Post 3 Bethany Si Yue Mong

     Nowadays, we can see advertising images which make fun or degrade women everywhere. Because most of the men and women follow gender roles to identify themselves in the society, a lot of men think that is alright to make fun of women sexually as it is what masculine men should act like. Moreover, many women accept or feel ashamed when men laugh at them sexually because they think women need to be submissive to men. However, there are still a lot of male and female out there who found that they do not fit in either category. These people realized that gender roles do not help them to identify themselves but restrict them to be who they truly are. They realized that advertising images are one of the commercial strategies which support companies to sell their products. Advertising images do not only create and reflect our social norms, but also lead our society to sexism, racism and power hierarchies.

     In Beauty and the Beast of Advertising, Jean Kilbourne showed his agreement on those advertising images reflected our social norms and led to sexism. The author claimed that “This is the real tragedy, that many women internalize these stereotypes and learn their “limitations,” thus establishing a self-fulfilling prophecy.” The word “limitation” shows the division line of how gender roles separate and identify the behaviors of both men and women. However, because men are portrayed as masculine in gender roles, they claim to have power over women and have to be the one in charge. Kilbourne also said the word “stereotypes”, which pointed out that gender roles do not only affect how men view women, but also affect how women view themselves. Because of the sexism, many women set restrictions for themselves of what they can and cannot do. However, why do media use gender role, especially women to advertise its products?

     Because gender role is widely known, companies used advertising images to promote what everybody understood in order to sell their products, but at the same time promote sexism and power hierarchies. In Constructed Bodies, Deconstructing Ads Sexism in Advertising, Anthony Cortese said, “Gender images hit at the heart of individual identity.” Because advertising images reflects and create gender roles, people believe that how they are portrayed in magazine is how they are supposed to act like in actual life. However, many people are unconsciously influenced by the advertising images that they forgot the true purpose of commercials, which is for companies to gain money from customers. Most importantly, ideal images present in advertisements are impossible to attain as no one can be flawless and perfect. The idea that people strive to be perfect but the fact is that they can never be, which contradicts them. This contradiction becomes worse when it comes to women. In Ways of Seeing, John Berger also claimed that, “Women are depicted in a quite different way from men – not because the feminine is different from the masculine – but because the ‘ideal’ spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him.” Because women are always portrayed as objects and submissive to men, how they behave and look like is not for themselves but for men. As a result, if women cannot attain to be “perfect,” they fail to be “beautiful” women. However, when advertising images come to men, there will not be a problem for them as how they look and want is for what they desire instead of for women. The difference between men and women based on gender role does not only lead to sexism, but also a power hierarchy.

     Because gender roles differentiate men and women, our patriarchal society does not allow women to have power as power is reserved for men. Due to the fact that a lot of commercial makers are male, they create advertising images which reflect our social norms and lead to power hierarchy. In Culture from The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf addressed that, “women are allowed a mind or a body but not both.” This quote reflects how women are portrayed by men in our culture. Also, it shows that women are not allowed to have power from men or they lose their inner beauty. Living in a male dominated society, women have to stop themselves from being powerful in the society in order not to lose themselves, which presents by their beauty. Because media is affected by culture norms, we can see advertising images which portrayed women who are powerless and submissive to men. As a result, men try to maintain gender role and women can never be powerful, which leads to a power hierarchy. 

     Advertising images also reflect and create gender and race differentiation which leads to racism and power hierarchy. In The Oppositional Gaze, Bell Hooks explained that, “We are afraid to talk about ourselves as spectators because we have been so abused by ‘the gaze.’” In this quote, Hooks illustrated how black women are influenced by the media under the patriarchy society. Because advertising images portrayed women as submissive to men and to be white, the black culture and the natural complexion of black women affected black and white male to be attracted by black female. This oppositional gaze does not only reflect racism in our society by media, but also a power hierarchy which women cannot be powerful, especially black women.

     From my point of view, I think advertising images are mainly for companies to sell their products. They use gender role as an element to promote their advertisements because it is norms that everyone knows, so companies can sell their products easily. However, I do not believe that advertising with gender role is the only way leads companies to gain money. It is because there are so many people who are excluded by gender roles such as people who are homosexual, transgender, tomboy…etc. If companies can open up a new way to advertise by promoting interests of different people, they can develop a new way to earn more money. At the same time, sexism, racism and power hierarchy can be balanced out and people do not have to be restricted by the social norms. 

Works Cited:

-          Beauty and the Beast of Advertising, by Jean Kilbourne

-          Constructed Bodies, Deconstructing Ads Sexism in Advertising, by Anthony Cortese

-          Ways of Seeing, by John Berger

-          Culture from The Beauty Myth, by Naomi Wolf

-          The Oppositional Gaze, by Bell Hooks