Eross - Expressions Research Orientations: Sexuality Studies

PhD Students

Michael Bane

Phd Title

An Investigation into How Women Consume and Engage with Realistic Female Portrayals in Beauty Advertising

Abstract

Numerous studies have previously examined the sophistication of female readers in attending to cosmetic advertising, establishing ideologies (Gulas & McKeage 2000, Wood 1989, Festinger 1954) and behaviours (Bessenoff & Del Priore 2007, Bower & Landreth 2001) for the candidates conscious choice or susceptibility towards particular creative executions. In light of the current influx of realistic portrayals in beauty advertising, this study intends to examine how female readers construe realistic images in a poststructuralist and advertising exhausted society where ideal and aspirational models are persistently omnipresent in corporate and entertainment media. In addition, this study will endeavour to integrate post modernism and post feminism theory with contemporary media effects/reception theory to determine whether women have the autonomy or capacity to derive realistic portrayals, as well as their propensity to be genuinely predisposed to enlightened brands that adopt such an approach.