The sexual objectification of women in advertising - Essay Example

?The Sexual Objectification of Women in Advertising Introduction Julia Roberts, playing the role of a modern in the movie "Mona Lisa Smile"will show her students a few advertisements including a garter ad. She will question them what will the future generation women viewing the ad think about them. The movie was set to happen in 1950's. Looking at the women featured in that ad, and the scantily clad models in the present advertisements, we sadly have to say the situation had gone from bad to worse. "Babe's or babies" is the prime slogan of many advertising agencies. It is the right time for modern and liberated women to start another revolution similar to suffrage to strongly put a check to the increase of sexual objectification of women in advertising. Ads are great, in several senses. They are one amongst the rarely thriving creative fields in the society. They make us smile and forget our problems through their imaginative rosy world. But, sadly a great proportion of ad directors simply believe they can sell their product only by portraying a woman sexually. The history of this notion started way back from the days of Esquire magazine and several others like the "Play Boy" continued on their footsteps. The copy writer turned editor of the Esquire magazine initially started to feature the petty girls and the pin up models to satisfy the male ego. They were in a crucial state to produce a magazine which attracts men. They used strong sarcasm under the cover of humour against the growing women power in the late 20's. Men who lost their jobs to the ever increasing women flock, found solace in such magazines. Everything from the cooking talent of women to their housekeeping norms were strongly criticized in the Esquire (Breazael, 2003). The magazine simply represented the mainstream idea of "Why don't these women keep quiet and let men manage the world?" in every bit. Several women groups stood up strongly against them. In fact the magazine was forced to keep their views under elite cover, mostly because of the rising feminist groups. A full century has passed from the time Esquire magazine was started. But, there doesn’t seem to be much change in the way the advertising world view women. In fact, the objectification of women in media only increases as years pass. There are several reasons for this. Goffman who researched over 500 advertisements on a gender based view noted three important points. The size and the height of men always seemed to be higher than women. Women were shown as stereotypical, overexcited beings often laughing or acting hysterically. Their touch and body is always combined with overt graze, usually representing them lying down in sofa's or beds (Goffman, 1979). The poses and mannerisms of women are usually depicted to be childlike, innocent or immature. Men see in such poses what women see in a baby, the need to nurture. A woman buys a product where a baby looks at her sheepishly with its finger on the mouth, kindled by her motherly instincts. Similarly a man buys a product showcasing a beautiful woman, with wide eyes, slightly open lips, stretched hands and legs, kindled by his natural dominant side. The problem here is both men and women are equal and the necessity for prince in armour has long disappeared. There is no point in portraying women as helpless, innocent, dependable creatures, luring men with sexiness when they live a completely respectful life. Women movements and associations should join hands together to stop such senselessness. If men cannot accept themselves being portrayed as cavemen when they wear Armani suit, why should a normal women accept a bimbo portrayal wherever she turns to. This is an age where governments are overthrown through Facebook. If women around the world join hands, such arrogance will be put to check immediately. The products of the Nestle Company were boycotted because they buy palm oil by destroying forests where orang-utan’s live. The company was forced to stop the worthless act saving the primitive species. If consumer power can do so much for a monkey, it can surely do much more for better portrayal of women in mainstream media. Men who view and create such advertisements generally post two major complaints about any step taken to control such activities. They state both men and women are portrayed sexually in media but only women care so much about it. The second complaint is that, the woman who poses in such a way doesn’t mind and most women do not oppose it. The first complaint is utterly baseless. Studies strongly suggest, though both men and women are portrayed sexually in the mainstream media, nearly 50% of the ads portray women sexually, while only a very few ads portray men in the same sense. Even in nude poses, women beauty is enhanced to such an extent is quite pervert looking while men genitals are usually avoided exposing only their shoulder and chest. This “hypersexual” form of women seemed to increase drastically. Nearly 83% of Rolling Stone magazine covers featuring men were normal or non sexual while the 83% of Rolling Stone covers featuring women were “sexual” or “hypersexual”. Only 17% of the covers portraying women were actually normal (Hatton & Nell Trautner, 2011). This is just a sample for one magazine. Racism plays a crucial part here too. Black women are usually represented as aggressive nymphomaniacs, wearing animal print cloth and sinister looking (Baker, 2005). Such representation is totally unacceptable in a country where Michelle Obama serves as first women. Such portrayals can be stopped with very little effort if ladies like her in high positions determine to do so. There is no proof that only sexy advertisements will sell. Here is an example of two mobile ads. The first one talks about the sound clarity and the second one about the picture quality. The first advertisement will definitely reach more people than the second one. In a world where women are the major consumers, it is their right to be portrayed respectfully, if not at least normally. Several master minds in the ad industry agree there is no empirical study or proof that only sexy ads sell. Creativity and technology is all that matters whether it is the visual media, print media or web advertising. Addressing the second complaint, though women act in such ads it doesn’t mean they do