The Ideal Female Body - A critical discourse analysis of shapewear advertising Sarah Mansi Yildirim - DIVA
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The Ideal Female Body
A critical discourse analysis of shapewear advertising
Sarah Mansi Yildirim
English Studies – Linguistics
Bachelor Thesis
15 Credits
Autumn semester 2020
Supervisor: Soraya Tharani
2 Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................ 3 1. Introduction ................................................................................................. 4 1.1 Aim ........................................................................................................... 4 2. Background .................................................................................................. 5 2.1 Shapewear in the U.S ..................................................................................... 5 2.2 Discourse of Gender ....................................................................................... 6 2.2.1 Textual Construction of The Female Body................................................. 8 2.3 Advertising Theories ...................................................................................... 9 2.3.1 Advertising as Discourse ........................................................................... 10 2.3.2 Visuals in Advertising ............................................................................... 11 2.4 Methodological Background: Critical Discourse Analysis ......................... 12 2.5 Previous Works ............................................................................................ 13 3. Design of Study........................................................................................... 14 3.1 Shapermint ............................................................................................. 15 3.2 Honeylove ..................................................................................................... 15 3.2 Data......................................................................................................... 15 3.3 Method .................................................................................................... 16 4. Results ........................................................................................................ 16 4.1 Homepages of Shapermint and Honeylove ............................................ 17 4.1.1 Visuals ....................................................................................................... 17 4.1.2 Linguistic Features .................................................................................... 18 4.2 YouTube Ads .......................................................................................... 20 4.2.1 Shapermint ................................................................................................ 20 4.2.2 Honeylove .................................................................................................. 23 5. Discussion ................................................................................................... 25 5.1 The Difference in Shapermint and Honeylove’s Advertising................ 26 6. Conclusion .................................................................................................. 27 Bibliography ...................................................................................................... 27
3 Abstract This paper aimed to investigate how women, through the advertisement of U.S. shapewear brands Shapermint and Honeylove, are exposed to the ideological idea of the female body. This study's method was a three-dimensional framework developed by Norman Fairclough, which revealed ideological hidden messages about the female body in shapewear advertisement. The study discussed how the companies participate in the social practice of perfecting the female body and normalize the patriarchal demands of women. In conclusion, the study showed how popular shapewear brands with the internet's power target women in their advertisements. Key Words: Critical Discourse Analysis, Advertising, Gender, Shapewear
4 1. Introduction In a world of social media, women are exposed to various ways of perfecting their bodies to succumb to societal pressures. Women have, throughout history, been surrounded by patriarchal expectations of how their bodies should look. Biologically, women are different from men; therefore, there has been a significant focus on controlling their bodies' changes and functions. Consequently, it has created a society that pressures women to look good and minimize the appearance of their bodily changes. In that context, Shapewear has been argued as an item that actively pressures women to follow patriarchal gender expectations. Accompanied by modern-day technology, shapewear markets exploit the endless opportunities for online advertising. In the last two decades, social media have been a space for marketers to advertise brands (S et al., 2020). Approximately 3.8 billion people engage in social media out of the 4.54 billion people that use the internet, making it the most powerful platform for brands to reach consumers (2020). Likewise, the internet became a place for advertisers to promote goods and services to the billions of internet users. However, shapewear advertisement does include ideological-laden messages about the female body. With the powerful media's help, Shapewear advertising persuades through linguistic and visual strategies that fit the targeted consumer. The strategies include a gendered discourse style that targets women and constructs their identity and bodies. Moreover, gender discourse is worth exploring from a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) perspective, as gender issues result from social practices between people, media, and the government (Young and Fitzgerald, 2006). The practices affect social identity, personal feelings, and power relations in both obvious and subtle ways (2006). Accordingly, CDA reveals power relations in society by relating semiotic properties and discourse practices to groups or organizations. This study will apply CDA to the discourse of U.S. brands Shapermint and Honeylove. 1.1 Aim The study investigates the representation of the female body in shapewear advertisement from two popular U.S. brands Shapermint and Honeylove. The study will explore how shapewear brands target women through gender discourse and
