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Sex Roles, Vol. 50, Nos. 1/2, January 2004 ( C© 2004)

Race and Beauty: A Comparison of Asian and Western Models in Women’s Magazine Advertisements

Katherine Toland Frith,1, 4 Hong Cheng,2 and Ping Shaw3

Over the past 30 years, the literature on how women are depicted in advertising has been strongly influenced by studies conducted in the U.S. and Europe and may not fully describe the ways in which women are depicted in advertising across cultures. In this study we analyzed advertisements collected from women’s fashion and beauty magazines in Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States to compare the ways in which Western and Asian models were portrayed in print advertisements. We found that although demure dress was used most often for both races, Western models were shown more frequently than Asian models in seductive dress. Western models were also posed more often than Asian models as the Seductive beauty type. Product categories also differed. Asian models were used more frequently in advertisements for hair and skin beauty products, whereas Western models dominated the clothing category. The findings suggest that Western models are used more than Asian models in advertisements which are “body” oriented, and that Western models are used in advertisements in Asia when the underlying marketing strategy is that “sex sells.”

KEY WORDS: advertising; women; gender; beauty; Asia.

An extensive literature has evolved over the past 30 years that describes how gender portrayals in advertisements mirror gender roles in society. Re- searchers in communication, marketing, psychology, and gender studies have addressed this topic and pro- duced a body of work in this area. Nonetheless, much of this research has been conducted in the United States and Europe and thus may not fully describe the way in which female models are used in adver- tisements across cultures.

The majority of research in the area of gender portrayals in international advertising builds on the three theoretical frameworks: feminist theory, global- ization theory, and marketing theory. Feminist schol- arship has been at the forefront of studying how

1School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

2Department of Communication, Bradley University. 3Institute of Communications Management, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Taiwan.

4To whom correspondence should be addressed at School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637718; e-mail: [email protected].

women are portrayed in advertising in the US, yet there has been very little research on how Western women are portrayed in advertising in other cul- tures. In addition, the assumptions that have guided Western feminist scholarship are based on Western liberalism and Western concepts of human rights. For example, in Western cultures women have acquired certain rights in relation to their bodies. Among these are the right to display their bodies in public with- out fear of retribution or punishment and the right to take pleasure in their bodies. These are not univer- sal rights for women in all countries: how women can display themselves differs from culture to culture. In the Middle East and in many parts of Asia women traditionally have been expected to dress modestly and demurely (Cheng, 1997). Thus, one of the aims of this research is to examine how Western women are displayed in Asian advertising as well as to see how Asian women are displayed in Asia and in the West.

Globalization theory holds that increased trade and improved communication technologies are bring- ing about increasing levels of global integration be- tween cultures (Giddens, 1990; Tomlinson, 1997). As

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a sociological institution, the global media play an im- portant role in socializing audiences. The media act as agents of socialization, perpetuating certain global beauty standards such as thinness and institutional- izing such conventions as photographic poses. With the rise of international media corporations and the spread of international editions of women’s maga- zines, these conventions are being spread quite rapidly around the globe (Shaw, 1999).

Advertisers and marketers have long been en- amored with globalization. Current advertising theo- ries hold that to be resonant with a target audience, message designers must match the models, the cloth- ing, the accessories, as well as headlines and body copy with the values and needs of the target audi- ence (Belch & Belch, 2003). Cultural values are the core of advertising messages, and Holbrook (1987) has suggested that in order to convince potential cus- tomers to purchase a client’s product or service, the advertiser must comply with a public’s value system rather than run against it. Empirical research has sup- ported that advertisements that reflect local cultural values are indeed more persuasive than those that ig- nore them (Gregory & Munch, 1997; Han & Shavitt, 1994; Taylor, Miracle, & Wilson, 1997). Yet, there is a paucity of literature on how advertisers portray women globally and, in particular, how women of dif- ferent races and ethnicity are displayed in women’s magazines across cultures.

