从符号学角度对中国卫生巾电视广告进行女性主义批评

论文总字数：50906字

摘 要

当下有关性别议题的讨论的蓬勃发展，广告中的性别形象也是性别研究的重要主题之一，也是女性争取话语权的重要领域。 卫生巾电视广告是典型的针对女性顾客的广告，且这下广告在推销产品的同时也传达了主流社会阶层的某种意识形态取向。 从符号学的角度来看，卫生巾的电视广告反映了对女性群体既有形象的迎合，表明女性在话语权和社会地位方面的进步已经在社会的主流意识形态中获得了一席之地。

本文使用罗兰·巴特的“神话学”和查尔斯·S·皮尔斯的“类项符号、指示符号、象征符号”两套符号学理论来研究近年来中国卫生巾电视广告。在符号学理论的指导下，本文将从三个角度分析所选卫生巾电视广告：女性形象、场景设计、女性话语特征。根据对国内卫生巾电视广告的分析，本文将探讨广告内容所体现的当代社会在以下女性主义问题上所取得的进展：对经历月经的女性的去妖魔化、强调女性在社会生产中的价值、展示女性始终扮演具有力量的主导角色的可能性、消除对女性不必要的色情表现、将有关月经的女性话语正常化。

关键词：符号学；卫生巾；广告；女性进步

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments i

Abstract ii

摘要 iii

Introdcution 1

Research Background, Significance and Purpose 1

Literature Review 2

Thesis Structure 3

Chapter One Female Images in the Ads 5

1.1 Physical Appearance of the Women 5

1.1.1 Physique Pattern 5

1.1.2 Dressing Pattern 7

1.2 Behaving Pattern of the Women 9

Chapter Two Setting Designs in the Ads 11

2.1 Special Effects and the Production of Settings 11

2.2 Interactions between Characters in Settings 12

Chapter Three The Characteristics of Female Discourse in the Ads 15

3.1 Expression of Biological Needs by Females 15

3.2 Dialogue between Female and Male 16

3.2.1 Male as Poster Man for Sanitary Napkins 16

3.2.2 Male as Leading Roles in Ads Napkins 18

Chapter Four Conclusion 20

Works Cited 22

Introduction

Research Background, Significance and Purpose

As the discussion on gender issues flourishes, the gender image in advertising is also one of the important themes of gender research, and it is an important field for women to fight for the right to speak. In his Mythologies, on the study of “second-order semiological system”, Roland Barthes pointed out: as culture tends to represent the interests of the dominant class, so myth will represent the ideological interests of the dominant social class; myth has the task of “giving a historical intention a natural justification, making contingency seem eternal” (Howells amp; Negreiros 123; Zhang 71; Barthes 113). Sanitary napkin TV commercials are typical ones targeting at female customers. They sell products while also conveying some kind of ideological interests of the dominant social class. From a semiotic point of view, the TV advertisements of sanitary napkins reflect the catering of the existing images of the female group, indicating that the improvement of the voice and social status of women has entered the mainstream social ideology.

Sanitary napkin advertisements are unique and representative as texts for studying feminist progress. First, the target customer of sanitary napkin advertisements is limited to women. Besides, sanitary napkins are closely linked to the gender identity of women compared with products such as women's toiletries and cosmetics. Secondly, the advertisement of sanitary napkins on the mass media such as television broadcasts reflects the choice of women in China as consumers and the right to speak as a social participant. Thus, the content of sanitary napkin advertisements is closely related with gender issues. The semiotic analysis on the TV advertisements of sanitary napkins is instructive for understanding the feminist progress in gender issues and the status quo of gender politics.

This thesis uses the theory of semiotics of Roland Barthes’ theory of “mythologies” and Charles S. Peirce’s theory of “icon, index, symbol” to study the sanitary napkin TV advertisements in China in recent years. A total of 15 sanitary napkin TV advertisements since 2010 are selected: three ads respectively from four sanitary napkin brands: Whisper, Sofy, Space7 and Kotex; and other three ads from relatively niche brands. Within the framework of semiotic theory, the selected advertisements will be analyzed from three perspectives: female images, setting designs, and the characteristics of female discourse. The thesis is going to look into the progress made by contemporary society in the following feminist issues reflected in domestic sanitary napkins TV commercials: eliminating the demonizing of women experiencing menses; emphasizing woman’s value in social production; displaying women’s possibility of always playing a powerful and dominant role; erasing the unnecessary erotic presentation of women; normalizing the feminine discourse of menstruation.

