Abstract
There are many texts in which images of women are used for different purposes in our society. This research explores the main strategies used to create meaning in two multimodal texts used by leaflets advertising cosmetic surgery in Alicante (Spain). The study aims to point out that women are treated as objects in these leaflets. To demonstrate this argument the main visual and linguistic characteristics will be analysed in both multimodal texts in which people are persuaded of the benefits of such surgery. Special attention will be paid to the influence that the different linguistic and visual choices may have on society. This study reveals that the image of women that appears in some leaflets of this type is so aggressive that it could be understood as a new form of gender violence.
Highlights
Visual Grammar as a tool to read imagesWe live in a society in which we can observe the binary opposition between the masculine and the feminine, which implies a hierarchical order in which the masculine occupies a privileged position and the feminine is many times given an inferior position
In the two texts analysed, new information appears on the left, which implies that special attention is paid to the woman who appears in that part of the leaflet
That is why in the two multimodal texts analysed we find there the ‘end’ of Dorsia: “Medicina y cirugía estética-Medicina antienvejecimiento” (“Medicine and plastic surgery-Anti-aging medicine”), which appears at the top of the page in order to persuade the reader so that he/she perceives plastic surgery as a type of medicine that encourages health
Summary
We live in a society in which we can observe the binary opposition between the masculine and the feminine, which implies a hierarchical order in which the masculine occupies a privileged position and the feminine is many times given an inferior position. It cannot be forgotten that perfection is defined according to certain canons These canons delimit what is feminine and what is masculine according to our society and marginalize the bodies that do not follow the canons. This paper intends to describe and understand how different meanings are communicated through multimodal texts used by the plastic surgery clinic called Dorsia in Alicante. For this reason, I will analyse the different verbal and visual elements that create this type of text and their effect on readers. The description will concentrate on two of the seven multimodal texts used by this plastic surgery clinic to advertise their treatments during 2007
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