5 advertisement. The following research questions are conducted through the framework of Faircloughian CDA: 1. What linguistic features and strategies are used in the advertising of Shapermint and Honeylove? 2. What are the differences and similarities in the advertising strategies between Shapermint and Honeylove? 3. How does the discourse of shapewear advertising relate to the broader U.S context of the ideal female body? 2. Background The first section includes information about shapewear and its situational context in the United States, followed by theoretical and methodological background sections and previous works on shapewear advertising. 2.1 Shapewear in the U.S The United States and its popular celebrity culture that openly embraces and endorses shapewear brands have one of the largest shapewear markets (Zanette and Scaraboto, 2018). Shapewear officially became popular when America's personality Oprah Winfrey announced Spanx's shapewear as her favorite in 2000. This endorsement increased the sales of shapewear and has since then created a shapewear and compression wear industry, which is expected to reach US$5.576 billion globally by 2022 (2018). Sanam Yar (2019) describes how new American brands check all the millennial marketing boxes with ‘’pale pastel colors, sans serif fonts, ethnically diverse women with a range of body types and robust social-media campaigns’’ (Yar, 2019). Yar explains how the rise of online businesses marketing shapewear and its advances in product innovation officially at the end of 2019 shifted the shapewear industry into a $526 million profit. Despite many American women and stars like Lizzo campaigning the body-positive and self-love movement, shapewear has managed to influence Americans (Yar, 2018). Even though Oprah
6 announced Spanx as the best thing about twenty years ago, shapewear still predominates (2018). Further, yar explains how many celebrities in the U.S promotes shapewear on red carpets to signal their reliability. At the same time, popular influencers like Kim Kardashian West debuted her own shapewear line, influencing her millions of followers. Additionally, Yar discusses how Facebook and Instagram have created a change in the marketing of shapewear. Many brands are now video demonstrating how their products work by including different body types that women can identify with. Brands like Spanx, Shapermint, and Honeylove post women of different sizes and shapes on social media, which have changed how shapewear is sold, as women have something to identify with (Yar, 2018). However, Sarah Fyffe (2020) explains how shapewear has been debated as a symbol of conformity and control due to its problematic origins in western Europe as shapewear was mainly used as corsets that tightly compressed women’s bodies with the method of deforming the female abdomen. Fyffe further discusses that the sexualized marketing techniques used in the past are difficult to forget as it ultimately catered to the male gaze. However, today modern-day brands communicate shapewear as body positivity, confidence, and a matter of personal choice. However, despite the modern attitudes to shapewear, the idea that it is an implication of the male gaze does signal undertones of conformity and beauty standards, which many consumers today cannot move past (Fyffe, 2020). Therefore, shapewear's popularity does not exclude its involvement in gender issues related topics, which brings this study to the theories of gender discourse. 2.2 Discourse of Gender The relationship between language, gender, and power has gained immense interest from academics over the last 50 years (Simpson et al., 2019). The popular subject has raised questions. Some of the questions are if men and women use language differently if sexism is communicated and conveyed through language, whether a change of sexist language can change attitudes, and finally, how the representation of women and men in media can affect our understanding of the sexes (2019). Further, Simpson et al. refer to 'gender' as a social category constructed through society. Men and women's traits are socially assigned, and they can differ within
7 different cultures, classes, and societies (2019). Additionally, the authors explain how the practice of androcentrism places a masculine point of view at the center of culture, history, and the world view, which culturally marginalizes femininity. Therefore, feminist linguists noticed the practice of androcentrism in the discourse, which "equates male with what is normal, and female as a deviation from that norm" (p. 16). Moreover, the biological differences between men and women are to justify discrimination, particularly against women. The ideologies that women naturally are mothers, nurturers, carriers, and fit for low paying jobs like nursing or social work have been used to justify male privilege (2019). Further, gender theorists and feminists’ linguists have criticized the argument that linguistic differences are due to biological differences between the genders. The criticism relies on perpetuating gender stereotypes on women and men's linguistic behavior or behavior in general. Gender theorists and feminists believe that gender roles are socially prescribed rather than biological differences (2019). Also, linguistic behavior can be sexist. Sexism is described by Litosseliti (2006) as" discrimination within a social system on the basis of sexual membership" (p. 13). She further explains sexism as part of a historical relationship between men and women through social practices that creates exploitation, manipulation, and constraints for women, due to the superior historical man (2006). Litosseliti describes language as a powerful medium that reflects and constructs the world. She described that bias in language use and sexist discourse could be obvious, subtle, or unarticulated. Some examples are examples of wordings used to describe women negatively and limiting, for instance, when media or newspapers depict women as sex objects by only focusing on their looks or defining them in terms of their homes, family, and roles. Alternatively, underestimate women by using the word 'girl' far longer than the word 'boy,' and lastly, judgmental words, e.g., like 'career women' or 'ladette' (2006). Additionally, Robin Lakoff (2004) has studied the language used by and about women. She explains that this language use restricts women and submerges a woman's identity by blocking her from voicing herself while also describing her in a trivial matter. Lakoff explains that the language use of women significantly differs from men. For example, some of the features of women's language are:
8
▪ lexical disparity, as in the use of certain female-specific colour adjectives like 'beige',
'mauve' or 'crimson'
▪ empty adjectives, as in 'divine', 'gorgeous' or 'sweet'
▪ hedges, such as 'well', 'y' know' or 'sort of'
▪ intensifiers, like 'so' or 'very'
▪ overly polite forms, in 'milder' swearing expressions such as 'oh dear' and 'sugar'.
(Simpson et al., p.18, 2019)
Lakoff explains that the above characteristics of women's speech indeed are taught
to little girls. She argues that the politeness in women's speech prevents women from
expressing strong statements, making them the uninvolved and inferior (2004).
Similarly, Simpson et al. explain that women's weak language reflects and maintains
their inferior status in society (2019).
