Meanings Of Beauty: Interpretations On The Experience Of Female Audiences Of Cosmetics Advertisements

Nowadays,the flourishing development of the fashion industry and the craze for beauty among the female,seem to indicate “beauty myth” still plays a powerful normative role in the society.Traditional feminists generally believe that beauty is a pure political issue,which means it is a patriarchal tool to oppress women's body.In this regard,this study used an in-depth interview method,intergenerational factors included,to collect the beauty experience from female audiences' life.Through the coding and analysis of data,this study has found the multi-dimensional meaning structure of beauty in modern social context,suggesting that beauty is essentially a multi-directional problem with inner tension.Generally,meaning is represented in three dimensions: symbolic meaning at the text level,psychological meaning at the individual level,and behavioral meaning at the social level.To be specific,the symbolic meaning is from the co-formation of media texts and female audiences,psychological meaning from the unconscious comparison between the real self and the symbolic image,and behavioral meaning from the co-construction of the social structure and the active subject.Based on it,this study further explores the connections embedded in the meaning,and finds “symbolic violence” in the structure of masculine domination is difficult to eradicate.It not only because the media texts can become reproduction machines to boost masculine domination,but because valid conditions are incorporated into the female body.Despite the supervision of the society and the adjustment of culture,the body is always trying its best to express the social pressure and its real desire.In nature,the body is not only a kind of view to beauty,but a space for the female to practice the freedom of life,where they can gain emotional happiness and re-consciousness in the process of pursuing beauty.