THE DEPICTION OF

SEXISM IN DIFFERENT
DISCOURSE TYPES
FINAL PROJECT

APLICACIONES DEL ANLISIS DEL DISCURSO

MIRIAM PREZ CEREZO
HAIZEA SNCHEZ MONREAL
LAURA VICENTE MARTN
2015-2016
 The Depiction of Sexism in Different Discourse Types

Abstract
In this project we are going to analyse sexism in media and for that we have selected
examples of comic strips, song lyrics and advertisements with that bias. The main focus
is on the use of language and how it is applied depending on the aim, it may want to
produce humour, controversy or other feelings in the receiver in order to accomplish their
different goals such as sell, entertain or communicate. As an opposition we have chosen
antisexist examples of the same media categories so as to compare them with the sexist
elements and to demonstrate how it is possible to deconstruct sexism in media.

Key words: discourse, sexism, controversy, humour, culture

1. Introduction

Nowadays we live in a modern era, in which many of the restrictions of the past have
been left behind and a more liberal and modern society is proclaimed, which is based on
liberty and equality. However, this is what we would like to believe, given that sexism is
still rooted in our society and is present in our ordinary life, which makes new generations
internalize most of these sexist assumptions as something natural. In this process of
producing and assimilating sexism, language plays a crucial role since it can guarantee
the pervasiveness of these conservative ideas in modern discourse types.

According to McCormick, language has been used as a tool by those in power, attributing
them a truth value while it suppresses certain communities, denying them visibility and
also misrepresenting them by following the standards that have been imposed upon them.
We can see that these stigmata are still being kept as means to push women aside as well
as strengthening the superior position that men enjoy. Nonetheless, thanks to the
spreading of awareness in the matter the feminist movements are standing against sexism
by giving women a revolutionary voice that little by little is empowering them to the
extent that we can perceive changes in the discourse of gender as well as changing a
reality that had been imposed for so long.

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 In this project, we will attempt to analyse sexist comic strips, songs and advertisements
to understand how they use language and images to get their message across and then
present the antisexist version in order to demonstrate that the media does not need to have
a sexist bias to pursue their goals.

2. Theoretical concepts
In this project we aim at applying most of the theoretical concepts that have been learned
throughout the course, given that we have chosen different types of discourse. Therefore,
the main areas that will be studied will be humour in comic strips, evaluation in music
and controversy in advertising. All of them are linked by sexism; thence, our aim would
be to look at the specific strategies employed in each of the cases and to determine how
they are all related and motivated, in order to reach a conclusion.

First, we will look at humour from the perspective of comic strips in which we can find a
combination of images and text that together contribute with the creation of laughter, but
first we need to take into account some theoretical aspects regarding humour. According
to Attardo (1994), it is explained as a kind of incongruity among two different fields, one
is what is expected and the other is the moment of surprise that takes place in a joke.
Humour plays with expectations in the sense that the interlocutor will expect an utterance
related to the first field but will be surprised with something that has nothing to do with
the previous utterance (second field). The incongruous connection of these two fields will
be the trigger of laughter. The Hostility Theory is crucial for our analysis, and we focused
on Thomas Hobbes explanation, who believed that laughter arises from a sense of
superiority of the laughter towards some object (what is commonly referred as the butt
of the joke). (Attardo, 1994: 50). On this basis, some instances of humour are created
to make fun of someone or something that we consider inferior; which supports our
research. When using humour, it is important to pay attention at script-based semantic
theory of humour, coined by Raskin, who defines scripts as a cognitive structure
internalized by the native speaker and it represents the native speakers knowledge of a
small part of the world. (1985: 81). Therefore, humour will be determined by the way
speakers see the world and their experiences.

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Regarding songs, we find that the language of the lyrics is not very complex due to the
limitations of having to adapt it to the melody. Especially in mainstream music, they do
not seem to worry that much about the lyrics and sometimes the meaning is not even
understood by the listener because the music industry tends to focus in getting catchy
songs more than in giving a message. Nevertheless, songs can use the language differently
depending on the artists intentions which may vary if the song is just expressive,
informative or used as a form of criticism. Therefore, it could rely on humour as a form
of creativity by adapting the language or it could present evaluation even though there is
not necessarily always a conventional narrative structure. In the case of music videos,
we only have the verbal information of the lyrics and the rest tends to rely on the images
which could vary immensely depending on the music genre, the artist or the rhythm of
the song. The music video is used as a form of advertising the song, so the aim is mainly
to catch the viewers attention by using attractive, creative or humorous imagery. In
occasions they resort to generate controversy through shocking images related mostly to
sexuality but they can also use creative resources.

With regard to advertising, it must be noted that the role of language depends significantly
on the advertising medium. In this paper we will analyse printed advertising, which
implies that both verbal and visual information will play an important role and we will
focus on how they are related to each other. In those cases, authors such as Geis observe
that language can play a wide variety of roles such as that of attracting the audiences
attention, presenting information or, most likely, persuading potential clients. This author
also observes that language in advertising can violate Grices Cooperative Principle,
especially in what respects to having non-obscure utterances (Manner Maxim) and to
saying as much as it is required (Quantity Maxim). This is relevant for the examples that
concern us here, given that consumers are expected to interpret the messages themselves,
a fact that may trigger a great controversy, as the advertisements we are analysing in the
following lines will show. Clearly, if advertisement will have to be characterized by only
one feature that would be its great creative potentiality. Creativity plays a major role in
current advertising since nowadays creatives focus on creating different worlds and
evoking imaginative situations. This is a crucial feature of advertising, given that these
worlds are created on the basis of some linguistic choices, which give raise to different
meanings. Consequently, in what concerns us here, this has another implication, since
linguistic choices also determine different interpretations of reality or yield different

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 world views (Hidalgo Downing: 2003). This is a notion that one must bear in mind when
analysing sexism in different discourses, since world views typically reproduce
ideologies. In this line, it is essential to take into account that a reason for interest in
advertising is that, as one of the major discourse types which construct our contemporary
identity, it enables us to study a part of ourselves. (Cook, 1992: 182). Hence, the
audience is invited to identify with the worlds that are created with the purpose of
encouraging the addressee to buy the product. However, it must be noted that in some
cases there is not only an identification but also a re-construction or revaluation of the
realities or worlds that are been presented. Finally, we must take into account that even
though the persuasive function is the most prominent one, advertising can perform a wide
variety of functions such as amusing, informing or pleading. Indeed, we will see that in
many cases advertisements fluctuate between humour and controversy, which clearly
illustrates that they can go beyond persuasion; specifically, the emotional and phatic
components can play a great role and constitute what Cook calls display, which aims at
establishing and maintaining identity (Cook, 1992: 147).

3. Data and method

For this project we have selected nine instances of present-day sexism in different
mediums: comic strips, music and advertising. Thus, we have divided the analysis of
sexism into three sections, depending on the type of discourse employed. As a result,
three different examples will be analysed in each of the sections. Hence, section A would
be devoted to the study of sexism on different comic strips; section B will focus on
present-day songs and their video clips; lastly, in section C, we will study how sexism is
reflected in printed advertising. Thus, we will focus on discussing which are the main
strategies employed nowadays as well as the intention behind such choices. Finally, in
section D we will briefly discuss that some of these strategies can be used in feminism
for subversion, a tendency that has been recently observed and that has erected as a
powerful opponent to sexist discourses.

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4. Analysis and Discussion
Now we will proceed to analyse our examples of comic strips, songs and their music
videos and advertisements. For that, we have divided them in three sections so we can
make a particular examination of each category.

SECTION A. SEXISM IN COMIC STRIPS

We decided to start analysing humour because we feel that it is an important field of

research which demonstrates that sexism is so rooted in our society that we even
encounter it in humorous texts. Humour is supposed to be something that causes laughter
and releases tension, but some jokes are based on offending a certain community by
making fun of it, in this case women, by using clichs attached to them. We focused on
comic strips because there is a combination of linguistic elements and images that
reinforce those clichs which represent the discrimination women still suffer and that
sometimes is considered something normal.

