ABSTRACT
The objectification of women in advertising has long been the focus of feminist critiques of media representation. Capitalism’s use of the sexualized female body to sell its products has been seen as constituting a significant contribution to the reproduction of ideologies of sexism and hence of patriarchal relations.1 Particular criticism-and derision-was directed at those advertisements employing the staple image of the ‘pin-up’ to sell products such as cars and machine tools to men (Sharpe, 1976: 109). Since the ‘pin-up’, like the ‘bathing beauty’, conventionally consists of a young, shapely woman in a swimsuit, it would not be surprising to find this image featuring widely in publicity for holidays. Given that a ‘holiday’, in British culture, usually connotes a beach holiday, and that a swimsuit is what is worn on the beach, the image would be motivated by this logic.
