Societies and their inability to accept that the Female body works exactly the same as a Males... *we have body hair, move on*
What makes an image complex compared to simple.? Is the approach of specific ads and images we see intentional, reflective or constructive.? Multimedia has been around for decades and has been used through all theories of representation. As seen in “The Work of Representation” by Stuart Hall the reflective approach “is the thought to lie in the object, person, idea or event in the real world… to reflect the true meaning as it already exists in the world”, the intentional approach states that “the speaker, author, who imposes his or her unique meaning on the world through language. Words mean what the author intends they should mean”. This definition of the intentional approach completely contradicts the reflective approach seen by Hall, the third approach however; constructive “recognises this public, social character of language, acknowledging that neither things in themselves nor the individual users of language can fix meaning to language”. Whatever way Hall's words were used to describe language, they can also be perfectly used to describe media.
A semiotic image as described again by Hall as “not only words and images but objects themselves can function as signifiers in the production of meaning “ ; a semiotic image alongside its choice of representation whether that be reflective, intentional or constructive is what makes an image complex. As Daniel Chandler describes there are two elements which make up a semiotic image “In semiotics, denotation and connotation are terms describing the relationship between the signifier and its signified, and an analytic distinction is made between two types of signifieds: a denotative signified and a connotative signified”
The above campaign ads for “Quattro for Women” have both an underlying denotation and connotations. The Denotation of the campaign is an advertisement for Women's Quattro Razors, a company founded under “Schick” in 1926. This advertisement campaign was aimed towards young women looking for that “shave so smooth you can skip a day or two” implying that by using their products you can “step away from the razor” as written in the campaign. The Connotation of these images suggest that for women to have the ideal or “perfect shavcation” they must be what is socially acceptable as “clean” (ie: no body hair), this in my opinion is very downgrading as a woman in today's society when gender norms and stereotypes are being so frequently broken. However looking through the lens of a young woman in the 1900’s, this campaign would certainly catch my eye. The ideal figure and perfect skin would draw me towards this product as it would be the image I would be aiming for myself, so therefore I am currently aware that society back then is much different to now.
Like I said, as a young woman in today’s society it is hard to not be personally offended by the underlying connotations of this campaign but looking from a business perspective; Quattro would have, I believe successfully grabbed the attention of the young women in which society this campaign was released. In today's media and society however, this advertisement could be read many different ways depending on who you ask; so yes ,what makes an image complex.? I believe it is its ability to challenge your views whilst also relaying an intended (denotation) and unintended (connotation) message.
References:
Hall, S. (1997). Representation - Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. [online] Available at: https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Vs-BdyhM9JEC&oi=fnd&pg=PA13&dq=the+work+of+representation+stuart+hall&ots=GvxL4D4bzC&sig=zyvmRPKJz6jDvMU09KmkUONknwM#v=onepage&q=the%20work%20of%20representation%20stuart%20hall&f=false.
Chandler, D. (2019). Semiotics for Beginners: Denotation, Connotation and Myth. [online] Visual-memory.co.uk. Available at: http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/sem06.html.
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