Sexism in Commercials Essay

Menstruation; is a natural process that occurs in the female reproductive system and grants life, or another reason to shame women? In our patriarchal society, it is unfortunately often presented as the latter, thus creating the need for nonconforming portrayals of periods in media such as Bodyform’s “Blood” commercial. In “Blood”, Bodyform uses various clips of women performing different demanding activities such as soccer, ballet, skateboarding, and more. These women face obstacles that lead to the drawing of blood, but power through and succeed in their sport. This is to highlight the ad’s tagline “No Blood Should Hold Us Back” (2010), an implicit metaphor for the literal process of menstruation, and for society’s perpetuation of the stigma that periods are a mental and physical limit for women. From this brief analysis, it is clear this commercial seeks to destigmatize periods by reimagining ideologies about femininity such as gender roles and sexism. This is further emphasized through its use of visuals and audio, which are both drastically different from traditional menstrual product endorsements. Through this essay, the positive feminist message and norms presented in “Blood” will be discussed, while an in-depth analysis through the application of postfeminism and intersectionality reveals the additional negative undertones that are also commonly seen in many contemporary social movements.

In The Whites of Their Eyes (2011), Stuart Hill stresses the importance of media which plays a dominant role in ideological production and transformation. In the case of Bodyform’s “Blood” commercial, this remains true as the advertisement reimagines ideologies about femininity such as gender roles and sexism. This is seen through their unconventional marketing of hygiene products in which women are depicted as powerful, capable, and hardworking. By highlighting female representation in male-dominated sports such as skateboarding, soccer, boxing, etc., the ad opposes the stereotypical set of notions that deem what is appropriate for women. For instance, the societal expectation of men to engage in aggressive and strenuous activities, whereas women are expected to engage in gentle and peaceful activities. As a result, the elements of gender roles are articulated differently, thus creating new meanings where in this case, gender roles are not applied and used to constrain what a woman is capable of, thereby ‘breaking the chain’ (Hall, 2011). Additionally, this also contributes to the reimagination of sexism through its empowering portrayal of women’s abilities and their capacity to succeed in their craft. Consequently, there is no depiction of the male sex as superior and the female sex as oppressed. It does, however, reveal truths embodying these concepts. A specific example of this is ballet in which the juxtaposition of the delicate dance and the ballerina’s battered feet are presented. This example connects society’s tendency to label ballet as “dainty”, and ignore the hard work put into the art, a feature of sexism where female accomplishments are often overlooked. But in this case, the stereotypes are dismantled, and the hard work is featured multiple times.

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The reimagination of these ideologies is further reinforced by the music, sound, and visuals used in the commercial. First, music and sound allow for an increase in the dramatic intensity of events but also highlight rhythm and movement (Deren, 1960). As seen in “Blood”, the sound effects correspond to brief moments of adversity such as falling or losing a fight, which accentuates the challenge and demanding nature of the activities performed. And when the music plays, it helps intensify the moments of hard work and success. It has a direct emotional impact on audiences by creating an atmosphere of ambition, perseverance, and power to further call attention to these traits in women. In addition, the song used is by “A Tribe Called Red”, a Canadian Indigenous music group that blends dance music with elements of First Nations music. This is a good way of exposing audiences to native culture, instead of the usual appropriation, commodification, and exploitation of it (Tuck and Yang, 2012). Although this is inclusive and incorporates non-colonialist work as well as the visibility of another minority group, doing so highlights the cast of non-native women in the ad - which will be later elaborated on regarding postfeminism and intersectionality. The use of visuals in this commercial demonstrates a positive correlation between women and blood, sweat, dirt, scrapes, etc. These components, which are usually associated with women with unfemininity, are now shown in this ad as the opposite; a byproduct of girl power, which also amplifies the ad’s reimagining of gender roles as an ideology. This display of blood in a menstrual product advertisement is in itself a groundbreaking concept as it has not been seen before due to the social taboo around periods. Thus, the visuals of blood within this commercial are a step towards the normalization and destigmatization of menstruation. However, the indirect reference to blood caused by injury to menstrual blood can also be viewed as a variation of the media’s traditional use of a blue liquid to substitute period blood. This is caused by the sense of euphemism in terms of “hinting” at menstrual blood but not directly referring to it. Similar to the conventional use of blue liquid, this can create a negative societal impact by suggesting periods are shameful and should not be shown.

This brings up the negative undertones associated with the “Blood” advertisement upon a deeper analysis. About postfeminism, this ad clearly emphasizes the individualism and empowerment of women in a way that suggests “there is no longer a need for feminist action” (Dubrofsky, 2011). However, upon closer examination of the women cast in this ad, it is apparent the majority is white, cis, thin, and relatively middle to upper class. Despite the ad’s best intentions, there is a lack of representation of intersectional factors causing a sense of inclusivity where there is an exclusion of other minority groups, a common problem seen in current social justice movements (Bilge, 2013). As a result, the interlocking systems of oppression are essentially ignored, thereby inhibiting its potential for radical social change (Bilge, 2013). This explains the advertisement’s suggestion of Choiceoisie as there are no considerations of class, race, sexuality, etc., in terms of the notion of choice (Dubrofsky, 2011). Instead, the ad sustains an illusion of free individual choice and not the reality of predetermined decisions based on cultural and societal limitations (Dubrofsky, 2011). As a result, this commercial is tailored towards white, cis, middle-class women who have the opportunity to participate in sports that require time, money, and access to surroundings that allow for activities such as mountain climbing, running/biking in forests, and more. By targeting white, middle-class citizens, there is also a link between women’s activism and commodification known as postfeminist citizenship that becomes apparent (Schowalter, 2012). This is also known as feminist consumerism in which companies can increase profits by use of feminist messages and images (Schowalter, 2012). In Bodyform’s “Blood”, the empowering portrayal of women may be done in pursuit of reaching an audience to influence them to consume more of their products. This can cause the problematic mentality that consuming their products is a form of feminist action, leading to decreased efforts of real political action. The connection of positive feminist messages to corporations like Bodyform that profit off of marketing those messages leads to the depoliticization of feminism. In this advertisement, feminism becomes depoliticized as it is utilized by Bodyform to its advantage, where the feminist messages become a means of catalyzing consumption. This is similar to the depoliticization of intersectionality where these inclusion tools are leveraged by dominant groups to attain institutional goals (Bilge, 2013). An example of this is seen with the lack of diversity in the ad, where only one black woman is seen. This attempt at diversity can be viewed as a form of tokenism that leads to the depoliticization of intersectionality.

In conclusion, Bodyform’s “Blood” commercial is a groundbreaking advertisement that uses unconventional methods to normalize menstruation. It proves to reimagine several ideologies and reinforce positive feminist messages that are amplified through the use of sound and visuals. However, its relationship to postfeminism and citizenship is also apparent through the ad’s lack of intersectionality and the use of the commodification of feminism. However, it can be argued that because the product is related to feminist goals (destigmatizing menstruation) and does not reinforce sexist ideas, it does not fall under the traditional standards of feminist consumerism. Overall, this commercial successfully avoids the traditional representation of women as victims of their bodies’ physical and emotional states during menstruation. Instead, “Blood” tackles the taboos of periods in unprecedented ways causing it to stand out from traditional hygiene product endorsements. This advertisement paves the way for new progressive forms of depicting menstruation in media that, with a few adjustments such as re-evaluating any post-feministic nature or the incorporation of intersectionality, can fulfill the overall aim of destigmatizing menstruation and breaking the taboo.