PowerPoint Presentation

Getting Under the Skin-Whitening Cultures: Discourses, Rhetoric and Representations across Text Types and Media in Taiwan in the Early 21st Century

Yi-Jing Lee

Supervisory Team:Prof A Williams | Dr N SmithFirst, I would like to thank, Dr Alex Baratta, and Professor George McKay, to be my external and the internal oral examiner

and thank you for your time on my following presentation.

Its my honour to have you both examining my thesis.

*Refer the audience to chapters or pages in your thesis if you have a particular point to make.1BackgroundAim/objectives, research questionsTheoretical frameworksMethodsFindingsOriginality, limitations, generalisability and future work

2IntroductionAnd in the following 10 minutes, I will be briefly introducing my study in terms of background, aim and objectives, research questions, theoretical frameworksmethods I have taken, findings and originality.

Then following by a short brief on the limitations and the ability of generalisationthe suggested future work is followed before the end of the presentation 2Getting Under the Skin-Whitening Cultures: Discourses, Rhetoric and Representations across Text Types and Media in Taiwan in the Early 21st Century3Lets revisit the title of my study: Getting Under the Skin-Whitening Cultures: Discourses, Rhetoric and Representations across Text Types and Media in Taiwan in the Early 21st Century

34Discourses, rhetoric and representationsTransferability & interdiscursivity across text types and mediaInforming & extending theoryReflecting macrostructures and external context Concerns & FocusesMy study concerns the ways in which the whitening discourses are structured and represented.

And also the extent to which these discourses are transferable across different text types and media.Besides, the ways in which they inform and extend the theory.Finally, how these reflect the macrostructures in a wider context.4Background

SW in Taiwan

(yi bai zhe san chou, literally, one whitenessveils three flaws)The predominance of skin whitening can be reflected by the old Chinese saying which is still popular in Taiwan (yi bai zhe san chou)

This proverb can be literally translated as one whiteness veils three flaws;

Perhaps it would be more appropriate to translate the sentence as white skin removes all ugliness, This is usually used to emphasise a prevailing dominance that associates whiteness with beauty.

5Background

Radiant, translucent & moisturising, 20126

Skin care & sun protection: be an effective whitening beautySW in Taiwan

Advertorials & advertising Distribution channelsLegislation

Avenue & consumer news sectionsin liberty times

In particular section 2.3, I have outlined recent developments of skin whitening products, I explored the relationships between legislation, advertising and distribution within the cosmeceutical industry.

It is found that the marketing of cosmeceutical skincare products is generally naturalised by a type of rhetoric that emphasises a products medical qualities, both within newspaper advertorials and advertising

6BackgroundAdvertorials & advertising Shiseido commercial, Haku, in 2009

Here, I would like to play the radio that I have analysed in section 6.3

which is identified employing the fighting metaphor

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BackgroundSW in Taiwan

Advertorials & advertising Distribution channelsLegislation8

These products are distributed to a certain kind of retailer, called cosmeceutical storewhich combines the characteristics of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals

8Background9SW culture in Taiwan

Aadvertorials & advertising Distribution channels Legislation

NCC (National Communications Commission)DOH (Department of Health)FTC (Fair Trade Commission)

Furthermore, the ways in which government regulates and governs the media, advertising, and retailing appears to reinforce the scientific legitimation of skin whitening discourse.

The investigation of the recent establishment suggests that the skin whitening market has boomed through a naturally mutual co-alignment between the cosmeceutical industry, legislators and the media.

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10Theoretical frameworksKNOWLEDGE CONSTITUTION FOR THE LOOK LINGUISTIC LEVERAGEDISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS FOR EVERYDAY PRACTICESTRUCTURING DIFFERENCES FOR IDENTIFICATIONBuilding upon the understanding of the background to skin whitening culture, I drew a set of theories that frame my analytical perspectives.

The vocabularies in the wordcloud here are extracted from chapter 3, Theoretical Lens and Frameworks

It has to admit that the research questions are illuminated by Foucaults inquiries:

how are we constituted as subjects of our own knowledge; how are we constituted as subjects who exercise or submit to power relations, and how are we constituted as moral subjects of our own actions?

the theoretical approaches and the premises underpinning the study are also influenced by theses questions

10Aims and objectives1.To explore and analyse the internal representations of skin whitening in a representative range of Taiwanese newspapers and visual advertisements in other media, together with the ways in which they are constituted, legitimated and promoted.

2.To investigate the possible ways in which everyday skin whitening practices are structured and imposed, and to identify the macro structures, such as value-based segmentations and gender, that shape social reality.

3.To critically reflect on the external implications of promoting skin whitening practices by placing the findings in Taiwanese macro contexts.. 11SoThe primary aim of this research is set to uncover the underlying approaches structuring the discourses and representations which legitimate and naturalise the importance of practising skin whitening in everyday life in Taiwan.