it out of their free will. There are millions of men in this world, who take up dirty jobs to support themselves. If there is a chance for a woman to pose naturally and earn decently, there is no necessity for her to pose hyper sexually. Several models, who work on such ads, do not have any idea how sexily they are portrayed. Technology enhances their every hair and limb in their body, making them look like the horniest creatures in the world. Only top models get to see what they are posing regularly, while most others, admit to utter shock when they come across their pose in a very perverted way by chance. Women these days simply don’t seem to complain or take any action to stop such misrepresentation as they are quite busy in other productive work. But, it is high time they unite to fight for their proper representation as everybody has the moral responsibility of answering the future generation as Julia Roberts said. When our grandchildren see the poses which rocked our time, they should look upon us with respect not contempt. A survey conducted on nearly 1,988 ads on 58 popular US magazines states women are shown as victims and sexual objects mostly in fashion magazines, adolescent magazines and Men’s magazines (Stanskiewicz & Rosselli, 2008). Creating such a negative image on the adolescent age, instead of instilling a sense of equality among men and women is totally unjust. No or very few women’s magazines portray men as totally dumb devices, borrowing huge sums to buy car or spend on gambling while it is very much the reality. But, almost all men’s magazines portray blonde women as utterly brainless, like there is a biological connection with the colour of the hair and the stuff inside it. The Esquire magazine published a paragraph about ‘Jiggling’ of women’s parts which gives ample ecstasy to men. Such columns only tempt men to increase their craving for women instead of concentrating on productive work. Men who watch such provocative pictures and read such articles are left in a sexually depressed state. Several men who were tested showing such ads admitted a want to rape a woman forcefully. Allowing them to watch such ads everywhere they go will only endanger the lives of women around them and throw the young lads life into the hands of law, soiling the entire society. It is the responsibility of every mother, sister and wife to fight the same for the sake of their own men even if not for themselves. The perfect women portrayed in the modern day magazines are a slightly altered version of Esquire’s petty girls and Play Boy magazines pin up models. The ultimate aim of these women is to be skinny, have a flawless skin, flash colour and look diminutive. When the advertisers where asked what they try to establish with such a representation, their answer was that, they simply did it to overcome competition. That means, if everybody is made to show only decently clad women, the advertisement world would change into a much ‘covered’ one. Several advertisers agree the hyped action of women like hysteric laughs and totally out of the control behaviour or stimulated body appearance is their fantasy. Since, the advertisement field always aims in creating a rosy world which cannot be seen in reality, they produce their fetish. The very point is a proof that no sensible women would act in such a way. Most of the models acting in such ads are explained only the scene they are to appear. The chance for them to understand the whole concept is very less. A comedy scene can easily be turned into a pornographic one with the help of technology these days. So there is no point in blaming the girls who act in them. We do not argue their innocence, but support their vulnerability of being cheated. The stimulated body reading only suggests such stereotypical women create low-self esteem issue the most fragile part of the population (Ruggerone, 2006). Women who are well past their formative years and depend upon themselves, often shrug it off like an unwanted bit. Their self-image isn’t smothered by such ads in any way. It is the duty of such strong women to raise their voice now to curb the increase of women’s sexual objectification in media. A Dior ad features a totally uncontrollable woman who is in a highly stimulated state. The “hypersexual” nature of the advertisement is quite alarming. The woman is simply depicted like a cat in heat. If the women associations in US and Europe join together and stop purchasing Dior products for a month or so, the company would be forced to stop the advertisement immediately and act with care in the future. If women prevent their husband from purchasing a car ad that compares the curves of the car to a woman, it will be taken back in a short period. It is the right time for women associations spread across the globe to join hands and fight against such unscrupulous representation of women in the mainstream media Conclusion Starting form Esquire to the latest fashion magazine, women are looked upon like an object without brain, an entity which brings pleasure to men. Ads victimize and misrepresent women sexually. Such objectification is on steady increase for the past twenty years, due to liberated laws and improvement in technology. Fighting against the increase in sexual objectification of women in media has become an inevitable necessity. The women of modern age should join hands now to stop this increasing trend. We have to act quickly before the damage becomes irreparable. Else it will lead to drastic problems in the future poisoning the young minds of our boys and girls equally. References 1. Baker, Christina. (2005) . Images of Women’s Sexuality in Advertisements: A Content Analysis of Black- and White- Oriented Women’s and Men’s Magazines. Sex Roles. 2. Breazeale, Kenon. (2003). In spite of Women. Gender, Race, and Class in Media. 2nd. London: Sage a. Publications, 2003. 3. Goffman, Erving. (1979). Relative Size. Gender Advertisements. New York: Harper. 4. Hatton, Erin and Mary Nell Trautner. (2011). Equal Opportunity Objectifivation? The Sexualization of Men and Women on the Cover of Rolling Stone. Sexuality and Culture. 5. Stanskiewicz, Julie and Francine Rosselli. (2008). Women as Sex Objects and Victims of Print Advertisements. Sex Roles. 6. Ruggerone, Lucia. (2006).The Simulated (Fictitious) body: The Production of women’s images in fashion photography. Poetics. Read More