Reflection 1

Reflection 1

        My partner, Phoebe and I had chosen a topic about showgirls. In my annotation 1 and 2, I emphasize on the social and sexuality aspect of this issue, while Phoebe mainly focus on the economic impact that showgirls bring. We hadn’t really discussed this topic that often, so we were a little bit unfamiliar with each other’s ideas and opinion. Our presentation will be more efficient if two of us are standing on the same field. Teacher told us to focus mainly on the economic aspect of this issue. At first I think it is very hard for me to find informations or studies if we have to focus on economy because I am against showgirls, and the information I found on the internet didn’t mention the bad influence showgirls bring to the economy. But then I think it will really be better if we could attack each other based on the same idea.

       

Robert & Knot

        I think their structure was already quite solid, like they knew what they were doing and did it step by step. But their topic was harder, so they have to find a way to deliver their information in a rather easy way.

Tony & Alison

        Their topic is very interesting and is a phenomenon that happened just recent years. I think they could start with legal problems, which can first clarify their idea. And I think their examples can be more unify, so that the audience will catch up with them more easily.

Annotation 4 Revised

Showgirls Boost the Atmosphere, Not the Brand

In this annotation, I want to talk about what showgirls can really bring in exhibitions. And using showgirls as a commercial strategy may not be as efficient as companies think it would be. As I said in my previous annotations, using showgirls in exhibitions has become a trend. Companies realize that showgirls brought customers to their stands, so all of them started to hire showgirls to help promote their products and attract customers. This is why, over the past few years, we put equation between exhibition and showgirl’s performance.

Video games exhibition, and electronic devices exhibition gradually became popular in the past few years, visitors increases every year. We can say that most of the credit goes to showgirls. The impact that showgirls bring is obvious; they stimulate the atmosphere in the exhibition, and indeed attract more customers than before. However, if everyone’s doing the same thing, then no one is special anymore. It is true that the atmosphere that showgirls create brings enjoyment to customer’s senses, but companies hiring showgirls instead of emphasizing on the character of their brand is a big mistake. If a company wants to stand out from other companies and let people recognize them in an instance, they have to have a strong brand image. So, in the long run, using showgirls to promote their products instead of their brand is not at all efficient. Especially for those new companies that joined the exhibition in recent years; the best way to promote their products is to make the customers remember their brand, so they have to leave strong impression on customers. Showgirls can introduce the product and interact with the customers, but their purpose was not selling the brand.

Also, using showgirls eliminated companies’ chance to communicate with other kinds of customers (馮建三, 2011). Showgirls attract males to come to the exhibition; that is a fact. So the companies assume all of the customers are males, and they stick to this idea and continue to use showgirls at their stands, hoping to increase their revenue. They stop exploring new customers, and this is a fatal mistake for every company.

What we really need to think about is that an exhibition is for companies to face the customers directly and show them that they are different from others. But now, exhibitions that filled with showgirls are all about building a bustling atmosphere, and neglect the much more important part of building their brand image.

References:

http://nccuir.lib.nccu.edu.tw/bitstream/140.119/33119/9/

Annotation 3 Revised

Annotation 3 – Commodification of Showgirls

In the exhibition, we can see a lot of companies selling their products; and beside the various products, there are something that catches our eyes even more, showgirls. They are the center of the spotlight; the lights, the cameras, and the customers’ eyes are all on them. Comparing to the products companies meant to sell; showgirls are more like the products on the shelf waiting to be picked. People look at them for their youth, pretty faces and sexy bodies. Showgirls’ beauty is like a commodity that can be browsed and bought, as if their value is based only on their flesh. This is called the commodification of female bodies.

A few years ago, there was a TV commercial featured a young girl “Yao Yao” who shook her breasts and made sweet voices during this commercial. And this immediately became the most controversial topic people discuss at that time. Some people thought that she was the innocent victim because she was just trying to make money and did what the company made her did. And others saw her as a girl who sold her body and created a sexual image out of herself. Either statement shows that women have no control over their own bodies and sexual desires; instead, they’re dominated by the commercial system, in which the girls have to degrade themselves (exposing body parts in front of the camera, for example) to cater to some male customers. When the target customers are male, companies often use sexual images of women to make the customers notice their products. To put it simply, they are objectifying female to gain commercial benefits. The relationship between showgirls and the businesses seems to be mutually beneficial, but if we see behind this objectifying, we can understand that showgirl is a kind of career that is manipulated by chauvinism and capitalism.

Capitalism made most of the young girls desired material things more than before; and being a showgirl means they can make their way quicker to the grown-up world and enjoy all the material things. In the process, however, these girls also became the materials being exploited. They were manipulated by chauvinism. Girls were often taught either to “please” men, or to dominate them; they established their confidence by the approval of men or overpassing men, both of which still under the dominion of patriarchy.

Although showgirl may seem like a glamorous and dream-like career, and they may seem to have sovereignty over their bodies, they’re actually constrained in the system of commercial interest and patriarchy.

Resources:

http://forum.yam.org.tw/bongchhi/old/tv/tv94.htm

http://blog.youthwant.com.tw/fk1955/hc1151/1235/

Annotation 1- revised

In the past few years, the demand of show girls was on the rise. Show girls originally came from Las Vegas, they are a bunch of girls dressed up in pretty and glamorous clothes dancing and performing on stage. But now in Asia, show girls are more like models, they show up in commercial events to attract customers, man, for most. And whenever there is an exhibition for cars or video games, there will be tons of show girls in it. I’ve seen a lot of news headlines that says something like”Sexy show girls exposed themselves makes the business blooming”. The news emphasized on how hot and beautiful the show girls are, and put some matching photos beside the content of the news.