Literature Review

Feminist criticism emerged first in the 1960s and then spread to 1970s. In the feminist study of media texts, semiotic theory was widely used, and advertising research constituted an important part of feminist media criticism. At present, the theme of female advertising research using semiotics at home and abroad mainly focuses on the following aspects: 1) the analysis of the female image in various advertisements in the same period, through the identity, behavior and image of women in advertising to draw the expectation and shaping of the female image in the social environment; 2) to analyze the characteristics and evolution of female images in different periods in order to understand the changes and development of women's social image and status over a period of time; 3) the image and social status of a particular female audience as reflected in the marketing strategy of a particular category of advertising.

There are few feminist studies on the content of sanitary napkins in domestic TV commercials, and there is a lack of in-depth exploration. In the search for "Sanitary napkin advertisement" as a key word, we can only find 9 articles published from 2002 to 2016, including 6 articles on the analysis of sanitary napkin advertising content. In these articles there are 1 journal articles, 2 master's thesis articles, 3 review texts; and specific content analysis of TV commercials appeared only in 2 review texts. The three review texts were written between 2002 and 2004. The authors were all males and showed a more conservative stance on the attitude of comments. Taking Sun Peng and Sun Fengguo's article "The Reality and Ideal of Sanitary Napkin Advertising" as an example, the article criticizes the phenomenon of “undisguised” introduction of product functions in TV sanitary napkin advertisements, and believes that expression is not subtle, especially when both male and female audiences are at present (79). The article suggests that as an advertisement for female audiences, advertisers should not choose media which faces the audience of both sexes as a whole, and female magazines should be selected as the main channel. A total of 3 journal articles and master's thesis were written between 2011 and 2016. The research object is print advertising. In Zhu Xi's journal article “From taboo to liberation – the change of female consciousness and the development of sanitary napkin advertising” the relationship between the content display of the towel advertisement and the change of women's consciousness was researched and analyzed, and the influence of the taboo color of the topic of "sanitary napkin" on the design of the print content of the sanitary napkin was summarized. The two master's thesis’ mainly research design ideas are from the marketing point of view.

To sum up, at present, there are comprehensive researches on feminist advertising criticism at home and abroad. However, there is less concern about the category of advertisements for sanitary napkins, which is specifically targeted at female consumers. Therefore, this paper will focus on domestic TV advertisements of sanitary napkins, starting with the perspective of advertising, analyzing and reflecting on the social progress of gender status and gender culture in China.

Thesis Structure

This thesis has three chapters. Chapter one analyzes female images in sanitary napkin ads through the roles’ physical appearance and behaving pattern. The analysis aims to see how such elements reflect the positive signs embedded in menses, depiction of women's independence, and efforts to avoid presenting women as the erotic symbols.

Chapter two focuses on special effects, production and character interactions in the ads’ setting designs. Arguments are made on presentations of women playing powerful and dominant roles and their social participation in ads.

Chapter three is the analysis of the characteristics of female discourse in the ads. The analysis are of the lines describing women’s feelings and needs during the menses, and the poster men and male leading roles in ads, indicating the improved female discourse and the normalization of menses.

The last chapter is the conclusion sums up the main arguments of the thesis.

Chapter One Female Images in the Ads

• 1. Physical Appearance of the Women

1.1.1 Physique Pattern

In Chinese advertisements of sanitary napkins, leading female roles always seem to be in their early or late 20s, some of them in their early 30s. Besides, the leading female roles usually have obvious secondary female sexual characteristics. Such representation of female maturity reflects the signification claiming that purchasing sanitary napkins is a “mature” behavior of women who have experiences of menses. Also, the sanitary advertisements which provide images of glamorous women are connecting the use of sanitary products with positive female traits and convincing the audiences to accept such connection. “Mature young woman amp; Sanitary Napkins” become a symbol, according to Peirce’s theory that a symbol “is a sign of that object that is assigned to it by a rule of interpretation” (Short 221); and become a myth, according to Barthes theory that myth reduce speech materials to a pure signifying function (Barthes 113). Instead of menstrual taboos which are always related with negative concepts such as “pollution” and “disaster” (Li amp; Zhu 2012), advertisements of sanitary napkin on TV are encouraging their target customers to take their sanitary products as a sign of positive concepts such as maturity, experience and glamour.

