The Quran & Adverts.
4:34 "Men have authority over women because Allah has made the onesuperior to the other. Good women are obedient."
This quote shows how men have over powering women through not only adverts but through a patriarchal society. Adverts through adverts women are shown as the female sex symbol where for instance in the vodka advert where the women is laying under the man makes it seem, as if she is waiting upon the man or as the man is on top it may also further co notate that the man is over powering her. Hence, this may also show that as he is holding 2 glasses and vodka bottle this creates a fallacy of a penis hence creating ‘penis envy’ as stated a famous theorist. Men have always been superior to women because men are known to be the breadwinner and the highest earner moreover, reason being that they are meant to be seen as superior and women are meant to obey.

2:228 "Men have a status above women."
Men have more status over women because as stated above they are the highest earner. There is a glass ceiling effect which doesn’t allow women to go any higher then men within the work force- hence this is a downside for women. Women are only seen to be a housewife or the child barer. Turn on the TV I am inundated with images of how I, as a woman, should be? The most disturbing one for me today was a L’Oreal ad for a product that is supposed to fill in fine lines and wrinkles with silicone. The lovely Claudia Schiffer stars. After “applying” the product to her eye area, a young blond boy-child comes running into the room. She says, “My lines are filled, and my life is fulfilled!” and embraces the boy. There’s a double-whammy of a message: be pretty, and have babies.

There are the millions of cleaning supply ads featuring women scrubbing and spraying and sweeping and dusting and laundering. And the baby ads featuring women changing diapers and feeding babies and bathing babies. And the ads for food products, featuring women cooking and baking and icing cakes and pouring juice. And, the diet ads, featuring women who are newly thin prancing in bikinis and miniskirts. And the cosmetic ads featuring perfect skin and eyelashes and plump lips. Even the ads hoping to sell products to men tell women how they should be - and consequently, how men should want and expect women to be. The message here for women is, if you aren’t this way, men won’t like you.

Women wear makeup, dress more lavishly, it should be pretty clear that the male dominated society has reduced female power in other areas- so women use their sexuality - and enhance it by clothes, makeup, etc… there is a saying where women go to college for an ‘Mrs. Degree’ men of course, in a patriarchy, show their power by cars, etc. symbols of wealth.

Some feminists have subverted the use of makeup for their own purposes, and a few men wear makeup for example ‘Prince’, , little Richard, Billie Joe Armstrong and I personally think it’s naive to see makeup as anything but transforming women to fit the traditional view of women.

What I do feel is an issue is the impossible views of women that are put forth in the media via the use of lighting, computer technology, and over-made-up women. Women viewing these outlets begin to believe that that is what real women look like, when in fact it is all a farce. We then begin to compare ourselves to these unattainable standards, increasing our need for make up, diet pills and fads, miracle creams and the like.

Makeup has been used mostly to create illusions, by women to entice men by making themselves appear younger, healthy, more fertile, and flushed as though from a fresh romp in the sack. The underlying message is indeed, “you are not good the way you are.”

On the other hand, as something of a post-structuralist/post-modernist, I believe that identity categories are created by society. So I am a woman not because I have a vagina and ovaries and fallopian tubes and a uterus and breasts - I am a woman because society assigns me that role based on my physiology, and woman means many things completely unrelated to that physiology. And so, I understand the desire to recreate one’s identity through body modification of varying degrees. Body modification is not the issue. The reasons for body boob job or wear a pair of beautiful high heel shoes, and they still want to do those things, all the while understanding that it is marking them with physical evidence of being a woman in a patriarchal society. Reevaluate yourself and your motives from time to time.

I suppose one could choose to interpret the message of that commercial to say that a woman needs children to be fulfilled. Another way to interpret it is that Claudia Schiffer feels fulfilled by motherhood. A third way to interpret it is modification are at issue. And so, I feel that if women do the work of examining deeply why it is they want to, say, wear makeup or get a that “fulfilled” was a play on the word “filled” and was just meant to be a clever tag line.

A culture where women are expected to conform to ideal of femininity. However, I do see that this plays a role in my own self-expression and not a purely negative one. For me, make-up is a means to overcome what I call the terror of natural beauty. Because the male ideal is not a woman with good make-up but perfect natural looks.

The Bible and James Bond
11:10 "Women are under man's authority."
After the viewer sees Bond kissing Miss Trench the scene fades out and the audience knows that he will have sex with her before he leaves to fulfill his obligation of going to search for Dr. No. The scene does not show Bond saying goodbye to Trench, it simply cuts to Bond’s travels. Tara Brabazon comments on the process that is undergone as a woman is seduced by Bond and states: “The James Bond films…depict women enjoying rape, especially since Bond is the ‘good guy’ and the supposed fantasy of every woman. Once raped they are then ignored by the male star.”

14:34 "Women are subordinate to men."
Moneypenny embodies all of the characteristics that a housewife would have, and this is a threat to Bond because she represents settling down, having a family, and most importantly, giving up a life of promiscuity and self fulfilment. While Miss Moneypenny remains to be the only consistent Bond girl, appearing in almost every film, she is the only girl who is never targeted as a means to an end or used for sexual gratification. “Moneypenny’s office is encased not only by the proverbial glass ceiling, but also glass walls. She can view power, but wields little. Moneypenny remains the woman behind the man.

