The transformation of gender visualization in photography: Soviet and Russian multisemiotics

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the construction of new system of gender images in the socio-political conditions in Russia during last thirty ages. Based on Kress and Van Leeuwen multisemiotic theory and the ideas A. Dudareva, I. Groshev and M. Petrova we conducted research of gender images of women in the Soviet Union and modern Russian advertising. The data comes from 300 images of the Russian men and women in advertising. 300 images were specifically chosen by the author in order to be acceptable for coding. As the result of the study we developed the typology of gender images of woman in Russian advertisement. We made conclusion that economic, political and socio-cultural factors were the main factors in the transformation of gender images in modern Russia. The gender of a woman, her body and figures demonstrated in the media, very often was object of sexual exploitation, when the impact of using the image and play with human sexual passion forces him to commit certain actions, such as buying goods. This characteristic of our commercialization of gender images makes a person, both men and women, into a commodity. Gender is transforming into the object that can be purchased and can be enjoyed.