women’s magazines mit3214. technologies of the self michel foucault/disciplinary power...
TRANSCRIPT
Technologies of the Self
• Michel Foucault/Disciplinary Power• Discourse/Power/the Subject• Production of Knowledge• Disciplinary techniques – how we become self-regulating subjects– private selves
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Governmentality/Technologies of Self
• Neoliberalism• Expert Advice and Individual Freedom
(Technologies of Freedom)• N. Rose• Women’s magazines as “cultural
technologies”
Dr. Phil/Technologies of Self
• Self-work/Self-Management• Formula/Technique/Strategy• Personal Accountability
Techniques• “Lifestyle Audit”• “Life Laws”/“Life Manager”
Enterprising Self• Externally “Managed Self” – flight attendant uniform– external managerial control– Physical appearance, behavior,
attire monitored, regulated by company
• “Enterprising Self”– business executive: self-
selected attire
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Enterprising Self• Technical system for managing
the self– Dress manuals: “Molloy’s”– Image consultants; “wardrobe
engineering”
• Not genuine freedom– regime of self-management
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Cosmo/Disciplinary Power
• Pleasure/Techniques/Work• Sex Advice (Instruction?)– “invasion of play by the rhetoric of achievement”
• Attraction/Efficiency/Rationality– manual for heterosexual
attractiveness/sociability/sexual relations
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Discourse: Effects of Representation (Kilbourne)
• Manufactured body• Segmented body• Self-objectification/Male Objectification
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McCracken –Decoding Women’s Magazines
Covert Advertising• techniques/themes linking
editorial material to purchased advertising
• integrated system• Ads as natural extension of
editorial content
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McCracken –Decoding Women’s Magazines
1. Covert Advertising2. “Naturalize” Consumption3. Reification: products as
solutions to social problems4. strategies for “beautifying”
self, optimizing behaviour
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Covert Advertising: Placement
• adjacency
makeup ads w/ beauty stories
Advertisers request favorable placement, beside specific ed. copy, in some cases
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Covert Ad: Editorial Tie-in1. Running shoe ads followed
by “10 easy steps to a good work-out” story
2. thematic tie-in
3. celebrities: ed/ad same issue
4. “how buy car” story as as tie-in for current/potential car advertisers
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Covert Advertising: Relay texts/devices
1. Physically: article continues in back pages
2. Colour: facing page ed./ad colour links
3. Visual impression of ed/ad integration
4. Shared idiom of ad/ed1. ‘turn on the lights in your
hair’
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Covert Advertising: Melding Formats
advertorials –deception, look like editorial
editorial in ad-like form
naturalize discourse of advertising
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Covert Advertising: Brand Reciprocity
Brand Reciprocity• showcase brands/ads in
suitable ed. environment– cosmetics beyond make-
up ads: but fashion, advice columns, etc.
• Editors recommending products/ “ask the editors”
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Covert: Ideology of Advice • Create new needs, amplify
existing ones• assumed objectivity• Products as solutions• Personal inadequacy• Makeover feature (ordinary
to glamorous)• Consumption as solution to
personal/social problems (Reification)
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