Content Analysis-Hispanic women and their depictions in media ads

Jazmine Acevedo
Jour 4250
Final Assignment- Content analysis
“Hispanic women and their depictions in magazine ads”
December 5, 2007

























Title: Hispanic women have more diversified roles in magazine ads, yet stereotypes still exist.

Two-sentence summary of findings: Hispanic women in magazine ads have more diversified roles and depictions in ads. They are in diverse advertisements and their dress and roles are surprisingly more decorative, rather than traditional. There are still stereotypes of the “spicy- Latina” chick, with the bright colors, dressed in a flared skirt, cooking or dancing.

Summary of the previous study: The previous study by Thomas Reichert and Jacqueline Lambiase (“Sex and the Marketing of Contemporary Consumer Magazines: How Men’s Magazines sexualized their covers to compete with Maxim,” 2000, Sex in Consumer Culture) reveals that men’s magazine covers became more sexualized from 1995 to 2000. Much of the sexual nature was attributed to the increased presence of women on the magazine covers of various magazines, with Maxim being the study’s main guinea pig. The presence of women on the covers increased from 25 percent to 65 percent between 1995 and 2000. In this study of five magazines, the basic format of other magazines such as Details, Rolling Stone, and Esquire, changed after the debut and success of their competitor, Maxim Magazine. By analyzing the women’s dress, pose and sexual tone, the study’s goal was to see whether these other magazines followed Maxim’s formula- “celebrity plus sex equals more readers” (Bounds, 1999; Gremillion, 1997; Handy, 1999; Jacobson, 2002; Turner, 1999).


Its most important foundation literature and how it relates to your own project: The most relevant study used by the previous study is the study by Soley & Kurzbard (“Sex in Advertising,” 1986, Journal of Advertising), which established used a similar coding scale, with these categories: demure, suggestive, partially clad, and nude to categorize content. Also, the Maxim study used information from Brinkley, A. & Fowler, G. (2001, November) to compare the appearance-driven messages on men’s and women’s magazine covers. In my study, I am also looking at the meanings and messages behind the ads to determine the Hispanic woman’s role and stereotype.

Corpus and method: My corpus comprises all full-page ads in magazines that feature Hispanic women, appearing in the year 2007. I looked at different magazines to get a diverse base of advertisements geared toward teens, women, men, fashion, etc. I studied Seventeen, Elle, Glamour, Better Homes and Garden and People En Espanol. The method is quantitative and qualitative content analysis, in which the Hispanic female in each ad was coded for dress attributes, sex factor, role, stance, view and attitude. This was to determine the main ways Hispanic women are depicted in these ads and if their roles and stereotypes have changed. I used the coding sheet from the Maxim magazine cover study (“Sex and the Marketing of Contemporary Consumer Magazines: How Men’s Magazines sexualized their covers to compete with Maxim,” 2000, Sex in Consumer Culture). Demure meant the female had normal, everyday clothes on, while suggestive meant something was revealed like the woman’s legs, chest, etc, and any other form of dress suggested more sexual meaning. Traditional roles included any role other than the sexual, fashion-forward, decorative and too rich or glamorous style. I also coded each ad by the sexual factor of the women, whether it is sexual because of her looks, clothing, body, content or setting or maybe there were no sexual tones at all.


Findings: Seventeen, Elle and Better Homes and Garden only featured one ad with a Hispanic woman. Seventeen, because it’s known for fashion and beauty for young girls, mainly featured stylish ads that promoted style. Its one ad included Jaslene, a Hispanic model dressed suggestively and modeling clothing for Lot 29, a well known urban clothing brand. Glamour magazine featured five ads with Hispanic women, with three of them promoted some type of fashion line or product. The other two ads were for drinks, Jose Cuervo and Crystal Light. The Crystal Light ad showed the lady in a bright red dress, dancing, with curly hair (the Hispanic “chica”). I wanted to see more ads with this stereotype, and I did later. Better Homes and Garden featured only one ad of a Latina woman with Jell0 with a bright green top and skirt, dancing and her body was digitally altered to curve dramatically. People En Espanol featured nine ads with Hispanic women, most likely because Hispanics are the target audience. Surprisingly, I found some ads that stereotyped the women, while some ads showed them in more diversified roles. Hyundai featured ads of people with different lifestyles. One ad showed an older, Hispanic female sitting with a business suit on during work, while the other displayed a Hispanic couple. The wife was in bright colors, wearing a flared skirt, playing music with Latin instruments surrounding her, such as tambourines, drums, etc. Some ads, like Pantene and Visa, featured the young, hip, Hispanic woman, with the decorative traits of fashion and style. Another ad that striked me was a Wal-Mart ad, with a Hispanic family at the dinner table. Everyone was seated except for the mother, who was standing up and happily holding and serving food. It is a stereotype of Hispanic women loving to cook, and they have been seen in the traditional role of cooking and taking care of the house (Women and Advertising: Evolution of Stereotypes in Spanish Mass Media, Rosa Berganza Conde, 2002).
A typical “partially clad” depiction could be found in an ad for any urban clothing line, in which the female was dressed in revealing club wear (and reclining). Yet, demure depictions were captured for ads of everyday living with health, cars, etc. in which women were depicted in progressive, diverse roles. Through this study, I found that 53% of the women gave more than one sex factor, while 41% actually had no sexual tones. Most ads were coded decorative (58%), demure (64%), standing, active and with a body view, but not for sexual suggestions.

