Women Image on Advertising - Essay Example

Women Image on Advertising Media, education, and how the message is relayed have profound impact on the audience. The types of information relayed also shapes the audience knowledge and perspective as well as characteristics that encourage behavior change (Lee, Venter & Bates, 2004). Also, added Lee, Venter & Bates, media dissemination can enforce culture a mean to energize action and values. Either virtual news publications or TV news programs or newspapers all play role in setting the agenda for public concerns. The continuous and reinforcement coverage of the issues that may deem interesting or important and what are aired and what are left out help in shaping public opinion. Throughout the century, women have been portrayed as submissive being and constantly required altercation. Although we are passing the era of millennia, some people still consider women as inferior beings and weak individuals. Even among Christians, many fail to understand that men and women are created equally. Portrayed as weak and submissive, they tend to be used as mere means to one’s end. We should never use people, says Poff and Waluchow (1999) but in the business world, we need to use people as a network to promote our interests or our products. This makes the “socially constructed and organized inequality between men and women is one of the major injustice of our times” (Tillieuil, 2002). If you say to a marketing professor that advertising or marketing is about selling a product, his argument would be that marketing or advertising is “a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others” (Kotler, Armstrong & Cunningham, 1999, 7). However, who believes in advertising? Who believes that advertising means a social and managerial process? The notion of marketing is to sell but marketers are trying to differentiate the idea of selling and marketing. If a person has to believe in a product and the values it portrays, what would be the value of an advertising message that portrays half-naked women in the bar surrounded by men drinking beer? What values would the message portrays of naked old women in the bathtub? Many do not have values, in fact but it is a challenge for women to do something out of the ordinary as a person who is not submissive. One 89 year old woman decided to have her son, who happens to be an artist, takes her picture while naked only to “give him something extraordinary” for his work. Apart from individuals’ characters or traits and the desire to do something “extraordinary,” Tillieuil (2002) argues that advertising executives are ambitious about profits. They cause the “advertisers to discover the sheer force of intelligence and subtlety instead of simply persuading the customer to buy things in a loud manner.” We often heard advertisers say, “Sex sells.” And compare to men, women are often the primary objects in the business of advertising. Public reaction toward women in advertising is that they would stereotype the women as what they see in the media. Golombok & Fivush (1994) and Stroebe & Insko (1989) explain that if people often see “a particular group of people are engaging in particular behavior in mass media, they are likely to believe that the abilities and personality attributes required to carry out that activity are typical for that group of people” (Poff & Walucho, 1999, 470). This means that women are typical for advertising images and they are just as what the advertising says they are. However, the negative image of women in advertising often creates a stigma and stereotyping. It is worse when the ads portrays sexy women with a bunch of wild men in a bar drinking Labatts beers. In fact, every beer advertising portrays sexy women. An indication that men would get women easily if they have beer? In the United Kingdom, Lusonski (1985), Mitchell and Taylor (1990) indicate in their study that advertisers are becoming more sensitive toward gender and more polarized the image of women in a more traditional, home related and dependent image, but this change has not been seen too dramatic. Others are using the image of women in a more non-traditional way by creating the position of the objects of advertising as career-oriented. They portray the women in a more authoritative way such as in the field of prostitution that those who claim their professionalism to be “the sacred prostitute,” aired by the cityTV Sex TV. Mill’s theory of utilitarianism indicates that happiness can only be attained by general cultivation of nobleness of character. A person will benefit from the nobleness of the others because of his own nobleness. This brings to the golden rule, which says, “Do unto others what you want others do to you.” One needs to understand the meaning of morality in order to be able to comprehend this golden rule. Aristotle perceives that in order to understand the meaning of this golden rule fully, it is moral behavior, a virtues or qualities and it requires wisdom because wisdom is embedded in characters (Poff and Walucho, 1999). Ethics is about doing things that are morally good to others. The Kant theory explains that doing good action is the principles of wisdom. The book of Proverb says that if one lacks wisdom let them ask. However, how many do ever ask for wisdom? Mill states, “Many who are capable of the higher pleasures, occasionally, under the influence of temptation, postpone them to the lower.” He addresses this statement to not only men but also women although he emphasizes it toward the men especially those who find themselves to be more superior to women. In addressing the attitudes of men toward women, though they may consider themselves superior, Mill argues, “Men, often from infirmity of character, make their election for the nearer good, though they know it to be the less valuable; and this no less when the choice is between