Raise women's voice!

Week three- Semiotics

Every day in our life, we see signs. According to Barthes, sign is the inseparable combination of the signifier and the signified. Signifier is the physical form of the sign that we perceive through our senses where as signified is the meaning we associated with the sign (p.324). As signs are everywhere, people seem to take it for granted. At the moment, you are reading signs as well. The signifiers are the letters while the signified is the meaning that you perceive while reading. Branston and Stafford define semiotic as the study of signs, or of the social production of meaning by sign systems, of how things come to have significance (p.12). For this week's post, we are going to investigate how audience are being affected by representation and also investigate semiotics from a perspective. 

This is a Calvin Klein Jeans advertisement for the year 2004.

The main purpose of this advertisement is to promote the designer jeans. However, this image has turn out to be more than what it was. It is not only controversial, at the same time, it also connotes the concept of gender inequality. One of the signifiers of this image is the topless female model lying erotically on top of the male model, closing both her eyes while leaning her head backwards, in a submissive and docile manner. The picture also shows the very thin waist of hers, perpetuating the stereotype of women in our society as woman should be thin in order to be known as beautiful. On the other hand, the shirtless male model are also closing his eyes and holding her breast.

This particular image does not only signify the idea of sex, but it also degrades the status of women by transforming woman from a subject to an object. Women are always placed in a subordinate and vulnerable position. Do you know that one out of every six American women have been the victims of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime (Feminist.com, 2008)? If these sorts of sexist advertisements are being portrayed to the younger generation every now and then, slowly, this concept of objectifying woman and gender inequality will become their ideology, an ideology formed by unconscious perception.

Now, let us study the signs for this particular food advertisement edited by me.

The signifiers of this food advertisement that signify Brunei delicacies are daging lalap, nasi lemak, belutak, ambuyat and pais udang. Beside the pictures of the food lies an image of a Brunei Mosque which connotes the concept of Brunei ideologies and that is “Islam” in Malay Islam Monarchy. Most of the people know that mosque is the place where Muslim prays, so when we relate Brunei with Mosque, it signifies that Brunei is an Islamic Country. Without knowledge of the mosque, which is the cultural code, people will not understand what the meaning of the advertisement is. Barthes(1984) states that images are polysemic, they have multiple meanings and are open to diverse interpretation. Hence, Barthes introduced the concept of anchorage, which is to narrow the potential meanings of the image (pp. 32-51). No matter what image it is, anchorage plays a very important role. So for this image, the anchorage is the "Taste the best in Brunei Darussalam", which signifies uniqueness.

Say if we change the anchorage to “Examination pad, creative product”, it has become the cover of a writing pad.

Now, it has become the cover of a recipe book written by me. This is how powerful anchorage is. It changes the way we see and perceive the image.

So in this case, the anchorage for this advertisement is the Calvin Klein Jeans. With the presence of the anchorage, we automatically view the image as an advertisement for Calvin Klein Jeans without the need to even guess what it is trying to sell.

By replacing the anchorage, this controversial Calvin Klein advertisement has transformed into another advertisement with a totally different meaning which
protects women’s right
although it is actually the same image!

References:
Griffin, E. (2009). A first look at communication theory. In Barthes, R., Semiotics (pp.323-333). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Branston, G. & Stafford, R. (2003). The Media Student’s Book: Meanings and media (p.12). London: Routledge.
Barthes, R. (1984). Rhetoric of the image. In Image, Music, Text(pp.32-51). Translated by Stephen Heath. London: Fontana. Also retrieved from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem09.html
Feminist.com. (2008). Facts about Violence. Retrieved from http://www.feminist.com/antiviolence/facts.html


Images taken from:
http://1pic4all.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html
http://www.star-motoring.com/news/story.asp?file=/2007/9/18/motornews/20070918232109&sec=motornews
http://bruneifoodies.tumblr.com/page/3
http://kbhappening.blogspot.com/2007/07/fear-factor-at-belait-agri-food.html
http://ediblyasian.info/recipes/pais-udang-spicy-prawns-in-banana-leaves-
http://www.igougo.com/journal-j63230-Brunei-Exploring_Brunei.html
http://www.executivemasterclass.com.my/executi/catalog/exchange/11907806840/11908630743/
http://adland.tv/content/hacked-billboard-moscow-showed-porn-stopped-traffic