Conclusions: This mini-study surprisingly does not fit much of the prior research on women advertised on covers, in which females are much more likely to be depicted sexually and explicitly in order to sell magazines or brands. If my study would have included all women, I would have seen more sexual images and messages. I wanted to study how Hispanic women are used in media ads and whether they are still depicted as traditional women who cook, or take care of the home, cannot speak English or do not make as much money as other races. I found a mixture of ads, which shows that Hispanic women have come a long way with the diversification of roles, in media and real life. They are shown as business woman, with money and happiness and are sexualized much less than African American, Asian, and white women.

References:
1. Reichert, Tom, and Jacqueline Lambiase. Sex in Consumer Culture: The Erotic Content of Media and Marketing. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 2006, pp 67-86.
2. Conde, Ma Rosa Berganza. "Women and Advertising: Evolution of Stereotypes in Spanish Mass Media." 2002. Portal Comunicación. 6 Dec 2007 .
3. Soley, L., & Kurzbard, G. (1986). Sex in advertising: A comparison of 1964 and 1984 magazine advertisements. Journal of Advertising, 15(3), 46-54, 64.




Content analysis breakdown-Coding sheet
Magazine
0=Seventeen Magazine 1=Elle Magazine 2=Glamour Magazine
3=Better Homes and Garden 4=People En Espanol
Month 1=Jan. ……. 12=December
Year 0=2007 Role 0=Decorative 1=Traditional
Dress Stance
0=demure 0=standing
1=suggestive 1=sitting
2=partially clad 2=reclining
3=nude
Attitude 0=active 1=passive View 0=body 1=face
Sex Factor
1=clothes/style 2=physically attractive
3=body 4=behavior
5=context 6=setting
7= (or) N/A=no sexual tones


Magazine Month Role Dress Stance Attitude Sex Factor View
0 12 0 1 2 1 1,2,3,4 0
1 7 1 0 0 0 N/A 1
2 8 0 1 0/1 0 1,2,5 0/1
2 8 0 3 0/3 0 1,2,3,4,5 0
2 8 0/1 0 0 0 1,5 0
2 8 0 0 1 0 5 0
2 8 0 0 0 0 1 0
3 7 0 1 0 0 1,2,3,4 0
4 12 0 0 1 1 N/A 0
4 12 1 0 0 0 N/A 0
4 12 1 0 0 0 N/A 0
4 12 0 1 1 0 1,2,5 1
4 12 1 0 0 0 N/A 0
4 12 0 3 1 0 1,2,3,5 0/1
4 12 0 0 1 0 2,5,6 0
4 12 1 0 0 0 N/A 0
4 12 1 0 0 0 N/A 0

Role: traditional(35%) decorative(58%) both(6%)
Dress: 0(64%) 1(24%) 2(0%) 3(12%)
Stance: 0(53%) 1(29%) 2(6%)
Attitude: 0(88%) 1(12%)
Sex: 1(6%) 5(6%) 7(41%) combo of factors(53%)
View: body(82%) face (12%) both(6%)

Hispanic women

I found an article to use for my project about Hispanic women depictions in media ads and how they have more diversified roles. I plan to use it in my project in hopes that Hispanic women are not only advertised in cooking or family/domestic ads. I will mirror my project after the Maxim study, doing a content analysis. So far, I have found some stereotypical ads that use the woman as spicy, fiery, and she has on Hispanic clothing, while some are fashionable and up to date. I will look for more ads tomorrow in magazines like Latina and People(in spanish).

