. However, ‘Olympia’ is nothing to be attracted to. Instead, she confronts the male viewer and turns him into the one being viewed as an object of attraction.

Olympia, Édouard Manet

#MoreWomen – Discrimination of women at the top

With cultural references dating back to the 1800s and further, the question remains, ‘is there space in our evolving global culture for sexualised marketing techniques?’.

Women are facing gross inequity in the workplace, specifically in politics and senior positions. There is not only a lack of women in these positions but they are scrutinised to a much higher degree than their male counterparts. The video below produced by Elle puts this into perspective.

#MoreWomen by Elle

To further put into perspective the unequal environment, only ’24.3% of all national parliamentarians were women’ in June 2019 [4] and just 21% of C-Suite positions were held by women according to the McKinsey ‘Women in the Workplace‘ Report for 2020 [5].

So, what does this have to do with sexualised marketing? It may not inherently cause these issues, but it does play into them. With business fashion being hyper-sexualised in the women’s department, it perpetuates the idea that women are less capable, and an object of desire, as Laura Mulvey discussed in the Male Gaze Theory.

Pride and Prejudice – Stereotypes used in fashion marketing practices

Aside from business fashion, many other niches in fashion marketing use this technique, from everyday wear, resort and loungewear, down to children’s wear, with girl’s clothing often being shorter, tighter and more expensive than boy’s clothing. This extends the stereotype past adults, starting the prejudice and ‘Pink Tax’ from a very young age.

Alongside this, nudity of women in marketing is used commonly to attract both male and female consumers. About a decade ago, this manifested heavily in online and offline storefronts, billboards, and magazines. However, with social media taking over marketing, it has been moved into this space. The use of nudity and near-nudity on social media is past just company posts but has moved into the influencer space. Influencers portray the consumer within marketing, in which brands will request certain styles of posts in exchange for items or pay. There are many brands that request sexually charges or scantily clad posts to portray the business in that light. However, this can sometimes backfire, with children as young as 13 allowed on most platforms, not to mention those lying about their age. Whilst censoring is not the answer, a consideration of what is being posted, and whether it is truly relevant to the product should come into play.

On the other side, we can see a double standard for women in higher-up positions, for example, female politicians are often scrutinised for what they wear, with the public, press and even certain brands, publishing extremely opinionated and often sexist remarks regarding their appearance, with a lack of regard for anything they are speaking on or producing. This can be seen specifically in the Daily Mail, The Sun and many more press publications, as well as within the comment section of these posts from the public.

The End – How we can put a stop to the over-sexualisation of women in the media

So, how can we change the situation, and remove sexist messaging from the fashion media industry? Removing nudity, near nudity and introducing censoring will not work, and will most likely make the situation worse. The key is in how women are portrayed in fashion media and how relevant nudity or sexualisation is to the brand message.

For example, Dove is a positive example of using near nudity in their campaigns to normalise different body shapes, types, and sizes. It is relevant being that they are a skincare and shower product company, and, most importantly, the women in the campaigns were not being sexualised, but were more so existing happily in their own skin.

This is a vastly different experience, for example, to American Apparel, which created campaigns of girls in an extremely sexual manner, with insinuations taking over any other messaging. Whilst they were wearing more clothing than in the Dove campaign, it was still far more inappropriate and didn’t relate to the brand itself. This is a prime example of over-sexualisation hindering women and their rights to be taken seriously in all aspects of life, specifically in the professional world.

Following the footsteps of those brands portraying women in a positive light, through liberation and acceptance, fashion, press and more could further the feminist movement, rather than hindering it through sexist visuals and remarks. Consumers can encourage this behaviour by engaging with brands that show a positive side to marketing and media involving women, whilst avoiding those that do not.

To answer the question, Are Fashion Marketing Practices Hindering the Feminist Movement? Yes. But it does not have to be that way. Learning from past mistakes, actively avoiding the Male Gaze, specifically in women’s media, and unlearning misogynistic actions towards women in the workplace are the pillars for changing the answer to ‘No’. As these mindsets change and become more female-forward, we can expect fashion brands and media to follow suit.