This overarching aim comprises three more specific objectives: 1) 2) 3)

11Research questions121.In what ways do hybrid genre articles in the Liberty Times and skin whitening advertisements constitute the representations to promote whitening products and practices, and in what ways are these discourses structured and legitimated?2.In what ways are skin whitening practices structured in the media and different social categories to consume the classifier (such as sacred/profane and higher versus lower socioeconomic status) of skin whitening?3.To what extent do the identified approaches transfer across media, and in what ways are discourses and approaches represented or operated differently and interdiscursively in written and visual media?4.To what extent do these findings apply in wider contexts and inform relevant theories?Following the excavation of the background and the discussion of relevant theories, the questions are evoked from these theories and listed on slideas you can see or have read in the thesis

1213Methods & methodologyCase study

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)

Critical visual analysis approaches

Grounded Theory

The case study has been the main method and strategy throughout the research process

And Critical Discourse and visual methods have play the role for analysing the collected texts

Grounded Theory method were modified to guide the process of data collection and coding (this part of the method resembles and is accepted by DA and CDA as well),

And critical realism provide the epistemological grounds and theoretical orientations,Which is also consistent with this study than methodologies that depend on a conventional binary opposition between quantitative and qualitative methods.13Findings: OverviewRecontextualisation of dermatological knowledge;Legitimation of ingredients and products; Fighting metaphor and Omission of agency141.In what ways do hybrid genre articles in the Liberty Times and skin whitening advertisements constitute the representations to promote whitening products and practices, and in what ways are these discourses structured and legitimated?

2.In what ways are skin whitening practices structured in the media and different social categories to consume the classifier (such as sacred/profane and higher versus lower socioeconomic status) of skin whitening?In terms of internally linguistic manifestations and to answer question 1 & 2the findings can be summarised as for points:

Recontextualisation of dermatological knowledge;Legitimation of ingredients and products; Fighting metaphor and Omission of agency

14Findings

15The construction of the concept of penetrability and deep metonymy

Recontextualisation of knowledge

It has been identified that the dermatological knowledge is extracted and appropriated by cosmetics producers and the media, and its distribution to consumers to establish the ways in which the consumers comprehend their skin structures and are persuaded to improve their skin conditions toward the ideal white.

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Findings

16Authorisation

Rationalisation / Moral evaluation

Mythopoesis

Legitimation

Various types of linguistic strategies are used to legitimate the ingredients, products and finally the practices of skin whitening. These include:

authorisation (including legitimation by reference to custom, tradition, authority, and commendation), rationalisation (including instrumental rationalisation and theoretical rationalisation), moral evaluation (with reference to value systems) and mythopoesis. 16Findings

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Fighting metaphor

War goddess-for-product metonymy

Narrative of fighting and subjectified enemy

Different strategies of fighting (differentiation)

The practices of skin whitening are analogised as a battle to be fought, and melanin activities are given personalities,objectified or subjectifiedas the targets or enemies to be eliminated by nominalising the activity process to be subjected to the action of eradication.

17Findings18

Omission of agencyNominalisation of the concept of penetrability (of ingredients) has the effect of agency obfuscation which produces the illusion that the activity is performed by invisible ingredients, or created goodnessrather than a real person.

1819Fighting metaphor Omission of agencyTransferability and Interdiscursivity

3.To what extent do the identified approaches transfer across media, and in what ways are discourses and approaches represented or operated differently and interdiscursively in written and visual media?

Regarding to Question 3, I would like to focus on fighting metaphor and agency obscuration in the presentation

In terms of Fighting metaphor: Throughout the investigation of LT articles and the advertisements of Sheseido, Vichy along with other brands, it was found that a fighting metaphor is a recurring linguistic feature to emphasise the importance of attacking melanin or undesired blacknessWhile the contiguity of the fighting syntagmatic paradigm, ingredients-penetrate-deep, is constituted by transposing the verbs, such as eliminate and eradicate, in written texts, the actions tend to be performed by actress or lens in graphic or video advertisements,

In terms of Omission of agency: The concept of agency obfuscation manifests itself in written texts by using the linguistic approach specifically, nominalisation - whereas in visual media, the lens plays the absent role of agent (such as active ingredient) and the gaze (self-monitoring or of others) into the actors/actress skin.

In terms of the transferability, the research echoes Foucaults idea of interdiscursivity and the results suggest that these discourses are transferable and represented across both textual and visual media. 19204.To what extent do these findings apply in wider contexts and inform relevant theories?Recontextualisation of dermatological knowledgeLegitimation of ingredients and products Fighting metaphor Omission of agencyInforming and extending theories Regarding to Question 4, There are numbers of theories which are informed and extended

I would to high light tow of these:

(a)This study informs Foucaults (1977a; [1963] 2012) theorisation of the ways in which Knowledge is constituted through the formation of discursive and institutionalised discourses. The recontextualisation and reproduction of knowledge correspond to Bernsteins ([1990] 2003) [The] Social Construction of Pedagogic Discourse.The identification of the fighting metaphor to construct everyday practice as narrated and ritualised, which informs and extends the theories of narratology (e.g. Propp, [1928] 1968) and sacralisation (e.g. Douglas, [1966] 2002) This also implies that the representation the process of skin whitening is linear and achievable if applying skincare product. (c)The identification of the propaganda of pro-capitalist ideologies underlying both written and visual texts, in particular, the use of the fighting metaphor, informs and extends the doctrines of Marxism, critical studies and CDA.

