From The Perspective Of TV Advertisement To Research The Change Of Japanese Female Image After World War Ⅱ

The relationship between advertising and culture is mutual."Gender",as a familiar and resonant symbol for consumers,is a major advertising element.The changes of gender relations in advertising also reveal the changes of gender relations in society.From the perspective of social gender theory,this research use the female image as object,adopting quantitative and qualitative research methods,taking 126 TV advertisements with female protagonists as examples which were released by Shiseido from 1960 s to 1990 s to analyze the advertisements contents.Combining the social and cultural background of Japan and changes about females images’ characteristics in advertisements,this essay tends to explore the reasons of female image changing.Through analysis,there are some conclusions.At first,through the analysis of four coding groups of "age","occupation","clothing" and "gender role relationship" in advertisements,it could be seen that the images of Japanese women have changed with the times,and the changes were more obvious since the 1980 s.Secondly,the changes of female images are revealed in two aspects.One is the decrease of stereotypes which means the shift of women from symbolized trophy beauties to new age women with diverse identities.The other is the male gaze faded away gradually.The explicit or hidden male gaze in advertisements gradually decreased after the 1980 s,and women became the real narrative subject.Finally,the change of female images in advertisements also reflects the change of female images in society of Japan.The development of Japanese women’s liberation movement promoted women’s participation in politics and the implementation of female-related laws.Women’s higher education,diversified education content and active employment make them have more choices in life and so that they could start to consume and invest for themselves.More and more women are getting married late and unmarried,and more and more women are pursuing diversified lifestyles that focus on themselves rather than housewives who focus on marriage.