Ashley Roth
Professor Cacoilo
Women and Media
Fall 2016
November 2, 2016
Advertising Images: Gender, Sexism and Power Hierarchies
The
Advertising Industry continues to bombard viewers with various sexist and
racist images by objectifying women as body parts to sell various products in
the American culture. According to Beauty and the Beast of Advertising
by Jean Kilbourne, “Advertising is an over $130 billion a year industry …..they
sell values, images and concepts of success and worth, love and sexuality,
popularity and normalcy” (121).There are numerous female advertising images that
depict them as sexual body parts on billboards, magazines, television,
newspapers, social media, computer websites and commercials. There are many advertising images that leaves
a negative imprint on the minds of viewers especially women and
adolescents. The basic reason that the
Advertising Industry continues to depict sexist female images as objects
involves “Women stand in patriarchal culture as signifier for the male by a
symbolic order… man can live out his phantasies and obsessions
through……imposing them on the silent image of woman” (834). It revolves around
Laura Mulvey’s Theory of the Male Gaze.
Advertiser’s goal is based on economic wealth for their clients who hire
them to lure in prospective customers, as well as, for their own financial
success. It is possible that the Advertising
Industry lacks powerful female positions in this field whose emphasis is based
on objectifying women’s body parts in today’s society. Adolescence is a
challenging time and the media wants to inform them about a specific
stereotype. “Advertising creates a
mythical, WASP-oriented world….no one is ever ugly, overweight, poor,
struggling or disabled either physically or mentally” (122). It is a disgrace
that advertisers target this vulnerable group.
Adolescents are unsure about their worth, value, they want to be popular,
independent from parents and some are willing to buy into any idea or product that
advertisements sell. There are many young people who are suffering from various
eating disorders encouraged through various advertisements. There are more male
photographers who depict women in ads according to their male perspective. According to Reading Images Critically-Toward
a Postmodern Pedagogy by Douglas
Kellner, Advertisements attempt to sell the product by associating with certain
socially desirable qualities, but they sell as well a worldview, a lifestyle
and value system congruent with the imperatives of consumer capitalism” (127). These types of advertisements want consumers
to buy their products and it informs women that they should look like these
models. They should aim to be beautiful,
sensuous and thin. Sexualized
Advertisements does not allow women and girls to appreciate different body
shapes and sizes. It aims is the slimmer
you are the more glamorous and sexy you are. For example, the tobacco corporations
want to convey the message that smoking is a “cool thing to do” because they
want women to make an association with Virginia Slims cigarette with the image
of the “Modern Woman” (Pg. 127). Media places an unrealistic standard of beauty
on women which creates negative images of self- worth, depression, low self-
esteem and eating disorders. It encourages impressionable female consumers to
buy a particular product in the hope that they can look like their counterparts
in various advertisements. According to
“Marked Rise in intensely Sexualized Images of women by Patricia Donova,
“Sexualized portrayals of women have been found to legitimize or exacerbate
violence against women and girls, as well as, sexual harassment and anti women
attitudes among men and boys” (Hattan). The advertising establishment realizes
that men enjoy looking at female body parts which gives women the idea that
they will be viewed the same way, if they buy particular products. According to the article, Women as Sex Objects and Victims in Print Ads by Stankiewicz and
Rosselli it states, “Women are shown as less sexually powerful than men and
as objects of men’s desire”. As women
are viewed as expanding their role in the world, simultaneously, they are shown
as the weaker gender through advertising images that depict them as less
sexually powerful than men and as body parts for men to desire, forcefully take
them against their will. This type of sexist,
ignorant mentality encourages some men to perpetrate physical and emotional
violence on women and girls, as well as, rape.
When women are viewed as the members of the weaker sex, sexualizing
their body parts with no regard for them as human beings, violence can occur.
Visual advertisements influences “Attitudes, Beliefs and Behavior”, in one’s
culture. (409). It gives a powerful
message that permeates into the culture’s belief system. This increases an acceptance that violence
and rape against women is permitted and accepted in our society. Sexualized
female models are used to help persuade consumers to buy their product. There are many techniques that Advertisers
use to persuade their customers in buying unnecessary items. Advertising “Forces
consumer to pay high prices for products advertised with certain socially
desirable traits and convey messages concerning the symbolic benefits accrued
to those who consume the product” (130). In actuality, Advertising executives
cleverly attempt to influence the culture by symbolically imaging a product so
that people will associate with the company’s values, beliefs and ideas. Kellner’s idea that images shown in advertisements
should be critiqued by consumers is an excellent suggestion. I believe that education is the best way to
teach kids how to become savvy consumers when viewing various advertisements.
Children should learn about the advertising industry starting in Elementary
School and continue throughout High School. Adult consumers need to change the
way they view advertisements. Consumers need to learn that the Advertising
Industry’s goal is to lure consumers to buy beauty products that are unnecessary,
might not work or is too expensive for some people. Parents should educate their children about advertisements
their children view on television, billboards, websites, and kid’s magazines. Children
and adolescents have the intelligence to learn how to become educated
consumers. As consumers, we have a right to vocalize our concerns to
Advertising Corporations. Advertising Corporations “Should be subject to
taxation” (131). Advertising Corporations should not be allowed to write off as
a business expense which the taxpayer becomes responsible for it and by
expensive price tags for the consumers.
They should be held accountable for the reckless harm they perpetrate on
society. Perhaps, Advertising
Corporations and sponsors would think twice about the effects that their negative
messages that advertisements have on consumers: women, girls, adolescent kids.
Dolce Gabbana Rape Ad
The Dove Campaign Ad for Women
Links:
13-5
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/21/dove-real-beauty-campaign-turns-10_n_4575940.html
WORKS CITED:
Beauty and the Beast of Advertising
By Jean Kilbourne
Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and
Narrative Cinema.” Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. Eds. Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen. New York: Oxford UP, 1999: 833-844
Sex, Lies and Advertising
Gloria Steinem
Women as Sex Objects and Victims in Print
Ads
Stankiewicz and Rosselli
http: //www.pbs.org/newshour/social
Reading Images Critically
Toward a Postmodern Pedagogy by Douglas
Kellner
Study Finds Marked Rise in Intensely
Sexualized Images of Women
By Patricia Donovan
Toxic Culture 101: Understanding the
Sexualization of Women by Shadia Duske
Ms.magazine.com/question practiced deemed
acceptable
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