Conflicts Related to Sexist US Advertisements and to Their Translation

• Main Author: Stavroula Vergopoulou
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece 2020-12-01
• Series: Ex-centric Narratives: Journal of Anglophone Literature, Culture and Media
• Online Access: http://ejournals.lib.auth.gr/ExCentric/article/view/7816

This study discusses multiple conflicts within the context of advertising in relation to gender and translation, focusing on advertising in the US. To begin, it explores gender in advertising: First, it addresses the conflict between advertising (of the past and present)—a rather sexist industry—and subvertising, which includes the reconstruction of advertisements in order to criticize the original advertising messages. The next conflict arises between sexist representations of women in contemporary advertising and its audience’s increasing urge to break these rigid gender stereotypes, as critical comments on social media show. Furthermore, this paper focuses on the translation of advertising in relation to gender: More specifically, it analyzes the conflict between sexism in advertising language and the objectives of a translation process aimed at gender equality. Finally, it considers the feminist translator’s inner conflict, as they face the dilemma of creating either a profit-oriented translation or an equality-oriented translation, or even a possible combination of both.