RETHINKING GENDER, RETHINKING MIGRATION: Images of women in the semiotic landscape of the Baltic states

• Authors: Pošeiko, Solvita

Abstracts

EN

In researching the linguistic landscape (LL) of nine cities in the Baltic states, this articlewill show that female discourse is significant within public areas and spaces. This has beenlinguistically proven by female personal names in ergonyms, as well as by female ergonymsand themes within graffiti texts. However, there are multi-modal advertisementswhich display female products publicly, which can be viewed from the perspective of thesemiotic landscape. A total of 294 photos showing women were selected from the LL databasein order to describe visual images of women, by focusing on the archetypes andconcepts of a woman’s role in society.The research showed that any target audience is linguistically identified more oftenthan not by age, which social and ethnic group one belongs to, while images emphasizethe target audience more commonly by sex, that is, by female gender, for example, imagesof women or female body parts and of women’s products (e.g. women’s clothing ona mannequin).Selected materials are generally characterized by absolutization of the perfect appearance,one which includes the maintaining of certain stereotypes, that a woman is both beautifuland slender, that she is physically fit, replete with perfect makeup, someone who belongsto the cult of youth, who reflects how popular and successful women should appear. This isthe standard example, one that exemplifies the need for solitude, narcissism and emotionalconcealment, all wrapped up within the glorification of an advertisement for perfume.According to the data, typical female activities tend to be the receiving of beauty treatments,various forms of relaxation such as traveling, dancing, visiting the tanning salon orsunbathing, and most significantly of all, shopping. These images mainly emphasize service-sector occupations: waitresses, bank employees, flight attendants, masseuses, cabaretdancers or exotic dancers. In regard to the roles of wife and mother, they are viewed associal roles, which are represented as being inseparable from each other. The female lover(flirtatious temptress) and female friend, are two of the most common archetypical imagesreflected in the semiotic landscape of the Baltic states.In conclusion, the visual representation of women in the Baltic states is related to theperception of life as pleasure, emphasizing the significance of sensuality and entertainment.

Keywords

EN

advertisement; archetype; ergonym; semiotic landscape; social semiotics; visual image; visual communication; Women

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Gdański
• Journal: Miscellanea Anthropologica et Sociologica
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 17(3)
• Pages: 111-128

Contributors

author

Pošeiko, Solvita