The Symbolic Meaning and Values Portrayed In Models' Characteristics in Fashion Advertisements

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Various current events provide evidence that society is undergoing changes in perceptions of social relationships. Specifically, visual media in the form of advertisements can convey images which reflect society's values and concepts about role relationships. The purpose of this research was to examine ads in fashion magazines to determine what types of model roles and role relationships typically appear in fashion advertising which can mirror society's values. A content analysis was conducted of ads obtained from US Vogue and US GQ for the year 2002. Six kinds of roles/relationships were found: (1) Narcissism (representing self absorption), (2) sexually enticing opposite-sex relationships, (3) close/romantic same-sex relationships, (4) friend relationships, (5) family relationships, and (6) independent relationships. Of these, narcissism predominated, however, a small number of sexually provocative ads appeared as well as same-sex romantic relationships. Because sole (single) models were more typical, they also were examined to determine ways in which they relate to the audience. Characteristics examined included body presentation & pose, eye gaze, and facial expression. Direct eye gaze was the typical way to engage the audience. Gender differences were apparent: smiling was more typical of women, indifference for men. The symbolic meaning and values investigated from this research are the blurring of gender identity portrayed in homosexual imagery, family values, and the value of youth. The consistency of models' race in ads does not portray the diversity reflected in the demographic census.