Advertising Bodies: Perpetuating a Cycle of Exploitation

To understand the importance of advertising, one need only open his eyes. Our world is saturated with images of people with perfect bodies, flawless skin, and a certain glowing aspect that could never be attained in real life. However fantastical it may be, these images have an unbelievably strong effect on people who are forced to watch them. The advertisements begin to dictate the way people dress, live, and think about themselves even though the body images that are portrayed are unattainable by the average person.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/33-startling-photos-of-pornstars-with-and-without-their-make 

            Even though these pervasive images affect both men and women, it seems as though women are more strongly affected because they are often objectified in these images while the men are often being catered to; “Men look at women. Women see themselves as being looked at” (Berger 47). This is where the problem lies; the advertisements are run and controlled by men who are operating under the seemingly accurate notion that “sex sells”. Women become objectified and crave attention from men because they are constantly bombarded by images of how they should dress, act, and appear. Likewise, men become enamored with the idea that women will cater to them if they act, dress, and appear a certain way.

            This is why Cortese states that “advertising has a great deal to say about gender identity”  because it “creates a mythical, WASP-oriented world in which no one is ever ugly, overweight, poor, toiling, or physically or mentally disabled” (Cortese 52). Advertisements depict a perfect world where everything is perfect, and if someone cannot mentally project themselves into this image because they do not appear as though they belong, it has a profound effect on their gender identity. For example, if a young man sees an advertisement for cologne in which the male model is shirtless for an unknown reason, buff and ripped, and has an unbelievably beautiful woman throwing herself at him, the young man may associate the male model with everything it means to be “manly”. However, the young man may not be buff and ripped, and therefore he will view himself as less of a man.

            The same can be said for women. However, since women are constantly objectified in advertisements by way of superiority, dismemberment, clowning, canting, and dominance, the effect is far more profound (Kilbourne 3). There are women who are formed by these images and seek a career in this world. These women are tormented and are constantly under pressure to look a certain way. This dictates the amount of food they consume or the amount of activity they undergo. It is an extremely stressful job that has claimed the lives of a number of models. However, more worrisome than this is the fact that these women subject themselves to this treatment will fully because they are brainwashed by the images they have seen all of their lives; some women may be led to believe that that is the only way to become successful. Therefore, it becomes a never ending cycle. In which models are portrayed an exploited and those images inspire a younger generation to continually perpetuate this form of exploitation.

                                    

            “Advertising images provide culturally sanctioned ideal types of masculinity and femininity” (Cortese 52). However, these images are unattainable in real life and become dangerous to anyone who believes they cannot fit in with the stereotypical male or female. Some people would do anything to identify with the stereotypical gender roles as depicted by these advertisements. Men will take steroids and live in the gym in an effort to appear as the men they see on television. Women will starve themselves and get breast implants to make themselves more appealing to men. Therefore the cycle goes on forever until people begin to fight against this type of advertising. Perhaps they should show models without make up or Photoshop, or use regular men and women with clothes on. However, as seen before, “efforts to redefing gender ideals for advertisers” are often “met with disbelief, resistance and downright hostility” (Cortese 52).