Women represented in the media:

This Girl Can Vs Victoria Secret Ad

In the "This girl can" advert women are presented as strong and seen to be comfortable with themselves. In the advert the women are shown doing different activities such as running and dancing. Their body types are all very different and are not based off of the stereotypes that all women should be slim with the perfect hair and makeup. I think the ad is trying to show the complete opposite of these stereotypes and sending out a message that females do not need to reach these standards that society shows as “beautiful”.

Throughout the video messages show up such as “feeling like a fox” and “damn right I look hot”. These messages suggest that the women are strong and have confidence. Another message is “sweat like a pig”, usually this would probably be seen as un-lady like however the women in this video are not ashamed but continue to do what they’re doing. None of the people in this video are shown to give up but all have smiles or looks of determination on their faces implying they are all very positive. We often see a lot of adverts where males are portrayed as the strong, determined type where they’re playing football or some kind of sport but instead its females for a change which suggests that women can be empowering and don’t stick to the old fashioned ways of cooking, cleaning and being a housewife.

The Victoria Secret Ad doesn’t exactly portray women in a negative way but the message it may send across to girls; especially young ones may be a harmful. All the women in the advert are of similar body shapes unlike the ‘This Girl Can’ one suggesting that all women should look the same. The Victoria secret advert follows the basic stereotypes of women with the perfect hair and makeup etc. They don’t do much except pose around and look good for the camera whereas the other advert is almost motivating people to get up and do something worthwhile and enjoyable. The women in the Victoria secret ad could be seen as just objects with no purpose other than to attract people to the brand. 

The this girl can advert is a more realistic example of women compared to the Victoria secret one.