-<mods>

-<titleInfo>

<title>A Woman is Born. Production of Femininity in German o.b. Tampon Advertisements</title>

<title type="alternative">Paper presented at 'Menstruation. Blood, Body, Brand.' Institute for Feminist Theory and Research, Liverpool, 24 January to 26. January 2003.</title>

</titleInfo>

<abstract>Western feminists have criticised advertisements for female hygiene products for creating stereotypes and being normative and sexist since the 1970s. Despite this criticism recent studies have shown that (at least in Germany) the topics raised are relevant to women, and female hygiene products are increasingly retailed internationally. The range of feminist analysis and opinions has also become quite broad. Based on empirical research I want to look at ads for o.b. tampons, relating the tension between the regulation of the female (body) and advertising a taboo. I reviewed a sample of 47 ads from o.b. dating from the 1950s onwards that were placed in the popular German (middle-class) women's magazine Brigitte. Each ad was analysed according to recurring themes in text, context and tone, and for content related to the representation of femininity. The body as battleground for gender is an interactive process. On the one hand the body is an important medium and a central resource for performing gender; on the other hand this performance takes place in semiotic and discursive contexts, which configure the intelligibility of the gender difference. I want to consider both aspects by taking the body-here the female body or rather femininity-seriously in the discursive moment of advertisements. I focus mainly on the following three aspects: a. Pictures of women and girls, b. Visibility of menstruation, c. Construction of femininity between regulation and agency Both a historical review and a content analysis should show a.) continuity in content (e.g. security, hygiene, invisibility) and motives (e.g. tampons vs. pads, sport, light colours, young white heterosexual middle-class women as main characters) and b.) contradictions (e.g. women at work vs. women at home, naming blood and smell vs. menstrual taboo). Finally I will give an outlook on the question: Is the way o.b. (re)presents femininity o.k.? And how can we deal with it from an academic and political point of view?</abstract>

-<name>

<namePart>Ullrich, Charlotte</namePart>

</name>

-<location>

<url>http://homepage.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/Charlotte.Ullrich/vortrag_ob_pdf.pdf</url>

</location>

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<internetMediaType>application/pdf</internetMediaType>

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-<subject authority="IZSOZ">

<topic>Frauenbild</topic>

</subject>

-<subject authority="IZSOZ">

<topic>Geschlechterforschung</topic>

</subject>

-<subject authority="IZSOZ">

<topic>Hygiene</topic>

</subject>

-<subject authority="IZSOZ">

<topic>Inhaltsanalyse</topic>

</subject>

-<subject authority="IZSOZ">

<topic>Menstruation</topic>

</subject>

-<subject authority="IZSOZ">

<topic>Werbung</topic>

</subject>

</mods>