Besides the anonymous actresses in ads who can basically be identified as “young woman”, with accurate data of birthday, it is easy to tell that in sanitary napkin TV ads starring female celebrities the leading actresses are usually in their early adulthoods. For example, Zhang Zixuan (张子萱) and Qi Wei(戚薇) were born in the 1980s, Dilireba (迪丽热巴), Yang Zi (杨紫) and Guan Xiaotong (关晓彤) were born in the 1990s, and they starred in sanitary napkin ads in the late 2010s, when they are in their early or late 20s. While in China most women’s menarche take place before they are fourteen years old (Wen etc. 2019), the representation of “women with experiences of menses” in TV ads chooses maturer figures who are years beyond adolescent novices. Also, in China people being older than 18 years old are legally taken as adults with full citizen rights and responsibilities, the age of 20s, or, the period of late-youth and early-adulthood, are accepted as the start point of maturity during which the subjects start to take full responsibilities when handle problems with on their own. “Age of maturity” is an emphasized physique pattern for the female figures showing up in sanitary napkin ads.

What’s more, among female popular figures starring in recent sanitary napkin advertisements, there is a specific group of stars who start their entertainment career since childhood and grow up in public’s horizon, e.g. Guan Xiaotong and Yang Zi. The public have a clear impression of how these once-child-stars grow up year by year until they become young adults and take roles in napkin sanitary ads as mature ladies. When these once-child female stars shoot sanitary napkin ads, their characteristic of one who already grows into an adult is emphasized; and due to their early-started career, they are taken as “experienced”. By emphasizing the advertisement leading roles’ identity as mature young adult, the sanitary napkin ads signify maturity with the using of sanitary napkins. The advertisers hint the audience that using sanitary napkins to handle menses is a behavior showing women’s maturity, indicating that the customers would be complimented as knowledgeable and experienced for they know how to feel cozy and comfortable when menses come.

While the leading actresses in ads clearly show that they are in the age of having years of experience dealing with menses appropriately, their physique characteristics are also displayed as charming and welcome, or in John Berger’s words, they have glamour and are enviable (131). The female roles in ads usually have obvious secondary female sexual characteristics, such as developed breast and hip. Such characteristics are not only signs of biological maturity but also of attractive features for women. Besides, the female roles in sanitary napkin ads are also qualified with smooth skin, ringing voice and slim body shape, which are widely taken as traits of glamour and being enviable for women. For those female stars in ads, their identity of “glamorous and enviable woman” is particularly outstanding. According to John Berger’s theory, publicity “proposes each of us in consumer society to change ourselves or our lives by buying something more”, thus sanitary napkin advertisers propose to audiences to buy their products to become as enviable and glamorous as the roles in ads (131). The sanitary napkins, which are inseparably from menstruation, become signifiant of feminine glamour -- a positive concept.

1.1.2 Dressing Pattern

For the female figures in sanitary napkin ads on TV, their clothing usually choose to indicate their social identity as young professionals or college student, and also in many ads their clothing patterns are quite ambiguous to indicate any specific career or marital status. Men-related identities such as housewife or bride can be hardly told from the role’s clothing in ads. Secondly, the roles in ads usually choose clothes of casual and loose styles. Such tendency is quite overt for advertisements in the late 2010s. Clothing pattern for female roles in sanitary napkin ads on TV tends to avoid showing female’s patriarchal identities and impress the audiences that the roles are in a relaxed and unrestrained condition. The very principle of myth is to transforms history into nature (Barthes 128), so such presentation in ads is claiming the shown women’s social identities outside home and their non-erotic figures as a norm. The advertisers advocate female’s independence, and relate their sanitary products with a cozy situation away from male’s sexual eagerness.