Given the increased interest in Asia and the cur- rent global expansion of the beauty industries across borders, it is surprising that there has not been more research on how women are depicted in fashion and beauty advertising across different regions. The pur- pose of this research was to analyze advertisements collected from women’s fashion and beauty maga- zines in Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States to see if there are differences in the ways in which West- ern and Asian models are used in advertising.

GENDER PORTRAYALS

Much of the past research on the representation of women in advertising has analyzed the roles in which advertisers have shown women. In one of the earliest studies, Courtney and Lockeretz (1971) noted that advertisers tended to show women as mothers and housewives. Dominick and Rauch (1972) exam- ined the settings in which women were placed in tele- vision commercials and noted that women were most often presented in at-home settings and for household products.

Sociologist Erving Goffman (1976) described how the positioning of female models in advertise- ments mirrored women’s roles in society. He was the first researcher to identify gaze as being important. He suggested that women were often presented as a “sight” to be gazed upon, and he identified cer- tain stereotypical poses such as “licensed withdrawal” where the model appears to be drifting off (gazing away from the camera). He also described “the engag- ing gaze” where the model makes eye contact with the camera, engaging the viewer with seductive eye con- tact or a sexually seductive look. Later, researchers who compared advertisements in six US magazines (Newsweek, Time, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Playboy, and Esquire) between 1964 and 1984 found that fe- male models were more likely than male models to be the object of another person’s gaze (Soley & Kurzbad, 1986).

Shields (1990) noted that the predominant “gaze” in Western art and advertising has historically been the male gaze. She argued that when women pose for the camera, they often assume or are asked to assume a submissive or passive stance with “lowered eyes, head down.” Both Shields and Goffman used U.S. advertisements as their data sources, and the use of an engaging gaze may not hold true across cultures: intercultural communication researchers have noted that in many Asian cultures direct eye contact is con- sidered aggressive and unfeminine (Samovar, Porter, & Jain, 2001). In addition, communication researchers studying images of women in Indian advertising have noted that the gaze differs across culture and gender (Griffin, Viswanath, & Schwartz, 1994).

BEAUTY AND THE BODY

Research focused on advertising and women’s beauty includes studies related to two main areas: overall beauty and body image. Lakoff and Scherr (1984) noted that advertisers were able to create a “cult of unrealizable beauty” (p. 290) by using techniques such as retouching to enhance women’s beauty. To understand the beauty types used in US ad- vertising, Solomon, Ashmore, and Longo (1992) con- ducted an experiment. They assembled a set of pho- tographs of models employed by major U.S. fashion agencies and presented them to a sample of U.S. fash- ion magazine editors who were then instructed to sort the models into piles based on similarity of looks. The results yielded relatively distinct beauty types: Classic, Feminine, Sensual, Exotic, Cute, Girl-Next-Door, Sex Kitten, and Trendy. Englis, Solomon, and

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Ashmore (1994) condensed these eight beauty types and examined advertisements collected from major U.S. magazines. They found that the Classic/Feminine, Exotic/Sensual, and Trendy types were the three most prevalent.

Other studies have focused primarily on the use of women’s bodies in advertising. Walsh-Childers (1996) noted that regardless of the product cate- gory, advertising photographers often focused the reader’s eye on certain body parts, such as a woman’s breasts. Other researchers have examined the sexual representations of women in advertising. Soley and Kurzbad (1986) compared “sex appeals” in magazine advertisements in the United States between 1964 and 1984. They found that over time, sexual elements be- came more visual and more overt. They concluded that female nudity and erotic content had become quite commonplace in contemporary U.S. advertising by the mid-1980s. During the next decade, Reichert and her collaborators (1999) found that:

An analysis of Clio award-winning TV spots revealed that 29 percent contained a seductively dressed model, and 27 percent contained at least a hint of sexual suggestion. (p. 7)

GENDER AND PRODUCT CATEGORIES

O’Donnell and O’Donnell (1978) were among the first researchers in the United States to show that there were gender differences in relation to product type; women were most commonly found in advertise- ments for domestic products and most often shown in at-home settings. The most recent and comprehensive review of existing research on women in advertise- ments was by Furnham and Mak (1999), in which they addressed the major variables of gender portrayal re- search and provided a useful summary of findings over time. They confirmed that available evidence shows that women are usually depicted at home, and they most commonly appeared in commercials for domes- tic products.

