Fashion Work and Identity - Essay Example

Title: FASHION WORK AND IDENTITY Name Class Instructor Institution Date Table of Contents 3. Introduction 4. Body 8. six-box organizational model 11. Gap analysis 13. References Introduction The appeal of fashion magazines in Australia is uncontested as they have become a widespread entity that women in the society find so enticing. These glossy periodicals have advertisements of how one should dress, look like and eat. They are however far from reflecting the reality since the content in most magazines perceive surreal cultural emotional and social norm which most women submerge into to escape the realities around them. This fantasy based imagery depicts an illusory and stereotyped illustration of women who are shown to be dependent on romance, fashion and love as their motivation as compared to their opposite sex who are depicted as independent problem solvers. Most advertisement scenes show women indoors talking about dresses and makeup, laughing and making observations while men are outside at construction sites and fixing things. The content in magazines over-represents girls however and the content normally focuses on fashion and beauty with only a little percentage on careers (Media and Girls, 2010). Most advertisements portray imagery which obtain a sort of cultural rationale thus are able to depict the society and its expectations in a way that grabs the viewer’s attention and push them towards achieving a lifestyle which is out of reach for most people. The advertisements have a way of making society view fashion, dressing and sexuality in a certain kind of way through brands and trends that define social roles especially pertaining to gender. Magazines are in general a collection of visual descriptions that not only promote a company’s beauty products but also illustrates “how women should live,” and carry themselves in the society. In other words they hold an intense “emotional power” (Gomes, 1998) over women. At the same time, they state that people should be appreciated for what they are and what they choose to be like. Advertisers believe that in order for a consumer to purchase a product, it should be depicted as a scene from an advertisement. This is how most fashion and beauty companies brand their products. This paper will analyze the dominance of idealization of femininity, the advertising and editorial features contents and the role of high quality productions in relation to fashion and advertisements as they are constructed to appeal to consumers in two Australian magazines. The magazines chosen for this assignment are Vogue – Australian edition and Harper’s Bazaar fashion magazines March 2012. Both magazines are targeted towards a specific age setting, the youth (20’s) and the ageing (50’s) in a specific demographic. The dominance of idealized white, middle-class, hetero-normative femininity In the analysis of ethnicity, the ratio of white women to others of a different ethnicity in both magazines was 61:5. This ratio depicts a gender bias which can be simply explained through the words of Richard Dyer, “White people create the dominant images of the world, and don’t quite see that they thus construct the world in their image.” Sexuality, masculinity, femininity and heteronormative ideals are the common brands that are merchandised in magazines for sale to consumers and women are the basic ornament used to define the heterosexual norm in fashion magazines through being sexualized. The white privilege however has been over many years supported and reinforced by the media while the perspectives of the visible minorities have been marginalized. This section will focus on how the media in, this case magazines, portray the Aboriginal people. Artist Tracey Moffatt is a perfect example of how magazines and other type of media influence the lives of individuals. Her art draws from her background of consuming images from magazines and television and acquiring the knowledge and skills she required through fantasy images mixed with realities from around the world. In 1986, an Aboriginal photographer’s exhibition driven by Tracey Moffatt was held in Sydney as the first ever contemporary exhibition by Strait Islander and Aboriginal photographers. The invitation card featured Michael Riley’s “Hollywood-style head and shoulders study of Kristina” which a commentator described as being ‘very political’ since black women were not meant to be seriously fashionable at the time. A decade later the Australian fashion magazines had yet to feature another set of aboriginal models. The international fashion industry does not pay much attention to traditional Australian models and it is only recently that Samantha Harris, born of a German father and an Aboriginal mother stirred the fashion industry with her stunning appearance. The belief that white, middle-class and hetero-normative femininity is the perfect norm is indeed dominant in magazines and as recent evidence suggests, the gender and racial bias in the magazines might be on the rise. A content analysis on ten years of fashion advertisements in magazines held recently showed that in magazines geared toward white women, white men or black women, eroticization of women was greater than that of men with the number of white women being eroticized rising greatly in ten years, non-Americans were underrepresented and were featured in animal print clothing which depicted a predatory animal and white women were illustrated in low-status positions (Neptune, D., Plous, S. 2010, p. 1). Neptune and Plous also found in their study that media executives and marketers believe that advertising has spurred America’s racial issues since most non-Americans feel that the advertisements are geared towards the white majority. One letter to the Vogue editor read “Don't your editors have any imagination when it comes to representing women of color? From Naomi Campbell in an animal-skin bikini to the distasteful, racist, and colonialist depiction of a woman in Ralph Lauren's [interpretation] of Masai clothing, you consistently blow it when it comes to women of color. You are smart and imaginative people; could you please get it together and stop fetishing nonwhite women (p. 12). This is one kind of racial stereotype where black women are portrayed in an animal-like, predatory sexual context since most findings have suggested that colored women are generally held in society as unevolved. A study carried out by Jennifer Ford (2008) on sexualized portrayals of women concentrated on content analyses of how sexualizing women plays a part in branding and selling products and how the images in the advertisements affects them (p. 6). Magazine advertisements were at first depicting women as home-keepers who needed men’s protection, could not make decisions on their own and were dependent on the men. Today, women appear more like sexual objects. Two thirds of women who read magazines think most advertisements contain