2.2.1 Textual Construction of The Female Body
Lesley Jeffries (2007), in her book Textual Construction of the Female Body,
discusses how the cultural importance for women to look good remains strong in
today's societies and positions women in a relatively weak position in resisting
ideologically-laden messages about the female body. Jeffries explains how women's
magazines' advice on beauty and attractiveness and the powerful media lures women
in and make them believe in such ideologies as natural and right (2007). Jeffries
further explains that women daily must deal with their material bodies and
"whatever construction the culture currently puts on their bodies" (p. 18). Jeffries, in
the context of feminist linguistic theory, discovered how women magazines, far
more than men's magazines, were focused on helping women with the 'problematic'
body. The early feminism movement challenged the dominant view that women
were less human than men due to their bodily functions. The female body was
viewed as leaky, unpredictable, and disruptive (2007). Jeffries explains that the
negative patriarchal viewpoint on the unstable material female body is one of the
women's significant challenges in the twenty-first century. They are now more than
ever presented with ways to create a perfect body and control the imperfections and
bodily functions of a female body (2007). However, she argues that technological
ways can help women with biological changes, such as menstruation, menopause,
9 and birth, but can also cause physical side effects. Therefore, women's succumbing to society's pressures of perfecting the female body can cause mental and emotional problems. They are expected to control their bodies for the convenience of a male- created society (2007). Jeffries fears that the growing technologization will develop an acceptance of perfecting bodies to suit society's prevailing view of perfection. Moreover, Jeffries discovers different rhetorical strategies identified in women's magazines. One of the strategies is the use of 'real women' with different shapes and sizes to persuade readers into thinking that the magazine is down to earth and realistic about how women ideally look (2007). Further, the strategy of what Jeffries calls the 'puncturing myths' is when magazines include presupposed myths, only for them to deny them and provide facts and reliability. Then there is the strategy of 'fictionalized heroines,' with opening much like fairytales and horror stories. This strategy helps frame the person at the center as a fictionalized heroine, using the same techniques of fairytales and horror stories, pointing out and emphasizing the cultural unease of women's bodily functions, followed by then providing advice and encouragement to deal with the horrors of the body. Finally, the 'happy endings' strategy offers readers optimism through, e.g., advice and solutions to mainly boost sales (2007). In conclusion, this type of gender discourse is found in advertising that depicts stereotypical gender roles. Accordingly, the next theoretical section will look at advertising theories. 2.3 Advertising Theories Advertising is known for its persuasive techniques through discourse, visuals, and sounds. According to Guy Cook (2001), advertising is marketing products and services in various forms, including several linguistic strategies to persuade potential consumers. Jody Delin (2000) discusses how this age of social and geographical mobility heavily relies on consumers of goods and services for success in businesses. Delin explains that a prediction of consumer's future behavior will secure a competitive advantage. The advertising producers must gain access to their consumers and details about their lives to fit their products to consumers (2000). Delin explains this by writing: "psychologists have suggested that purchasing choices are affected simply by human needs, such as the need for companionship, status, love, and belonging." (p. 124).
10 Consequently, consumers self-identify with a product and buy whatever matches them and their personalities (2000). Norman Fairclough (2001) further emphasizes the above by explaining the three dimensions of advertising discourse: "the relationship it constructs between producer/advertiser and the consumer, the way it builds an 'image' for the product, and the way it constructs subject positions for consumers." (p.165). He discusses how advertisements work ideologically through these three dimensions. Fairclough argues that, when advertisers build relations, they focus on the ideological relationship between the advertised product and the consumer. Further, by building images, advertisers attract consumers through ideological elements that establish an image of the advertised product, for example, through both visual and verbal cues that associates the product with something. A product through image building gains cultural properties as well as its physical properties. Meanwhile, advertisers build consumers by obligating people through advertisements to occupy the subject position of consumer throughout addressing people as if they were already consumers (2001). 2.3.1 Advertising as Discourse Cook (2001) explains how ads advertise through different categories. Product ads vs. non-product ads, hard-sell vs. soft-sell, reason vs. tickle, slow drip vs. sudden burst, and finally, short copy vs. a long copy. Product ads are selling a specific product or a service, whereas non-product ads are advertising, e.g., charities or political parties. Hard-sell advertisement has a direct appeal that encourages consumers to buy instead of soft-sell ads that rely more on implications and mood for reasons to buy. Moreover, reason ads imply direct reasons to buy, whereas tickle ads employ emotion, humor, and mood. Slow drip and sudden burst differ in their release frequency and, finally, short copy vs. long copy (2001). Besides the above contrasts, Simpson et al. (2019) explain the developmental stages of advertising through five design patterns: copywriters, headline, body copy, signature, slogan, and testimonial. The headline is an attention-getting device that catches consumers' attention through visual images, questions, or commands directing to the consumer. Next, the body copy is informative and persuasive. It offers solutions and reasons to buy a product and often uses the first-person reference. The signature can be a picture of the product or a picture of either the product or the company's trade name. Further, the