Some TV ads prefer to present females as students or professionals, and others prefer casual clothes without codes of marital status or career. In Free-More’s advertisement starring Wang Dongcheng (汪东城) in 2014, the female roles’s clothes can be clearly recognized as gym suits, school uniform and office suits. In Anerle’s advertisement starring Qi Wei in 2014, she wears office suits of suit jacket and trousers. Besides, in Kotex’s 2017 TV advertisement of their “classic series”, female roles all wear uniform and suits of their respective jobs of chief, journalist, ballerinas and street dancer. Also, in some advertisements, the female roles’ marital status and career are both quite ambiguous in their clothing. For example, in Watson’s TV advertisement starring Luo Zhixiang in 2016, the main female role wears loose pajamas, which are also typical clothes seen in many other ads of overnight napkins such as ones worn in Space7’s TV ad “weird poses” in 2016 and Sofy’s ad starring Guan Xiaotong in 2018. In addition, casual dresses, skirts, t-shirts and trousers are also common for females in sanitary napkin ads, and such clothing usually indicates no specific professions, e.g. Kotex’s 2015 ad starring Zhou Baihao(周柏豪), Space7’s ad of the “Mini Pads” in 2016, Whisper’s ad of “Super-clean Cotton” in 2016, and Sofy’s 2014 ad of “Pocket Magic”, and a bunch of TV ads starring female stars such as Angelababy, Dilireba and Yang Zi. Among TV ads, clothes pieces which can identify female roles as housewives, for instance house dress with an apron, are not seen. Also, the main female roles never show up in wedding dresses. It can hardly tell from the clothing pattern that females in sanitary napkins ads are housewives or brides. Women in sanitary napkin ads are always independents without evidence from their clothes of being in relationship with men. They hardly show up with clothes pieces hinting traditional roles in patriarchal society as girlfriend, wife and mother, and in many ads their clothes reflect that they have their own careers and hobbies, and that men is not the center of their life and self-recognition.

Comparing with Space7’s TV advertisement in 2011 starring Zhang Zixuan, ads shot after 2015 have less tendency of highlighting the leading female role’s sexual attractiveness by exposing clear body shape or part of their secondary female sexual characteristics through their clothing. In the TV ad starring Zhang Zixuan in 2011, she wears tight jeans and a strapless top in the first and second scene, and the camera once focuses on her hip and her nude chest where a little upper part of her breasts could be seen. As it has been mentioned in the former paragraph, in ads shot around 2015, suits and tops with collars and straps are the most common clothes for their female roles. Women in ads seldom wear low-neckline tops, miniskirts or hot pants; and tights are always not considered. Despite the reason that tights, miniskirts and hot pants are contradictory with the advertiser’s idea of telling the audiences that their sanitary products can make customers feel cozy and relaxed, in ads of overnight napkins, the female roles don’t wear nighties that would expose their body shape either. The most common clothes for women in overnight napkin ads are pajamas of loose trousers/pants and t-shirts. Silk gowns, camisoles and translucent blouse are rare among the choices even though they are soft and light and are common in some of the women’s perfume advertisements (e.g. Charlize Theron’s Dior J’adore L’absolu advertisement in which she lies on a golden bed sheet besides with a golden silk piece covering her naked upper body). Recent sanitary napkin ads on TV are in the progress of removing the sexually attractive characteristics from the clothing of their female roles, avoiding conveying to their target audiences the classical concept of “sexual beauty” images that appear in various advertisements.

• 1. Behaving Pattern of the Women

Goffman argues in his book Gender Advertisement that women’s canting postures in advertisements show their acceptance of subordination, and high physical place symbolizes high social place (43). On the other hand, the woman in sanitary napkin TV ads always do stretching, upright postures, though smiling is already typical and obvious to show their light mood after using the sanitary products; and canting postures are done when the ads are showing that women aren’t feeling good during the menses without sanitary products. Furthermore, the ads’ slogans always claim that by using sanitary napkins, menstruation won’t bother women’s everyday life. In these ads, stretching and upright postures always appear when the slogans are shown, indicating that such conditions belong to the normalcy of women’s life. The behaving patterns in sanitary napkin social ads reflect advertisers’ intentions to naturalize the idea to their customers that women can namely be in the dominant position in their life.

In sanitary napkin TV ads, postures showing a high physical place usually fall into such categories: jumping, stretching arms, head erecting and upright standing/walking. When such postures are done by the women in ads, they are always in the context of claiming how sanitary napkins have freed women from the troubles of menstruation and make them do as well as they do in the rest days of the month, or make them feel comfortable and cozy during menses so that they could enjoy life. A typical example is Kotex’s 2017 “classic series” TV advertisement. The ad start with the slogan “Would periods disturb the pace of your life? Probably not”. Then the scene switches to several street dancers whiping up their upper body and staring at the camera. Afterwards, in the scene a chief lifts a bag of potatoes from the ground to her shoulder, a ballerina stretch up her arms upward, a journalist stands beside a video editor in the office to direct him making the video clip. Besides, in Guan Xiaotong’s 2018 Sofy night use ad, she jumps up with partners and lift up her right arm into the air when the voice-over says “you sleep well every night”. All these shown female roles are doing body stretching postures of “high physical place”. In addition, doing head erecting is also a typical “high physical place” posture indicating their domination and high social status. In Qi Wei’s 2014 Anerle ad, Angelababy’s Sofy ads of in 2014 and 2016, Whisper’s ad of “Super-clean Cotton” in 2016, the female roles all make the act “lift up head and have a deep breath”. Since Goffman argues that head cants can be read as “expression of ingratiation, submissiveness and appeasement” (46), the act of lifting up one’s head has contrary meanings. The ads make slogans with phrases such as “don’t let menses mess up your life” “girl’s colorful life never stops”, supported by female roles holding up their heads, and stretching their bodies. Such expression encourages audiences to endorses the idea that women can play a dominant role in their life and in the society, and the napkins would help them to keep this “ought to be” condition.