Project

I have begun to work on my project for class, and I am excited to see what my findings will be. I am going to make copies of ads in magazines, but I think I want to try several magazines. If I only choose one magazine, it may limit the stereotypes of Latino women. I noticed this the other day just by looking at one of my favorite magazines. There weren't many ads with Hispanic women. So, I am going to spread out the types of magazines and categorize what the Hispanic females role is. I want to break it up into categories such as smart, rich, servant-like, fiesty, sexy, educated, etc. I want to see how women like me are portayed in media and ads. I also want to see what types of ads they are in. Are they in beer ads, sexual ads, only ads for food or Hispanic geared products? Hopefully, I will find a lot to work with. If this does not work out then I am going to look at the roles that Hispanics play in tv shows or movies.

In Bruce Lee's Shadow

I read the article on Asian-American stereotypes and I agree with the thoughts of the writer. Once I read about the Asian actors and remembered their roles, I definitely saw the stereotypes that the culture goes through. The Asian male is pretty much limited to the fighting, martial arts roles. The men are known as lethal, cool and graceful. You can always expect for them to win the fight and have some elaborate scene showing off their skills. Sad, but true. They never play the romantics although they have come close. In one of my favorite movies Romeo Must Die, Jet Li comes to Aaliyah's rescue and you can tell they like each other but nothing ever happens. He is like her knight in shining armor, but no kissing scenes occur or anything. Rush Hour 2 also shows the Asian actor interested in women but never gets one.
The Asian women also get limited roles of house servants, or sidekicks to the main actor. Even the more Hollywood Asian actresses still play in fighting roles, like the Asian girl in Charlie's Angels, she is still seen as a fighter and fierce. She, unlike other actresses, gets many good roles thought.
I definitely see how Hollywood roles in the past have cursed Asian movie opportunities.

Final Project

I have decided that my final project will be studying ads in magazines. I want to look at the images and roles that Hispanic women play. Do they play smart women, look sleezy, always play the spicy latin girl, etc. I want to see how society views them because I am Hispanic and it matters to me. I also want to see are there many ads with Hispanic women. I have not decided what magazine(s) I will use. If this study does not give me enough information, they I will look for my study in tv shows. I do not know yet what previous study mine will mirror but I am eager to begin collecting ads and finally seeing what Hispanic women are portrayed as in culture.

Protesting Images in Media

I read the article on the protestors getting their voices heard about images in videos, etc. I had no idea the group Enough is Enough was out there protesting. I think thats good that people are realizing how black and Latino men, and women are being depicted. I agree very much with the statements "BET/MTV does not reflect me". People in society think because they see videos with pimps and hoes or gangsters that thats how black and hispanic people are. I also didn't know that Viacom owned MTV, BET, VH1, and Nickelodean. Its crazy because all those networks have different values and they portray people in different ways. Its like the company that owns Axe and Dove-totally different commercials and ways of drawing people. I think that the companies that own these music networks should develop the creative standards, prohibiting language, vulgarity, and anything demeaning. They can still represent black life without the cussing and horrible images. The companies need to meet the public halfway, they want to sell records though. Sex is what sells, but it is scary to think that one day, that is how my kids are going to try to live, mirroring the images they see on BET. I watched the "Hip Hop vs. America" segment where the rappers tried to talk about issues in media and music. I commend them for trying to hear what others have to say about their music, but I do not think it will change their music videos. Maybe, they will lighten up on curse words and images, but for now, I think hip-hop will remain the same.

Black is Back Story

This is in response to Pepper Miller's story-Black is Back. Personally, I never really paid attention to the different names society used for blacks. Now that I have read the article, I do notice how shifts in time have used different terms. It went from negros in the slave days to black to African American. I do think that there should be one term, because it seems like people don't know what to call this race. African-American does seem to specify a descent from Africa, and that could exclude those who don't consider themselves African. But I think we are all American. So it is confusing because its like what do you say-Black American? It's just like Hispanics, are we Latino, Chicano, Spanish, or do we go by our home country? I never cared about race and what people are because I am mixed racially and I know that my family consists of a lot of different people. I think Pepper's article is good though, and it's kind of funny how she addresses the issue. According to her, black is back, so we will see what society determines next.