Men Act, Women Appear Introduction Video

Here is an introduction video to our blog topic - Men Act, Women Appear.

Since the blogger website did not allow for a larger file,
we decided to upload the larger file onto YouTube which can be viewed at a higher resolution at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiO3XiJwjcM
The highest resolution file is posted on facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=413561025554&saved#%21/video/video.php?v=413561025554

The Gaze and Spectatorship: Billboard Advertisements in Bars & Nightclubs

SEX SELLS......I THINK

Well this is definitely a topic that has received some obvious attention, especially in our beloved, heavily nightlife oriented city of Edmonton. The City of Champions is hailed as having a very high nightclub per capita ratio – making Edmonton a great sample space for our discussion. Yes, it’s obvious, sex has been used in nightclubs throughout Edmonton via billboards to attract, promote, and establish a sales precedence, and seemingly it works – Sex sells. Why though? One sociological hypothesis explains that we, as human objects, gaze upon objects, places, and one another. Therefore, to gaze, is to enter into a relational activity of looking. In particular, the gaze helps to establish relationships of power, and the act of looking is commonly regarded as awarding more power to the person who is looking than to the person who is the object of the look. (Sturken and Cartwright 2009).

Figure 1.1 Victoria's Secret Pajama Jam Party

Images displayed on nightclub advertisements could enforce the power relationships between the binary opposition of men and women, in which, men are viewed as the gazer and the women are viewed as the object being looked upon. Therefore, in the act of looking, men who do the looking are viewed as the more dominant power in comparison to women, who are the object being looked upon.

Figure 1.2 Cowboys Nightclub Edmonton

In this advertisement there has been a heavy focus on using women sexually. In particular, the “Cowboys” Edmonton nightclub advertisement (Figure 1.2) displays a provocative image of an attractive female in a short denim skirt and revealing blouse, and is seen as a sexualized object of seduction to capture the attention of the gazer, in which men are primarily the target. Again we see how men do the looking and become the dominant power compared to the females displayed in nightclub advertisements, which in addition reaffirms traditional gender codes.

Figure 1.3 Diesel Ultra Lounge Edmonton

Sturken and Cartwright argue that, “Although many contemporary advertisements continue to sell products through traditional gender codes by portraying women in demure, seductive poses for a possessive male gaze, other ads play off these traditions by reversing them and showing both the pleasure of looking at men as objects and the power of women in action.” (Sturken and Cartwright 2009) For instance, the “Diesel Ultra Lounge” Edmonton nightclub advertisement (Figure 1.3) features a layout of three shirtless males and a macho male showing off their toned bodies and muscular physique, which is geared towards promoting their “Ladies’ Night” event. Particularly, in this photo the four men are depicted as both masculine and as objects of the gaze for women to see. In this case, women are viewed as the gazer, while men are viewed as the object being gazed upon. However, unlike the “Cowboys” female advertisement in Figure 1.2, the men in this advertisement are, “increasingly posed in what would have been seen as demure, almost passive, poses before the camera” (Sturken and Cartwright 2009). Yet, Sturken and Cartwright argue that as the codes of power and the gaze are changing, this is not read as disempowering them. In this particular advertisement, the four males recline before our gaze, they are there for us to look at, yet they have not lost their masculine power.

Figure 1.4 Oil City Roadhouse Edmonton

Another sociologically concept interesting to this topic is interpellation - the way that images and media text seem to call out to us, catching our attention. Even more interesting is the paradox that occurs: “for viewer interpellation by an image to be effective, the viewer must implicitly understand himself or herself as being a member of a social group that shares codes and conventions through which the image becomes meaningful (Sturken and Cartwright 2009). What does this imply? Am I, and the other viewers of this advertisement part of a group of people that will make the “hottest” Saturday night party? Not necessarily. “To be interpellated by an image is to know that the image is meant for me to understand, even if I feel that my understanding is unique or goes against the grain of a meaning that seems to have been intended.