COMIC STRIP 1 CLEANING IS A WOMENS TASK

The following comic strip represents the misconception that women are the only ones in
charge of keeping the house clean. The situation is this: a man is visited by a woman
(probably a friend) and she complains about how untidy the house is, and suggests him
that he should have more self-discipline and his response is that he needs a wife. The
background knowledge here would be the clichs that men are messy whereas women are
quite the contrary, implying that they need a woman that will clean the mess they leave
around. It is worth looking at the first pretext that the man uses when she notices the
condition of the house saying that he does not clean on purpose because he wants it to be
more natural. This could imply that he does not want to clean because it is something
that women are supposed to do, not men, and this is clarified in his last answer. In this
joke there is a reversal of expectations because of the two frames that take place here:
(F1): Single men are a mess and have to take care of the house more.
(F2): Women are assumed to be the only ones able to clean the house while men
work.

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Here we can perceive a clash because his female friend expected him to agree with her in
the sense that he would acknowledge his messy behaviour and leave pretexts behind, but
what she gets is a striking answer instead: what I need is a wife. This clash of expectations
is what normally causes laughter in these kinds of comic strips, because the incongruous
connection between the two fields is something that the reader did not have in mind.
However, this comic strip is clearly meant to be funny just for men, since it illustrates the
gender roles that the patriarchal society imposes us, making us see that women only serve
to stay and home and clean because the man is the only one who works to bring the
money. It is also important the fact that the man says that he needs a wife and not a
girlfriend or even a housekeeper, and we believe it is because marriage is like signing a
kind of contract in which two parts make the compromise to be together the rest of their
lives. It has the connotation that a wife belongs to her husband and for this reason she has
to serve him (cleaning, cooking, looking after the kids) while he works, but she does
it for free because it is her duty as his wife.

The images accompanying the balloons of the comic strip are also important because they
provide the visual information that would be missing if we only had the written
conversation. We are able to see that the man made a big mess of his house, but what is
mostly significant here is the expression that the woman makes when her friend says What
I need is a wife!! Probably because she does not like what he says and she did not expect
it at all. This situation could fit in almost any conversation between a man and a woman
years ago and even nowadays, showing us that even though these kinds of comments do
not like women are still being said and thought, undermining what we think about the
matter. Therefore, this comic strip reinforces the idea that its intention was to make men
laugh, forgetting about women and only using them as part of the joke, making male
readers empathize with the man.

COMIC STRIP 2 WOMEN ARE SHOPAHOLIC

The next comic strip we have chosen shows a man talking to his psychiatrist, who seems
to be worried because he followed his advice about getting in touch with his feminine
side and he ended up spending all his money. The knowledge necessary to understand
this joke is that women are considered delicate and sensitive as well as obsessed with

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shopping. In this case the two frames that collide are clichs associated with being a
woman:

(F1): women are sensitive and delicate

(F2): women love going shopping and spend all the money they have left

The reader expects that the character will start talking about his feelings and problems
but this expectation is violated when he says that he spent all the money he had left in his
credit card. Both fields are not so incongruous in comparison with the previous comic
strip, since they are two characteristics that people believe women have inherently but we
can find the same intention there. Women are portrayed as simple and sensitive beings
that only care about buying things, whereas men are sensible and know how to save
money. This comic strip is an exemplification of how women are mocked in our society,
consequently implying that it is a shame to be a woman or to behave like one because
feelings are womens issues as well as going shopping.

If we take a look at the characters face we can see that he is troubled due to what he has
just experienced when getting in touch with his feminine side and it is significant
because the combination of both the text and the image create the rejecting effect towards
women and the mockery they receive. Analysing the matter further, the character is
talking to a psychiatrist who previously suggested him to know his feminine side and this
is very important because throughout history women were associated to madness and
were accused of being mentally insane with an alarming frequency. The fact that the man
has that crazy look can also mean that he has gone mad because he started behaving like
a woman, bringing us the generalization that women are crazy that is still around in our
society and that creates laughter in the male reader, agreeing with it without further
questionings, because they are the rational ones.

COMIC STRIP 3 WOMEN ARE MONSTERS

The last comic strip portrays one of the most typical generalizations that we as women
have heard at least once in our lives. A mother, who seems to be angry, orders her children
to tidy their room and the father asks her, presumably in an innocent way, at what age

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 menopause starts and when the mother answers him his response is that he will be by her
side, but he thinks otherwise. The background knowledge has to do with the stereotype
regarding menopause, which consists of the belief that women become quite ill-tempered.
The two fields that appear in this comic strip are:
(F1): a husband will be on his wifes side when she goes through menopause
(F2): the wife will become insufferable that her family will have to stay away from her

The expected utterance would be what the husband says in the last sketch because his
wife will be going through a biological change that will affect her and needs support.
However, we see that he actually thinks of looking for a safe place and leave her, as if
she would suffer any kind of mutation into a monster. The laughter effect is created in the
incongruity between what he says and what he thinks. Again, we find a comic strip that
is intended to make men laugh by mocking women and in this case the reason is their
biology. It brings the idea that we previously mentioned: men see women as mentally
unstable and in some cases link it to the processes their bodies undergo. We experience
the same kind of clichs with the menstruation, claiming that when we are on our period
we turn into terrifying monsters that destroy everything in our path. Men tend to make
fun of womens natural processes reducing them to a ridiculous stereotype to make
themselves feel superior.

The pictures also contribute to that clich depicting a very angry woman who seems to
behave that way for no reason and the innocent husband who is going to be a victim of
her rage once she has menopause. Nevertheless, he seems to have a plan against that and
his face in the last sketch says it all; he is looking at her with contempt, hinting at us his
real plans with respect to the future circumstances. Thus, the image helps the reader
imagine the situation and eases the moment of laughter and making him feel identified
with the situation at the same time.

As a conclusion for this section, we could say that the Hostility Theory and incongruity
can be applied to the examples we analysed because they show us how sexist jokes are
made and the intention that lies behind them. We have seen that all of them are created
with the aim of making only male readers laugh and not only forgetting about women but
also using them as the focus of mockery, undermining their status as human beings and
denying their equality in society. These subtle jokes and the language used in them only

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demonstrate the way women are perceived in society and that patriarchy is still very
present although some people think otherwise

SECTION B. SEXISM IN MUSIC

MEGHAN TRAINOR - ALL ABOUT THAT BASS

We have chosen this artist because of the controversy she caused on two of her most
popular hits. In the case of All About that Bass, she seemed to spread a message of self-
love and of body positivity among women that the song was instantly praised. However,
there were voices that claimed that Megan Trainor was doing the opposite of body
positivity because to praise girls with a higher size, she was bringing skinny girls down.
Taking a closer look to the lyrics, she seems to not be ashamed of her size because she
can do whatever she wants I aint not size two but I can shake, like Im supposed to do,
every piece of you is perfect from the bottom to the top and I'm all 'bout that bass as
part of the chorus which is repeated over and over is a clear allusion to the bottom as a
way of celebrating it for its size. However, she says at the beginning of the song: go
ahead and tell them skinny bitches. She seemed to be concerned about how girls feel
pressured because of her bodies, but she criticizes girls that are skinny calling them
bitches, which is an evaluative sexist term towards women. Another mention to thinner
women is I wont be no stick figure silicone Barbie doll which shows indirectly a
pejorative attitude towards women that look like a stick because they are thin and have
no curves and also criticizes those who go through surgery to modify their bodies through
silicone implants.

Nevertheless, the song has received more criticism on something that we have seen before
and that is that the body positivity message is lost because her body only is acceptable
when boys like it and not because she just simply loves it. Cause I got that boom boom
that all the boys chase, she brags about her bottoms because the boys chase it, which
would be a kind of intrusive behaviour on the boys part, but assuming that it is
figuratively, the boys like her because of her physical aspect nonetheless, not because of
her other qualities. In the chorus we also see one of the problems of this mentality and
that is the influence of other generations. The singers says how her mother told her not to
worry about her side because boys like a little more booty to hold at night and again,

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she should accept herself because her physical aspect is acceptable for boys and not
because self-hate is negative for her life or because she has other qualities to focus on like
her personality or her talents. Another relevant aspect is how this song is heteronormative,
because in the case of a lesbian girl, she might not have any reason to like her body
because she does not care about boys desiring her.

Taking a look at the official video, one of the girls with a big booty, pushes the skinny
girl with her butt out of the scene. Some of the feminine voices that were raised against
the song and the video criticized that the song and the video preaches competitiveness
between girls instead of sorority among us. They argue that to celebrate and love our
bodies, we do not need to bring other womens down.
The aesthetic of the video is also relevant, as it uses the palette of colours of pink, yellow
and blue in pastel tones which are very girly colours.