At the same time, canting poses are used in ads to show that females may feel sick and restricted during the menses. In Free-More’s 2014 advertisement starring Wang Dongcheng, the females do bow to show that they feel powerless during the menses. In Watson’s TV advertisement starring Luo Zhixiang in 2016, the leading female role makes stooped poses to show her sickness during the period. The TV advertisers of sanitary napkins use canting postures not only to indicate that menstruation could make females powerless and sick, but also to hint that such situation is temporary and evitable for women as long as they use sanitary napkins, which again emphasizes the normalcy of women to be powerful and play a dominant role.

Chapter Two Setting Designs in the Ads

• 1. Special Effects and the Production of Settings

Kitchen, nursery and living room are considered as domains where women are superior or in traditional authority status (Wang 70; Goffman 36). Furthermore, in such domains, women tend to assume the role of housewife, a traditional role for women in patriarchal society. Yet in sanitary napkin TV ads, the settings are seldom “housewife’s domains”. Usually, single women’s bedroom, public space on the street or in buildings and abstract scenes of special effects are the most preferred settings in TV ads. Such preference can be regarded as the endorsement of women’s participation in social production besides the traditional role of housewife in patriarchal society, and a reflection of the social reality that more women are having jobs out of the family and women are fine with being single/not married.

For ads of day use sanitary products in TV ads of sanitary napkins the settings are in realistic styles, and women usually show up on the way to or in their working place, or enjoy their spare time. For instance, in Anerle’s advertisement starring Qi Wei in 2014, Qi Wei is a white collar who walks to the office building to start her work day. In this ad, the scene includes parliament, the square in front of the office building and her office. In Kotex’s 2017 TV advertisement, women show up in their working place respectively, including dancing room, restaurant’s kitchen and television studio, as the shown women are ballerinas, chief and journalist. In Free-More’s 2014 advertisement starring Wang Dongcheng, there is also a scene of a company’s photocopy room. In addition to scenes of working place, cafeteria is also a frequent seen setting. In Zhang Zixuan’s 2011 Space7 ad and Zhou Baihao’s 2015 Kotex ad, the main scene is in the cafeteria. There are also other scenes of women spending their spare time, for instance in Zhang Zixuan’s ad there are also scenes of CD shop and clothes shop, in Wang Dongcheng’s Free-More ad there is a scene of gym, and in Yang Zi’s 2018 Kotex “Invisible Pad” ad, she is on a skateboard on a beachside road. In depicting women’s daily life, the advertisers choose to present them as women with jobs and having their own spare time to spend on entertainment and hobbies, admitting their participation in social production and their independence in dealing with their own spare time.

In ads of night use products, the settings sometimes contain abstract scenes made up by special effects. For example, in the TV ad starring Guan Xiaotong of Sofy’s night use pads, she and several other girls lying in beds which float on stars. In Space7’s TV ad “weird poses” in 2016, the leading role sleeps on the bed sheet and doing postures of diving and flying in her dreams – such design creates an unrealistic impression for the audiences so that they won’t seek details about whether this young woman is single or not. When night use is closely connected with the scene of “bedroom”, advertisers use abstract scenes to conceal the details on whether the women presented in the ad are single. It is quite ambiguous to know whether the women in ads are sleeping with someone else, or maybe they are sleeping in a double bed. As it is mentioned before, women in ads are usually young adults, who in traditional ideas are in the life period of dating and getting married. However, the ads conceal related details for the purpose of expressing the idea that women can take care of themselves and a partner (boyfriend/husband) is not an all-time necessity for them.

