Abstract

MARTINEZ-LIROLA, María. Symbolic Violence Against Women in Advertising: A Critical Visual Analysis. Íkala [online]. 2021, vol.26, n.2, pp.349-364.  Epub Mar 15, 2022. ISSN 0123-3432.  https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.ikala.v26n2a06.

Advertising discourse is known to contribute to sexism and to the reproductio of gender stereotypes. This research study focuses on the symbolic violence that presents the body of women as sexual objects in advertising texts used by Dolce & Gabbana in the newsletter that it sent through the web regularly between 2016 and 2019. The methodology is mainly qualitative, although some quantitative data is also provided to better understand the structure of the corpus. To deconstruct the representational, interpersonal and compositional meanings of the advertisements, the study uses Kress and van Leeuwen's (2006) visual grammar as a theoretical framework. The results of the visual analysis show that women’s bodies are used as advertising "demands," which contributes to reproducing various forms of symbolic violence. Such results suggest the need to reconsider female body objectification in advertising discourse.

Keywords : women; advertising discourse; symbolic violence; critical visual analysis; gender studies.

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