MEGHAN TRAINOR - DEAR FUTURE HUSBAND

Another controversial song of the same artist is Dear Future Husband. In this one, she
addresses the man who would be her future husband explaining what she would expect
from him and what he should expect from her. In the lyrics, she tells this hypothetical boy
that to get her, he should take her on date, buy her a ring, tell her she is beautiful and give
her flowers and in exchange she would be the perfect wife by buying groceries and she
will maybe give him some kisses. It is evident from the very beginning that her
expectations completely fit the traditional gender roles of women taking care of the
household and the man, while he pleases her with gifts and compliments. However, she
takes the gender roles one step further by repeating the stereotype of women being crazy

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and hysterical in even when Im acting crazy tell me everything's alright. She
infantilizes herself as if she had not enough reasoning and as if she needed the man to
think for her.

However, a part of the song is interesting because she claims that they both work from 9
to 5, and that he should not expect her to cook because she never learned how to. This
seems to take a little step from her traditional ideas. Nonetheless, she completely ruins
with a few references she makes of sex. If you wanna get that special lovin' tell me I'm
beautiful each and every night. The special lovin is an euphemism of having sex and
she decides to do it as a prize if he does what he wants instead of promoting a healthy
sexual relationship in which both people consent because they enjoy it instead of because
they feel they have to do it. After every fight just apologize and maybe then I'll let you
try and rock my body right in this other reference, she adopts a childish attitude because
she wants to be right in arguments and in exchange, she will adopt a passive role in sex
and will let the man rock her body. This sends a very dangerous message to young
women because it portrays sex as a tool to get what they want and objectifies them instead
of portraying it as a free act that contributes to the intimacy of a couple.

The video is also interesting because it follows the lines of the lyrics on the grounds that
she rejects a few men that do not give her what she is looking for, and meanwhile we see
scenes of her dancing, cooking and cleaning just like a woman would do to fit the gender
roles. The aesthetic is based on the 70s, actually matching with the old-fashioned ideas
that she is depicting in her songs. Maybe the scenes she interprets would be more
shocking in a house of our time so it was a better choice to give it the retro look. The
colours in this video are very different from her other video; here the colours are more
vibrant and saturated and the palette is more extensive. The colours are lively probably
to match the rhythm of the song and to match the pin-up inspiration of the video.

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Meghan Trainor living in the past even though she is only 23 y.o.

The video is very colourful and uses typical girly elements such as the pink flowers matching the
pink skirts.

As a combined analysis of the two songs, we could say that Meghan Trainor is not exactly
trying to convince anyone of her perception of the world, but just depicting an imaginary
that she likes. The narration in a song is not traditional narrative from the Labov
perspective because the lyrics have to adapt to a melody, so the evaluation has more
weight, as we have seen in Trainors songs, and everything revolves around the symbolic
and the metaphoric. Even though in this industry, sometimes the artists just sing songs
that others have written and that does not mean that they completely agree with the
concept, the influence that a mainstream artist could have in the youth and in the general

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public with her lyrics cannot be ignored and it is obvious that she perpetuates damaging
gender roles, especially for women. It is especially confusing that a woman can give this
message to the public instead of using her power to give a more positive one and it is even
frustrating that she even continues her songs ideas in her videos. These videos help to
give us extralinguistic elements such as the ones we have analysed like the colours or the
intention, in order to make up for the economic language typical of songs.

ROBIN THICKE - BLURRED LINES

The next singer we have chosen is Robin Thicke with also has a very controversial song:
Blurred Lines. This song from 2013 created some debate on consent in
sexual relationships as it was accused of promoting rape culture. The title refers to the
blurred lines between relationships and in sexual intercourse. However, the concept of
consent does not give place to those blurred lines because if it is not clear then there is no
actual consent. The lyrics do not follow this time either a conventional narration because
of the limitations of the rhythm but we can still analyse the messages it sends.

Ok, now he was close tried to domesticate you but you're an animal, baby, it's in your
nature here we see the singer addressing a girl by comparing her with an animal that
could not be domesticated by another man. And that's why I'm gon' take a good girl I
know you want it. You're a good girl He says he is going to take the girl which implies
a non-consent action. Saying the I know you want it does not equal consent because it
should always be explicitly stated and not just assumed by one of the parts. The fact that
he refers to her a as a good girl is quite patronizing because that is what you would call
a child or a pet.

I hate these blurred lines. I know you want it. But you're a good girl. The way you grab
me. Must wanna get nasty. Go ahead, get at me. Again he talks about the blurred lines
and how he hates them, but assuming that consent is somehow interpretable means that it
does not goes both ways. Again he assumes that the girl wants it because of the way she
grabs him. Must wanna get nasty is another assumption because an attitude or a
particular behaviour does not imply that consent to sexual intercourse. I'll give you

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something big enough to tear your ass in two this image is not suggestive at all and in
fact seems quite violent Nothin' like your last guy, he too square for you
He don't smack that ass and pull your hair like that. Again, we see violence in this
fragment referring to sexual acts and the woman is always the passive receiver, we do not
know if the girl is actually receptive to that conduct. On the other hand, the man seems to
enjoy seeing pain in the girl do it like it hurt, like it hurt.

The song is also full of sexist messages like you the hottest bitch in this place because
it is quite common in songs to refer to women using that word. This is a good example of
evaluation and in the examples we have presented so far, they all have negative qualities
to attribute to women.

Regarding the music, the rhythm is very relaxed as it has a repetitive and catchy melody
mostly centred in the percussion. The voices seem to match the sexual tone of the lyrics
by slurring the words so they seem to be seducing.

The ratio of clothes is not balanced between men and women in this video.

The video generated even much more controversy because the female models were
topless and only wore nude thongs. The accusation of objectifying women did not take
long to appear, especially given the fact that the three male singers were completely
dressed in opposition to the nakedness of the three female models. What was criticized
too was the intention of the video because it did not represent any story or narration, the
singers and the models just danced mindlessly without a choreography and mostly
showing their bodies through insinuating poses. The interaction between the men and the

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women is quite relevant too because the males constantly looked at the girls bodies and
they even brushed their hair which gives the idea of the different in power between the
two as if he were the dad and she was the daughter. It may be a disturbing image for some
taking into account that the girl is naked. The colours of the video are quite uniform with
an orange subtone that gives a sensual image as it represents the peachy colour of the
skin. The only touch of a saturated and vibrant colour is the red present in some of the
objects and in the lips of the models representing passion and sensuality. The hashtag of
the picture above shows the influence of social media. The makes of the video seem to
have the intention of getting to the public by doing the controversial video and then by
being talked about.

The body of one of the female models with a stop sign.

This image could be shocking for some, considered the accusations to this song of
promoting rape culture. The girl has a sign in her bottom that says clearly stop which
would represent the no as in lack of consent, but in one of the following scenes she has a
toy car going across her back with no stop sign to stop it and the girl acts surprised.
Clearly, it brings us the idea of the lines or boundaries of consent being violated because
the singer considers them as blurred lines.

Concerning the analysis on all songs we can conclude that they may have different styles
or themes but they are mostly a form of art used as a mean to express feelings, emotions
or even ideas. However, some songs may have different intentions so they might also be
persuasive, they may be a way of protest or narrate a story apart from being expressive.
What they all have in common is that songs have influence regardless of the intention of

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the artist because it can arouse different feelings or even other ideas from the listeners
and the power of music cannot be underestimated.

SECTION C. SEXISM IN ADVERTISEMENTS

Advertising is another area in which there is pervasive sexism and where most
controversial examples are found, given that they can evoke sexist thoughts and
prejudices through the means of an image, which is much more powerful and easily
spread and therefore can constitute an strategy to increase the sales.