Figure 1.5 Union Hall Wet T-shirt Event Photo

Mulvey argued that Hollywood cinema offered images geared towards male viewing pleasure, which she read within certain psychoanalytic paradigms, including scopophilia and voyeurism. The concept of the gaze is fundamentally about the relationship of pleasure and looking. In psychoanalysis, the term scopophilia refers to pleasure in looking and exhibitionism – taking sexual pleasure in being looked at. Both of these terms acknowledge the ways in which reciprocal relationships of looking can be sources of pleasure. (Mulvey, 1975) Displayed in Figure 1.5 is a censored photograph of a female participant in a wet t-shirt contest that took place in Edmonton’s Union Hall nightclub. Clearly, the female participant is engaging in the act of exhibitionism, in which she takes pleasure in being looked upon by the crowd of men and women. Voyeurism is the pleasure one takes in looking while not being seen looking. If you notice in the background of Figure 1.5, you can see a crowd a males gazing upon the female participant. We can presumably assume that like, the position of viewers in a cinema, the men standing in the background in a dark nightclub where so many spectators are surrounded in a darkened room, they cannot be seen looking, although the female participant does have a general idea that majority of the crowd are looking at her. This can be seen as voyeuristic since it carries the negative connotation of a powerful, if not sadistic, position within the gaze where the female participant cannot really return the spectator’s gaze.

Now that we have read and seen why sex could sell, what should we expect from these advertisements: A room full of aroused men? Sexy women everywhere who are interested in me? Three women for every one of my friends? Dreams are nice aren’t they?

Figure 1.6 Whiskey Jacks Urban Saloon Edmonton Photo

After attending these nightclubs, for purely research purposes I promise, to my dismay there were not sexy women everywhere interested in me. However, there was a proportionate amount of good looking people, of both sexes. But if we have erotically dressed female staff, beautiful sexually portrayed women on ads, and a mostly male orientated audience, how the hell are there women in these places, and what makes them come out? Ironically enough, the proportion of staff (bartenders in particular) are composed of 90% males. These male bartenders are tasked with entertaining the female audience and keeping their attention. However, men are still dominant in the sense that bars are usually elevated beyond the level of the patrons, and secondly in order of operation females are usually approaching a male bartender in order to get service. Maybe it can be said that - "women get you there, and men keep you there?"

Figure 1.7 Oil City Roadhouse Edmonton
What’s interesting, after 7 years of working in the nightclub industry, is the transition in billboard advertising. Although sex is still and forever will be prominent, we are in the midst of a shift away from using young, white, slim, and curvy women in advertisement to realizing the demographic of the attendees and tailoring to it. Who attends nightclubs? Personally I am 25, and I will not be caught dead in Oil City - even if there are three women for every one of my friends. Nightclub managers and promoters are now focusing on what nightclub attendees are attracted by, yes SEX is definitely part of it, but as you can see in Figure 1.7 pricing has definitely emerged as the next biggest tool in attraction. Although Oil City Roadhouse has been hailed as selling only sex to fill its room, fifty percent of its nights are advertised using drink prices and absolutely no women. Figure 1.7bove and below Figure 1.8.

Figure 1.8 Oil City Roadhouse Edmonton
To lay this point to bed, please look at the images that can befound at http://www.thepint.ca/lineup.htm – the latest addition to the repertoire of nightclubs in the Oil City Hospitality group. There are 7 images, for each day of the week, and no where is there a women (tall, skinny, blonde, curvy, white, or aroused) to be found. Kind of ironic, is that the only face image available is of a average looking male.

We also had club owners, managers, and patrons of various nightclubs in Edmonton comment on our blog. Please take a look by clicking on "comments".

Work Citations

" Cowboys Edmonton." Cowboys Calgary. http://cowboyscalgary.wordpress.com/ (accessed March 20, 2010).

Cartwright, Lisa, and Marita Sturken. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. 1st ed. New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 2009.

"Diesel Ultra Lounge." Diesel Ultra Lounge. http://dieselultralounge.com/ (accessed March 29, 2010).

Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975) - Laura Mulvey." Jahsonic, a vocabulary of culture. http://www.jahsonic.com/VPNC.html (accessed March 29, 2010).

"Oil City Roadhouse - Edmonton, AB." Oil City Roadhouse - Edmonton, AB. http://www.oilcityroadhouse.com/ (accessed April 2, 2010).

"The Pint - Downtown Pub - Edmonton, Alberta." The Pint - Downtown Pub - Edmonton, Alberta. http://www.thepint.ca/ (accessed April 1, 2010).

"Victoria's Secret: Lingerie and Women's Clothing, Accessories & more.." Victoria's Secret: Lingerie and Women's Clothing, Accessories & more.. http://www.victoriassecret.com/ (accessed April 2, 2010).