Advertising industry

            In most, if not all advertisements, women are always portrayed as sex objects; bodies of women are being used to sell unrelated material. Sex does sell but what does it really say about our social standards? Is this how we view the women in our society? How realistic is it for us to expect and try to attain that air brushed photoshopped flawless looking face or that beyond perfect body? Even after knowing the facts that help us evaluate such questions, we continue to use advertisements that exploit a woman because it still attracts the audience.

            We line in such a male dominated world that every piece of advertisement is directed towards the male gaze. If a woman is depicted as sensual and seductive, it is to allure the male spectator. Women are told they have to use a million different products to keep them looking young because an ageless face is a magnet for men. In “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising,” Kilbourne notes that even fourth graders are under the impression that they have to appeal to boys; “boys expect girls to be perfect and beautiful. And skinny” (Kilbourne, 4). Make up works as a facade that gives women the freedom to change their skin according to what is “acceptable” and hid their true self that may not match up to the “ideal” reality.

            Females are objectified is not to say that males are not. Male physique is also used to sell but the difference is the power hierarchies between the two. While women are depicted are innocent and passive, men are strong and authoritative. As times are changing and in reality, women are breaking away from the image of a hopeless housewife and becoming more independent, men are becoming more muscular. “Bodybuilding may be men’s reaction to compensate for an increase in women’s economic, political, and social power” (Cortese, 15) it’s ironic to think that the men in our society feel threatened by images of nude women that are used to please them. As a female is encouraged to be as thin as possible a male is told to be as big as possible to maintain the imbalance between male and female power. Even in cigarette commercials, the image of a rugged cow boy is used to sell Marlboro because it is a “man’s cigarette” while light cigarette is made for women (Kellner, 3). A women needs light because she can ‘t afford the “extra calories” or her body isn’t rough enough for the damages since added the word ‘light’ make it less injurious to health. If you were to compare two advertisements side by side, one of a man and the other of a woman, exposing the same amount of skin, in the same lighting and surroundings, the ad with the man will seem more overpowering simply because from a younger age we are told this is how things should be.

            On a daily bases we are exposed to 1500 ads. The advertising industry makes over $130 billion a year (Kilbourne, 1). The cosmetic industry makes more than $1 million per day out of which only 8 cents per dollar is used for the cost of ingredients: the rest of the money is used for advertising, marketing, and packaging (Cortese, 11). Such power packed statics can stand on its own and are enough to prove the power advertisements have in affecting the society. Unfortunately, adolescences and teenagers get the short end of the stick because there are at a stage in life where media becomes an outlet for their problems. The affects of advertising is so harmful that a survey showed “more than half the fourth-grade girls were dieting and three-quarters felt overweight” (Kilbourne, 4). At such a young age, there shouldn’t be any reason for anyone, girl or boy, to go on diets and feel overweight. These girls haven’t even hit puberty yet and there are thinking about how they should be in order to fit in. Vulnerability of the younger ones is still justified but how do you account for the German woman who has undergone numerous cosmetic surgeries to attain that unrealistic body figures inspired by Barbie? (Cortese, 13)  Advertisements have the power to shape our society and yet we let it carry on in negative ways.

            I don’t have any way of deconstructing the advertising industry but I do like the approach take my Ms. magazine. Surveying the real women for their input as to what they want to see and how they want to see it appear is a great initiative. I would definitely like to see a decrease in the number of nude women and men for that matter trying to sell manufactured goods. Baby steps will have to do for now because no matter how futuristic and modern we claim to be, we still live in a backward society where men are patriarchal and dominate.

 images from April 2013 issue of InStyle


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmIJ-B6o4O4

rest of the part can be found on youtube.