“You are a Woman with a Man Inside Watching a Woman": The Visual Language of Miss Dior Perfume Adverts
Words by Lizzy Jones
“You are a woman with a man inside watching a woman. You are your own voyeur.” - Margaret Atwood, 1993
Luxury fashion brand Dior has been creating advertisements for their perfume since 1947, using a visual language heavily grounded in femininity and performance to the male gaze. The idea that women are raised to enforce gender roles upon themselves, expressed in a concept called ‘the internalised male gaze’, was first proposed by feminist writer Margaret Atwood. It posits that women see themselves through how they are viewed by men and how they can become more consumable to that audience, and is an idea that is increasingly prevalent in media studies. Miss Dior adverts, personified by Natalie Portman, have dangerous implications in continuing a patriarchal and heteronormative framework which encourages women to cater to a male audience at the expense of their own autonomy.
Miss Dior advertisement, featuring Natalie Portman, 2017.
Miss Dior advertisement, 2017.
In Miss Dior, desirability is connected to hyperbolic femininity to appeal to the heteronormative internal male gaze and the desire to be desired, which requires women to fulfil their role as sexual objects for consumption. In Miss Dior advertisements, there is extensive use of the colour pink and floral motifs. Both of which stereotypically connotes femininity, along with love and romance, presenting Dior’s version of femininity as being defined by romantic love and being desired. Combined with the soft fabric of Miss Dior’s clothes, flowing hair, and seductive gaze found throughout the advertisements, it creates a semantic field of desire in a patriarchal framework. The audience thus associates the femininity implied by the pink tint with softness and desirability. This hyperbolic representation provokes insecurities for a female audience who want to satisfy the internal male gaze’s expectations of their femininity and desirability.
Miss Dior advertisement, featuring Natalie Portman, 2021.
Miss Dior advertisement, featuring Natalie Portman, 2017.
Another feature of the adverts is the persistent presence of a faceless male figure alongside the laughing Miss Dior, showing that this perfume grants ‘fulfilment’ through making the woman desirable. In one advert, Miss Dior is chased by a man down a beach. This is a visual representation of a woman being ‘chased by men,’ pursued by a man with romantic intentions. Yet it’s also double entendre with darker connotations, alluding to sexual violence against women perpetrated by men. This is further seen when her presumed romantic partner jumps over furniture to chase her. While this is a domestic scene, it can be interpreted as a metaphor for instances of men’s predatory behaviour in pursuing women who have rejected them, the implied goal being to catch her despite her resistance. The idea presented is that women should want to be desired in any way by men, as that is their role, potentially normalising predatory and violent behaviour to the audience by implying women should covet the attention.
Miss Dior advertisement, featuring Natalie Portman, 2017.
Miss Dior advertisement, featuring Natalie Portman, 2021.
Furthermore, Dior uses the symbolism of spring, which is associated with fertility, to appeal to the internal male gaze of a woman needing the capacity to fulfil her role of reproduction and mothering to be desirable. The 2019 advertisement features Miss Dior in a flowery dress, her voice disembodied from her image. Spring is a time of rebirth and fertility; florals being symbolic of this. By equating fertility with femininity, it’s conveyed to the audience that to achieve the heteronormative male gaze’s ideal femininity, women must also embrace their fertility. In one instance, a voiceover states “A breath of spring, swirling in the air.” “Breath” and “air” connoting fleetingness and could be a subtle warning to the female audience of the perceived briefness of their fertility, which through the self-objectification of the internal male gaze, could prompt anxiety and insecurities in the female audience surrounding their maternal role. This encourages them to embrace familial obligations and continues a patriarchal society where women are confined to the private sphere to care for children. Fertility also implies the need of a man to reproduce, so to embrace their fertility, women must also be desirable. By using the disembodied voice, it eliminates the woman’s say in how her body is used, instead appearing to be a direct order from a faceless authority. This is further shown through the motif of flowers, objects used for ornamentation, suggesting that through the male gaze women are objects to bear children, removing their autonomy in the use of their bodies and enforcing their objectification.
Miss Dior advertisement, featuring Natalie Portman, 2019.
Miss Dior advertisement, featuring Natalie Portman, 2021.
Dior uses close-up shots from the perspective of a man to present the fragrance as making women more consumable to the heteronormative male-gaze. Miss Dior interacts with the camera, placing the audience in the position of her assumed male lover. The close shot of her face creates the impression of intimacy and the white sheets in the foreground suggest a bed; both have sexual undertones. However, white also connotes purity and innocence, contrasting the bed’s suggestive setting. This juxtaposition, sexual yet innocent, enforces the internal male gaze by presenting this as the role that women must fulfil, provoking feelings of inadequacy in the female audience as it is an unachievable expectation. Yet this expectation is encapsulated by the fictitious Miss Dior, suggesting the fragrance can help women achieve the impossibility of the internal male gaze. Through the intimacy of the scene created by the close- up shot, it appears Miss Dior is unaware of the audience and their voyeuristic gaze. This implies to a female audience the presence of a third-party gaze of which they must be constantly aware and encourages them to be continually desirable and consumable for a male audience. Furthermore, the eye contact directly addresses the audience and expresses how not only is Miss Dior desirable to a male partner, but to the wider audience also. Miss Dior’s idealistic sexuality despite her seeming unawareness of an audience suggests that desirability is effortless for her, and thus by using Dior’s fragrance, women can fulfil this supposed need.
Miss Dior advertisement, featuring Natalie Portman, 2017.
Miss Dior advertisement, featuring Natalie Portman, 2017.
The direct address is further seen when she asks the rhetorical question “And you, what would you do for love?” The connective “and” suggests it’s now the turn of the audience to answer, as Miss Dior has done throughout, causing the female audience to question if they are willing to purchase the perfume to achieve the desirability represented. Through utilising the internal male gaze, Dior encourages the answer to be yes. As the question is rhetorical, women are answering their internalised male gaze, rather than an external influence. This also removes women’s opinions of their own bodies, instead encouraging them to please the internal male viewer.
Miss Dior advertisement, featuring Natalie Portman, 2017.
Sauvage advertisement, featuring Johnny Depp, 2017.
While male fragrance adverts are harmful in their own way, prompting a connection between wildness, violence, and masculinity, the quality that the fragrance is shown to enhance is strength, which is an internal quality that focuses on a narrative of finding oneself through a personal journey. Sauvage adverts rarely feature women, unless it is a racist characterization of a native American woman who reinforces the man’s reconnection to the ‘wilderness,’ instead focusing on the individual development of the man. Whereas in Miss Dior, the fragrance is presented as aiding women in catering to the requirements of the internal male gaze enforced on them by a patriarchal society. Their advertisements maintain a harmful narrative where women only view themselves as objects to please men, instead of as individuals. It perpetuates a patriarchal society by inciting women to fulfil the role expected by the internal male gaze, even at the cost of their own happiness. As said by Margret Atwood, the internal male gaze is the “ever-present watcher ... peering through the keyhole in your own head.”
