J. Bernell in Media Semiotics p46 analyses the Wonderbra advert here as an "iconic sign denoting a woman...". He notes that there are different sign systems in use, "...a syntagm of linguistic signs" which can explain why the advert uses simple imagery with few words to make the advert effective. Seeing the links between both text and image leads the subject to the correct or desired reading of the advert.
Bernell goes on to further discuss the advert from the point of view of several subjects which could interpret this advert in a different way yet still come to the same conclusion, that the Wonderbra enhances a womans bueaty or sexual appeal.
"Perhaps a female reader would envy the woman because of the sexual attractiveness which the bra gives the woman" Bernell points out here that the Bra is a signifier of "desired sexual attractiveness". Regardless of colour the
Summary
Introduce historical conceptions of identity and Foucault’s ‘discourse’ methodology.
To place and critique contemporary practice within these frameworks, and to consider their validity.
Consider ‘postmodern’ theories of identity as ‘fluid’ and ‘constructed’ and consider identity today, especially in the digital domain.
Look at the theories of identity such as essentialism (traditional approach)
Our biological make up makes us who we are and we all have an inner essence that makes us who we are.
With this theory however, post modern theorist disagree making them anti-essentialist.
The image to the top left shows grades of intelligence with stereotypes of what you should look like based on your brow and your chin. The more of a diagonal shape from your brow to your chin the less intelligent you appear. The word appear is important here as this is the identity that you give out.
Phrenology is not a real science as there is no biology to it.
A picture of good health is seen to be based on a white skinned blue eyed person. There is a theory that a if you have the correct ratios of brain make up then you have a balanced identity.
Discourse analysis - Identity is constructed out of the discourses culturally available to us.
Discourse is described as the following.
‘… a set of recurring statements that define a particular cultural ‘object’ (e.g., madness, criminality, sexuality) and provide concepts and terms through which such an object can be studied and discussed.’ Cavallaro, (2001)
Age, Class, Gender, Nationality, Race/ethnicity, Sexual orientation, Education, Income are all discourses because they make you wehat you are but begin to determine stereotypes that can be applied to you.
Class allows others to identify people and their identities but you first need to be aware of your own
Emily Bates:
Bates bases work on Mary Magdalene including an instillation piece commenting on how she felt as a red headed woman. The aim was to highlight that people can be categorized by the colour of their hair and given an identity which can be pro or con redhead.
‘Edmund Bergler, an American psychoanalyst writing in the 1950s, went much further, both in condemning the ugliness of fashion and in relating it to sex. He recognised that the fashion industry is the work not of women, but of men.
Its monstrosities, he argued, were a “gigantic unconscious hoax” perpetrated on women by the arch villains of the Cold War –male homosexuals (for he made the vulgar assumption that all dress designers are “queers”). Having first, in the 1920s, tried to turn women into boys, they had latterly expressed their secret hatred of women by forcing them into exaggerated, ridiculous, hideous clothes
Wonderbra advert makes the point that women with large breasts are not stupid, but believe that they can't cook. The emphasis is on selling to a woman through the identity given to her by the man. Women assume that men think this constantly, therefore the identity is given and women have to simply give in to the identity given to them.
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