A Semiotic Analysis Of Women Hair Images On Print Advertisements In Addis Ababa

The purpose of this study was to analyze the women hair images of print advet1isements in AddisrnAbaba. The objective of the study was thus, to show whether media and their products reflect thernreality of the world or not. For this, the research questions were posed to identify the denotativernsignifiers, connotative values and the hidden myth of women hair beauty definitions. In order tornaddress these, the analysis is based on the Semiotic theory of Roland Barthes, objectificationrntheory and analysis fi'om feminists' perspective. Accordingly, qualitative methodologicalrnapproach and critical paradigm is employed. The analysis is conducted on six advertisementsrncollected from billboard advertisements in Addis Ababa and selected from different contexts.The study reveals that women hair beauty portrayed in print advertisements in Addis Ababa arernnot natural, or 'just there ' and so they can be reconsh·ucted. It shows that the relationship of signrnand its meaning is unnatural and they are related to meet a certain goal. The hair beauty myth isrnthen at one time historical and intentional and it is the motivation which causes this myth to bern' unconditional ' or ' fixed'.The myth and connoted hair beauty values reflected in the advertisements are what they arernbecause of the belief in white supremacy which is related to the history of slavery. From this itrncan be understood that reality was once objective or exists externally, but overtime it is shapedrnand reshaped by different factors such as political, economic, social or gender. This process ofrnnaturalization then put this reality into structw'es which then is inappropriately framed to be thernuniversal truth.The existing advertisements in Addis Ababa are then worded to play on stereotypes andrnpromoted a negative association with natural blackness. And thus it can be said that thernobjectification of women in advertisements pressured women to evaluate their physicalrnappearance every day and in turn this hinders them from advancement. The ideal served arnpolitical end.

Get Full Work

Report copyright infringement or plagiarism