Between Viewing and Consuming

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Notes

1. A draft of this paper was presented by Shun-hing Chan at the “Crossroads in Cultural Studies—Fourth International Conference” that was held from June 29 to July 2, 2002 in Tampere, Finland.

2. The project entitled “An Exploratory Study on the Representation and Reception of the Images of Older Women in the Mass Media in Hong Kong” was jointly conducted by the Department of Cultural Studies and the Asia-Pacific Institute of Aging Studies of Lingnan University, and the Department of Applied Social Studies, City University of Hong Kong between April 2000 and August 2002. The report, entitled A Study on the Representation and Reception of the Images of Elderly Women in Television Advertisements in Hong Kong (in Chinese) was published in February 2003.

3. In 2001, the gender ratio of the age groups 75–79, 80–84, and 85+ were 790, 655, and 452, respectively, compared with the gender ratio of the entire population of 960 (Census and Statistics Department 2002, p. 18).

4. For example, feminist organisations such as the Association for the Advancement of Feminism (AAF) in Hong Kong have been continuously criticising the media, and particularly television advertisements, over the past 10 years. The action of choosing and protesting against ten of the most gender-discriminatory advertisements in 1994 and the publishing of the Research Report on Gender Consciousness in Television Advertisements in 1995 aroused much public attention and the reaction of advertising agents.

5. For example, feminist philosophers, such as Merilyn Friedman, disconnect gender stereotypes from the “distinct and different moral roles to women and men” in her article “Beyond Caring: the De-moralization of Gender” (Peach 1998, p. 111).

6. The actual distribution was eight women (25 per cent) aged below 60 years, eleven (34.4 per cent) aged between 61 and 70, and thirteen (40.6 per cent) aged over 70. As all of the members of the four focus groups were referred by four different social service agencies, we had no knowledge about the exact age of the group members beforehand. However, the reason why the eight women who were aged below 60 (one was even aged 48) participated in activities that were provided for the elderly by the social service centres is worth noting. In Hong Kong, although the government defines senior citizens as those aged 65 and over, many people, especially women, may feel that they are getting old long before that age. The labelling of a 50-year-old woman as “an old woman who has lived half a century” by many local media may have a psychological effect on women who are approaching that age. In this study, 60 was used as a dividing line for the definition of the categories of “young old” and “old old.” Therefore, the focus group members who were aged below 60 but felt that they belonged to this category were not excluded from our study.

7. Of the thirty-two members, twenty-three (72 per cent) lived in Yuen Long, Shek Li and Ngau Tau Kok. These districts are considered to be older and poorer, and to have a greater aged population.

8. The process of selecting these twenty advertisements was as follows. All of the commercial and governmental television advertisements that were broadcast in two selected periods (12.00 to 16.00 and 19.00 to 23.00) on the two local Chinese channels, TVB Jade and ATV Home, were recorded in February 7–13, 2001 and February 14–20, 2001 respectively. The 491 advertisements that were recorded were then edited and classified according to whether they contained images of aging women. Those that featured images of aging women were further categorised according to seven themes: “body and image,” “body and health,” “living style,” “change of life,” “housing,” “civil rights,” and “aging.” Ten samples of these advertisements were then selected for screening in the focus groups. Another ten samples of advertisements that did not feature images of aging women were also selected for screening for comparison.

9. These observations are drawn from in-depth interviews with some of the focus group members in this study. The association of aging women with television advertisements has something to do with their class background and family setting. Aging women from middle class families do not reject television advertisements as much as those that come from lower class families. In terms of family setting, aging women who live alone certainly have more freedom to choose what to watch. Those from middle class families that live with a husband and children can still exert their autonomy as viewers, as it is quite common for middle class families in Hong Kong to have two or three television sets in one household.

10. Calcimex is manufactured by a Dutch multinational company called Friesland Coberco Dairy Foods. This company is also the producer of Dutch Lady, another popular brand of milk product in Hong Kong. It was the advertising of this product that triggered our initial interest in studying the representation of aging women in media texts.

11. For example, further to the 1995 action against gender discriminatory advertisements, the Association for the Advancement of Feminism, in alliance with other women's groups, also publicly criticised individual advertisements that they considered to reinforce the stereotyped image of women, such as that of Sunday mobile phones, which associates registering for mobile phones with the sexual readiness of women for any men at any time.

12. This observation is based on the responses of the aging women who participated in the focus groups discussion for this research project.

13. On the tin of the product, there is actually a similar description of how to prevent osteoporosis: “One of the best [sic] prevention of osteoporosis is to increase the calcium level of the body through lifelong intake of sufficient calcium, and to decrease calcium loss from the bone through adequate intake of magnesium and vitamin D3. Medical research shows that sufficient intake of calcium and magnesium help[s] strengthen bone structure and help[s] prevent osteoporosis.” This message echoes the description of the function of the product itself: “Calcimex Hi-Calcium Milk effectively increases our body's calcium level and prevents calcium loss. Moreover, its fat content is very low (1.8 percent).”

14. For example, the Association for the Advancement of Feminism published a book called Tears and Laughter—Oral History of Ah Poh in 1998, which highlighted that the “small histories” of ah poh (aging women) are interesting and valuable.