This video is co-edited by Xinyu Yao and Ge Shi.

Description

In this video essay, we use perfume advertisements as our subject of study, focusing on how advertising as a medium shapes individuals.We conduct a critical analysis from the perspectives of consumer culture and post-feminist ideology.

Drawing on Jean Baudrillard’s theory of “symbolic exchange” and Rosalind Gill’s critique of neoliberal femininity, the video analyzes how Miss Dior advertisements aestheticize and transform women’s autonomy into consumable images. The fragmented representation of  female body, the aesthetic construction, and the central positioning of romance and purchase create a contradictory vision.This vision visually celebrates freedom, love, and female empowerment, while simultaneously reproducing underlying patriarchal and consumerist structures. Ultimately, it is not just about selling perfume, but also about selling a specific ideology of femininity.

This video calls on the audience to look beyond the surface appeal of beauty and emotion, to reflect on how advertisements subtly shape identities, emotions, and the meaning of freedom.It encourages viewers to recognize their interaction with media should not be one-sided reception but should also involve questioning: “Why am I being shown these images”?

References

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