The aesthetic ideal of a modern woman in English-language advertising: sociolinguistic aspect

Galyavieva Leisan Shagiakhmatovna ORCID: 0000-0002-6642-8945 PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Department of Foreign Languages, Kazan State Academy of Veterinary Medicine 35 Sibirskiy Trakt str., Kazan, 420029, Russia g-leysan@mail.ru Karimova Anna Anatolevna ORCID: 0000-0002-0908-8243 PhD in Pedagogy Associate Professor, Department of Theory and Practice of Teaching Foreign Languages, Kazan Federal University 420008, Russia, Kazan, Kremlevskaya str., 18 an.carimova2012@yandex.ru

Khasanova Oksana Vladimirovna ORCID: 0000-0002-4979-3238 PhD in Pedagogy Associate Professor, Department of Theory and Practice of Teaching Foreign Languages, Kazan Federal University 420 008, Russia, Kazan, Kremlevskaya str., 18 oxana.khasan@yandex.ru

 The peculiarity of the formation of any language is not only its spontaneity, but also close interaction with culture, thinking, society, as well as the ability of its speakers to recognize categories of reality, "expose" them in linguistic form and transmit them in the form of speech patterns or stereotypes.

The history of codification of such a phenomenon as gender in linguistic reality traces its history back to the moment when people realized their gender identity. However, at present, under the influence of changes in society, which are characterized by the redistribution of the social status of the sexes, the gender concept and gender stereotypes are no longer viewed through the prism of the biological characteristics of a person, but from the point of view of her social and cultural life.

In the focus of this article, the gender aspect is considered as a factor determining the peculiarities of the choice of lexical and semantic means based on well-known female mythological archetypes when constructing the aesthetic ideal of a modern woman in an English-language advertising text.

The relevance of this study is due to the growing interest of scientists in advertising texts due to their short form and complex semantic and structural organization, which takes into account not only language rules, but also cognitive, psycholinguistic and cultural principles of creating works of advertising discourse.

Some aspects of advertising texts as objects of linguistic analysis are currently considered by T. G. Dobrosklonskaya ^[4], S. V. Mosheva ^[7], E. N. Serdobintseva ^[9], D. Ogilvy ^[8]. Gender aspects of advertising discourse are reflected in the works of I. V. Groshev ^[2], A. A. Dudareva ^[5], I. Asema ^[12] and others. In addition, there are publications by K. Lindner ^[15], S. Blud ^[13], R. Kolman ^[14] and others devoted to the analysis of images of women and men in the English-speaking picture of the world.

However, the question still remains unresolved: what is the ideal woman in the framework of modern advertising discourse in the light of the correlation of well-known female mythological archetypes and the social transformation of national and cultural ideals for the English-speaking society? Has the range of images in which a woman is represented in modern advertising expanded? What lexical and semantic means prevail in the description of the image that should attract the target audience?

The purpose of this article is to describe the most stable mythological archetypes as aesthetic ideals of modern women and ways of their verbalization, appearing in the English–language advertising discourse. The research material was obtained by continuous sampling from popular publications Vogue (V) ^[21], Cosmopolitan (C) ^[17], Shape (Sh) ^[20], Elle (E) ^[18], Baby's and beyond (BB) ^[16], Parents (P) ^[19] on in English. A total of 200 texts were selected for analysis. The novelty of the work lies in the author's proposed classification of female images based on the most famous ancient Greek goddesses.

Advertising, or an advertising message, is a kind of communicative process aimed at establishing effective contact between the producer and the consumer through verbal and nonverbal information ^{[3, p. 1350]}. The text representing the advertising message realizes its pragmatism at almost all language levels ^{[1, p. 21]}. In our opinion, the lexical level has the dominant suggestive potential.

