ASA 141
Green Challenge #5
In the midst of the detoxing period, I found not receiving any package sitting on our kitchen table odd. Maybe I was addicted to having something waiting for me when I arrive home - bliss when I hold scissors and open packages to see what arrived. To be honest, the amount of trash decreased drastically during this period. It had been a hassle to take out the trash every week; I had to at least go back and forth twice because of the number of boxes piled up in front of my room. Getting emails with a ton of advertisements, Nordstrom's 50% sale and Sephora's VIB only sales, is tempting me again as these sales won't last after a long weekend, yet I am resisting the temptation pretty well. So far.
After reading week 9's reading assignment, I noticed a certain pattern among the emails and their advertisements. Indeed, most of the models are Western, probably since the emails are from Western companies, and Asian models are more frequently seen in hair/makeup-related products. As the study by Katherine Toland Frith, Hong Cheng, and Ping Shaw suggests, there is a clear distinction of when Western and Asian models are used and portrayed.
There was another similar study conducted by Ping Shaw, one of the researchers of the "Race and Beauty: A Comparison of Asian and Western Models in Women’s Magazine Advertisements". In "Race and Masculinity: A Comparison of Asian and Western Models in Men's Lifestyle Magazine Advertisements," Ping Shaw and Yue Tan explored 636 different advertisements and analyzed how Western and Asian male models are portrayed in similar settings. The study suggests that Asian models are used to target the Asian market, whereas Western models are used to target the Western market.
It's interesting to see a correlation and trend between race and advertisement. Even though advertisers' decisions are based on consumers and their standards, these differences result from stereotypes, which are often something that has to be abolished. As these studies were conducted 15 and 5 years ago, hopefully there has been progress to eradicate this racism and genderism.
Citation
Frith, Katherine Toland, et al. “Race and Beauty: A Comparison of Asian and Western Models in Women's Magazine Advertisements.” Sex Roles, vol. 50, no. 1/2, 2004, pp. 53–61.,
doi:10.1023/b:sers.0000011072.84489.e2.
Shaw, P., & Tan, Y. (2014). Race and Masculinity: A Comparison of Asian and Western Models in
Men’s Lifestyle Magazine Advertisements. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly,
91(1), 118–138. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699013514410
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