A male photorapher, Sølve Sundsbø, took this photograph of Scarlett Johannson which supports Rosalind
Coward's analysis that men dominate the advertising industry and the visual images that we
see, as she says 'the look is largely controlled by men' (Coward, 1952, P33). What she means
by 'the look' is how society perceives women to be beautiful and how men have a large say in
what women are supposed to look like. If the viewer is a male, he now has an expectation of
how women should look in real life, as the advertisement is only a fantasy, and if the viewer
is female, they now want to purchase the products shown to look like the women on the
posters and billboards. The 'look' is typically a woman who has blonde hair, blue eyes, big
boobs and full lips, which is the exact depiction in this advertisements. This is what women
think they should look like, and they realise that 'appearance is perhaps the crucial way by
which men form opinions of women' (Coward, 1952, P36). It could also be suggested that
another reason for this is that women have only been depicted throughout history in the
visual arts and media as an object of beauty and sex, and nothing more. Therefore how can
men form a different opinion on women when they are presented as nothing more than an
objectification of desire.
We can see that the model in the advertisement is looking into a mirror because we can see her reflection. This allows the viewer to think that she is vain and wants to be looked at, as Coward says men take these images 'in ways which make men comfortable' (Coward, 1952, P34), so they then feel that it's okay to look at and judge the model. By her looking into a mirror, and not directly at the camera, the viewer doesn't feel shameful or guilty for staring at her because she is not challenging our gaze. This, however could mean that men only look at women from a distance because this is more comfortable for them, creating the theory that 'sex-at-a-distance is the only complete secure relation which men can have' (Coward, 1952, P34). This suggests that men are so used to seeing visual images of women on the internet, in magazines, on posters etc in a voyeuristic way that they prefer to get their sexual pleasure out of these alone, rather than having to make contact with a real woman as it isn't necessary anymore. It also suggests that men would rather sexually fantasise over these images because the women are what they perceive to be beautiful and sexy when the reality isn't the same, or as good.
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