There is much potential, both politically and theoretically, in monitoring the confluences of feminism and popular culture. While much attention has been granted to Madonna and the Spice Girls, there are textual sites that have a far longer, and more complex, history. This article analyses Miss Moneypenny, a character in the long-running James Bond series. Through monitoring the super spy’s super secretary, we discover the contradictory, ambivalent, and surprising impact of feminism on this small but resonant site in filmic history.

While the women’s movement began to take shape Dr. No was being filmed and released in theatres. It is no coincidence that this film, which uses women as objects throughout the plot, is released during a time when women are fighting for equality in society. This film serves as a slap in the face to women, giving them a glimpse into the lives of the women with agency in the film and exactly what becomes of them due to their attempt to take power from Bond.

The article “Figures of Bond,” by Tony Bennett and Janet Woollacott, depicts the women in the Bond films as possessing a new sexual freedom. They state, “In sum, the ‘bond girl’ of the 1960s disconnected female sexuality from traditional female gender identities, preserving these latter virtually intact…” What helps Bond to disguise himself as a harmless male character in literature and film. By stating that female gender identities remain intact throughout the film is absurd. The only reason that any of the female characters in the film end up in the stereotypical female gender identities is because Bond, due to his insecurity and castration anxiety, places them back into this role to strip them of their agency and power.

From Russia With Love
The presence of women in the film seems to fall into two categories: the asexual prude and the slut. Klebb arguably embodies the former category. As the Russian matriarch who helps plan Bond’s entrapment, she is the most villainous woman in the film and is effectively depicted as a short, sexually ambiguous character who appears to be both stern and frustrated. As such, she carries some agency. Within the context of the Cold War, we may see her character as representative of a Communist ideal of equality between the sexes. She also happens to be portrayed as sexual deviant. Vito Russo, in his book entitled The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies, offers us this character assessment of Klebb:

In “From Russia With Love” ... Cartoon dykes are alternately killed in the grand tradition of heterosexual solutions ... In the former … Rosa Klebb, is old, snakelike, dangerous; a killer spy who makes cobra eyes at a young blonde agent on whom she tries to put the arm during a private interview.

Diamonds are forever
In “Diamonds Are Forever,” released in 1971, the perpetuation of the patriarchal socio-political structure is kept alive by the ultimate patriarch himself, James Bond. As in all other James Bond films he embodies all things stereotypically masculine and is successful in gaining control over that which is inferior or potentially threatening to his particular white heterosexual male status, particularly homosexuals, women, and people of other ethnicities, thus proving that he is representative of the dominant power. Throughout this film there is a definite “othering” of homosexuals, women, and those who are not white. But in addition to being sloughed off as “other,” these minority groups are also heavily defamed, especially in the case of the homosexual characters.

Of course, James Bond is the obvious subject here, once again upholding white heterosexual patriarchy. As such, there is a particular dilemma caused by the presence of Wint and Kidd. Being overtly homosexual, unlike previous villains who were ambiguous if anything, the duos are an antithesis of what Bond represents. However, by virtue of being men (especially in that both he and the two men are striving to secure control over their environments and situations), he is suddenly conflicted as he must confront his commonalities with them. Bond's realization of these similarities is, in fact, identification with the abject."That subject, weary of fruitless attempts to identify with something on the outside, finds the impossible within; when it finds that the impossible constitutes its very being, that it is none other than abject." The film's equation of Bond with all that is good, lawful, and masculine aligns Wint and Kidd with abjection. They reject patriarchal order, twisting its laws to their advantage without ever fully accepting or obeying them in the ways in which they were meant to be followed.

The Bond girl in the Dr No DVD cover conforms to the Mulvey theory of being an object of the male gaze and furthermore hold to quality of ‘to-be-looked-at-ness’. Furthermore, Bond being the protagonist reinforces patriarchy this also shown by the way that Bond is always holding a gun on the DVD cover.

The audience for the Bond films can vary, the target audience can been seen as males aged between 15 to 25 years old. A secondary audience can be identified as an older generation who enjoy watching the James Bond films since they began in 1962. Through the DVD cover women are not targeted however, the storylines try to engage women as they often show Bond having relationships with women.

The Bond films are well known to reinforce patriarchy values and undermine women. Casino Royal subverts the undermining of women the silhouette of the women figure is bigger than Bond, however, with his gun in his hand as a phallic symbol and the expression on his face he is conveyed to be more power and thus reinforces patriarchy. The Dr No DVD cover shows the female as a object and is present for the male gaze, this by itself reinforces patriarchy. Again Bond is shown to be holding a gun as a phallic object, giving him more power than the female.

Both covers show Bond in the foreground and a female in the background, this can convey a narrative of Bond having to overcome his promiscuous nature to save the world one more time. It also shows that the character of Bond does not see women as important thus also reinforcing patriarchy.

In conclusion, the Bond DVD covers convey patriarchy ideologies and values. Bond is shown to be the most important person on the cover, often in the foreground and holding a gun as a phallic object to reinforce his patriarchal status. The females are objectified and in the Dr No cover the female is wearing a bikini however, the most recent DVD cover only shows a silhouette of a female. Finally, these representations and ideologies conveyed through the DVD covers appeal to the male audience who are so fond of the action films with girls and fast cars.

BY HAMMAD AND HASNAA