11 slogan following the signature is a phrase or line representing the product, and finally, a testimonial is a product endorsed by someone popular or famous (2019). Moreover, some of the commonly used linguistic features in ads, Simpson et al., categorizes as '' direct address, evaluative adjectives, repetition, disjunctive syntax and parallelism" (p.99, 2019). Greg Myers (1994) explains how using the pronoun 'you' creates a one-to-one relationship between the advertiser and consumer. He also ad that advertisers use the second person pronoun simply because they do not know whom they might reach (1994). Similarly, Simpson et al.; explains that advertising uses the direct address for ideological and practical reasons, one of them being that western people prefer being addressed individually with 'you' since western culture values individuality. Another form of direct address is questions and imperatives. Myers explains how questions imply a direct address to readers that grabs their attention and requires a response. Likewise, Simpson et al. discuss questions in ads like a personal relationship between advertiser and consumer, which engages the reader. However, in contrast, the imperatives urge readers to act by creating a personal effect (Myers, 1994). The advertisers make use of a conversational speaking style when including questions and imperatives because of "simulate equality and informality between speaker/writer and the public." (Simpson et al., 2019, p. 100). Further, Delin discusses disjunctive syntax as another strategy to mimic a conversational style. Advertisers prefer short and sometimes incomplete sentences or phrases without the main verb, like 'beautifully,' 'pure,' and 'every day.' (2000). Moreover, parallelism in ads sets up a similar pattern throughout the linguistic structures (Myers, 1994). The repetition of parallelism, synonyms, and near- synonyms intensifies meaning and is mostly used to emphasize lifestyle association (Simpson et al., 2019). Finally, adjectives are an essential feature in advertising because of their ability to communicate both positive and negative meanings. Simpson et al. write, "Affective meaning displays the speaker's, or writer's positive or negative evaluation of the item referred to" (p.100). For example, negative adjectives are associated with a problem. The positive adjectives step in and provide positive associations of the product to solve the problem (2019). 2.3.2 Visuals in Advertising
12 Simpson et al. (2019) explain how visual communication, just like language, can be ideological and "can shape our world views and negotiate social and power relationships" (2019 p.95). Further, Kress and van Leeuwen calls visual representation 'the grammar of visual design' meaning, that visual images and structures express meaning and contribute to texts (2006). However, aside from the importance of visual images in textual analysis, Simpson et al. explain the advertisement's modality as a multimodal concept applied to visual representations. They argue that visuals can be of high modality with a realistic representation of things or people or low modality with unrealistic and unnatural visuals (2019). For example, an advertisement with visuals adjusted through color, brightness, and saturation, Simpson et al. argues as low modality. For instance, women's magazines use low modality to create a fantasy world where women can feel fun and powerful (2019). Further, Cook explains how advertisers rely increasingly more on pictures to create a powerful and complex message through pictures (2001). Additionally, he discusses that pictures, whether it is still or motion and cartoon or photographic, carry symbolic imagery. Also, Cook gives a classic example of a typical advertising theme: bringing people together through a product and presenting it through powerful ideological images (2001). Finally, in cultural analysis, Fairclough (1995) explains that pictures, just like written or spoken texts, can be viewed as texts and analyzed as cultural artifacts. 2.4 Methodological Background: Critical Discourse Analysis Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a theory and method concerned with language and its relation to power and ideology (Fairclough, 1995). Teun A. Van Dijk (2008) discusses how the study of CDA is through relating semiotic properties and practices of discourse to groups or organizations and their power relations in society. Also, CDA is mainly concerned with the abuse of power that creates social injustice and inequality (2008). However, Van Dijk argues the importance of applying fundamental notions of ethical and moral social sciences when analyzing any form of domination in society. Further, Norman Fairclough (1995) describes CDA as a resource for people to reject domination and oppression in the linguistic field. Fairclough describes language in its relation to power by writing; "Power is conceptualized both in terms of asymmetries between participants in discourse
13 events, and in terms of unequal capacity to control how texts are produced, distributed and consumes (and hence the shapes of texts) in particular sociocultural contexts" (p. 1). He mentions that the above idea of power can be found through various properties in texts that potentially can be ideological. Also, the power to control discourse and sustain ideological domination, Fairclough calls discursive practice. Additionally, he presents a three-dimensional framework that aims to combine three separate forms of analysis: the analysis of texts, analysis of discourse practice, and analysis of sociocultural practices (1995). The textual analysis, Strauss and Feiz (2014), argues as the micro-level analysis of discourse that uncovers the ideologies of power abuse through, e.g., words, phrases, metaphors. The discursive practice analysis focuses on how texts have been produced and distributed and how they are received, read, and interpreted (Terry Locke, 2004). The analysis of sociocultural practices aims to explore whether texts support any discursive domination or "a particular social practice, or whether it stands in a counter-hegemonic relationship to certain prevalent conditions" (p. 43, 2004). Lastly, Fairclough (2001) discusses language as discourse and social practice, which is not limited to analyzing text or producing and interpreting texts. However, language is the relationship between texts, processes, and social conditions (2001). 2.5 Previous Works Shapewear has today become a controversial and debated topic. The question of whether shapewear represents body positivity or if it is restricting the female body is a highly discussed issue. Zanette and Scaraboto (2018) explain how the historical course of different styles and forms of shapewear has created a multi-million-dollar brand into a marketplace icon. Shapewear has been brought up in numerous post- feminist eras, causing tension and challenges for shapewear marketers, confronting them about the contradictions found in shapewear. Questions like whether a female body should be public or private or who has the right to control a woman's shape haunts the shapewear marketers (2018). Zanette and Scaraboto further discuss how shapewear, due to its flexibility and its literal and metaphorical meaning, will continue to reinvent itself throughout the changes of technology and society.