ADVERTISEMENT 1 BURGER KING

This advertisement is the prototypical example of how women are sexualized in
advertisements by the use of a recurrent metaphor, FOOD IS SEX, which has been very
much exploited in advertising.
Thus, Burger King presents their new 7-inch burger with the profile of a woman looking
at it in shock, impressed by its size, with her mouth wide open. This would be the display
and the lead of the advertisement, respectively. Together they evoke a sexual image,
namely of oral sex. The announcement, the most salient text of the advertisement, goes
as follows: It will blow your mind away, which makes explicit the underlying sexual
connotation that the advertisement has and which is related to the image created.
Therefore, the word blow is crucial, having two meanings: the literal one refers to their
new sandwich that will blow the consumers mind away in the sense that it will impress
him beyond his expectations; the second clearly refers to an oral sex practice, a blow job.
It is by this metaphor of FOOD IS SEX that the image of the woman (lead), the product
(the display) and the main text (the announcement) are connected in a double way,
literally and metaphorically. On the basis of this double meaning the advertisement is
built, which explains why the name of the product, BK SUPER 7 INCHER is not the
most salient text and appears at the bottom, together with more extra information such as
the prize (enhancer). Given the wide variety of products that fast food restaurants have
and the high rivalry that reigns the market, it seems clear that they choose a catchy (though
controversial) sexual image over the plain image of the product itself. This is a tendency
that is observed in current advertisements and that shows a shift from advertising in the
past: nowadays creatives are concerned with offering new and powerful images, in

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creating funny or controversial advertisements rather than in showing the actual
product. That is the way to get their products to be known.
Moreover, the emblem appear at the top of the image, together with another text, that
reinforces the previous message: It just tastes better. It is remarkable the use of colour
employed: first, the image can be divided into two, which is also reinforced by this choice
of colours. The upper part with the woman and the burger and the bottom with the
information and the name of the product. The upper part is very monochromatic, with a
dominance of warm dull tones which merges the background with the skin and hair of the
woman and with the bread of the hamburger. Both messages (It just tastes better and
It will blow your mind away) appear in white, a colour which gives them even more
saliency. The typography is identical, which shows also the connection: indeed it is
semantic field related to eating (ground) that connects both the food (vehicle) and sex
(tenor) in this instance of FOOD IS SEX metaphor, that here is so built between the verbal
and the visual component:

WOMAN

FOOD SEX

Moreover, the woman is wearing red lips which is a colour typically associated with
passion and sensuality. It also makes her lips the most noteworthy part of her face, since
the rest goes unnoticed. The focus on the lips reinforces the sexual image that the
advertisement presents. Moreover, both white and red are part of the logo, so that the
choice of red would relate the image of the woman with the company, which is another
hint to see the woman as a product, in the same way the hamburger is. This idea is
reinforced by position they occupy in the advertisement, since they appear one next to
each other, reinforcing their condition as products:

17
 Both are
products so
that they
are placed
on the same
position and
are given
saliency.
This is the real lead of the advertisement

In order to reinforce this and to put all the attention in the womans lips and the tip of the
hamburger, a photographic technique called vignetting has been used, which consists in
burning (darkening) the outer edges of the image, which contributes to make the scene
between the woman and the product more striking and salient, especially when it comes
to the hamburger, since it helps to create the phallic image. The bottom of the
advertisement also uses a warm colour, a dull yellow to which is opposed to the black
colour of the enhancer. At the bottom the image of the hamburger is repeated, yet in this
case it appears entire, getting rid of its phallic connotations, given that now it does not
appear next to the woman.

Therefore, it can be concluded that on the one hand, the creators of this advertisement
were clearly addressing to men, especially youngsters, trying to catch their attention and
to sell their new product by evoking a sexual image. On the other hand, it does not seem
very logical that Burger King wanted to leave purposely half of their audience the
women behind: thus, it is very likely that Burger King knew that such an advertisement
would not be exempt from controversy, so that they idea with the aim of taking advantage
from the expected polemic they will raise in order to have their advertisement massively
diffused and consequently to get an increase in the sales.

18
ADVERTISEMENT 2 PETA

Another remarkable example of sexism in advertising is found in many PETAs

campaigns. In this particular case, we have chosen an advertisement that shows one of
the practices that are usually imposed upon women and that is continuously a red hot
topic: hair removal.

Hence, PETAs 2012 campaign firmly declared FUR TRIM: UNATTRACTIVE. The
announcement therefore tries to discourage people from wearing animal fur. According
to this, the main message itself seems to be uncontroversial, since it would go in line with
the organization aim: protect animals by promoting the anti-fur industry. However,
together with this message the advertisement presents a young blond woman, Joanna
Krupa, who is only wearing pink pants, which at first sight is incongruent with the
message and the character of the organization. Not only that, the model appears with the
bikini line unwaxed. Next to it, the following message appears: Don't ruin your look
with fur trim". The connection seems then clear and targets womens natural fur trim
which is highly unattractive.

This twist in meaning leaves the original intention of the message in the background: this
serve to illustrate the power of the visual component over the visual and its potential to
change meaning and to catch the audiences attention. As in the previous advertisement,
creatives play with language, having short messages that can be ambiguous or can be
interpreted with meanings which depart from the literal one. However, it is the
combination of the verbal component with the visual that can disambiguate (in this case,
the image speaks for itself) or, at least, active cognitive processing in which there is
personal involvement of some sort and some interpretation.

With regard to this aspect of shifting from one meaning to another, it is relevant to analyse
the use of colour, which happens to be highly significant and reinforces the idea that has
been established. The background is white, which gives more salience to the woman and
the text.

19
 EMBLEM IN THE AD REAL EMBLEM

Use of colour in order to build or alter meaning

As it can be observed, from the original announcement only the word unattractive
remains. In comparison, the phrase fur trim is left in the background, losing salience: this
indicates that there is a deviation from the main goal of the organization: protect animals.
This is connected to the emblem, the organizations logo, which officially is blue. Both
pink and blue can be bright and salient colours and the change seems to be motivated by
the purpose of making this reference to womens hair removal even more evident: by
using pink it reinforces the sexist character of the advertisement, given that traditionally
people tend associate pink with women and blue with men. It also helps to pave the way
from the original uncontroverted cause of protecting animals to the controversial meaning
that is finally obtained. Thus, the use of pink allows the creatives of the advert to connect
the idea of unattractiveness with the woman who has not removed her hair: notice that
only her lips and her pants are in pink. The choice of focusing on these two parts of the
female body does not seem to be arbitrary at all but clearly speak about sex and
sensuality. Furthermore, the colour pink also contributes to give a feminine and delicate
look to the model, which is also a beauty prototype: a blonde with blue eyes goes in line
with the traditional image of the angelic woman. This provides a contrast with the pubic
hair that grows out of the panty line, which is exaggerated in order to present a sort of
grotesque image of women that opposes to the delicate and 24/7 perfect look that they are
supposed to have and to convince of the unattractiveness that this hair creates.

20
Contrary to the previous example, in which one could come up with the conclusion that
it was mainly a result of a strategy oriented to selling, one could wonder why an animal
rights organization uses such controversial strategies, if there is a non-profit purpose.
After this analysis we can conclude that obviously the aim was diffusion: it seems clear
that creating controversial advertisements guarantees them to be known by getting viral
diffusion. The use of sexism in this advertising shows that they want to create an
emotional response in their audience, be it good or bad: that explains why there is a direct
appeal to their target (dont ruin your look with fur trim) by which they are asking for
peoples response, irrespective of the nature, such as the one that was entitled PETA's
New Ad Targets Women's Natural Fur Trim, InFURiating Amanda Palmer (Carlson,
2012). This assumption is confirmed by PETA in their FAQ section:

PETAs mission is to get the animal rights message out to as many people as possible.
Unlike our oppositionwhich is mostly composed of wealthy industries and
corporationsPETA must rely largely on free advertising through media coverage. We
will do extraordinary things to get the word out about animal cruelty because we have
learned from experience that the media, sadly, do not consider the terrible facts about
animal suffering alone interesting enough to cover. It is sometimes necessary to shake
people up in order to initiate discussion, debate, questioning of the status quo, and, of
course, action. Thus, we try to make our actions colorful and controversial, thereby
grabbing headlines around the world and spreading the message of kindness to
animals to thousandssometimes millionsof people. This approach has proved
amazingly successful: In the three decades since PETA was founded, it has grown
into the largest animal rights group in the country, with more than 5 million
members and supporters worldwide. We have also had major groundbreaking
successes, such as bringing about the first-ever cruelty conviction against an animal
experimenter in the case of the now-famous Silver Spring Monkeys; orchestrating the
first-ever raid on an agricultural facility (a factory farm in upstate New York that raised
ducks for foie gras under horribly cruel conditions); and convincing more than 200
cosmetics companies to permanently abandon animal tests.
(http://www.peta.org)

Thus, this organization confirms one of our hypothesis: advertising nowadays tends to
either resort to humour or to controversy in order to be known. However, if one looks at
PETAs controversial campaigns, one soon realizes that their only way to raise

21
controversy is by resorting to sexism, particularly by distorting the image of women,
becoming them absolutely objectified, contributing thus to making the task of bridging
the gap between women and men a difficult enterprise, especially in advertising.

