What: According to Debra Merskin, the Matrix of Mass Mediated Stereotypes refers to “a pattern of polarization on the basis of sexuality (or lack thereof) and physical appearance that impacts development of individual and social identity (Merskin, 103).”
Merskin suggests a list of questions to ask of media representations in order to be an informed viewer, listener, and reader in order to go beyond the stereotypical representations. Below I explore these questions in terms of the stereotypical representations of women in print liquor advertisements:
1. What or who is being represented?
The goal of these advertisements is to sell alcoholic products. Women are represented in these advertisements in sexually objectified manners in order to help sell the products by capturing men’s attention.
2. How is it (are they) represented?
Women are portrayed as sexual beings and objects that exist solely to please men.
3. Is the representation made to seem “true”, “common sense” or “natural?”
The representation of women as sexually objectified objects in print alcohol advertisements is a very normal image. Accumulation theory explains that we perceive images or myths as “normal” and “natural” when we see the consistent, persistent and corroborated forms of the image over time.
4. Who created the representations? Whose interests does it reflect? How do you know?
Advertisers, along with the alcohol companies, create these representations. These representations of females reflect the interest of the alcohol companies. The liquor companies use women to appeal to their target audience: men. They sexualize the females that appear in the advertisement and align with the saying “sex sells.”
5. At whom is this representation targeted? How do you know?
The image of sexually objectified women is an advertising technique targeted at men, specifically the white heterosexual male. Sometimes men are in the advertisements and are portrayed as a dominant figure over the woman. If no man is present, the woman’s body is highly sexualized, distorted and dismembered.
6. What does this representation mean to you?
As a woman, these representations are very harmful. As an individual, it is difficult to break away from the stereotypical image of women as sexual objects because our culture is saturated with images that express the exact opposite.
7. What does it mean to others?
For men, these images reinforce the idea that it is acceptable, and in fact normal, to dominate women and view them as nothing more than objects to be pursued. According to Syzmanski, Moffitt and Carr, alcohol advertisements focus on the male gaze (21). Adveretisers play up the sexualization of females using sexual positions and tight clothing to catch men’s attention so that they will buy the product.
8. How do people make sense of it?
Advertisements depend on visuals. Through print liquor ads that sexually objectify women, what people see is the visual representations of women as sexualized or, if applicable, a man (or men) dominating the woman. This sort of visual representation enforces the fact that the stereotypical image of the sexually objectified female exists to please men, and thus catch their attention so that they focus on the advertisement and ultimately buy the product.
9. What alternative representations are possible?
Possible alternative representations could show women with less skin showing or without a focus on their body parts.