14 However, the uprising of gender issues in pop and business culture will continue to create tension between whether shapewear is oppressive or a symbol of empowerment (2018). Nevertheless, shapewear will continue as a marketplace icon due to its high levels of plasticity and the shapewear marketers' power to reshape itself to accommodate the present articulations of gender roles, which carry contradictory ideas of femininity. Consequently, Zanette and Scaraboto believe that shapewear "will continue to partake in gender issues and human bodies" (p.197, 2018). Similarly, Maggie Goddard (2017) argues the wearing of shapewear as an active effort to conform to gender expectations. Women wear shapewear to conceal their bodies and to follow ideal thinness expectations (2017). Goddard discusses how companies like Spanx positions shapewear as a way for women to empower themselves while their product relies on the notion that women feel insecure and desires to fit society's ideal form of women. The combination of the celebration of women's bodies contradicts the assumption of women's "inherent failures" (p. 187). Moreover, the article "To Spanx or not to Spanx" (Zanette and Scaraboto, 2019) argues how objects that carry contradictory institutional logics trigger identity conflict for consumers. Zanette and Scaraboto explain that the institutional and societal pressures on women's roles and their bodies allowed the shapewear market to further pressure women. The logic of constricted femininity that imposes physical and symbolic constraints on the female body contradicts the logic of flexible feminism, which "promotes female empowerment as facilitated by market resources by claiming to reconcile body acceptance and confidence with contemporary beauty standards" (2019, p. 444). The idea that marketing attempts to categorize shapewear as something that makes a woman confident, comfortable, empowered, and free can trigger identity conflict for consumers if they feel the opposite about it (2019). Zanette and Scaraboto explain that promoting contradictory messages of non- permanent transformation and improvement can result in women feeling body- shamed and can harm their identity developments. The discomfort that consumers may experience, the lack of credibility, and the disconnection of shapewear logics are three grounds that can trigger identity conflict in women (2019). 3. Design of Study The study focuses on two popular U.S shapewear brands, Shapermint and Honeylove. Both brands have a direct-to-consumer style in their marketing.
15 Shapermint and Honeylove have been acknowledged and featured by major magazines and news outlets like Forbes, Elle, Reuters, and the New York Times. This study aims to investigate any hidden ideology about the female body in the advertising of Shapermint and Honeylove with Fairclough's three-dimensional framework. 3.1 Shapermint Shapermint launched in 2018 and has since then made 150 million dollars in online sales. Shapermint had more than three million customers in 2019, with more than 100 million dollars in sales (Berthene, 2020). Shapermint's recent video ad campaign "Feel Like The Masterpiece You Are" has had massive success with over thirty million views on Facebook and other platforms (2020). Moreover, Shapermint's 'About Us' page informs its visitors about their mission of shaping a better world with confident and empowered women who celebrates their curves (Shapermint.com). Their goal is to shift the idea of shapewear from negative to body-positive, comfortable, and a confidence booster that makes life easier and stress-free. The company also emphasizes that shapewear is not different from a pair of shoes or makeup. It makes women feel more put together and confident. 3.2 Honeylove Similarly, Honeylove launched its first campaign on Kickstarter and raised 300,000 dollars in pre-orders with an initial goal of 30.000 dollars (Crook, 2018). After wearing uncomfortable shapewear for many years, the creator of Honeylove wanted to create 'Sculptwear' that shapes without rolling down or squeezing the wrong places and makes her feel comfortable and confident (Honeylove.com/pages/about- us). The inspiration behind Sculptwear is to give women flattering shapewear with the effects of an airbrushed finish that tucks and smooths the body and the feeling of clothes just fitting perfectly. Honeylove believes that feeling comfortable results in feeling a little more confident. 3.2 Data This study's data is collected from Shapermint and Honeylove's homepage on their official website: Honeylove.com and Shapermint.com and their most-viewed YouTube videos Sculptwear Difference by Honeylove and Venus' Secret Will Give
16 You A Confidence Boost - #Shapermint by Shapermint. The selection of data from the homepages and YouTube videos is based on the inclusion of visual and linguistic advertising. Additionally, according to Dehghani et al. (2016), YouTube advertising plays an essential role in forming the purchase intention of consumers. As one of the most vital social media channels, YouTube can help companies build and raise brand awareness with social media's customization advantage, making it a great space for discovering advertising strategies (2016). 3.3 Method The method applied for this study is Fairclough's three-dimensional model of textual, discursive, and sociocultural analysis (1995). This method will allow for a broader societal understanding of Shapermint and Honeylove's advertising strategies by focusing on the dynamic interplay of all three themes (1995). Alongside Fairclough's three-dimensional framework, his three dimensions of advertising discourse will be applied to investigate how both brands' advertisement on their homepages works ideologically through the relationship it builds between the advertiser and consumer, the image building of products, and the construction of subject position for consumers (Fairclough, 2001). To discover the three dimensions of advertising discourse, I will investigate the linguistic advertising tools, the direct address, imperatives, metaphors and adjectives, and the homepages' visuals to discover whether the pictures available are of high or low modality and if the homepages' colors specifically target women. Moreover, to further reveal the companies' advertising strategies and how shapewear can work as a mode of defining gender, the YouTube Ads of both Shapermint and Honeylove will investigate more gendered discourse and advertising strategies. Specifically, the rhetorical strategies presented by Jeffries (2007), 'real women,' 'puncturing myths,' 'fictionalized heroines' and 'happy endings' and how features of women's language are used to target women, will be analyzed. 4. Results In this part of the study, I will answer the proposed research questions 1-2 by analyzing the advertising of the homepages and YouTube ads of Shapermint and Honeylove.