to bodily pleasures, than when it is between bodily and mental. They pursue sensual indulgences to the injury of health, though perfectly aware that health is the greater good.” Though they know that their action endangers their objects, they tend to be blinded by short-term gain that they choose to become ignorant. Health is not only the “greater good” but it is also a treasure. Wernick (1987) describes men often prioritize their self-ego and portray themselves as the objects in authority and become more narcissistic (Poff & Walucho, 1999). Today, as gender differences is diminishing, at least some are trying to, advertisers are exploiting both males and females in sexually exploited scenes (Posner, 1997; Poff & Walucha, 1999) without the sense of morality because their only focus is the immediate gain. Today’s advertising is getting more personal (Tilleuil, 2001). While the silver screens are beginning to portray women as individual being with capacity, where they could defend themselves, others still portray them as submissive beings. The image of women and nudity has become social culture (Ibid). Our notes on “Advertising’s Image of Women” even states that “advertising is inescapable in our culture, and its socializing impact cannot be ignored. Ads not only describe products but also present images, and goals; they portray certain concepts of normacy and sexuality, and they promote aims to motivate them, what images of women does it present, and what motivations does it appeal to.” As advertising touches one individuality, women perceives beauty is the result from cosmetics products not her noble characters, agree Mill. Happiness, add Mill is the essential part of happiness. Nevertheless, Mill suggests that despite the gender differences because men and women are biologically created differently (Tillieuil, 2002) it is unquestionably that women deserve to be treated equally and honored according to their self-worth. Despite public action about sexual exploitation of women in advertising, more and more advertising are portraying women as the undeserved, passive, submissive, and others are portraying them as macho women or bully type individual. Nevertheless, all end up in the same stereotype – the sex objects. Because sexual politics is encouraging women to use sex as self-empowerment in Girls Gone Wild program promoted in universities. Female students’ bodies are decorated with different colored vaginas and all the logos of advertising about gender equality. After watching the parade of Girls Gone Wild, one author writes, “All I can see in women is a bunch of vaginas and nothing more.” The idea is to elevate women and their status as a self-worth being but it is an ill-advised program. Although the notion is to elevate women, The Vagina Monologue, promotes the contrary while sex represents the venue to avoid gender stereotyping but again it does not change the fact that women would always be objectified. It is always in the nature of men to become superior to the other especially when we are being branded to survive in a competitive market though competitiveness causes radical evil says the Kantian Theory of Corruption. If we want to elevate the women and promote women as individuals with values whose worth is measured by their intellectual and characters or self attributes, be it so in advertising. However, it requires mutual change because some advertisers may want to shift to this change but others still want to depict women as a sex objects and demeaning their self-worth. The freedom of expression and sexual politics have blurred the line of differences between self-expression, arts, sex, and freedom of expression. Consequently, many have perceived sexual exploitation as arts that even old women joined in to have their nude picture taken for a series of calendar for a fund raising campaign. Moral responsibility is internal, says Mill. The action to prevent oneself from being the objects of sexual commercialization depends on the person. One needs to possess the virtues, values, and wisdoms and have them as a moral guidance. They are implanted and developed at young age according to those of the family and social standards and should not be tempered or corrupted. References Golombok, S. & Fivush, R. (1994). Gender Development. Cambrdige: Cambridge University Press Kotler, Philip; Amrstrong, Gary & Cunningham, Peggy (1999). Principles of Marketing. Fourth Canadian Edition. Scarborough, ON: Prentice Hall Lee, G. J.; Venter, R.; Bates, B. (2004, September). Enterprise-based HIV/AIDS strategies: Integration through organizational architecture. South African Journal of Business Management. Vol. 35: 3, 13-22. Retrieved April 8, 2005, from EBSCO Business Source Premier. Mill, John S. Utilitarianism. Chapter II: What Utilitarianism Is. Retrieved June 12, 2007 from http://www.la.utexas.edu/research/poltheory/mill/util/util.c02.html. Poff, Deborah C. & Waluchow, Wilfred (1999). Business Ethics in Canada. Scarborough, ON: Prentice Hall Posner, J. (1987). The Objectified Mare: The New Male Image in Advertising. In Nemiroff. (ed.), Women and Men: Interdisciplinary Reading on Gender. Toronto: Fitzhenry and Whiteside. Stroebe, W. and Insko, C. A. (1989) Stereotype, Prejudice, and discrimination: Changing Conceptions in Theory and Research. In Bar-Tal, D.; Graumann, C. F.; Kruglanski, A. W. and Stroebe, W. Eds. Stereotyping and Prejudice: Changing Conceptions. New York: Springer-Verlag, 3-34. Tillieuil, Jean-Louis (2002). Woman and Man in Advertising: Narrative Illustration of an Inequality which cannot be found. Image and Narrative. Issue 4. Retrieved June 11, 2007 from http: http://www.imageandnarrative.be/gender/jeanlouistilleuil.htm Wernick, A. (1987). From Voyeur to Narcissist: Imagining Men in Contemporary Advertising. In Kaufman (ed.), Beyond Patriarchy. Toronto: Oxford University Press Read More