WOMEN IN ADVERTISING ACROSS CULTURES

There have been a number of studies on the portrayal of women in advertising across media and across cultures (Arima, 2003; Biswas, Olsen, & Carlet, 1992; Cooper-Chen, 1995; Sengupta, 1995; Wiles & Tjernlund, 1991). In comparing Swedish portrayals of women in advertising with those of women in the United States, Wiles and Tjernlund (1991) found

that women were more frequently portrayed as pro- fessionals in Sweden than in the United States and that U.S. advertisements used women in “decorative” poses more frequently than did the Swedish adver- tisements. After comparing print advertisements from the United States and France, Biswas et al. (1992) re- ported that sex appeal was used more often in French than in U.S. advertisements.

In studies of how Asian women are represented in advertising, Sengupta (1995) compared U.S. women and Japanese women and noted that U.S. women were more likely to be shown “relaxing” at home, whereas Japanese women were more likely to be shown “cooking, cleaning and doing other household chores” (p. 329). Similarly, Cooper-Chen (1995) re- ported that in Japanese advertisements when women were portrayed in professional or working roles, it was most often as entertainers or actresses. In a study of images of young girls in the Japanese version of Seven- teen, the researchers reported that the Japanese mod- els were posed as “cute” and “girlish” (smiling and giggling), whereas the Western models were posed with more serious expressions, looking more defiant and independent (Maynard & Taylor, 1999).

In a comparative study of women’s portrayals in Chinese and U.S. advertising, Cheng (1997) reported that women in Chinese television commercials wore more “demure” and less sexually suggestive clothing than did women in U.S. advertisements. In a comparative study of images of women in weekly U.S. news magazines (Time and Life) and weekly Indian magazines (India Today and Illustrated Weekly of India) Griffin et al. (1994) found that many of the Western advertising conventions and poses for women were being transferred across cultures. They reported that female models in India were adopting poses and displays that conformed closely to gender portrayals in the advertising of the indus- trialized Western nations. Davis (1999) found that South Korean advertisers regularly used images of Western fashion models in conventionally Western fashion poses to advertise products considered erotic or risqué (such as lingerie), whereas East Asian models were used to advertise household or domestic products.

To summarize, there is a rich literature on the vi- sual presentation of women in advertising. However, with few exceptions, the variables common to most of these studies are related to the roles or settings in which women appear, the types of products with which women are shown, the poses (including the use of sexual cues), the type of dress, and the beauty types represented in advertisements.

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There has been very little research on how these variables are used across cultures, and even less on how women of different races are portrayed in ad- vertising across cultures. The rationale for the selec- tion of Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States for this study is two-fold. All three societies are market democracies. In terms of economic development, lit- eracy, educational rates, and per capita income, these three societies are comparable. However, in terms of cultural values, there are great differences. Accord- ing to Hofstede (1997) Singapore and Taiwan are both traditionally under the influence of Confucianism and thus strongly collectivist and “feminine,” whereas the U.S. culture is individualistic and “masculine.” There- fore, a comparison of the way women are represented in advertisements in popular local women’s maga- zines from these three societies should be of inter- est and should shed light on how women are used by advertisers in different societies.

HYPOTHESES

Based on the extensive literature on the portray- als of women in advertising, the following hypothe- ses were formulated for this study. These hypotheses are predicated on the theory that advertisers in each country will attempt to display women in ways that are socially and culturally resonant with local fashion and beauty norms.