17 4.1 Homepages of Shapermint and Honeylove 4.1.1 Visuals Shapermint's website homepage (shapermint.com) and the homepage of Honeylove (honeylove.com) are similar and contain similar linguistic features and visuals. The homepages' colors are feminine and include female-specific colors like beige, mauve, and crimson, targeting women (Lakoff, 2004). The pictures on both homepages are a mix of high and low modality. The shape and size of the bodies pictured look realistic. However, the photoshopped pictures look bright and colorful, creating a space for women to feel fun and powerful (Simpson et al., 2019). The headlines of both Shapermint and Honeylove includes a picture of what Jeffries (2007) describes as a 'real woman.' The brand persuades consumers through pictures of women with different body types, portraying them as realistic and real about the ideal body (2007). As shown below, the visuals of women of different sizes and shapes are a common theme throughout both homepages: Shapermint: Honeylove:
18
4.1.2 Linguistic Features
Both companies address the consumer through the direct address with imperative
sentences that mimics a conversational style:
Shapermint:
1) You deserve to feel exceptional […]
2) The perfect shapewear for your body […]
3) Feel Like The Masterpiece You are
Honeylove:
4) Targeted compression sculpts your body […]
5) so you can enjoy support […]
6) Built-in bust support replaces your bra […]
The companies in examples [1] to [6] build a one-one relationship by grabbing the
consumer's attention through the pronoun 'you' and the possessive 'your' (Myers,
1994). Shapermint, in examples [1] to [3], urges the consumer to act by creating a
personal effect through directly requesting or advising women.
Further, Honeylove, in example [4] to [6], mimics a conversational style by directly
addressing and targeting consumers, with pronouns and short, conversational19
sentences (Delin, 2000). As a result, the western value of individuality and
simulation of equality and informality is evident in using the strategy of direct
address and conversational style by Shapermint and Honeylove (Simpson et al.,
2019). Consequently, Shapermint and Honeylove address visitors as if they were
already consumers, and as a result, consumers may occupy the subject position
(Fairclough, 2001). Similarly, both brands build relations between the product and
the consumer. Fairclough (2001) describes this advertising strategy as building
relations between the advertised product and the consumer for ideological reasons.
Further, Honeylove builds an image of their advertised product with metaphorical
phrases like Queen Brief and SuperPower Thong, which describes their products'
quality by setting up a relation of similarity between two referents (Myers, 1994).
Shapermint, like Honeylove, in their slogan, Feel Like The Masterpiece You Are,
sets up a relation between women and the metaphor 'masterpiece,' describing women
as masterpieces. Another example of image building is the use of adjectives in
Shapermint and Honeylove's advertising:
Shapermint:
7) You deserve to feel Exceptional every single day […]
8) Shapermint empowers women to embrace their confident […]
9) Find the perfect shapewear for your body […]
Honeylove:
10) flexible boning keeps the garment from rolling down
11) Sexy isn't a size
12) Confidence isn't a size
13) targeted smoothing provides gentle hold.
Here both brands build an image of their product by appraising their product and
urging women to buy (Fairclough, 2001). They urge women to buy if they want to
feel confident, sexy, exceptional, which in the context of the advertising describes
the positive function and effect that shapewear can have on women. The products
gain cultural properties and physical properties, as it associates the product with20
attributes that are important for women in the social world (2001). Another strategy
found on Honeylove's homepage is the 'puncturing myth' strategy. Their slogan that
confidence, sexiness, and happiness is not a size debunk the myth of these attributes
fitting only one body type, presumably a slim body, making them appear reliable and
factual (Jeffries, 2007). Honeylove, with this strategy, builds relations with their
consumers, focusing on the ideological relationship between them and the reader by
appearing reliable and factual (Fairclough, 2001).
4.2 YouTube Ads
This section will investigate the advertising of the brand's most viewed YouTube
videos, Venus' Secret Will Give You A Confidence Boost - #Shapermint by
Shapermint and Sculptwear Difference by Honeylove. This section will search for
similar and different linguistic features and strategies to assist the findings on the
homepages.
4.2.1 Shapermint
Shapermint's YouTube Ad (Shapermint, 2020) contains gender discourse and
advertising strategies. The ad can be characterized as a mix of tickle and reason ad
due to humor, emotion, mood, and suggestions for reasons to buy (Cook, 2001). The
advertising of the YouTube ad targets women through gender discourse. The
linguistic features hedges, intensifiers, and empty adjectives are as shown in table 1:
Table 1: Gender Discourse in YouTube Ad (Shapermint, 2020)
Hedges Intensifiers Empty Adjectives
Well Yeah So true Divine
But you know So freaking hard Voluptuous
Actually Smooth
Simply Beautiful
Absolutely21 The linguistic features in Table 1 are features of typical feminine language that differs from the language of men (Lakoff, 2004). Consequently, the company aims at persuading women via hedges, intensifiers, and empty adjectives (2004). Moreover, the ad's humor, emotion, and mood locate in the strategies of 'puncturing myths,' 'fictionalized heroines,' and 'happy endings' (Jeffries, 2007). The narrator punctures the myth of women looking like the sculpture to the right on the picture below: She cancels the myth by saying, "that female body is a myth it was hand chiseled a lot by dudes" (Shapermint, 2020, 00:05 – 00:20). Secondly, she declines the myth of shapewear not being body positive by saying, "it’s okay if our confidence needs a little boost sometimes, for me that boost is shapewear’’ (2020, 01:18 – 01:22). Further, the narrator clarifies the myth of shapewear, forcing women to squeeze into an ideal body type. She states that ‘’shapewear is something you choose to enhance what Zeus gave you’’ (2020, 02:25 – 02:27). The above examples strategically include presupposed myths that the company denies, creating a sense of reliability between the company and consumer (Jeffries, 2007). Further, Shapermint frames women as fictionalized heroines throughout the ad. The narrator describes the body changes women experience in life, followed by advice and ways to deal with their ever-changing bodies (2007). Periods, births, and menopause are mentioned and described as culturally uncomfortable for women in combination with visual demonstrations of the bodily changes’ women goes through (2020, 00:31 – 00:49)
22
14). Maybe your period started, and you can’t fit into yesterday’s. jeans [...]