• 1. Interactions between Characters in Settings

Size and position of figures in ad pictures indicate the power hierarchy (Goffman 28). In sanitary napkin TV ads, female roles usually occupy the central position in the scene and cover a big portion in the screen, unless sometimes there are special effect images of the sanitary product that the ad is introducing. In an ad which stars a poster man, the poster man usually acts like a narrator at the edge of the screen when introducing the sanitary product’s function. Such poster man also is visually petite when showing up together with the image of the sanitary product at the same time. Also, in settings the characters interact with others (especially in realistic style settings), which reflects their sociality. Women interact with colleagues, friends and strangers of both sexes, on both private and public occasions. Women are not emphasized to look tiny in terms of their body size, so that they are not depicted as petite and powerless, or in a vulnerable position in the ads; and their various interactions with others advocate women to be part of the whole society—not only a member of the family staying at home.

Despite the ads that star female celebrities in which the starring actress should be emphasized to show their commercial value and popularity, in those ads without female stars, the characters also cover the central part of the picture. In ads without female stars (e.g. Kotex’s 2017 TV advertisement of their “classic series”, Sofy’s 2014 ad of “Pocket Magic”, Space7’s TV ad “weird poses” and Whisper’s ad of “Super-clean Cotton” in 2016), the female roles are always in the center of the picture and play the subject, no matter whether they are walking, dancing, playing, working or sleeping. Women in the center of the ad’s picture are a hint of women’s leading role in the setting, mirroring the possibility in reality that women are powerful.

While women in sanitary napkin ads always are the center of the pictures, there are exceptions that in ads sometimes appear images of props of extremely big size which make female figures look petite. Such images are the sanitary products themselves or other things directly related with the introduction of the product. For example, In Whisper’s 2016 ad of “Super-clean Cotton”, to show that the special technique of making cotton napkins would make customers feel extremely comfortable, there is a scene in which the leading role lies down on raw cottons which make up an extremely huge shape of a single cotton boll. In Space7’s ad of the “Mini Pads” in 2016, the leading female role dances on the top of a huge pack of pads as if she is dancing on a little stage. However, such relationships between figure and setting are also applied on male roles in ads. In Free-More’s 2014 advertisement starring Wang Dongcheng, at the end of the ad, when Wang is saying the slogan, a huge image of the sanitary product shows beside him, so that comparatively Wang is also in a petite figure. Thus, in sanitary napkin TV ads, there’s no tendency of making female figures more petite than male ones. While female figures and male ones in ads solely are iconic signs representing male and females, as in Peircean semiotics that “an icon is a sign which would possess the character which renders it significant” (Short 215); their relative size in pictures made these figures become symbols for they contain interpretations of power hierarchy. To sum up, female figures in ads not being relatively petite or marginalized indicate that women can be in dominant and powerful in gender hierarchy.

Various interactions of social networking are displayed in sanitary napkin TV ads. In Anerle’s advertisement starring Qi Wei in 2014, Qi greets her male colleague in the office. In Kotex’s 2017 “classic series” ad, the street dancer dances with her female partners, the chief is working in the kitchen with her male colleagues, and the journalist’s editor is a man. Also, in Sofy’s 2014 ad of “Pocket Magic”, the leading roles are several girls who are friends. The interaction of ad characters are not only taking place in public scenes, such as in Angelababy’s 2014 ad of Sofy’s night use napkin pants, in which she has two roommates who sleep in the same bedroom. The interactions depicted in ads cover various interpersonal relationships on occasions of both in private and public spaces, through which omen’s sociality and participation in social production are represented.

Chapter Three The Characteristics of Female Discourse in the Ads

• 1. Expression of Biological Needs by Females

In the early years of the broadcasting of sanitary napkin TV ads in China, there were articles criticizing the content of the sanitary product introduction as being “undisguised”. The authors claim that the overt introduction of how sanitary napkins absorb liquids makes people feel disgusted and embarrassed (Zhang, 2002; Sun amp; Sun, 2004). Recent TV ads, however, still shows exact picture of their product and how the napkins are thin, soft, flexible, breathable and can absorb liquids well. Besides, recent TV ads would contain lines directly mentioning “period” or description of the situation of menses. In addition, the lines in ads also emphasize how the sanitary products would help customers to get rid of the sickness and restriction during the menses. Such expression not only argues for women’s right of talking about their biological needs without feeling shameful, but also advocates that women want and can feel comfortable during the menses and not to be restricted.