H1: Asian models would be used more frequently in Asian magazines, and Western models would be used more frequently in U.S. magazine advertise- ments.

H2: The beauty types for models used in Asian maga- zines would differ from those used in Western mag- azine advertisements.

H3: Asian models would tend to gaze away from the camera more frequently than Western models.

H4: Western models would be displayed in more seductive dress than Asian models.

H5: The product categories used in Western women’s magazine advertisements would differ from those used in Asian women’s magazine advertising.

METHOD

Materials

For advertising messages to be resonant with a target audience, they need to reflect the social and cultural norms practiced in a given society. In a per- fect world, advertisements would be created by mem-

bers of a particular society and consumed by mem- bers of the same society. However, as Bagdikian (1992) argued, in the new global system that inte- grates worldwide mass media with worldwide mass advertising, the large publishing groups have consol- idated their control over magazine markets. Many women’s magazines sold in Asia are now part of larger media conglomerates such as Time Warner, Hearst, and Condé Nast. There are now national editions of magazines such as Vogue, Elle, and Cosmopoli- tan in most major world markets. The international versions of these magazines differ from locally pro- duced women’s magazines in that the international ones tend to carry a preponderance of advertise- ments for transnational products and primarily fea- ture Western models (Shaw, 1999). Although the pop- ularity of these magazines is growing in most of Asia, they still have lower circulation rates than the more popular locally produced women’s magazines (Shaw, 1999). In the present study, the main selection cri- terion for the women’s magazines chosen from each country was high local readership, based on circula- tion figures from that country over a period of 2 years. Because this research focused on images of beauty and beauty types, fashion magazines were chosen that targeted women readers aged 20–30.

The women’s magazines selected from Singapore were Her World, Female, and Cleo. Female is the second best-selling magazine in Singapore, after Her World; Cleo is in the third place. The latest circula- tion figures (2002) were obtained from the respective magazine companies through telephone interviews. The circulation figures for Her World, Female, and Cleo are 95,000, 92,500, and 77,000, respectively.

Glamour, Vogue, and Elle, are three of the most popular and influential women’s magazines in the United States aimed at women in their 20s and 30s. These magazines were selected as the reference for a comparison with the magazines from Singapore and Taiwan. The latest circulation figures gained from the U.S. publishers for the second half of 2001 were: 2,201,279 (Glamour), 1,192,949 (Vogue), and 981,117 (Elle), respectively.

Three of the most popular local Taiwanese women’s magazines were chosen for this study: Citta Bella, Jasmine, and Vivi. The circulation figure of each of these three magazines is about 60,000. These figures were also obtained from the magazine publishers through telephone interviews.

For the purpose of this study, three issues of each magazine were chosen at random from within the 12-month period from March 2001 to March 2002. The main reason for this random assignment of 3 months

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to each magazine was an attempt to counterbalance any possible seasonal influences. The unit of analy- sis was restricted to advertisements of one or more full pages. All advertisements that appeared in these magazines and that contained at least one woman were selected for the sample. In advertisements where more than one woman was present, the largest or most dominant woman was coded. Identical adver- tisements were included in the coding process because repetition is a strategy frequently used in advertising campaigns. A total of 1,130 advertisements from the above-mentioned nine women’s fashion and beauty magazines were used in this study.

Coding Categories

All models were coded by race: they were ei- ther Western or Asian. Western models included White, Hispanic, and Black. Asian models included all the models of Asian race/ethnicity. In addition, models were coded for beauty type. Englis et al. (1994) identified eight distinct content categories as the most prevalent beauty types in the United States. These were: Classic, Feminine, Sensual, Exotic, Cute, Girl-Next-Door, Sex Kitten, and Trendy. A pretest of these eight categories was carried out to check the viability of these content categories within an Asian context. During the pretest, we found that the U.S. categories contained certain assumptions irrelevant to the present study. For example, “exotic” was de- fined by Solomon et al. (1992) as “non-Caucasian” (p. 23), therefore, this category was excluded for the present study. Two other categories (Classic and Feminine) shared many characteristics and were thus combined. Also, Cute and Girl-Next-Door had over- lapping characteristics, so they too were combined for the present study. In addition, Sensual and Sex Kitten also overlapped and were thus combined into one category, Sensual/Sexy. As a result, the coding categories for this research included: Classic, Sen- sual/Sexy, Cute/Girl-Next-Door, Trendy, and Other.

