Lately, there have been a lot of discussions on how women portrayed in advertising that is geared towards men. It is true, that most of the times we are shown a female character that is objectified, devalued and sometimes even dehumanized. In those commercials women are depicted as an inferior and submissive type. In opposite, men are portrayed as masculine, powerful and controlling. Who’s fault is that? Should we blindly blame the media, it’s producers or maybe consumers?
In “Where the Girls Are", Susan Douglas argues, women love and hate the media at the same time, "in no small part because the media, simultaneously, love and hate women", by which she addresses the mixed messages that pop culture broadcasts to women (Douglas 12). As little girls, many of females might have adored TV commercials which represented women as flawless beauties with perfect bodies, hair and skin. As they got older, most had realized that these images aren’t amusing anymore. Almost every time a woman is shown in the media, she was usually portrayed as a housewife or someone who is simply happy to own a bag, jewelry or piece of cosmetics. Unfortunately, many females consuming this media felt that the society was showing them what they were supposed to be and therefore, felt extremely pressured to become what they have observed.
In order to understand why such media is being circulated among us, It is necessary to take a deeper look into the process of Media Production. Evidently, majority of the creators, producers and editors of the media are males. Therefore, extensive part of the media is male oriented and mostly made to be appealing to an average white heterosexual men. Sex by itself, is another factor that led to objectification of women. Advertisers instantly focused on women as sexual objects rather than women, once the they became aware of that “sexy” sells better. According Jean Kilbourne’s “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising, ”Female is generally presented as superwoman, who manages to do all the work at home and on the job (with the help of a product, of course, not of her husband or children or friends)” (Kilbourne 125). Many companies also employed techniques that not only objectify women but also utilize their insecurities in order to sell their product. Kilbourne also wrote, “Advertisers are aware of their role and do not hesitate to take advantage of the insecurities and anxieties of young people, usually in the guise of offering solutions” (Kilbourne 129). This proves that the purpose of such pervasive media is to sell a product by shaping culture's sense of our everyday activities, such as dating, romance, sex, beauty and understanding of what is 'ideal' within society is.
Sexist media has a corrosive impact on our society and our perception of our place within. I can agree that some of the messages we see in daily media are not as damaging to adults but they have a greater effect on young children who most likely to take this images as instructive. Many of them see the images of people just like themselves or images of their peers, being rewarded with intimacy and romance for acting and dressing up in a very provocative way. Of course, there are feminist movements that could help develop a different population of true equality, but unfortunately, popular media had distorted the definition of feminism a long time ago. Naomi Wolf analyzed several editorials of early publications in 1848. Feminists in those publications were portrayed as “Unsexed women, who were too repulsive to find a husband. Women, that are entirely devoid of personal attraction” (Wolf 68). Did the perception of a feminist had changed nowadays? Probably not too much.
It is hard to admit, but we are living in the world of Patriarchy. Many men don't even consciously identify with this term and as Bell Hooks states “Men who have heard and know the word usually associate it with women’s liberation, with feminism, and therefore dismiss it as irrelevant to their own experiences” (Hooks 17). In order to stop this pervasive course of sexism in media, first, we need to fix the root of the problem. It is essential to educate our younger population that there is no need for power hierarchies between men and women. We should break common gender rules and stop assigning specific products or behavior to male or female gender. Just as drinking beer doesn’t make a person more of man, putting makeup on doesn’t make one any more of a woman. We need to be aware of how serious the issue is and be concerned for our well-being as a society. As media makers, we are especially involved in the process of social development. We have to stop using female bodies to advertise and sell products, stop being obsessed with flawless beauty which doesn’t exist. Shaving with an expensive razor, drinking specific type of liquor or wearing particular brand doesn’t automatically bring beautiful women around. We should advertise products by presenting the real product for its real values and benefits. Therefore, putting our societies values before our material interests is an essential step in creating healthy, sexist and stereotype free, truly equal community.
Works Cited
- “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising” - Jean Kilbourne"The More You
- “Patriarchy” - Bell Hooks
- “The MOre You Subtract The More You Add: Cutting Girls Down to Size" - Jean Kilbourne
- “The Beauty Myth, Culture” – Naomi Wolf
- “Where the Girls Are" - Susan Douglas
Additional Link: (10 most sexist ads of all times)
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