Sanitary napkin ads on TV in the late 2010s are still showing exact image of their products and their strong function in absorbing liquids, even though such presentation was criticized by articles written by men in the early 2000s. Advertisers also start to use words to directly describe the situation of the menses to show that their products can perfectly face specific needs. In Yang Zi’s 2018 Kotex “Invisible Pad”, there is a cartoon showing how the napkin is flexibly twisted in motion so that the user can do vigorous exercises while using it. Guan Xiaotong’s 2018 Sofy night use ad shows how pad absorbs liquid coming from different direction. In addition, the ad lines are using more explicit words to describe the menses. Kotex’s slogan is “Don’t let psychological periods mess up your steps”, which directly mentions a rather direct word commonly used in daily conversation about menstruation. In Space7’s ad of the “Mini Pads” in 2016, the song sings “in days (menstrual blood) comes in small amount, I don’t worry”, vividly describing the situation of women’s menstruation. Talking about the situation of menses openly is of great importance to erase the negative taboo color meaning of menstruation. Overt presentation and expression of menstrual situation in TV ads -- which is a widespread and open media -- can help the public further the discussion and consideration of menses. By putting the topic in a public environment, people would be affected to believe that such topic can be discussed directly and openly because it is already presented directly and openly.

The lines of sanitary ads’ are not only about describing how napkins absorb liquids and the normal existence of menstruation, but also about how napkins help women to get over the uncomfortableness brought by menses. The slogans claiming that the products would make woman comfortable and free, and the scenes in which woman are leading and enjoying their life, create connections between products and customer’s demands. The connections made by advertisers are not only to excite women’s willingness of buying their products; they also help to admit women’s need of devoting into work and life without being disturbed. Such presentation in ads objectively helps to make the public recognize women’s need to get rid of troubles coming with menses so as to keep their good performance in life. The expression of women’s biological needs not only bring up its existence directly but also about announces the fact that women may feel vulnerable during menses and they want and are able to get over it. It helps to develop the discourse power for women to speak out their needs and gain supports.

• 1. Dialogue between Female and Male

3.2.1 Male as Poster Man for Sanitary Napkins

Although sanitary napkin is a product only used by women, nowadays there already exist poster men for sanitary napkins. The poster men are shown as someone also understands the troubles brought by menses and helps women to get rid of them. Poster man may focus on speaking for women about women’s biological needs and introduce the product as a helper. On other occasions, poster man may act as a caring gentlemen and such characteristic is related with the sanitary product. The ad would claim that the poster man and sanitary products have good quality in common that they both can take care of women. The presence of poster man can be taken as dialogues started by women to break the gender segregation on the topic of menstruation. Making the discussions of menstruation involve both male and female is also a development in women’s discourse power to normalize the menses and break the menstrual taboos.

Some of the poster men in sanitary napkin ads act as a napkin ambassador giving speeches on how menstruation troubles women and how sanitary products can help women to solve such problems. A typical example of poster men of this kind is Wang Dongcheng in Free-More’s ad in 2014. In the ad, at first women act as robots lacking lube, then Wang walks into the picture saying “Hey, be freer! Are you feeling restricted in those days?” In this scene he acts like an advocator who points out problems: women are feeling restricted yet it’s not supposed to be so. In the next scene, Wang begins to introduce the sanitary product, saying that the napkins are so thin that customer won’t even feel the existence of it. Wang introduces the product with very overt expressions in a natural tone as if he is an expert from the sanitary product brand whose duty is to recommend the product to the customers. In the end, Wang dances with the women showing up in the former scenes who once act as they are not feeling good, as if celebrating together about how cozy and convenient they are now after using the sanitary product Wang has introduced. Throughout the whole ad, Wang takes part in the whole process of women dealing with menstruation: he talks about women’s uncomfortableness during the menses; he introduces sanitary products that can help women to feel better during menses; and he shares the light mood with women after they use the products. As a poster man, while Wang’s identity as male is obvious, he also shows full understanding and empathy with those women who have experiences of menses.