ADVERTISEMENT 3 DE BEER

The third advertisement is created by De Beer, which is a company specialised in creating

diamond engagement rings, wedding rings or other type of diamond jewellery. It
constitutes a different example of sexism in advertising since it shows that it is not
necessary to show an image of a woman to distort it by being sexist.

The first different with respect to previous advertisements is that here the message
occupies almost the entire advertisement which confers the advertisement a poster-like
appearance. The announcement goes as follows: If youre a frog, turn yourself into a
prince. Thus, the message is very direct and directly addresses male audience,
information that is inferred from the use of the term prince. This is crucial for the analysis,
given that the advertisement is an instance of intertextuality: it departs from the fairy tale
of the Frog Prince to offer a modern reinterpretation. Thus, the creators presupposed that
any potential viewer would be familiar with the tale in order to understand the message.
Therefore, they build their advertisement by modifying the classic Grimm Brothers tale
in which the enchanted frog magically turns into a prince, after the spell is broken by the
kiss of the princess, who initially rejected him. The shift from the classic fairy tale to a
modern interpretation is given by the image that appears at the top, a pair of diamond
earrings. Thus, while the message is able to sum up the fairly, the image introduces the
variation to it, as the following schema shows:

The Frog Tale is reinterpreted

22
According to this idea, this advertisement shows that advertising strategies fluctuate
between humour and controversy. In this particular case, the advertisement can be
perceived as hilarious by some, since it cleverly makes use of a known frame (F1) and
translates it to modern life (F2), introducing a variation that mocks at some of the beliefs
that still prevail about woman, that they are only interested in money and expensive jewels
and their ultimate goal in life is to find a man who can spoil them. By introducing the pair
of earrings, the creators explain how the spell is broken, which reinforces this idea of
women of wanting to live at mens expense given that in this case it is not the kiss what
breaks the spell but the diamond earrings. In other words, this change symbolizes that
these modern princesses choose money over true love:

GROUND
The character of a
spoiled princess
FRAME 1 (F1): FRAME 2 (F2):
CLASSICAL Breaking the MODERN SITUATION
FAIRYTALE spell Magical
Magical transformation transformation by
by the means of a kiss buying a jewel

Therefore, the advertisement is doubly sexist: it does not only presuppose that women
depend on their particular prince charming but also that the only chance they will have to
be regarded as princes will be by buying them diamonds which therefore implies that
women are not interested in love anymore but simply in money. The result would be
funny for some and outrageous for others, so that the advertisement will have managed
to convey humour and controversy. Consequently, they will guarantee to get diffusion:
either for being considered a witty reinterpretation of a fairy tale or for simply being an
atrocity.

In light of the existence of multiple campaigns following this structure, it seems that the
use of this strategy has provided the brand successful results. Indeed, the structure is very
simple: the advertisement is created on the basis of black and white, which on the one
hand creates a simple yet elegant design, which is expected from a luxurious jewellery

23
brand; on the other hand, it guarantees the salience of the message, which is the most
salient element in the advertisement. All the prominence is given to the message, given
the complexity it entails by activating two different frames. Such is the salience that is
given to the announcement that they have not included the logo of the brand (the emblem).
This is really interesting to analyse: on the one hand, the image of the earrings can stand
for both the product and for the type of company (a jewellery). On the other hand, it seems
to be due to the repetition of the same design that they can allow to omit the name of the
brand, since audience will automatically associate each new advertisement with the
company in question, De Beers. Thus, the strategy they use is not only related to sales but
also to build the companys identity. Both the design and the controversial message are
De Beerss hallmark: consequently, it is not by chance that all their advertisements have
the same structure and follow the same strategy (having a controversial sexist message as
the focus of attention) which is not only oriented to selling but to construct the companys
own identity, which allows them to be easily identified by their potential audience. It is
only because the company has this hallmark that can take the liberty of omitting the
emblem:

Figure A. De Beers logo

Logo + slogan Only slogan

Figure B. Elimination of the emblem

24
With regard to this, it is remarkable that the slogan A diamond is forever remains. One
may wonder why they choose to maintain the slogan over the emblem. This seems to be
explained on the basis of the previous idea about having a hallmark: from this view,
conserving the slogan can be highly advantageous, given that it creates a bound between
the products and the logo: De Beers is specialized in diamond jewels. Moreover, it is
persuasive since it conveys that diamonds are always a good investment which serves as
complement to the main message, strengthening the persuasive character of the
advertisement as a whole. Finally, the slogan also finds a correlation with the sexist tone
of the advertisement since it goes in the line with the thought that, precisely because they
last forever, they are a girls best friend1.

Therefore, throughout this section we have analysed three controversial advertisements,

each of them representing some of the most typical sexist thoughts that still prevail in our
society: the association between food and sex, being women a product to devour, the
assumption that all women must have their hair removed, and the belief that all women
are interested in finding their prince charming, which in modern life is translated as being
a rich man that spoil them expensive gifts, especially jewels, which perpetuates the
assumption that of womens ultimate ambition is to be a kept-woman. Even if the three
of them make use of different strategies, what they have in common is that they bring out
a change of meaning, from previous world knowledge, as it was the case of De Beers
advertisement, or from the information given by the visual or the verbal component, as
shown with Burger King and Peta.

1
Take, for instance, Carol Channings famous song from the musical Gentlemen prefer blondes (1949)
which illustrates that still today advertising is rather conservative and often echoes traditional thoughts and
ideas, especially when it comes to sexism:
Men grow cold
As girls grow old,/
And we all lose our charms in the end.
But square-cut or pear-shaped,
These rocks don't lose their shape.
Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

25
SECTION D. SOME FEMINIST RESPONSES

Even if our main goal was to study sexism in different discourse types, we think it is
important to briefly mention how sexism is being tackled nowadays. What caught our
attention from a discourse approach is that some of these strategies can be employed in
order to subvert these sexist ideas and to bridge the gender gap.

Thus, the first text we want to comment on is the one by Mercy Academy, which is an
all-girls Roman Catholic high school in Kentucky. The advertisements main message
goes as follows: Mirror, mirror on the wall. Be more than just the fairest of them all.
Clearly, the message makes reference to one of the Disney princesses per excellent, Snow
White and her antagonist, the Evil Queen. They also include a very minimalist figure of
a faceless princess: the only detail that appears is the crown, which undoubtedly points to
its princess condition and links the visual component to the verbal. As in the case of De
Beers advertisement, Mercy Academy departs from the Disney princess world,
particularly evoking the well-known sentence Mirror, mirror on the wall but then it
introduces a variation from the original message (Mirror, mirror on the wall, whos the
fairest of them all):

F1 F2

DISNEY PRINCESS WORLD REAL WORLD

IT IS ALL ABOUT BEAUTY BEAUTY MATTERS,

(EVIL QUEENS SPEECH IN BUT IT IS NOT

SNOW WHITE) EVERYTHING,

Figure A. Two frames are activated in this advertisement and they clash

Thus, the variation is introduced by the second clause of the message, which changes
absolutely the messages idea, trying to get rid to the assumption of all women being as
just beautiful princesses without any other ambition and virtue. The touch of humour then

26
is given by the clash between the first clause, which echoes the classical tale
(intertextuality), which reflects the traditional thoughts about women and their roles and
the second clause (be more than just the fairest of them all), which is an unexpected
variation, making both frames clash:

Original message + Suddenly, the second clause is

Image evoking the fairy altered, changing completely the
tale meaning.