Links

[1] http://https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/1021/Laura%2520Mulvey,%2520Visual%2520Pleasure.pdf

[2] https://www.mindlessmag.com/post/is-there-a-place-for-sexualised-fashion-advertising-in-2020

[3] https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/avant-garde-france/realism/a/manet-olympia

[4] https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/leadership-and-political-participation/facts-and-figures

[5] https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace#

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Social Media Content Marketing – SaGG Social Audit

Mollie Stevens — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 12:00:00 +0000

Social Media Content Marketing – SaGG Social Audit

Social Media Listening Report

Social Media Audit

The current SaGG social media use is somewhat repetitive and off brand. With all social accounts reposting the same media, separate target audiences are not being taken advantage of on each platform. With significant difference in demographics per channel, as well as channel purpose and algorithm, social media should not be treated as one, but rather as a collective network. This audit will focus on Instagram and LinkedIn as the main platforms for the style of content recommended.

Instagram is the second most followed social account after Facebook, with 1,661 followers. The average interaction on each post over the past 14 days is 14.9. This is more than quadruple the Facebook interaction. This puts the engagement rate at 0.9%, as seen in Fig. 1, nine times higher than the Facebook rate. Whilst Instagram naturally allows for higher engagement, anything below 1% is still considered low [1]. However, this is a clear indicator that the content being produced is better targeted at the current Instagram audience in comparison to the other SaGG social pages. Some optimisations can be considered within the logo positioning, highlights, utilisation of more Instagram content options such as further use of IGTV, IG Guides and filters, and finally, consistency in geo-tagging. A schedule could also be implemented.

Fig. 1. Instagram Audit

LinkedIn has one of the lowest engagement rates out of the SaGG social media accounts. With an engagement rate of 0.3% over the past 14 days with a total following of 526, there needs to be significant strategy reconsiderations, as seen in Fig. 2. The LinkedIn average engagement rate is 2% [2], signifying further that the SaGG LinkedIn page requires a new strategy and target persona. LinkedIn is a professional based platform, making it the perfect place to target corporate, school and group donors. By posting similar content to Instagram, the brand may come across as unprofessional. A more consistent schedule could also be implemented.

Fig. 2. LinkedIn Audit

Competitors

Fig. 3. SaGG Social Competitors

Consumer/Donor Social Habits

Based on insights from the business suite, the main Instagram audience is women aged 25-44 in the USA, UK, Nigeria, The Gambia, and Spain [3]. The reach during March 2022 was at 915, lower than previous months showing an overall downward trend. This further indicates a need for strategy reconsideration, as well as a focus on potential audience, rather than just current audience. Based on the engagement during March, the audience does not tend to share or convert to link clicks, potentially due to a lack of powerful CTAs. Impressions have increased, however remain low in comparison to the number of followers.

Comparing this to habits on LinkedIn [4], the main audience that engage and interact with posts are university/college educated women ranging from mid-20s to mid-40s. There are also a handful of university/college educated men and companies. Posts do not gain much traction from the audience and lack core promotable engagement like shares. This indicates a need for strategic consideration.

Aside from social media and audience analytics, using Answer the Public [5], some key questions being asked by potential donors/followers/ambassadors include:

Why is girl child education important?
How can we improve education in Africa?
Is the education in The Gambia good?

Finally, regarding the reasons the social audience may follow, engage, or donate to the cause are likely to apply to the uses and gratifications theory [6], specifically in line with the esteem and self-actualisation categories of Maslow’s hierarchy [7]. The concept is that consumers are active in their media choice and engaged in their selection of media. In this case, the SaGG consumers/donors are making an active choice to consume the SaGG media, fulfilling their needs for morality, respect for others or even personal self-esteem. Knowing this, SaGG should market towards these goals and needs.

Industry Social Trends

Fig. 4. Industry Social Trends

Company Social Goals and Content Recommendations

Goal One: Educate and inform the audience on the charity mission and relevant topics including girls’ education and The Gambia.

Recommendation One: Use social listening tools such as ‘Answer the Public’ to gauge what the audience is asking/what they are lacking information on. Examples in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6.

Goal Two: Position the charity as leaders and experts in girls’ education in The Gambia.

Recommendation Two: Using LinkedIn, share relevant hyperlinks, posts and infographics alongside education owned content to show understanding in the area and provide an expert opinion and resources.

Goal Three: Increase engagement, reach and impressions on both Instagram and LinkedIn.

Recommendation Three: Use scheduling and planning tools such as Hootsuite and Notion to maintain a cohesive feed and consistent messaging throughout all social platforms. Planning examples in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6.

Goal Four: Awareness of the charity and mission.

Recommendation Four: Collaborating with other charities, companies and individuals that share your mission will boost awareness with the ideal audience. Using the collaborators feature on Instagram will help let both SaGG followers, and the collaborators audience know about the campaign and mission.

Example Content Recommendations

Instagram Feed Plan/Draft