Abstract
This chapter explores society’s views about female beauty and ageing as represented through the lens of beauty and cosmetic advertising. Using multimodal analysis, representations of ‘culturally approved’ (i.e. youthful/beautiful) models of femininity are explored through a range of anti-ageing skincare advertisements aimed at both women and men, and contrasted with the problematisation of the ageing appearance through fear-based descriptions of the visible signs of ageing. The different communicative approaches evident in female versus male-targeted advertising texts is used to highlight the gendered nature of cultural attitudes towards female and male ageing. The emergence of counter-discourses such as the Dove and Boots campaigns are considered and challenged in the light of postfeminist perspectives on discourses of apparent self-acceptance. The chapter concludes by summarising key themes: the continuing cultural premium placed on youthfulness; and the pathologisation of the visible signs of ageing in skincare advertising aimed at women, compared to a very different communicative approach taken to male-targeted advertisements, where signs of ageing are acceptable—even positively evaluated.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
The notion of consumer driven lifestyles as the basis of identity construction in post-modern society is extensively explored in David Chaney’s (1996) work Lifestyles.
- 3.
Source: Euromonitor International.
- 4.
This trend is borne out in the 2004 study commissioned by the Dove brand, into women’s attitudes to beauty and wellbeing; ‘The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report’.
- 5.
Source: In-Cosmetics Marketing Trends Online Presentation, April 2013.
- 6.
The term ‘metrosexual’, coined by the journalist Mark Simpson in 1994, originally described a man (especially one living in an urban environment) ‘who is especially meticulous about his grooming and appearance typically spending a significant amount of time and money on shopping for this’ (Source: Wikipedia). The term has slipped out of usage to some degree.
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The rise in awareness of the term grooming used in the sense of online sexual predation may, however, may compromise the legitimacy/desirability of its use in the context of the men’s magazine.
- 8.
One example is Nigel Cole’s 2003 film Calendar Girls starring Helen Mirren and Julie Walters.
- 9.
The report was a collaboration between contributors drawn from a number of different domains, both academic and commercial: Dr. Nancy Etcoff, Harvard University; Dr. Susie Orbach, London School of Economics; Dr. Jennifer Scott and Heidi D’Agostino, StrategyOne.
- 10.
- 11.
Macdonald cites the prevalence of the ‘folklinguistic mythology’ (2003: 59) which characterises jokes and comic banter as a feature of male discourse versus the gossiping and nagging which defines female discourse.
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Anderson, C. (2019). Public Voices: Skincare Advertising and Discourses of “Beauty”. In: Discourses of Ageing and Gender. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96740-0_4
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