I found a piece of news on the internet; it came out at February this year. At the international video game exhibition, a model was forced by her agent to take off her bra when there were a lot of eyes watching. The agent told the show girl she was going to wear something like an office lady’s suit, but when she got to the exhibition, the agent made her wear something that wasn’t what they agreed on, and insist her to take off her bra to fit the outfit. Show girls don’t really have their privacy. When they go on auditions, companies will see them as merchandise instead of living people. They look at show girls’ bodies as if they are picking out a good pig to make pork. And when they’re at work, there’s always press that tries to shoot their underwear and their breasts. They have to obey every demand that company asks them, or they won’t get a chance to success in this career. They want to protect themselves, but there are a lot of times when they just can’t say no. Companies want them to be puppets; exquisitely made and easy to control. If they refuse to wear what the companies want them to wear; they’re jeopardizing their future career.  And after they become famous, those photos or what they did before they were famous will be used against them. People will call them slutty and desperate, these are all bad image for a girl. Even if they stop being show girl after a while, bad reputation isn’t something that can be taken back easily. For the above reasons, I think that showgirls’ being used as a commercial strategy is a bad idea.

http://www.appledaily.com.tw/appledaily/article/headline/20130203/34811959/

Annotation 4

Showgirls Boost the Atmosphere, Not the Brand

In this annotation, I want to talk about what showgirls can really bring in exhibitions. And using showgirls as a commercial strategy may not be as efficient as companies think it would be. As I said in my previous annotations, using showgirls in exhibitions has become a trend. Companies realize that showgirls brought customers to their stands, so all of them started to hire showgirls to help promote their products and attract customers. This is why, over the past few years, we put equation between exhibition and showgirl’s performance.

Video games exhibition, and electronic devices exhibition gradually became popular in the past few years, visitors increases every year. We can say that most of the credit goes to showgirls. The impact that showgirls bring is obvious; they stimulate the atmosphere in the exhibition, and indeed attract more customers than before. However, if everyone’s doing the same thing, then no one is special anymore. It is true that the atmosphere that showgirls create brings enjoyment to customer’s senses, but companies hiring showgirls instead of emphasizing on the character of their brand is a big mistake. If a company wants to stand out from other companies and let people recognize them in an instance, they have to have a strong brand image. So, in the long run, using showgirls to promote their products instead of their brand is not at all efficient. Especially for those new companies that joined the exhibition in recent years; the best way to promote their products is to make the customers remember their brand, so they have to leave strong impression on customers. Showgirls can introduce the product and interact with the customers, but their purpose was not selling the brand.

Also, using showgirls eliminated companies’ chance to communicate with other kinds of customers (馮建三, 2011). Showgirls attract males to come to the exhibition; that is a fact. So the companies assume all of the customers are males, and they stick to this idea and continue to use showgirls at their stands, hoping to increase their revenue. They stop exploring new customers, and this is a fatal mistake for every company.

What we really need to think about is that an exhibition is for companies to face the customers directly and show them that they are different from others. But now, exhibitions that filled with showgirls are all about building a bustling atmosphere, and neglect the much more important part of building their brand image.

Transcription 2

Hello, my name is Niki. Our topic today is “Is it appropriate to use showgirl as a commercial strategy?” And before we start, start our presentation, we have a question for you first.

Phoebe: Have you been to an exhibition? Anyone?

Kevin: yes.

Phoebe: And what is the most eye catching thing when you arrive in this place?

Kevin: uh, for me, of course it’s not the showgirl.

Phoebe: oh really? Then what is it?

Kevin: the stuff they put there.

Niki: the what? Oh, stuff.

Kevin: yeah, for example, cars.

Phoebe: products.

Kevin: yes, products.

Niki: But, can you say that you, can you say that you never notice the showgirl? Like you never look at them?

Kevin: of course, not.

Niki: You still look at them, right?

Kevin: yes, still.

Niki: Yes, um, for most of the people, showgirls are always the center of the spotlight in the exhibition. You can see the cameras and the cust…, customer’s eyes are all on them. And comparing to the products companies meant to sell, they are more like, they are more like products, um, on the shelves, waiting to be picked. And, people stare at them because they are beautiful, young, and of course, they have very sexy bodies. And, showgirls’ beauty is like a commodity that can be browsed and bought freely as if their value is based only on their flesh. And this is what we called the commodification of female bodies. Now, I’m going to show you a short clip, from youtube.

Niki: So, this is a car exhibition. Ok, so, you can see that the camera moved from the showgirl’s face, to her legs, and then again from her legs to her face. Just like every customer will scan the product before purchasing. And, companies make showgirls wear very, um, mini skirts and very, um, tops that will expose their breasts. Just like this one. This one, can you see that? Yeah. And, because every company will spend time and money, beautifying and improving their own products, and showgirls are now what they want to reform to attract buyers, and buyers here meaning, what these buyers really want to buy is showgirl’s beauty. Ok. Can anyone tell me what car you saw in that video I just showed you? Anyone? Anyone tell me what car you saw in that video.

Kevin: You mean the brand?

Niki: uh, yeah.

Kevin: Honda.

Niki: Honda? Ok, just one, one person? So, see, um, most of you, except for Kevin, didn’t notice what the car, uh, brand is, or what color it is. It is because the camera always aims at the showgirl instead of the car. Um, clearly the car is what the company wanted to sell, but in this 30 seconds clip, you, uh, the camera only stayed on the car for three seconds. This shows that customers’ attention were never on the product itself. And, showgirls are seen as products instead of living people. They are surveyed from their faces, breasts, and then legs, as if they’re a lifeless Barbie doll. And, as showgirls are being commodified, commoditized, they outshine the products companies intend to sell.