Feminist Perspectives on Advertising

By bringing together a group of scholars who align themselves to a feminist perspective, Golombisky is able to provide a diverse and in-depth representation of the pervasiveness advertising’s messages have on culture. The collection provides a wide range of perspectives, including Black, African, lesbian, transnational, poststructuralist, material, commodity, and environmental feminisms. . . . Going beyond just gender issues, the contributors in Feminist Perspectives on Advertising navigate and discuss contemporary concerns influenced by persistent historical representations in advertising, providing to their readers a lesson and an underwritten challenge to identify and transform the advertising industry’s frameworks that result in incorrect and untruthful representation in the media. The message is clear: change is needed, let’s get to work. * Communication Booknotes Quarterly *
What does advertising really mean, beyond its obvious symbols and words? Could we train people to see advertising as a force of culture? This marvelous collection serves as a decoding machine with an intersectionalist lens—race, gender, abilities, sexualities, age—targeting one of the most powerful institutional forces in our world. -- Jacqueline Lambiase, Texas Christian University
This volume is especially close to my heart because it unpacks advertising messages in new and exciting work. When I started out over 40 years ago, hardly anyone else was talking about these issues. To my delight, this book advances and updates the feminist mission of my life’s work in several ways. The most important update is the contributors’ careful attention to intersectional identities. This book also discusses twenty-first century advertising that waters down progressive feminist politics. Most gratifying, I am no longer alone, as this book, its contributors, and their genealogies of citations demonstrate. -- Jean Kilbourne, Author of Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel
Feminist Perspectives on Advertising: What’s the Big Idea? brings welcomed complexity to the vexing issue of gendered portrayals in advertising. Editor Golombisky invites a powerful array of talented scholars to delve below the surface of inadequate female representation, to the nuances behind this deficit. Pioneering scholar Jean Kilbourne offers a compelling preface that provides exceptional historical context. From there, all of the contributors prod readers to contemplate the ‘big idea’ behind advertising’s depiction of women’s bodies in diverse, complex and thought-provoking ways. -- Meta G. Carstarphen, University of Oklahoma
This collection is an engaging critique of how industries around the globe exploit notions of gender in pursuit of profit. The authors expose the cultural and political agenda embedded in advertising copy and imagery. Yet, they also create a platform for rethinking what advertising can be—a tool of social change. This book provides a range of perspectives and great examples for talking with my students about cultural awareness and communication practice. -- Deena Kemp, University of Texas at Austin