It is almost impossible to overestimate the influence of the advertising industry, in particular, the content of the advertising text on the process of world modeling of modern reality in the minds of native speakers, including in the field of gender stereotypes formation. This can manifest itself not only at the level of creating actual images of men and women, but also on the projection of interpersonal relations between the sexes, as well as on the perception of their basic social roles. Subsequently, it is stereotypes that influence the self-determination of a person, her adequate self-esteem and attitude to what is happening.

When creating English-language advertising, the key concept for a copywriter is an "aesthetic ideal", which should be understood as "a historically concrete, sensual representation or concept of what is due as beautiful, materialized in art, in the practice of public life and people's productive activities" ^{[6, p. 32]}.

The basis of the construction of any recognizable image for consumers is the archetype, that is, literally the "primary model", based on the general psychological experience of the people and described in detail in the theory of K. Jung ^[11]. Such archetypal images are timeless and can be repeated in any era in any society. This kind of universality of archetypes reduces the level of criticality in the perception of the advertising text and makes, under the influence of the collective unconscious, extrapolate the given characteristics of women to their own personality.

Based on the analyzed empirical material, we proposed an optimal classification of images of ideal women in the English-speaking advertising space based on archetypes of ancient Greek goddesses, the most famous mythological images fixed in the social experience of almost all peoples.

1. The archetype of the "seductress" (Aphrodite).

A woman of this type, depicted in the advertisement, realizes the goal of using her sexual attractiveness to attract love and romantic relationships. The archetype is based on the mythological origin of the goddess of love and beauty, who appeared from the sea foam and captivates with her attractiveness. Consequently, the external side of the image within the framework of the social order comes out on top in the narrative of such an advertising text ^{[10, p. 375]}.

Radiant skin is considered one of the desirable, ideal signs of women's appearance, and it often appears as a keyword in advertising texts: Glowing skin is a natural canvas for jewelry designer (C); real, dewy glow from within (C); 7 nightstogorous (V), radiant younger-looking skin (V). Youth is another hypostasis of the goddess girl, in this regard, rejuvenation is often used as the central idea in advertising:  the Simply Ageless(V); You'll see younger-looking skin in just one week (V); looks younger for longer (C); In one month, see more youthful skin (C); Wake up to youthful, hydrated skin (BB); Keep the fragile skin below your chin looking youthful with our expert secrets (Sh); the sparkle of youth is in your eyes (Sh); Youth is back (Sh).

The attractiveness of the Aphrodite woman is also verbalized through the description of shining hair: Keep hair sleek, Hair satys smooth even in 97% humidity (Sh); glam, shimmering (C); natural shine (C); attractive description of parts of the face (eyes, eyelashes, lips): Eyes appear whiter and brighter (C); Reveal layers of denser, more voluminous lashes for the sensational full fan effect (C); The red kiss you will never forget (C); No matter the current beauty climate, one undisputed all-star remains at fashion's forefront: an ever dramatic ruby lip (V).

Thus, the semantic field of this archetype consists of lexemes denoting parts of the female body, and corresponding attributes having a positive connotation.

2. The archetype of the "keeper of the hearth" (Hestia).

This image symbolizes both home comfort, and warm relations between family members, and the light of joy and life in the family and home. In the advertising industry, the most frequent object of the image of the keeper of the hearth is the image of the mother: smart mom, smart clean (P); All day long, trust me, mama's health and energy, Trust mama, she is here (P); These aren't your mother's cookies. They just taste like it (P); Must-have & must-dos for mom & family (BB).

The peculiarity of child care is especially important for the image of a Hestia woman: Mom's medicine cabinet – from cold stotummy pain and allergies. Mom knows best (BB); Kids love the taste. Moms love that they're baked with 100% real cheddar cheese (P); mother's milk, everyday amazing (P).

The verbalization of the image of the goddess Hestia can be explicated not only in the words mom, mama, it is also considered as part of the concept of "family": A powerful clean with 6 essential ingredients that's safer for your family (BB); One meal for the whole family (BB); Your year-round immune support solution for the whole family (BB).

This archetype is the most stable due to the long-term dominance of the stereotype of a housewife in a patriarchal society.

