BIO

I am a second year undergraduate student majoring in Digital Media Production, with an immense passion for media journalism and film & television through a cross-cultural lens. I was interested in taking on this project as it is focuses on multi-cultural liberation within mass media, which is very relevant to my personal and career interests as I hope to enter the media landscape to help spotlight AAPI issues.

Are Women in Ads Really Empowered? What Hair Tells Us

Abstract

This qualitative textual analysis questions the "empowered female" discourse suggested in "femvertising," specifically focusing on the development of hair representation amongst women of color in comparison to their White counterparts. Using Goffman's Gender Advertisements as the theoretical framework for coding female adverts' non-verbal communication cues over time, it can be inquired whether or not women are more empowered in the current state of contemporary commercialism in terms of their roles and non-verbal behaviors. Our preliminary findings show that there has been progress made in the depiction of females' nonverbal behaviors that has revealed more independence then what Goffman did in 1988. However, the analysis found that black females’ hair portrayals still demonstrate stereotypes of black women’s natural hair and its negative connotations embedded in western culture.

Keywords: sociology, women's studies