Anne Higonnet on 20thC Adverts
July 4th, 2006
“Advertisements… bound the cosmetic and psychological feminine traits they promoted to a consumer identity. According to advertisements, women were completely dependent on commercial products to accomplish household tasks, attract men, raise children and win social acceptance. …
By identifying femininity with objects, advertisements encouraged women to identify themselves as objects.”
source: A.Higonnet “Women, Images & Representation” in A History of Women in the West, Vol.V
July 6th, 2006 at 9:33 am
So, this is a tidy quote, but I’m not sure about the causal elision: is it really the case that if femininity is associated with objects, women necessarily identify themselves as objects? I’m not sure…