15). Maybe you grew a human inside your body, pushed it out and still
expected to show up at your friend’s wedding in a bridesmaid’s dress you
bought a year ago […]
16). Maybe you made it through all of that congratulations you’ve now
entered.menopause […]
Here the narrator describes the difficulties that women survive with the same
narration style of horror stories (Jeffries, 2007). Shapermint frames women as heroes23 by emphasizing the horrors of the female body. However, the narrator offers women optimism by advising ‘’for those days I wear shapewear from Shapermint’’ on how they can deal with their bodily functions. Then followed by ‘’slipping into my jeans a breeze let me breathe in my favorite skirt and make even the worst bridesmaids dresses look good’’ (2020, 00:57 – 01:36). Here, the narrator uses the ‘happy endings’ strategy, providing shapewear as the solution to their bodily changes, persuading women to buy it (Jeffries, 2007). 4.2.2 Honeylove Moreover, The Honeylove YouTube ad (Honeylove, 2018) is shorter and has a more direct appeal with detailed descriptions of the products and the function. The narrator presents direct reasons to buy, making it more of a reason ad (Cook, 2001). This ad, different from the ad of Shapermint, focuses on how their product 'sculptwear' is a better alternative than shapewear. The ad does not include much humor, emotion, and mood but explanations for why 'sculptwear' is better than the original shapewear. The ad demonstrates this comparison with sentences like "sculptwear a smarter alternative" and "unlike shapewear sculptwear never rolls down" (2018, 00:01 – 00:31). However, along with the effort of advertising a smarter alternative, the Honeylove ad too targets women. The ad builds an image of their 'sculptwear' to boost women's daily performance in different situations that women can relate to (Fairclough, 2001). The narrator states, ‘’so whether you’re getting dressed for a big night out for a performance or special occasion you’ll have a shapewear that really works stays put and just feels good’’ (2018, 01:07 – 01:17). The narrator emphasizes their product as a flexible product, targeting women with the idea that it fits all women and all their occasions, building an image of a multifunctional product. Similarly, Honeylove visually demonstrates the effectiveness of their product with before and after shots:
24 These visuals showcase how greater their product is in combination with adjectives like fit, flatter, good, comfortable, flexible, brilliant, smarter, fitted, and favorite. It describes how their ‘sculptwear’ is better than the original shapewear and associate the product with positive attributes that establish an image of their product that includes all these characteristics. (Fairclough, 2001). Further, the strategy of displaying visuals of ‘real women’ is also evident in the ad:
25 The ad includes women of all shapes and sizes and describes how ‘’200 women from size 2 to size 20’’ were tested for the company’s prototypes (2018, 00:59 – 01:02). The company builds a relation with their consumers by appearing realistic about how women look, making them appear down to earth to boost sales (Jeffries, 2007). 5. Discussion The results indicate that both brands strategically target women in their advertising and demonstrates the correlation between advertising and ideology. The analysis supports the theory that companies can control discourse and sustain ideological power through discursive practice (Fairclough, 1995). Also, the data suggest that the discourse of Shapermint and Honeylove accommodates the present representations of gender roles in society. Moreover, in line with the theory of textual construction of the female body, both Shapermint and Honeylove ideologically advises women to wear shapewear to feel attractive and confident, practicing the cultural importance of looking good (Jeffries, 2007). Shapermint's YouTube Ad primarily supports the ideology of the unstable material female body that needs assistance (2007). The results suggest that the shapewear advertising discourse includes gendered practices, aiming their advertising at women. Also, the advertisement supports the theory of advertising functioning ideologically through three dimensions (Fairclough 2001). The brands focus on the ideological relationship between them and the consumer by using linguistic features of conversational style that engages women. Secondly, they build an image around shapewear that relates to real-life situations of women. Lastly, they directly address their consumers, which may compel women to occupy
26 the subject position, which builds consumers. The results build on the existing evidence of advertising as a highly persuasive activity that may carry ideological hidden messages about women. Moreover, the results contribute a clearer understanding of how language through a three-dimensional analysis reveals power relations in society. The discourse of Shapermint and Honeylove reflects the societal pressures on women and their bodies. The brands' popularity strongly suggests the analyzed discourse as a social practice within American society due to its celebrity culture and the thriving shapewear market that uses persuasive advertising techniques to target women. The results reveal how shapewear advertising accommodates the present representations of gender roles that carry contradictory femininity ideas (Zanette and Scaraboto, 2019). The brand's advertisement provides women with solutions to empower themselves but fails to recognize issues of conformity to gender expectations and its hidden ideology in the social practice (Goddard, 2017). The use and description of the female body in Honeylove and Shapermint's advertising strengthen society's already patriarchal demands, taking power away from women (Jeffries, 2007). The advertising of Shapermint normalizes the patriarchal views of the female body as leaky, unpredictable, and disruptive, and in need of control (Jeffries, 2007). Both companies participate in the social practice of perfecting the female body by presenting ways to control women's imperfections. In theory, this adds to women's body-shaming and the pressures that can cause mental and emotional problems (2007). 5.1 The Difference in Shapermint and Honeylove’s Advertising In comparison, the two brands' YouTube ads differ in their choice of advertising style. Shapermint's ad targets women with a detailed reference to women and their life challenges described with humor and emotion. In contrast, the Honeylove YouTube ad did not include humor or emotion and focused on advertising the product's function and how it worked, with little reference to real-life situations. Hypothetically, it can be argued that the ad of Honeylove was focused on advertising the features of their new shapewear design, which may explain their limited use of gender discourse in comparison with Shapermint.
