Feminism Criticism on Kenzo Perfume Advertisement

Kenzo Perfume Advertisement: A Feminism Perspective

One of the internationally famous and luxurious perfume brand called Kenzo has published a peculiar and eccentric short commercial video, advertising their newly-released female fragrance product in 2016. Directed by well-known American director and producer, Spike Jonze, this four minutes duration video has fruitfully captivated the netizen’ and consumers’ eyes due to its bizarre quality. Despite, the uniqueness of the commercial video has gained attention from people across the countries and been featured in several online articles. The central figure of the ad is a lady donning a stunningly fancy dress in formal yet lavish setting, trying to get away from the formal occasion she was in. From a being a lady with exquisite appearance, courteous and reserved in manner, she then suddenly turns out acting barbarous with her dance movements, which is the mark of its rarity.

From the feminism perspective, it can be seen that the advertisement depicts divergence and violation of the prevalent norms associated to women in patriarchal society. The most obvious part shown through the transition when the lady with a gracious behavior, acting discourteous when she starts dancing. In male-dominated society, females are often being stereotyped as submissive and possess feminine-like attitudes such as weak, emotional, gentle, unaggressive, and kind, unlike men⸺ masculine, though, dominant and logical. The lady’s beastly dance movements can be interpreted as a symbol of departure from the gender-norm shaped by the society towards women. In a way, such body motion renders the idea that women can do and be anything they want to, not limited to what the society expected them to be. According to poststructuralist feminism, gender is shaped and distinguished by the culture, not through its biological aspects. Thus, certain traits and qualities are being attributed to both genders. In order to oppose these notions, postructuralist feminism attempt to scrutinize on what means that female are being labeled as 'other ' being, inferior to male species, with regard to the binary opposition. This binary opposition of men-biased society begets double-standard in terms of treatments between two different genders. Poststructuralist feminism aims to establish equality and justice between both genders.

On the other hand, in the middle part of the video whereby the main lady holding and licking the head of a man statue somehow signifies women's superiority and their empowerment over men. Patriarchy practices frequently marginalized women in the sense that they are dependent and abide to male's power and control. Therefore, such  queerly act can be explicated as a satirical expression as well as a sign of role alteration. The actress shows that women don't need men's support to live their life. The scene where the lady moves as if she is in a fight and beating a guy that is talking on the phone at the foyer, also might symbolizes women's fight to dominate men. While her body pose that resembles body builder most likely represents women's strength and supremacy.

In a nutshell, one might have numbers of interpretation on the Kenzo perfume advertisement. It can be viewed on different perspectives based on an individual understanding and how the viewers perceive this outlandish video. As for feminism, the main figure portrays strong feeling of women empowerment throughout her dance movements in the video. Overall, this perfume commercial depicts the departure of gender cliche within patriarchal community.