On the other hand, there is another strategy in using poster man for sanitary napkins which relates caring man with the “caring” napkin by hinting to the audiences that they both can take care of women when they are having menses. In Kotex’s 2015 ad starring Zhou Baihao, the ad starts from a scene of a cafeteria in which a woman is walking haltingly. Zhou comes in to the picture and notices the oncoming sick woman. On Zhou’s suit collar, there decorates a cotton boll. The woman falls in a faint and Zhou holds her, and lets her rest in a chair. At the edge of the picture, two women are chatting by the table when they notice that Zhou holds a sick woman. While Zhou bends to a squat to ask the sick woman what does she need, the subtitle shows up on the screen saying “What if Zhou Baihao holds…you?” Afterwards, the picture turns into white, and in the background picture of floating cotton bolls the logo of the product comes out with the slogan: “Consideration is to care as soft as cotton”. Zhou is a quite popular star among women and he plays a gentleman in the ad. The cotton boll decoration on Zhou’s suit collar and the cotton bolls floating in the background of Kotex’s logo picture make an interpretation for the audiences to Zhou’s consideration with how Kotex cares about women with their sanitary products. The two “cotton boll” icons together creates a symbol with which advertiser extends the content of “man takes care of woman” into “men takes care of woman during her menses”, indicating that menstruation is not a case which women must solve on their own. What’s more, since the plot of the ad takes place in a cafeteria which is a public space and Zhou is taking care of a woman in front of others, it also indicates that women’s experience menstruation is not a topic that should hide from the public’s sight.

3.2.2 Male as Leading Roles in Ads Napkins

Being a poster man is not the only way to make male figures actively involved in sanitary napkin ads. Male can also simply plays a major figure in sanitary napkin ads, playing the role of a caring friend of someone who is experiencing menses. Such roles behave similarly to how in common sense a caring woman would help her friend to get over the menses, except that they are not women but men. In other part of the ad, it may still put the point on how the sanitary product brands and the lines are spoken by a female voice-over. The straightforward changing of a role’s traditional sex is also helpful in normalizing the female discourse of menstruation. By doing so, the ad is telling man to empathize with woman and get over the border between the sexes on the topic of menstruation, taking menstruation as a normal biological phenomenon.

The instance of straightforward sex-changing can be seen in Watson’s TV advertisement starring Luo Zhixiang in 2016. At the beginning of the ad, Luo is at the door, ringing the door bell and saying “Your good friend is here!” In the next scene, Luo’s friend, a young woman, opens the door with another hand on her waist, looking tired and sick. Luo asks whether the young woman’s “good friend” really comes, and then sets out to Watsons to buy napkins for her. “My good friend has come to visit” is a typical argot to describe the arriving of menstruation among girls. Meanwhile, Luo is not the girl’s boyfriend but only a male good friend. Sometimes boyfriend or husband would go to shop to buy sanitary napkins for their girlfriend/wife, yet doing such thing is not a common practice for a friend of the opposite sex. Some girls even feel awkward when buying napkins in the store. In the ad, Luo goes to Watsons and the female voice-over is saying “Let your good friends take care of you during these days and Watsons offers paper bags to pack sanitary napkins”. Then the slogan “Watsons is the friend who understands me most” shows up in the picture. Watsons’ ad emphasizes that girls can rely on good friends when they feel sick during the menses, and the “good friends” in the ad refers to Watsons with a female personality and the male played by Luo. Luo’s role is an image showing that males can be normally involved in women’s menstruation experiences, and they can do exactly what a female would do for her friend without making an awkward atmosphere.

Chapter Four Conclusion

Through semiotic analysis, it can be seen that TV advertisers of sanitary napkins in China signify various feminism ideas in their ads through women’s clothing amp; behaving pattern, design of the settings, interactions between characters in settings, women’s expression of their demands during menses and their expectation toward men. Such ideas reflect the feminist progress in fields of: cutting of the demonizing of women experiencing menses; emphasizing woman’s value in social production; displaying women’s possibility of always playing a powerful and dominant role; erasing the unnecessary erotic presentation of women; normalizing the feminine discourse of menstruation.

In China's sanitary napkin advertisements, the main female characters are usually young adult women with obvious secondary sexual characteristics, suggesting that they are mature in menstrual experience. In addition, advertisers provide a glamorous female image that links the use of health products to positive feminine characteristics and persuades viewers to accept this connection. Sanitary napkin ads on television encourage their target customers to use their hygiene products as a sign of positive concepts such as maturity, experience and glamour.

The clothes of female characters in sanitary napkin advertisements on TV seldom reflect the patriarchal identities of wife and housewife. Usually, the female roles’ clothing patterns are more obvious in reflecting their role in social production, such as student, white-collar or skillful worker. In addition, the clothes of female characters in sanitary napkin advertisements on television are gradually becoming more loose and casual. Advertisers advocate women's independence and their contribution in the society, and try to avoid presenting women as the erotic symbols.

剩余内容已隐藏，请支付后下载全文，论文总字数：50906字