Figure B. Subverting tradition from the within

This example is really complete since as it can be observed, the second clause opposes to
the original one, since the Evil Queen only was concerned with being the fairest.
However, the rhyme is maintained, which gives cohesion to the whole message and also
makes diffusion easier. They expect audience to react: that is why they have included the
hashtag #MoreThanAPrincess, in order that people will comment it on Twitter. The
hashtag has different functions: first, it summarizes the intention of the message: much
of the ideas and roles that appear in fairy tales and Disney films are rooted in society; as
we have seen analysing music and comic strips, they continue being part of our culture.
Therefore, if one wants to get rid of many of these assumptions, one can try to do it from
within, subverting them by using the same strategies. The mechanism is the same as in
De Beers advertisement, a reference to a well-known fairy tale or Disney film and
introducing a slight variation: the effect is absolutely the opposite. Moreover, the hashtag
is also showing that times have changed: we live in a modern world and it is high time to
get rid of the traditional conception of gender. Finally, it shows that one does not need to
be sexist in order to have a catchy advertisement: the message is perfectly modified in
order to encourage people to study in general and to going to their high school in

27
particular. Given that their high school is a girls-school, it seems clear that they are mainly
addressing to young girls, which happen to be the most influential, so that the
advertisement does not only perform a persuasive function related to get the attention of
potential new students, but also can raise awareness about education among teenagers by
trying to change the mentality that part of the media and film industry has instilled on
them.

Furthermore, for the feminist response of a song we have chosen Lily Allens Hard out
Here that criticizes the treatment of women in the music industry and her position in
society in general.

Like the other sexist artists, she uses the word bitch to designate women but as an example
of how language is context dependent, the intention is completely the opposite. It is not
an insult, she criticizes that it is used in that way by using it and she takes over the power
of the word to make it her own. Just like some people from the black community has
taken over the word nigger to erase the pejorative connotation, Lily Allen has taken the
power of how the rest of the industry defines and represents women to ridicule it. In one
part of the song she repeats the word bitch in a robotic voice so many times that it causes
a humorous effect.

You find me in the studio and not in the kitchen she is autobiographical here because
as a singer she will be recording and not serving a husband as it is expected if you follow
gender roles. This reminds us of Meghan Trainors video Dear Future Husband in which
she appears cleaning the floor. Even though her video appeared a few years later, Lily
Allen also parodied the same scene that Trainor presents as a normal situation in an ideal
concept of marriage. Allen has a golden kitchen with gold ingots and champagne bottles
while cleaning wheel rims so she also parodies the exaggerated luxuries in music videos.
Her video is constantly using humour to criticise.

28
If I told you about my sex life you'd call me a slut . Them boys be talking bout their
bitches no ones making a fuss. The singer protests about the unfair double standards on
womens and mens sexualities which is a current topic in society these days and the
attention is even more intense in the case of female singers.

The interesting aspect of Lily Allens video is that it has direct connection with the lyrics
of her song so she can get the point across. The aesthetic of her video is really
professional, in a studio with controlled lightning and scenario to imitate the most popular
videos. The colours are really vivacious although she uses a lot of golden and silver to
criticize a very wealthy industry with a lot of hypocrisy.

Forget your balls, and grow a pair of tits She takes over again the power of a phrase
generally known for her cause. The expression to grow a pair (of balls) is rewritten by
Allen to change the masculine balls for the feminine tits because courage should be
represented, according to her, by women and not men. As she immediately says Its hard
out here for a bitch because it is complicated for a woman to get a place in the world and
in her case, in the music industry. Here, she reinterprets a socio-cultural knowledge, re-
contextualising previous assumptions to cause humour.

In her video she has a group of female dancers that twerk and show her body while selling
a brand of cigarettes to parody what it is usually done in mainstream videos: womens
bodies are used to sell. Everything is directed by an old white man that tells the women
what to do to become successful and the way is to eat bananas in front ot the camera and
throwing champagne over her butts.

29
Allens lyrics also makes reference to the pressure to have a particular physical form in
society and particularly in the music industry:

Youre not a size six

And youre not good-looking
Well, you better be rich
Or be real good at cooking
You should probably lose some weight
Cause we cant see your bones
You should probably fix your face
Or youll end up on your own
Dont you want to have somebody who objectifies you?

In this fragment, she talks about the size and how if you are not pretty, you should be
good at cooking so you can at least get a man you can serve to. She is criticizing real life
and the high expectations there are on women physiques while she uses a sweet light-
hearted tone as if it was not a drama because she is making fun of the whole situation.

Her song and the video is also a partial response to Robin Thickes Blurred Lines. The
line I'll give you something big enough to tear your ass in two in Blurred Lines has
Lilys answer Have you thought about your butt, whos gonna tear it in two?. She is
sarcastically addressing women because she is making fun of the original song. Her
purpose when using humour is to invalidate the others voices. She also references Robin
Thickes video ridiculing the fact that he brags about his genitals with a message written
with balloons as we can see in the bottom pictures. She makes fun of it by turning it
around and bragging about something that is not actually something to brag about. Maybe
because women do not boast about their genitalia it is even funnier that she makes a
reference to it. Moreover, in Thickes video, he has a woman there to present those words
as if she was the one that had proved that fact, while in Allens video she is the one that
is confirms it for herself while she makes a ridiculous dance as if she did not care.

30
Another example we wanted to mention was taken from a book called How to be a woman
(2011). The mere title, emulating an instructions manual, which sets the ground for the
sarcastic and hilarious tone that characterizes Morans non-fiction memoirs. It is a direct
appeal to the discourses that attempt to rule how women must be, as the ones we have
been discussing heretofore. By introducing anecdotes of her early age, Moran reviews
some of the most frequents topics and sexist thoughts that she has faced as a woman with
a funny, exaggerated tone. We have chosen a fragment belonging to chapter 2, I become
furry!, in order to see the relation with the PETAs advertisement and to determine how
she manages to subvert sexism. As for the case of the advertisement, language is crucial
here and the author starts playing with words since the very beginning: on the one hand,
furry clearly refers to fur, so that it is an introduction to the topic she is going to deal with
during the chapter; on the other hand, furry resembles the word fury, which is precisely
part of her reaction to how the topic of hair removal in women is treated nowadays:

This is money we should be spending on THE ELECTRICITY BILL and CHEESE

and BERETS. Instead, were wasting it on making our Chihuahuas look like a skanky
Lidl chicken breast. God DAMN you, mores-of-pornography-that-havemade-it-into-
my-pants. GOD DAMN YOU. (Caitlin Moran, How to be a woman).

As shown in the fragment above, her language is hilarious, in order to account for the
absurd of the situation by distorting it through exaggeration. For that purpose, there is a
lot of evaluative language, typical of narrative. However, this is taken to the extreme, to
exaggeration, in order to denounce the situation. Therefore, she uses capital letters which
is associated in Internet to shouting, probably in an attempt to encourage women to speak
out, not letting people to tell them how they should be or look like. Her language is very
31
explicit and vivid, typical of ordinary life conversations with friends and tries to demolish
the view of women as delicate angels of the house. With regard to evaluation and the use
of language, it is remarkable the images she creates: in relation to departing from the
traditional view of women and their delicate condition, she creates powerful and
unconventional images, which can shock and amuse readers, as the one seen in the
fragment, in which the pubis is compared to a Lidl chicken breast. This is not by a
humorous reaction to the constraints they society try to impose about woman, as the
PETA advertisement showed by saying dont ruin your look. The use of unconventional
metaphors and images allows the author to show the absurdity of the previous messages
by the means of exaggeration: she succeeds at denouncing these conservative and sexist
conceptions about women by making them ridiculous. Moreover, together with language,
the use of these powerful images helps her to set apart from tradition, in which everything
associated with women must be delicate and feminine: as the aesthetics of some video
clips show, everything had to be soft, pink and girly. The use of unexpected images
complement the linguistic choices she makes in order to create a new world. Thus, it can
be concluded that humour can also be an excellent tool for subversion.

Regarding this, it is interesting to compare advertising with literature from a discourse

approach. Undoubtedly both discourses share the creative potential derived by their
capacity to create new worlds. Literary writing can also fluctuate between humour and
controversy, as this book illustrates. However, there is a crucial difference that must be
accounted for: even if these two types of discourse create fictional worlds in order to
pursue a communicative purpose, it can be observed that generally advertising tends to
be more conservative. As this example illustrates, literary discourse can perform the
function of cognitive change, that is, modification or challenging of the reader's world
schemata leading to a revaluation of concepts (Hidalgo Downing, 2003). On the
contrary, we have observed throughout this paper that many advertisements keep
reinforcing already existing and accepted world schema data, being more conservative
and, as seen, perpetuating sexism. However, this not always the case, given that in our
contemporary western society the role of advertising has changed, as a result trying to
reflect peoples wishes and desires: this explains the existence of advertisements such as
the one of Mercy College or the last one attached in the appendix that shows some Google
search terms and the necessity of being considered equal, which clearly shows how
advertising also tries to offer what audience is asking for.

