This is Just for Me(n): How the Regulation of Postfeminist Lingerie Advertising Perpetuates Woman as Object

Abstract

This article argues that the official process by which advertising is regulated in the UK, when applied to the advertising of women’s underwear, restricts and undermines, rather than encourages, attempts to renegotiate the discourse that surrounds the representation of women in advertising, particularly when it seeks to construct a discourse that questions the centrality of men to female sexual pleasure. This process judges ads on the basis of whether they are likely to cause 'serious or widespread offence'. The regulators' interpretation of this ensures that lingerie advertising that represents women as objects for the male gaze remains acceptable, as do ads in which women are deliberately offering up a sexualised self-presentation, while images that seek to negotiate a discourse outside a heterosexuality governed by the coital imperative are considered problematic. This encourages the perpetuation of a conservative framework in which women can be viewed as objects rather than subjects.