Task 3 Essay - Representations: gender and sexuality

In this essay, I will be comparing how media language is used in the construction of gender in two print advertisements for fragrances.

In the Aramis advert, we have an eye-level mid-shot of a well-groomed man standing with his hands against the window. The purpose of the eye-level mid shot is to target male customers; the model's gaze is quite taunting which also goes along with the text used ''All a Man is'' which is in quite an authoritative tone. Reinforcing the gender stereotype of men having to be this strong stereotypical sophisticated man. The background is blurred to keep the main focus on the perfume and the model.

In the Juicy Couture advert, we see a mid-shot of the model the purpose of the mid-shot is to show off the whole model, this time the model is wearing more revealing clothes, her dark attire and unkempt hair add to the rebel aspect part of the advert.


To add to the mise en scene the model is crushing roses in her hand in a domineering way, the flower represents all the dainty stereotypes of women being crushed by the model. This ties in with the text ''A bold and Alluring New Fragrance that evokes the glamorous rebel in every juicy girl''. Majority of the text is of a black colour whilst ''The New Perfume'' is written in a pink colour. Although the model is breaking gender stereotypes with her femme fetale look, the pink colour of the text reinforces the girly side of the advert.


The model in the Aramis advert is seen wearing a suit which shows how sophisticated he is, whilst the model in the Juicy Couture advert is wearing a more revealing attire. This is reinforcing the idea of male dominance and patriarchy. Another key difference between the two adverts are the perfume bottles themselves; the Aramis bottle is more of simple whilst the Juicy Couture bottle is more elaborate, this ties into the effort of the adverts too, the Aramis advert has less text all there is is a short catchy slogan whereas the Juicy Couture advert has more of a longer text. The text itself is of a gold colour, suggesting that the man might be of high power.

Both models seem to have been airbrushed to heighten or add features to them and make them look more attractive.

In conclusion, the female advert display more text than the male advert, this could be because maybe women spend more time looking in detail at the perfumes to see which one is better (ties in with the bottle problem i mentioned earlier) and men are seemed to be more careless and just pick up anything as they go. But women in modern society are still struggling with patriarchy, men are always clad in suits but women are always barely covered, I have yet to see a female wearing a full fitted suit in a perfume advert.