32
Finally, it is time to look at a response in the shape of a comic strip, feminism strikes back
against those sexist jokes that dehumanized and mocked women in a way that they
perfectly portray the actual situation women have to go endure everyday while creating
humour.

We decided to choose this comic strip because we can see the a drunk man complaining
about women and claiming that they all hate him and the elephants response is that they
do so because he is a fat sexist pig, making the man angry. Then when the man commands
him to apologize the elephant does so, but in the final sketch changes the sentence to
something completely different. The shared knowledge here would be that there are many
men like the one in the strip who treat woman badly and then asks themselves why women
hate them. We believe that the two fields that clash here are the following:

(F1): the elephant apologizing to the man

(F2): the elephant apologizing for not saying what he said before

The expected utterance produced by the elephant would be a sincere apology to the man.
Nevertheless, we see that he not only withheld his previous words but said something
completely different of what was expected. There is a big difference here if we compare
with the previous three comic strips, since in this case a man is the one who is mocked.
Here we can see a fat, drunk man who only threats and insults and we even get the hint
of the expressions that many abusers use to intimidate their partners: without me youre
nothin. The use of language is remarkable because while the elephant talks correctly, the
man swears and does not pronounce following the rules of Standard English. Therefore,
there is a reversal of roles in which the ridiculed one is the man, but not all men, only
those who disrespect women and this is a good point in favour of this comic strip whereas
every woman was made fun of in the three first ones.

33
5. Conclusion

Throughout this project we have been examining how sexism is reflected in contemporary
discourse types such as songs, comic strips and advertisements. All the examples that
have been examined present a clash between their modern appearance and the inner
message they convey in which the image of women is distorted and lampooned,
perpetuating some beliefs about their role in society and about their own personality.
Furthermore, a detailed analysis of the aesthetics usually shows that the non-linguistic
elements also reveal the nature of the discourse and their implications: that is why in all
these cases the visual component is as important as the verbal component, and it is crucial
to examine it in depth in order to interpret adequately the text in question.

Thus, taking all the elements into consideration, we have reached the conclusion that all
these texts reinforce the conservative discourses of the past, being intertextuality an
important feature in some cases, by which particular messages from the past are echoed
over and over. Moreover, we have realized that certain features of some existing discourse
types are being transferred to new discourse types: as it happens with the case of comic
strips, the same ideas proliferate in social networks such as Twitter and forums and the
creation of memes, in which the funny tone always hides an internalized sexist thought.
This standardization of sexism is from our point of view something dangerous because
the younger generations will still perceive it as part of their society, and instead of revising
such generalizations and thus changing them, they will keep certain misogynistic
behaviours and consequently perpetuating them in future discourses and new discourse
types. By taking into account some responses to these discourses, we have concluded that
the strategies employed are not exclusive of sexist discourses but can be used in order to
subvert these sexist ideals.

Therefore, it can be concluded that both humour and controversy play a great role in this
process: on the one hand, we have focused on discussing how they are used in order to
perpetuate sexism in our contemporary society; on the other hand, the different feminist
responses show that they can be used for the opposite purpose and even be taken to the
extreme, towards exaggeration in order to create hilarious images that mock at the
conservative ideas and to raise awareness on gender equality.

34
References

Attardo, S. 1994. Linguistic Theories of Humor. BerlinNew York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Carlson, J. 2012. PETA's New Ad Targets Women's Natural "Fur Trim," InFURiating
Amanda Palmer, Gothamist, November 13,
http://gothamist.com/2012/11/13/petas_new_ad_targets_womens_natural.php

Cook, G. The Discourse of Advertising. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1992.

Hidalgo Downing, L. 2003. Text world creation in advertising discourse, Crculo de

Lingstica Aplicada a la Comunicacin, 13, February,
http://pendientedemigracion.ucm.es/info/circulo/no13/hidalgo.pdf Date accessed:
24/05/2016

PETA, Why does PETA use controversial tactics?, http://www.peta.org/about-

peta/faq/why-does-peta-use-controversial-tactics/

Raskin, V. 1985. Semantic Mechanisms of Humor. Dordrecht & Boston & Lancaster: D.
Reidel Publishing Company.

35
APPENDIX

SECTION A

1)

2)

36
3)
SECTION B
1) Meghan Trainor - All About that Bass
Because you know I'm all about that bass,
'Bout that bass, no treble
I'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass, no
treble
I'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass, no
treble
I'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass1
Yeah it's pretty clear, I ain't no size two
But I can shake it, shake it like I'm supposed
to do
'Cause I got that boom boom that all the boys
chase
All the right junk in all the right places
I see the magazines working that Photoshop
We know that shit ain't real
Come on now, make it stop
If you got beauty beauty just raise 'em up
'Cause every inch of you is perfect
From the bottom to the top
Yeah, my momma she told me don't worry
about your size
She says, boys they like a little more booty
to hold at night
37
You know I won't be no stick-figure, silicone
Barbie doll,
So, if that's what's you're into
Then go ahead and move along
So, if that's what's you're into
Then go ahead and move along
Because you know I'm all about that bass,
'Bout that bass, no treble
I'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass, no

Because you know I'm all about that bass, treble

'Bout that bass, no treble I'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass, no

I'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass, no treble

treble I'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass

I'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass, no Because you know I'm all about that bass,

treble 'Bout that bass, no treble

I'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass I'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass, no

I'm bringing booty back treble

Go ahead and tell them skinny bitches Hey I'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass, no

No, I'm just playing I know you think you're treble

fat, I'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass

But I'm here to tell you that, Because you know I'm all about that bass,

Every inch of you is perfect from the bottom 'Bout that bass, no treble

to the top I'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass, no

Yeah, my momma she told me don't worry treble

about your size I'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass, no

She says, boys they like a little more booty treble

to hold at night I'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass

You know I won't be no stick-figure, silicone

Barbie doll,

2) Meghan Trainor - Dear Future Husband

Dear future husband, I'll be the perfect wife
Here's a few things Buying groceries
You'll need to know if you wanna be Buy-buying what you need
My one and only all my life You got that 9 to 5
Take me on a date But, baby, so do I
I deserve a brake So don't be thinking I'll be home and baking
And don't forget the flowers every apple pies
anniversary I never learned to cook
'Cause if you'll treat me right But I can write a hook