In addition to beauty types, the content of these advertisements was analyzed for product type, gaze of model, and dress (see Appendix for operational definitions).

Coding

Two Singaporean graduate students carried out the coding independently. They were bilingual (fluent in both English and Mandarin) and had been given a written description of the categories and the cod- ing criteria to be followed (see Appendix). They were

given a randomly selected preliminary set of adver- tisements to code and differences were resolved by consensus. Intercoder reliabilities were then calcu- lated on a subset of 220 advertisements (nearly 20% of the sample). A percentage of agreement was cal- culated item by item for each of the categories. The intercoder reliabilities for various items ranged from 86% to 99%; all were above the minimum interjudge reliability of 85% suggested by Kassarjian (1977).

RESULTS

Results of this study are presented in Tables I–V, and they support three of the five hypotheses formu- lated for this project. As can be seen in Table I, the U.S. advertisements featured, as expected, Western models (99.0%) far more often than Asian models (1.0%). However, Western models were found more often in the two Asian societies as well; they appeared more frequently in Singaporean women’s magazine advertisements (73.3%) than in Taiwanese women’s magazine advertisements (50.4%). H1 predicted that Asian models would be portrayed more frequently than Western models in Singaporean and Taiwanese women’s magazine advertisements, and therefore was not supported.

Advertisements carried in the women’s mag- azines from all three societies tended to portray women in the Classic beauty type more frequently than other beauty types, but there were significant differences in the beauty types for each race (see Table II). The Sensual/Sexy type was used more often (27.1%) with Western models than with Asian mod- els (10.8%), whereas the Cute/Girl-Next-Door type appeared more frequently with Asian (25.0%) than with Western models (15.7%). The Trendy type was used more frequently with Western models (8.6%) than with Asian models (6.5%). These differences are statistically significant, χ2 = 243.09, d f = 2, p < .001. Therefore, H2, that beauty types would be used differently for Asian and Western models in women’s magazine advertisements, was confirmed.

It was hypothesized (H3) that due to cultural dif- ferences, Western models would tend to look directly

Table I. Comparison of Asian and Western Models Used in Women’s Magazine Advertisements

Singapore (n = 415) Taiwan (n = 234) U.S. (n = 481) Freq. % Freq. % Freq. %

Asian 111 26.7 116 49.6 5 1.0 Western 304 73.3 118 50.4 476 99.0

χ2 = 243.09, d f = 2, p < .001.

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Table II. Comparison of Beauty Types for Asian and Western Models

Asian (n = 232) Western (n = 898) Freq. % Freq. %

Classic 133 57.3 426 47.4 Sensual/Sexy 25 10.8 243 27.1 Cute/Girl-Next-Door 58 25.0 141 15.7 Trendy 15 6.5 77 8.6 Other 1 .4 11 1.2

at the camera and Asian models would tend to avoid direct eye contact with the camera. Contrary to ex- pectations, we found that both Western and Asian models tended to look at the camera (see Table III). Furthermore, Asian models (68.5%) tended to look at the camera more frequently than Western models (57.0%). Although there was a significant difference in gaze between the two groups, χ2 = 10.14, d f = 1, p < .001, H3 was not supported.