27 6. Conclusion This study aimed to identify any gendered discourse that targets women in Shapermint and Honeylove's shapewear advertising. Based on the results, the brands use advertising techniques in combination with gendered discourses to persuade women. The brands are quite similar in how they ideologically build relations, images, and consumers. However, Shapermint does target women considerably more due to their different advertising style and additional techniques. Further, the gendered discourse found in the advertising does mirror the situational context of shapewear, as shapewear has been argued as a gender issue. The brands participating in the social practice of pressuring women to control their bodies do reflect the patriarchal views about the female body. However, it is also essential to highlight that the U.S. has one of the largest shapewear markets due to the popularity of shapewear within its celebrity culture and society (Zanette and Scaraboto, 2019). This research aspect suggests why the U.S. has one of the largest shapewear markets. Additionally, the internet's influence has given advertisers a space to reach a substantial female audience and access details about potential consumers, making it easier to target women. However, future research on shapewear as a contradictory product might extend how it mentally affects women and their identities. Also, the psychoanalysis of women is an interesting topic for future work as it can gain insight into why women would wear something argued as contradictory. Bibliography Berthene, A. (2020, March 25). Profitable, body-positive marketing is key to Shapermint's growth. Digitalcommerce360. https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2020/03/25/profitable-body-positive- marketing-is-key-to-shapermints-growth/ Cook, G. (2001) The Discourse of Advertising (2nd ed.). Routledge Crook, J. (2018, July 23). Honeylove looks to reinvent shapewear. TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/23/honeylove-looks-to-reinvent-shapewear/
28 Dehghani, M., Niaki, M. K., Ramezani, I., & Sali, R. (2016). Evaluating the influence of YouTube advertising for attraction of young customers. Computers in Human Behavior, 59, 165–172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.01.037 Dijk, T. V. A. (2008). Discourse and Power. Palgrave. Delin, J. (2000) The Language of Everyday Life: An Introduction (First ed.). SAGE Publications Ltd. Fairclough, N. (2001). Language and Power. (2nd ed). Pearson Education. Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. Longman Group Limited. Fyffe, S. (2020, March 12). The shapewear debate: conformity or control? Mindless Mag. https://mindlessmag.com/2020/03/27/the-shapewear-debate-conformity-or- control/ Goddard, M. U. (2017). Brigman Award Winner: Slim Cognito: Spanx and Shaping the Female Body. The Journal of Popular Culture, 50(1), 184–194. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.12521 Honeylove. (2018, July 17). The Sculptwear Difference. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdHLxg7ZljA Jeffries, L. (2007). Textual Construction of the Female Body: A Critical Discourse Approach (1st ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. Kress, G., & Leeuwen, T. V. (2006). Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (2nd ed.). Routledge. Litosseliti, L. (2006). Gender and Language Theory and Practice (1st ed.). Routledge. Lakoff, R. T. (2004). Language and Woman's Place: Text and Commentaries (Studies in Language and Gender) (M. Bucholtz, Ed.; Revised ed.). Oxford University Press.
29 Locke, T. (2004). Critical Discourse Analysis. Continuum International Publishing Group. London. Myers, G. (1994). Words in Ads. E. Arnold. Shapermint. (2020, 22 August) Venus' Secret Will Give You A Confidence Boost - #Shapermint [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC2L0jBwjXQ&t=71s S, S., Paul, J., Strong, C., & Pius, J. (2020). Consumer response towards social media advertising: Effect of media interactivity, its conditions and the underlying mechanism. International Journal of Information Management, 54, 102155. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102155 Strauss, S. G., & Feiz, P. (2014). Discourse analysis: putting our worlds into words. New York: Routledge. Simpson, P., Mayr, A., & Statham, S. (2019). Language and power: a resource book for students. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Young, L., & Fitzgerald, B. (2006). The Power of Language: How Discourse Influences Society (Equinox Textbooks and Surveys in Linguistics). Equinox Publishing Limited. Yar, S. (2019, October 21). Shapewear Would Like to Be Loved by You. No Pressure Though. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/style/spanx- shapewear-brands.html?searchResultPosition=2 Zanette, M. C., & Scaraboto, D. (2019). "To Spanx or not to Spanx": How objects that carry contradictory institutional logics trigger identity conflict for consumers. Journal of Business Research, 105, 443–453. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.02.065
30 Zanette, M. C., & Scaraboto, D. (2018). From the corset to Spanx: shapewear as a marketplace icon. Consumption Markets & Culture, 22(2), 183–199. https://doi.org/10.1080/10253866.2018.1497988
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