too much sex and portray them as sex objects. Although magazines are the only medium through which women have been much publicized, they are heavily sexualized with the main focus on fashion and beauty. Most women who grew up consuming magazine content can vouch that failure to attain these unrealistic images of how they should be somewhat messed with their confidence as compared to their male counterparts whose transition into adulthood is not as difficult to negotiate. The proportion of advertising to editorial and/or features content The whole media industry as we know it survives through revenue generated from advertisements. And the content in vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and other lustrous magazines is advertising. The more advertisements a magazine gets the more it earns. The analyses of both magazines show that the number of advertisement does not however surpass that of editorial content. Harper’s Bazaar magazine however has the highest number of advertisements in comparison to Vogue. Advertisements are a vital component in fashion and image conscious magazines and they not only play a big role in generating revenue but also attract consumers. Each advert is constructed in a way which appeals to a certain target group and with advertisements nowadays notably featuring ageing women alongside young ones and the content ranging from new fashion trends to lifestyle, every age group has something for them in them, although elderly women are not clearly addressed in fashion magazines unless when addressing ageing matters and skin care products (Ford, J. 2006). Most companies manage to draw emotive responses from their target market by placing fantasized and luxurious adverts in these magazines which make the dreams seem real. Consumers get a depiction that if they acquire these products they will attain a certain lifestyle that is culturally accepted. This ultimately creates a personal relationship between a consumer and a brand. The main purpose of branding is to personify products (Powers, D., Hauge, A. 2006) and maintain a balance between different economic values. In the fashion industry, consumer-producer brand-building is the main focus since consumer loyalty determines the industrial innovations. Branding can either be good or misleading since the main strategy of branding is to charge a certain product with surreal qualities that link people’s minds and emotions towards it. This makes the link between the real features of the product and its branded image almost indistinguishable. The ethereal qualities rouse some kind of curiosity on consumers who want to know what the product stands for and what it does. Brands, as used in magazines, might at times sink into the skins of consumers who are at times willing to feed on every brand sold since they become a reflection of one’s identity. Unlike in the past when advertisements were targeting only the youth, today’s advertisements are including older consumers due to the increasing number of aging women who are getting trendy too. There is a certain assumed ‘language’ (Ford J, p. 8) created through visual advertisements which shapes the society in a certain kind of way and influences how gender stereotypes are continuing to be formed. Fashion magazines also use celebrity endorsements as a strategic brand promotion perspective to influence their consumers. The society as a whole is fascinated with celebrities and fashion companies are endorsing celebrities who appear in advertisements geared upon marketing their brands, however, an analysis of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar showed that the featured celebrities covered only 10 to 15 percent. This may seem like a small percentage but the weight of celebrities appearing in the pages of these glossy magazines add significant value to the brand’s name. Organizational change occurs if an organization transforms its business strategies and operations. The main purpose of change is to improve performance within an organization (Lewis, 2011, p.15). Change within an organization is usually a response to various external and internal pressures. Some of the external pressures an organization may face are fashion, market decline, reputation and competition. Internal pressures include growth, identity, power, collaboration and new broom. Boeing experienced a decline of 6.5 percent in its stock price. This is one of the external pressures faced by Boeing. There were adverse effects on Boeing’s reputation when the organization lost the pentagon deal (Boeing’s case study). During this scandal, Boeing lost its reputation as a responsible business. Change within an organization can occur through downsizing, adoption of a new technology and mergers (Spector, 2007, p.56). An organization can reduce its production costs by reducing the number of individuals it employs. It can also adopt a new production technique to improve its performance. Apart from reducing the number of employees and adopting a new technology, an organization can enter into a partnership with another organization to improve its market performance. Boeing adopted this type of change when it merged with McDonnell Douglas in order to increase its defense contracts. Six-box organizational model Six-box organizational model proposed by Weisbord focuses on six variables (internal issues). These variables include purpose, rewards, leadership, relationship, structure and helpful mechanisms (Mills, 2008, p.69). An organization’s purpose is its goals as well as mission. Mission and goals are important in influencing an organization’s direction. Structure refers to the organization of a business. An organization may organize itself by function or product. An organization that organizes its structure by function has various specialists working together. On the other hand, an organization that organizes itself by function has various multi-skilled teams that are working together. Relationship refers to the interaction of people and units within an organization. According to this model, individuals can also interact with technology (Burke, 2002, p.76). Rewards are the intrinsic and extrinsic incentives employees may get because of working in a particular organization. Leadership refers to the process of influencing employees to achieve organizational goals and objectives. For an organization to achieve its purpose, there must be effective leaders who can influence employee’s attitude and behavior towards work. Helpful mechanisms are planning, budgeting, controlling, as well as information systems that can help in meeting organizational goals. Purpose refers to the route that an organization will take in order to realize competitive success. In order to realize competitive success, Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas in 1997 with an aim of increasing its defense contracts. However, this merger brought with it cultural difficulties. Boeing had a family culture while McDonnell