Although, overall, demure dress was the choice most often used across cultures, the results show that Western models (23.7%) were posed more frequently in sexy dress than were Asian models (15.5%). Asian models (84.5%) were dressed demurely more of- ten than Western models (76.3%), and the differ- ences are statistically significant, χ2 = 7.22, d f = 1, p < .01. Therefore, H4, which predicted Western models would tend to be clothed in seductive dress more often than Asian models, was supported.

To see if the representations of women might be related to the types of products advertised in women’s magazines across cultures, the product cate- gories were content analyzed. It was found that there is a significant difference in the product types ad- vertised, χ2 = 115.96, d f = 2, p < .001. As shown in Table V, Asian models (55.2%) appeared more of- ten in advertisements for beauty products (including skin and hair care products), whereas Western models appeared more frequently in clothing advertisements (46.8%). Hence, H5, which predicted that Western models in women’s magazine advertisements would be used in different product categories than Asian models, was confirmed.

Table III. Comparison of Gaze for Asian and Western Models

Asian (n = 232) Western (n = 898) Freq. % Freq. %

Looks at camera 159 68.5 512 57.0 Looks away 73 31.5 386 43.0

Table IV. Comparison of Dress Types for Asian and Western Models

Asian (n = 232) Western (n = 898) Freq. % Freq. %

Demure 196 84.5 685 76.3 Seductive 36 15.5 213 23.7

DISCUSSION

As stated at the outset, this study was designed to examine the similarities and differences between the ways Asian and Western models were used in beauty advertisements, by examining popular women’s mag- azines from the U.S.A., Singapore, and Taiwan. Over- all, we found some similarities as well as differences between them. The tendency to portray women across cultures in the Classic beauty type with “demure” dress indicates that certain aspects of beauty are more or less universal and shared by Eastern and Western cultures. However, there was a noticeable difference between the portrayals of women in the Sensual/Sexy beauty type category. This beauty type was used more often with Western than Asian models. This find- ing suggests that advertisers, across cultures, present Western models as more sexually liberal than Asians. This is in line with O’Barr’s finding (O’Barr, 1994) that American women in Japanese print advertisements are often portrayed in sexy ways that Japanese women could not be shown and Davis’ findings (Davis, 1999) that South Korean advertisers regularly used West- ern fashion models to advertise products considered erotic or risqué. This finding might also bring into question one of the recurring themes in the literature on women in advertising: that women are depicted as sex objects in advertising. Based on the present study, we might conclude that Western women are used as sex objects in advertising across cultures, whereas Asian women are generally not, as yet, presented in this way.

The higher percentage of advertisements for the Cute/Girl-Next-Door beauty type among Asian mod- els probably implies that Singapore and Taiwan may

Table V. Comparison of Product Categories for Asian and Western Models

Asian (n = 232) Western (n = 898) Freq. % Freq. %

Beauty 128 55.2 276 30.7 Clothing 19 8.2 420 46.8 Other 85 36.6 202 22.5

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share a similarity in women’s portrayal with Japan, where cute “girlish” images have been documented as being popular in women’s magazines (Maynard & Taylor, 1999). This similarity in women’s portrayal could be attributed to the cultural similarity among these East Asian societies. On the other hand, one outcome of depicting women in childish ways is to di- minish their standing in society as full-fledged adults. Depictions of women as strong, professional, and in- dependent may be more threatening to men and thus this type of portrayal may be avoided by advertisers in certain countries.

The shared similarity in advertisements from Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States in terms of gaze suggests that women models across cultures tend to look directly at the camera. This finding has at least two implications. For one thing, it may sup- port the findings of Griffin et al. (1994) who noted that the proliferation of branded advertising in the increasingly open markets of nations such as India and China has provided standardized images of gen- der (and what it means to appear “attractive”). Or, it may suggest photographic conventions, perhaps led by the women’s liberation movement in Western in- dustrialized societies and now shared by other in- dustrialized societies, to depict women as confident and expressing themselves with direct eye contact. Again, because Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States are all industrialized societies with highly ed- ucated populations, it may be interesting for future researchers to examine this variable in more tradi- tional societies such as India or mainland China to see if the results hold true across developed and de- veloping countries. If significant differences were to be found, this would give weight to the argument that as countries develop, Western conventions em- bedded in advertising production are affecting cul- tural change as a perhaps unintended outcome of globalization.