20214.To what extent do these findings apply in wider contexts and inform relevant theories?the mutual co-alignment between the cosmeceutical industry, the mass media, retailing channels, legislation, and advertising and research agencies intersected by medical and scientific qualitiesReflecting macrostructuresRegarding to Question 3

The hegemonic dominance of skin whitening practices and the interdiscursivity of skin whitening discourses are formed by the mutual co-alignment between the cosmeceutical industry, the mass media (particularly the advertorial articles in Liberty Times), retailing channels, legislation, and advertising and research agencies intersected by medical and scientific qualities.

21Originality : Overview22Novelty of findings

Novelty of methods

Informing theories

Reflecting macrostructures

This thesis contributes in terms of its originality, which covers

Novelty of findings, Novelty of methodsthe ways in which it informs theories, andreflects macrostructures in wider contexts

As I have presented earlier22Originality23Scienmythological Fighting

In specific, There are tensions between Shiseidos and Vichys different representations of the fighting metaphor. While Vichy employs dermatological knowledge to rationalise the choice of skin whitening products, Shiseido tends to employs East Asian celebrities to construct mythic representations, or to arouse emotional responses to fighting.

In other words, in general, the approaches exploited by Vichy are seemingly scientific and discursive, whereas Shiseidos are narrative and mythological.

Despite the different representations of fighting melanin in Shiseidos and Vichys advertisements, there are similarities in that (1) both represent the process of skin whitening as linear, which gives the sense that skin whitening can be rationally achieved; (2) both involve producing representations of skin whitening as sacralisation, which functions to set a dividing line from dirty/profane and gain an accepted identity in the community which grants the rule.Overall, although Vichy strategically constitutes seemingly scientific discourses in promoting skin whitening products, the rhetoric also features mythological and ritual characteristics.

On the other hand, the linear and epic representation of fighting metaphor in Shiseidos CF grant the successfully predictive and calculable results of skin whitening if using the Shiseido Melanoreduce EX (expelling black, cleansing white). Generally, the skin whitening brands investigated within my study utilise the approach I term scienmythological, characteristic of both science and mythology, to promote the practices of skin whitening and the use of cosmeceutical skin whitening products.

23Limitations, Generalisability and Future WorkExternal generalisationInternal validation

Clip of commercial, Ponds, 2008Facebook APP, Vaseline, 201224The limitations of this study are similar to the philosophic orientation of critical realism, which distinguishes the ontological domains into the empirical, the actual, and the real (Bhaskar, [1978] 2008; Danermark et al., 2012). This implies that the researchers understandings of ontological and epistemological underpinnings necessarily dictate the means through which inference, the attribution of causality, and extrapolation can be practiced (Danermark et al., 2012; Prowse, 2008, p. 4; Steinmetz, 1998).

Although this study takes a qualitative and interpretative approach, it aligns with the philosophic grounds of critical realism which does not reject generalisation of causal mechanisms and transferability.

The orientations of future work can be broadly summarised as being in two directions: (1)External generalisation: it is suggested that the converged findings can be further investigated in other countries or regions to see whether they are generalisable.

(2)Internal validation: This can be done through more rigorous triangulation or quantitative conformation within the same field, or through interviews or ethnographic approaches in the fields of the industry or home consumption, in order to validate the findings inducted from the process of my investigation.

XXX-------------------------------------------------In 2008 Hindustan Unilever made former Miss World Priyanka Chopra a brand ambassador for Pond's, and she then appeared in a mini-series of television commercials for another skin lightening product, White Beauty, alongside Saif Ali Khan and Neha Dhupia; these advertisements, showing Priyanka's face with a clearly darker complexion against the visibly fairer Neha Dhupia, were widely criticized for perpetuating racism.

Vaseline developed a skin lightening app for Facebook, so users can make their profile pics look whiter.Skin whitening creams have been marketed to women for a long time, especially in India, and skincare companies have been trying to spread the "whiter is better" message to men as well.

The orientations of future work can be broadly summarised as being in two directions: (1)External generalisation: it is suggested that the converged findings can be further investgated in other countries or regions to see whether they are generalisable.(2)Internal validation: This can be done through more rigorous triangulation or quantitative conformation within the same field, or through interviews or ethnographic approaches in the fields of the industry or home consumption, in order to validate the findings inducted from the process of my investigation.

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