3. The "independent woman" archetype (Artemis).

With the development of feminism, those qualities of a woman who have been "in the shadows" for a long time are gaining more and more popularity. In ancient Greek mythology, Artemis, on the one hand, is known as the young goddess of hunting; on the other hand, it is associated with the spiritual independence of the individual. The Artemis woman is avant-garde and rational, not constrained by traditional ideas and social stereotypes, sets her own aesthetic standards and pursues her own goals.

Such a woman may not be outwardly attractive, but she is fully aware of her strength. So, one of the advertising posters of a popular women's magazine depicts a shaven–headed black woman who survived cancer with the following slogan: Too confident - not just for me, but for all the girls like me.

Confidence and courage, "authenticity" – these are the key characteristics accompanying the process of constructing the image of Artemis: A confident slash of bright liner, a bold lipstick – this is makeup to transform your mindset and prepare you to take on anything (C); Do anything with Certainty (V); She is boldly authentic, a true original. She leads like a woman (Sh).

Spiritual and mental freedom can be verbalized in provocative slogans against the background of photos of women with androgynous appearance, where the keywords are "different" and "fearless": Different – It means I'm not like anyone else (V);Women everywhere are defying the norms (V); To do the things we love, or to be with who we love. We’re doing it – in our own way. For centuries, we’ve been told what to do and how to be. We have let others define us and our dreams. No more. We know who we are. We are FEARLESS like that (C).

4. The archetype "warrior" (Athena).

He embodies the desire to prove his worth through active actions, the purpose of which is to transform the world for the better. The warrior represents the universal meaning of strength, skills and courage.

Unlike the feminist Artemis, Athena is not only spiritually independent, she also becomes a person capable of any active actions that were originally attributed only to men. The strength of a female warrior is increasingly reflected in the scenes of work and life: The most prevailing constant: strong women (Sh); I now have the strength to call the shots (Sh).

When a brand promotes a series of health products designed for women, it often uses "hero woman" as a key concept: The hero woman, fuel for your life (C);You can be the hero woman. Drive and focus to reach your full potential (V).

Often the image of Athena is based on the image of Wonder Woman created by the American film industry, so her power can be hyperbolized to the ability to control the world or change it for the better: Women run the world(Sh); Harness their passion for food, beauty, sports, and acting to drive real, meaningful change, making the world healthier, happier, more connected, and infinitely stronger – now and for a year to come (Sh); Girls in STEM become women who change the world(C); Rule your world again (V); The best part is I don't have to stop living my life! (V).

The empirical material allowed us to conduct not only qualitative, but also quantitative analysis in terms of the frequency of archetypes presented in the selected advertising texts. The results are shown in the diagram.

Figure 1. Quantitative ratio of texts verbalizing female archetypes

Thus, the analysis of the verbalization of the aesthetic ideal of a woman in modern English-language advertising allowed us to identify the most relevant images based on the mythological archetypes of ancient Greek goddesses.

Thus, the most frequent is the Aphrodite seductress archetype, since beauty and youth products occupy the largest segment in the women's goods industry. The second place is shared by the archetypes of a warrior and an independent woman, characteristic of the goddesses Athena and Artemis. This fact clearly demonstrates the redistribution of social roles in the English-speaking community. In the last place is the archetype of the guardian of the hearth of Hestia, which was traditional for women, which is losing its prevalence due to the increase in the level of emancipation of society. The social aspect of the advertising text determines its lexical content: the keywords that verbalize the above concepts are constants for the texts of a specific subject of goods. Due to the conciseness of the form, they are an ideal suggestive means. For Aphrodite, the semantic fields "appearance", "age" and their corresponding representatives are important. For Hestia – "family"; for Demeter – "spiritual freedom"; for Athena – "social activity". It can be said that traditional gender stereotypes about the aesthetic ideal of a woman in the English-language advertising text are transformed, as a result of which the theories of femininity and masculinity begin to acquire common linguistic and cognitive principles and means of representation.