In terms of the types of models used in the vari- ous countries, the widespread use of Western models in local magazines in Singapore (73.3%) and Taiwan (50.4%) suggests an openness in these societies to foreign models and beauty trends, as well as an in- terest in embracing globalization. It might also be related to an interest in Western products. The low percentage of Asian models in the U.S. advertise- ments (1%) may be related to the fact that Asians make up only a small portion of the population, and thus are not yet a sizable market for advertis- ers. This paucity is in line with the findings of Taylor, Lee, and Stern (1995) who compared the portrayals

of African, Hispanic, and Asian Americans in mag- azine advertisements and found that Asian women were used in less than 1% of all advertisements they sampled.

In terms of types of product advertisements in which Western and Asian models appeared we found that hair and facial beauty products occupied the greatest proportion for Asian models (55.2%), whereas clothing occupied the largest proportion of advertisements for Western models (46.8%). This finding suggests that Western women are constructed in terms of “the body” and fits with the higher pro- portion of Sensual/Sexual beauty types found in the U.S. advertisements. Clothing is related to the body. As Wood (1999) noted:

Consistent with a view of women as decorative ob- jects whose value depends on appearance, clothing is designed to call attention to women’s bodies and to make them attractive to viewers. Formfitting skirts, materials that cling to the body and details in design contribute to making women decorative. (p. 145)

In fact, the high proportion of clothing advertisements, coupled with the higher proportion of Sensual/Sexy beauty types (27.1%) among Western models, suggests that the objectification of women’s bodies, may be racially or culturally based, as Western models are more often featured in advertisements for body-related products—even in Asian magazines, whereas Asian models are used more often in ad- vertisements for facial beauty. This finding is also in line with statistics on cosmetic surgery in the U.S. Kaw (1993) noted that “the types of cosmetic surgery sought by women in the United States are racially specific” (p. 75). European American women choose body-sculpting surgery such as liposuction and breast augmentation, whereas Asian American women most often request “double-eyelid surgery,” which is related to the face.

As the world shrinks, studies such as this one are useful in that they allow us to see ourselves as other see us. In this case, the findings suggest that Western women are viewed by advertisers (and by their Asian audiences) as being different from Asian women. Western models are dressed differently, posed differ- ently, and featured with different types of products. The weakness of the content analysis method how- ever, is its inability to show underlying reasons for the differences (Arima, 2003). Future research is required to help us to understand the underlying motives of advertising agencies in their depictions of women of differing races.

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APPENDIX

Operationalizations of beauty types Classic Slightly older than average, the model has an elegant feminine look. With fair skin and a

glamorous and sophisticated look, she usually wears soft, feminine but not heavily accessorized apparel.

Sensual/Sexy The model is posed in a sexual way. She usually wears sexy attire or tight-fitting, revealing clothes.

Cute/Girl-Next-Door With casual attire, the model has a cute and youthful appearance. She can also be outdoorsy, in a casual, active manner.

Trendy The model usually wears faddish clothes and displays oversized accessories. Her hair is tousled. There is a slight sense of chaos to this type. She can also have an “I-don’t-give-a-damn” attitude.

Operationalizations of racial types Asian This racial type includes all Asian models from Singapore, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and

the United States. Japanese are also coded into this category as their looks are similar. Western This racial type includes all races except Asians.

Product categories Beauty This category includes all cosmetics, hair care products, and skin care products. Clothing This category includes all clothing designers and manufacturers. Models’ dress Demure The model is tastefully dressed. Seductive The model is dressed in a sexy way.

Types of gaze Look at camera Model’s eyes look directly at the camera. Look away from camera Model’s eyes look away from the camera.

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