Visual Representations of Violent Women

Abstract

Visual representations of violent women provoke a range of gender issues in contemporary consumer culture. The present study offers a critical visual analysis of violent women. Specifically, we examine the French Connection United Kingdom (FCUK) ad Fashion versus Style, the Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill, and one of the Sisley ads. We discuss how violent women have been portrayed historically and how contemporary images are expressed in an art historical framework. Violent women in popular culture are often glamorized, trivialized, and sanitized. Their violence is desensitized and disinhibited, and it creates empowering images of women. It is argued, however, that images of violent women are constructed to signify an artificially masculinized female predator and a superficial marker of power transformation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yuko Minowa

Yuko Minowa is Professor of Marketing in the School of Business at the Brooklyn Campus of Long Island University in New York. Her research primarily involves theoretical modeling of consumption phenomena and consumer behavior with a focus on rituals, interpretive research methods, and semiotic analysis of cultural media, and historical research in marketing and consumer behavior. She has published articles in Journal of Business Research, Journal of Macromarketing, Marketing Theory, Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, and Advances in Consumer Research. E-mail: [email protected]

Pauline Maclaran

Pauline Maclaran is Professor of Marketing and Consumer Research at Royal Holloway, University of London. Pauline's research interests focus on cultural aspects of contemporary consumption, and she adopts a critical perspective to analyze the ideological assumptions that underpin many marketing activities, particularly in relation to gender issues. She has coedited various books, including Marketing and Feminism: Current Issues and Research and Consumption and Spirituality, both published by Routledge. E-mail: [email protected]

Lorna Stevens

Lorna Stevens is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the University of the West of Scotland. Her research interests center on consumer culture and cultural aspects of consumption, as well as media consumption and gender, and often takes a critical stance to explore underlying ideologies in media texts. Her work has been published in various national and international journals, including the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of Strategic Marketing and Journal of Consumer Behaviour, among others. E-mail: [email protected]