Investigating online gender empowerment campaigns: a multimodal feminist discourse analysis approach

<p>Women's empowerment and the promotion of women's rights have emerged as significant global movements, continually breaking new ground. This thesis aims at investigating how women empowerment is visually and verbally codified in advertisements. This study examines two beauty advert...

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Main Authors: Yasmeen Ezzat Elgreatly, Inas Hussein Hassan, Riham Abdelmaksoud Debian
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Academy Publishing Center 2024-11-01
Series:Insights into Language, Culture and Communication
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Online Access:http://apc.aast.edu/ojs/index.php/ILCC/article/view/1028
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author Yasmeen Ezzat Elgreatly
Inas Hussein Hassan
Riham Abdelmaksoud Debian
author_facet Yasmeen Ezzat Elgreatly
Inas Hussein Hassan
Riham Abdelmaksoud Debian
author_sort Yasmeen Ezzat Elgreatly
collection DOAJ
description <p>Women's empowerment and the promotion of women's rights have emerged as significant global movements, continually breaking new ground. This thesis aims at investigating how women empowerment is visually and verbally codified in advertisements. This study examines two beauty advertisement campaigns launched by Olay and Reebok in 2018: Olay's "#FaceAnything" campaign and Reebok's "#BeMoreHuman" campaign. Both campaigns aim to empower women to believe in themselves. These campaigns focus on promoting awareness of women's individuality rather than asserting women's superiority over men. Presented in the form of advertisements, these campaigns use discourse crafted by producers to convey persuasive messages. To unveil the empowering messages in these advertisement campaigns, this study employs Multimodal Theory of Visual Grammar by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) and Michelle M. Lazar’s Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (2005; 2007) framework. The findings reveal that both campaigns utilize a variety of linguistic and visual techniques to empower women, challenge traditional gender roles, and promote feminist values. Furthermore, this study explores the inversion of patriarchal discourse within these campaigns as a strategy to empower women. By subverting traditional gender roles and expectations, both Olay and Reebok campaigns challenge patriarchal norms and assert feminist identity and positionality. This analysis sheds light on how advertising language is utilized as a powerful tool to empower women, promote gender equality, and contribute to the ongoing conversation about gender representation in advertising.</p><p><em>Keywords</em>:  women empowerment, advertisements, Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis, Visual Grammar</p><p><strong>Received: 23 September 2024 </strong></p><p><strong>Accepted: 06 November 2024 </strong></p><p><strong>Published: 24 November 2024</strong></p>
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spelling doaj-art-8f6574e8aa2c4b7ca19edaf794d88ed62025-08-20T02:40:21ZengAcademy Publishing CenterInsights into Language, Culture and Communication2812-49012812-491X2024-11-014223525110.21622/ILCC.2024.04.2.1028429Investigating online gender empowerment campaigns: a multimodal feminist discourse analysis approachYasmeen Ezzat Elgreatly0Inas Hussein Hassan1Riham Abdelmaksoud Debian2College of language and Communication (CLC) Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT)College of language and Communication (CLC) Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT)Institute of Applied Linguistics and Translation, Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University<p>Women's empowerment and the promotion of women's rights have emerged as significant global movements, continually breaking new ground. This thesis aims at investigating how women empowerment is visually and verbally codified in advertisements. This study examines two beauty advertisement campaigns launched by Olay and Reebok in 2018: Olay's "#FaceAnything" campaign and Reebok's "#BeMoreHuman" campaign. Both campaigns aim to empower women to believe in themselves. These campaigns focus on promoting awareness of women's individuality rather than asserting women's superiority over men. Presented in the form of advertisements, these campaigns use discourse crafted by producers to convey persuasive messages. To unveil the empowering messages in these advertisement campaigns, this study employs Multimodal Theory of Visual Grammar by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) and Michelle M. Lazar’s Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (2005; 2007) framework. The findings reveal that both campaigns utilize a variety of linguistic and visual techniques to empower women, challenge traditional gender roles, and promote feminist values. Furthermore, this study explores the inversion of patriarchal discourse within these campaigns as a strategy to empower women. By subverting traditional gender roles and expectations, both Olay and Reebok campaigns challenge patriarchal norms and assert feminist identity and positionality. This analysis sheds light on how advertising language is utilized as a powerful tool to empower women, promote gender equality, and contribute to the ongoing conversation about gender representation in advertising.</p><p><em>Keywords</em>:  women empowerment, advertisements, Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis, Visual Grammar</p><p><strong>Received: 23 September 2024 </strong></p><p><strong>Accepted: 06 November 2024 </strong></p><p><strong>Published: 24 November 2024</strong></p>http://apc.aast.edu/ojs/index.php/ILCC/article/view/1028women empowerment, advertisements, feminist critical discourse analysis, visual grammar
spellingShingle Yasmeen Ezzat Elgreatly
Inas Hussein Hassan
Riham Abdelmaksoud Debian
Investigating online gender empowerment campaigns: a multimodal feminist discourse analysis approach
Insights into Language, Culture and Communication
women empowerment, advertisements, feminist critical discourse analysis, visual grammar
title Investigating online gender empowerment campaigns: a multimodal feminist discourse analysis approach
title_full Investigating online gender empowerment campaigns: a multimodal feminist discourse analysis approach
title_fullStr Investigating online gender empowerment campaigns: a multimodal feminist discourse analysis approach
title_full_unstemmed Investigating online gender empowerment campaigns: a multimodal feminist discourse analysis approach
title_short Investigating online gender empowerment campaigns: a multimodal feminist discourse analysis approach
title_sort investigating online gender empowerment campaigns a multimodal feminist discourse analysis approach
topic women empowerment, advertisements, feminist critical discourse analysis, visual grammar
url http://apc.aast.edu/ojs/index.php/ILCC/article/view/1028
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