The Impact Of Sexualization And Objectification Of Women

The issue being presented in this video is the over sexualization and objectification of women to sell a product. Sexualization of women, and men, is unfortunately incredibly common in westernized culture and is constantly being one up’d by the images being portrayed, constantly reinforcing the stereotypes of gender. The problem with this add is not only the sexualization and objectification of the women, but also the subtext of the theme. This ad essentially copied and pasted the official video of Robin Thicke’s "Blurred Lines” and added phallic products for more effect, the women in the ad are nothing more than props surrounding the product, and at one point literally becoming a table on which the “Beats Pill” is displayed. This is worth

Steele’s Constructing Sex, the Sexual, and the Erotic- 'Doing It’: The Social Construction of S-E-X, which covers the social construction and perception of sex, sexuality, pleasure, and gender. In the text Steele mentions that very often in this society, penial penetration and male pleasure and climax are commonly seen as indicator of having had sex (Steele). The focus on male pleasure above females is not only relevant to the physical act of sex, but also the perception of gender and the way media targets their audience. More often than not, the typical objects of male pleasure (females) are taken and added into media and advertising to appeal to male pleasure even in ads that the products are targeted away from men. For example, underwear made for females often features an ‘attractive’ female seductively showing off the garments, effective for targeting straight males. Even in commercials for products for either gender like burgers or sunscreen, still use an objectified women as their selling point. Another point that Steele looks at in the text is the idea of consent, Steele states that “The dangers inherent in contemporary constructions of S-E-X… is about the pleasure of the actor” which can cause the dismissal of the object of desire as irrelevant (Steele). This idea of the focus being solely on the actor is problematic as it can easily perpetuate rape culture, and is a large part of the RadioShack ad.

The product featured in this add is a pill shaped blue tooth speaker, it does not have gender restrictions socially or functionally, and yet, the company only really targets straight males. They have excluded large pieces of society, and though it may have sold well among the targeted demographic, they missed the rest of the populace. The song they associated their ad with is widely known for is dehumanizing and objectifications of women, and regardless, they still decided to use it, and faced very little criticism about it. Other media or companies may have seen the lack of reaction to the ad and possibly attempted very similar publicity which further ads to the already over whelming about of sexualization in media. When companies continue to do that, they tell the people that take in the media that this is okay, that it is normal to treat women like objects. Media is so accessible and constant that these floods of images and messages are constantly being thrown at people, and it only takes so long before they may apart to believe