Kendra Squires Final Paper Critical Media Studies 12-1-12

Throughout history we are persuaded in all aspects of our lives. Simply walking down the street, having a barbecue in the backyard, or even just sitting down and watching your favorite television show at home. All aspects of life whether you realize it or not has persuasion. But what is it that people are actually trying to achieve when they are purposely persuading you? How exactly do they do it? There are many different theories when it comes to this and how individuals interpret them may vary. This area of study is so important because its arbitration from society has changed from year to year. Peoples understanding of what the media is trying to portray creates many different theoretical theories. Throughout this paper I will be discussing how the media persuades its consumers through psychoanalytical studies specifically to the Male Gaze and phallocentrism, which in turn can lead to many things. The Male Gaze is defined as, The frequent positioning of women as objects coded for strong visual and erotic impact(Ott, 305). For my media text I decided to use an advertisement for the very famous Tom Ford. The purpose of the advertisement is to promote Tom Fords first fragrance for men. In the ad you have a woman with very large naked breasts holding the cologne bottle between them by

pressing her hands across her nipples. Not only will this ad get the attention of the male viewers but also, it obviously would get the attention of society in general. Placing this woman as a sexual object to represent the cologne grabs your attention more than an ad that did not contain a naked woman. One of the key functions in our society is based on sex. It gets your attention whether you like it or not. By Tom Ford doing this he is leaving an impression that will be hard to forget. Through a feminist perspective it is said that, The male gaze is how men look at women, how women look at themselves, and how women look at other women(slideshare gaze). Obviously the exposure of her breasts will get a mans attention. But another way the viewer is going to take the ad is how a woman sees it. Right away she will compare herself and her body image. Not only will she make judgments upon herself she most likely will make judgments of the woman posing in the cologne ad. The advertisement certainly represents the male gaze, but it also represented phallocentrism in a big way. Phallocentrism is the, Social condition in which images or representations of the penis carry connotations of power and dominance(Ott, 306). Not only is the placement of the bottle significant but the actual shape of the bottle is also a key sign to phallocentrism. The bottle is placed on top of the women showing dominance and the shape of the bottle represents the penis form. The penis form in our society represents power. Freud points to the male phallus as a symbol of power in the creation of the human psych(???158). After further accessing the ad I also noticed the direction the bottle is facing, directly towards her mouth, another sign of male dominance. Everything in the ad is aimed towards men and their power over women. This also can lead to the psychoanalytical study of fantasy, A mental

representation of conscious or unconscious wish fulfillment(Ott,165). The ad is making the viewer think of certain things that are sparking their sexual arousal This in turn can make them feel fulfilled and pleasured whether they realize it or not. Tom Ford and his advertisement team do this on purpose. The point of this advertisement is to make the viewer think they can have all of this by purchasing the cologne... a beautiful girl with large breasts that will let him completely dominate her. Even if in the back of his head he may know this is not true, there is a type of stigmatism that is left making him more likely to purchase the product. Essentially the woman is only in the ad to satisfy the male gaze and represents phallocentrism by showing male dominance. I was surprised to notice during my research how many advertisements contain these two aspects. Using women as sexual objects to pleasure those around us is something that I dont think will ever change within the United States culture. Like the old saying states, Sex Sells!