Douglas’ culture focused on various defense contracts it received from the government (Boeing’s case study). According to the given case, there was need of addressing Boeing’s low employee morale. The main causes of employees’ low morale were the many piling issues concerning Boeing’s systems and its corporate culture. Boeing’s divenification process was demoralizing to the employees. The main aim of the process was to increase and diversify the organization’s revenue. Boeing’s Chicago move also affected employees’ morale (Boeing’s case study). The main aim of the move from Seattle to Chicago was to expand Boeing’s operations and make it realize an international growth. Low employee morale can affect an organization’s performance. To address the low morale, an organization may need to reward its employees (Kotter, 1996, p.31). One way of rewarding employees may be to listen to their needs and address them accordingly. Other ways include salary increment. Stonecipher recognized the need of boosting employee morale in order to improve Boeing’s performance and competitiveness. Stonecipher addressed the issue of low employee morale by working with various trade unions. This move was important because most employees take their grievances to this trade or workers’ union. Boeing needs to reestablish the relationship it has with its suppliers. Good interaction between the two parties would be important in reducing the cost of raw materials. The organization also needs to address the relationship it has with its employees. This would be important in addressing the problem of low employee morale. The airbus problem of 1994 affected the management executives and they decided to overcome Boeing’s bureaucratic structure. This is the main structure used by the organization. However, bureaucratic structure has several problems associated with it. This structure affects employee morale and this can have negative impacts on organizational performance. Helpful mechanisms are systems that are important for meeting organizational goals. One system that is important for an organization’s performance is technology (Mills, 2008, p.56). Technology is a helpful mechanism that improves an organization’s production efficiency. Boeing decided to change by adopting a new technology that helped it improve the efficiency of its manufacturing process. Boeing adopted a lean manufacturing technology. The primary objective of adopting the technology was to rejuvenate its reputation and to increase its production efficiency. Boeing wanted to facilitate communication between its staff and suppliers. To do this, the organization established web-based procurement system to allow suppliers monitor the organization’s stock levels. The organization used information technology to address the needs of its departments. However, Boeing lacked collaboration with respect to product procurement. The organization wanted a technological platform that would help in the regulation of its products lifecycles. Boeing hoped to reduce its production costs and facilitate the rapid production of 7E7. Leadership is important for the success of any organization. Bad leadership can have significant negative impacts on organizational performance (Kotter, 1996, p.29). Boeing experienced problems under the leadership of Phil Condit. It is for this reason that most employees and other individuals breathed a sigh of relief after Condit’s resignation. Under Condit’s leadership, Boeing experienced a decline of 6.5 percent on its stock price. The organization was also under pressure from competitors and its performance decreased significantly during Condit’s tenure. Boeing had no future under Condit’s leadership. For these reasons, most people desired leadership change. Gap analysis Gap analysis is an important tool for reviewing an organization’s “position based on where they are and where they want to get to in the future” (Lewis, 2011, p.14). The analysis is important in formulating appropriate actions that will help in closing the gap between current and future goals. Gap analysis model identifies the problems that an organization needs to address. Characteristics of Boeing’s current position include poor market performance, leadership problems, declining market share and competitive pressures. According to the given case, Boeing needs to address some issues in order for it to be competitive and perform better in the market (Boeing’s case study). The first issue that the organization needs to address is market decline. Boeing had experienced a reduction of 6.5 percent in its stock price. To close the gap between Boeing’s current state and future state, Boeing’s management needs to formulate appropriate actions that will revive the organization’s market share. The second issue that the organization should address is the increased pressure it receives from competitors. Other issues include the organization’s bureaucratic structure, inefficient technological systems and unnecessary processes. To realize an improved market performance, Boeing needed to produce new products such as the 7E7 aircraft using efficient and updated technologies. Addressing some of these issues would determine Boeing’s future success. In conclusion, women are confronted by the notion of ideal femininity everyday due to the various advertisements suggest several desired looks, roles as a woman and the attitude that deems them fit in the society. Fashion magazines have the power to define the desired female identity that might, when taken to great extents cause harm to women due to the stereotypical roles and ideals of femininity. Most women’s self identity is associated with consumerism as they are trying to attain a certain image influenced by fashion advertisements. They do not have a personal identity and most of them idolize certain brands and celebrities. The depiction of women that advertisements imply is one of the major concerns since women are illustrated as sexual creatures lusting for material satisfaction. Some sexual images are degrading to women but still inspire women to consume the product. Fashion magazines give women a sense of satisfaction when they see an image of a woman wearing something but do not get the same satisfaction with themselves when they look in the mirror. They forge personal identities through these images since fashion magazines have this superficial message about female identities. Women should therefore get well informed before making choices on what to consume. References Burke, W. (2002). Organization change: theory and practice. New York: SAGE Mills, A. (2008). Understanding organizational change. New York: Taylor & Francis Lewis, L. (2011). Organizational change: creating change through strategic communication. New York: John Wiley and sons Spector, B. (2007). Implementing organizational change: theory and practice. New York: Pearson Prentice Hall Kotter, J. (1996). Leading change. New York: Harvard business press case study Read More