38
Sing along with me
Sing-sing along with me (hey)
You gotta know how to treat me like a lady
Even when I'm acting crazy
Tell me everything's alright
Dear future husband,
Here's a few things you'll need to know if
you wanna be
My one and only all my life
Dear future husband,
If you wanna get that special lovin'
Tell me I'm beautiful each and every night
After every fight
Just apologize
And maybe then I'll let you try and rock my
body right
Even if I was wrong
You know I'm never wrong
Why disagree?
Why, why disagree?
You gotta know how to treat me like a lady
Even when I'm acting crazy
Tell me everything's alright
Dear future husband,
Here's a few things
You'll need to know if you wanna be
3) Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey
Hey, hey, hey
If you can't hear, what I'm tryna say
If you can't read, from the same page
Maybe I'm going deaf
Maybe I'm going blind
Maybe I'm out of my mind
My one and only all my life (hey, baby)
Dear future husband,
Make time for me
Don't leave me lonely
And know we'll never see your family more
than mine
I'll be sleeping on the left side of the bed
(hey)
Open doors for me and you might get some
kisses
Don't have a dirty mind
Just be a classy guy
Buy me a ring
Buy-buy me a ring, babe
You gotta know how to treat me like a lady
Even when I'm acting crazy
Tell me everything's alright
Dear future husband,
Here's a few things
You'll need to know if you wanna be
My one and only all my life
Dear future husband,
If you wanna get that special loving
Tell me I'm beautiful each and every night
Future husband, better love me right
OK, now he was close
Tried to domesticate you
But you're an animal
Baby, it's in your nature
Just let me liberate you
You don't need no papers
That man is not your mate
And that's why I'm gon' take you
39
Good girl!
I know you want it
I know you want it
I know you want it
You're a good girl!
Can't let it get past me
Me fall from plastic
Talk about getting blasted
I hate these blurred lines!
I know you want it
I know you want it
I know you want it
But you're a good girl!
The way you grab me
Must wanna get nasty
Go ahead, get at me
What do they make dreams for
When you got them jeans on
What do we need steam for
You the hottest bitch in this place!
I feel so lucky
You wanna hug me
What rhymes with hug me?
Hey!
OK, now he was close
Tried to domesticate you
But you're an animal
Baby, it's in your nature
Just let me liberate you
You don't need no papers
That man is not your mate
And that's why I'm gon' take you
Good girl!
I know you want it
I know you want it
I know you want it
You're a good girl!
Can't let it get past me
Me fall from plastic
Talk about getting blasted
I hate these blurred lines!
I know you want it
I know you want it
I know you want it
But you're a good girl!
The way you grab me
Must wanna get nasty
Go ahead, get at me
(Hustle Gang Homie)
One thing I ask of you
Lemme be the one you bring that ass up
to
From Malibu to Paris, boo
Had a bitch, but she ain't bad as you
So, hit me up when you passin' through
I'll give you something big enough to
tear your ass in two
Swag on 'em even when you dress casual
I mean, it's almost unbearable
Honey you not there when I'm
At the bar side let you have me by
Nothin' like your last guy, he too square
for you
He don't smack that ass and pull your
hair for you
So I'm just watchin' and waitin'
For you to salute the truly pimpin'
Not many women can refuse this pimpin'
40
I'm a nice guy, but don't get confused, I know you want it
you git'n it! You're a good girl!
Shake your rump Can't let it get past me
Get down Me fall from plastic
Get up Talk about getting blasted
Do it like it hurt, like it hurt I hate these blurred lines!
What, you don't like work? I know you want it
Hey! I know you want it
Baby, can you breathe? I know you want it
I got this from Jamaica But you're a good girl!
It always works for me The way you grab me
Dakota to Decatur Must wanna get nasty
No more pretending Go ahead, get at me
Cause now your winning Everybody get up
Here's our beginning Everybody get up
I always wanted a Hey, hey, hey
Good girl! Hey, hey, hey
I know you want it Hey, hey, hey
I know you want it

41
SECTION C

1)

42
2)

43
3)

44
SECTION D

1)

45
2) Lily Allen - Hard out here
[Verse 1]
I suppose I should tell you
What this bitch is thinking
You find me in the studio
And not in the kitchen
I wont be bragging bout my cars
Or talking bout my chains
Dont need to shake my ass for you
Cause Ive got a brain
If I told you about my sex life
You'd call me a slut
Them boys be talking bout their bitches
No ones making a fuss
Theres a glass ceiling to break, uh huh
Theres money to make
And now its time to speed it up
Cause I cant move at this pace
[Hook]
Sometimes its hard to find the words to say
Ill go ahead and say them anyway
Forget your balls, and grow a pair of tits
Its hard, its hard
Its hard out here for a bitch, Its hard
(For a bitch, for a bitch)
For a bitch, Its hard
Its hard out here for a bitch, Its hard
(For a bitch, for a bitch)
For a bitch, its hard
Its hard out here
[Verse 2]
Youre not a size six
And youre not good-looking
Well, you better be rich
Or be real good at cooking
You should probably lose some weight
Cause we cant see your bones
You should probably fix your face
Or youll end up on your own
Dont you want to have somebody who
objectifies you?
Have you thought about your butt, whos
gonna tear it in two?
Weve never had it so good, uh huh
Were out of the woods
And if you cant detect the sarcasm
Youve misunderstood
[Hook]
[Bridge]
A bitch, a bitch, a bitch
Bitch, bitch
A bitch, a bitch, a bitch
Bitch, bitch
A bitch, a bitch, a bitch
Bitch, bitch
A bitch, a bitch, a bitch
Bitch, bitch
Inequality promises
That its here to stay
Always trust the injustice
Cause its not going away
Inequality promises
That its here to stay
Always trust the injustice
Cause its not going away
46
3)
Caitlin Morans How to be a woman (2011)
Chapter 2: I become furry!
Hair is one of the first, big preoccupations of womanhood. It appears, unbidden, and so
decisions must be made about it decisions which signal to yourself, and the world, who
you are. As the teenage years are where you begin the complicated, lifelong business of
beginning to work this out, hair is the opening salvo in decades of quietly screaming
WHO AM I? whilst standing in front of an array of products in Boots, clutching an
empty basket. And it is hair that has the most money, and attention, spent on it. Hair in
the wrong place: legs, underarms, upper lip, chin, arms, nipples, cheeks, and across the
sundry contours of your pelvis. Against this hair, lifelong wars of attrition are waged. It
informs the ebb and flow of day-to-day life the scheduling of events.
Sometimes, the entire course of a womans life.
A man may think, I have a party next week. Id better roughly flannel my face before I
tootle out the door. A woman, on the other hand, will call up the calendar in her head
like the mid-air screens in Minority Report and start a cycle of furious planning, based
around hair management. Here is my friend, Rachel, and me on a Sunday night,
discussing a forthcoming party. Partys on Friday, Rachel says, sighing. Friday. This
means we will have to get our legs waxed tomorrow, latest, in order to start undercoating
self-tan on Tuesday. Cant undercoat on Monday all the follicles will still be open, from
the ripping. Weve both applied self-tan when the follicles are still open, from the
ripping. The self-tan embeds itself in each tiny, empty hole. Your legs end up looking
like that freckled, ginger kid on the cover of Mad magazine.
Ill make us a waxing appointment for tomorrow, Rachel says, picking up the phone.
But we should book upper lip and eyebrows for Thursday. I want minimal regrowth. I
think Andrews going to be there.
Are you going to shag him, though? I ask. What about your foof? I care for Rachel.
She looks inside her pants, and assesses. It looks like Desperate Dans chin, so only if
its dark, and were drunk, she says, finally. Im not adequately prepped for a brightly
lit room. Chances are, if we do shag, it will be drunk and dark. First shags always are. So
I dont need to bother.
But what about the next morning? I ask. I really do care about Rachel. If you stay over,
you might have a second, sober, well-lit pre-breakfast shag. Are you going to be ready?

47
Oh God! Rachel says, looking back in her pants again. I hadnt thought of that. Bloody
hell. But its 20, and Im broke. I dont want to spunk my taxi money on a wax if there
isnt going to be a prebreakfast shag. She stares gloomily at her crotch. I dont want to
be hairless but on a night-bus, fuckless.
If you are getting your bikini done, youll need to do it by Wednesday to let the terrible,
disfiguring rash die down, I say. I really am being as helpful as I can.
We stare at each other. Rachel starts to get annoyed.
Bloody hell, why cant he just call me now and say, Rachel, are you on for a pre-
breakfast shag on Saturday? I cant budget correctly with all these Random Fuck
Factors in my week. No wonder everyones a slag these days. Even if you dont like
anyone at the party, you want to get some return on your wax. I hate my hair.
And all of this isnt done to look scorchingly hot, or deathlessly beautiful, or ready for a
nudey-shoot at the beach. Its not to look like a model. Its not to be Pamela Anderson.
Its just to look normal. To have normal-looking legs, and a normal-looking face, and a
crotch youre confident about. To not be anxiously standing in the toilets with a reel of
Sellotape, dabbing at your upper lip and wailing, As soon as the bright lights hit, I
realised I was looking a bit Hitler! I honestly dont want to annexe the Rhineland! I just
want a Breezer and a feel!
[] And of all these hair dilemmas these decisions that you must make with your
follicles, about who you are and what you want to say about yourself it is pubic hair
that is now the most politically I cant believe weve got to a point where its basically
costing us money to have a fanny. Theyre making us pay for maintenance and upkeep of
our lulus, like theyre a communal garden. Its a stealth tax. Fanny VAT. This is money
we should be spending on THE ELECTRICITY BILL and CHEESE and BERETS.
Instead, were wasting it on making our Chihuahuas look like a skanky Lidl chicken
breast. God DAMN you, mores-of-pornography-that-havemade-it-into-my-pants. GOD
DAMN YOU.

48
4)

49