The Sexual Objectification of Women in Advertisements in the United States
Introduction
When was the last time a black head was seen in an ad intentionally? What about too much white skin, freckles, wrinkles, piercings, or fat roles? It can be guaranteed advertisers are not showing these things unless they have a purpose. Likewise, smooth, flawless, tanned skin with perfect bone structure, attire, sparling eyes, and more than enough sparkle and shine is the incapable goal of thousands of women in America. This may explain the large amount of depression, cutting, bolemia, anxiety attacks and various other consequences of self-esteem that are beginning to rise uncontrollably. According to the American Association of Advertising Agencies, we view up to 3,000 advertisements every day, which adds up to over one million per year. (womeninads.webs.com) Advertisements shape American culture, and because of the hold they have on society, ads are a driving and powerful medium. Advertisements impact a person’s thoughts, actions, and even beliefs. In fact, many may argue that advertising does not in fact persuade, but manipulate. And strangely enough some may go as far as to say advertising stifles choice through subliminal messages, and can become more of a more powerful force than a persuasive message. (http://makewealthhistory.org/2011/10/26/the-trouble-with-advertising-2/) Despite this view, many people can agree that advertisements are effective, they make money, and they build economy. This paper will discuss the sexuality of advertisements by using the Sexual Objectification Theory, which will be described, methodized, historized, theorized and justificated.
Describe
The Sexual Objectification Theory is descr...
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...berg, J. (2008). The Sexual Objctification of Women in Advertising: A Contemporary Cultural Perspective. Journal of Advertising Research, 48(1), 71-79.
(http://makewealthhistory.org/2011/10/26/the-trouble-with-advertising-2/)
womeninads.webs.com
Fredrickson, B. L. and Roberts, T.-A. (1997), OBJECTIFICATION THEORY. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21: 173–206. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00108.x
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Zurbriggen, Eileen L; Ramsey, Laura R; Jarworski, Beth K. Sex Roles 64. 7-8 (April 2011): 449-462
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visual depictions of sexual objectification)
socialpsychology.org
Allyn, Rachel. Alliant International University, San Francisco Bay, ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing, 2005. 3191964.
The media has promoted a dominant view of how people should perceive beauty, and what consists of perfection in beauty. According to Dr. Karin Jasper, the media have women encouraging them to be concerned with their outward appearance and how others perceive them by surrounding everyone with the ideal female beauty. (Jasper, 2000) Body image has become a particular concern for young girls and women, often females work diligently to attain the perfect body image advertised in mass media. (Gibbs, 2010) When women are not able to obtain their ideal body goal, many develop negative feelings and become self-conscious about their bodies. Conversely, it is not possible for someone to look like a model in ads, someone without blemishes, scars, or pours. Another study conducted in 2012 showed contemporary media and culture has defined a women’s social desirability in terms of their bodies. For females, this has often resulted in comparing themselves to bodies shown in advertisements, commercials, magazines, etc. however not all body
In a brilliant update of the Killing Us Softly series, Jean Kilbourne explains the dangers of advertisements and how they objectify women. Advertisements intelligently portray women in a sexual and distorted way in order to attract the consumers’ attention. Media sets a standard on how young women view themselves and puts them at risk for developing an eating disorder. Kilbourne’s research has led her to educate those who have fallen victim to achieving the “ideal beauty” that has evolved in today’s society.
In a consumer-driven society, advertisements invade the minds of every person who owns any piece of technology that can connect to the internet. Killbourne observes that “sex in advertising is pornographic because it dehumanizes and objectifies people, especially women,” (271). Advertising takes the societal ideology of women and stereotypes most kids grow up learning and play on the nerves of everyone trying to evoke a reaction out of potential customers, one that results in them buying products. Another point made
Dickerson, Rachel. “America Objectified: An Analysis of the Self-Objectification of Women in America and Some Detrimental Effects of Media Images.” Stanislaus State University. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
In today’s media we have copious amounts of ads thrown at us, with a large segment of these ads actually depicting women as objects. There are some “. . . so called ‘cutting-edge’ advertising techniques that continue to thrive on old ideas including the objectification and dismemberment of w...
Hochschild, Arlie. "A review of sex role reseach." JSTOR. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2013.
Is advertising manipulative; can it be controlling, or is it fueling the demand of the American economy? The exhaustive battle of what advertising is and what it’s not is never-ending and both ends of the spectrum can only battle with statistics, words, and opinions on the fact of the matter. Many arguments have arisen since the establishment of the advertising industry and everyone sheds their own light on the subject. In “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising,” Jean Kilbourne argues that the advertising industry portrayal of women is narrow-minded and produces emotional and psychological problems within women in regards with their roles in society, their physical appearance, and sexual attitudes. She also emphasizes how the world of advertising creates artificiality among women. On another note, the author of “What Advertisement Isn’t,” John O’Toole, takes a look at how the government has too much control of and poorly regulates advertising, how it is not deceptive on a subconscious level, and how advertising is a sales tool and should not be evaluated by journalistic or any other standards. These two arguments talk about issues in advertising that interconnect on broader levels but essentially are speaking of two different levels of advertisements.
trafficking, modeling, participating in pageants to the media using women as objects in their ads. Sexual objectification is both a cultural and social, in which women and young girls are valued based on their appearance, and most importantly their ability to have a body that is accepted by society. The potential consequences of such phenomenon is that women and girls will accept such sexualization and objectification and begin to objectify themselves, which means that over time, women will begin to accept society’s rule that their appearance does matter and their treatment on the hands of society will be based according to their looks, which can have an effect on their social and economic lives. The objectification theory is describes psychological
Objectification theory has been proposed as a standard for understanding the effects of living in a culture that sexually objectifies women (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). Objectification occurs when a person’s body is treated like a separate entity and is evaluated on its own merit, without consideration for the rest of the person. When an individual is sexually objectified, they are treated like an object that exists only for the pleasure of others and objectification theory asserts that women are uniquely subject to these types of experiences, especially in Western culture. Self-objectification (SO) leads the individual to create a third person perspective in their minds that they use to compare their physical selves to and in turn causes them to see themselves as an object instead of a whole person. SO also creates a form of self-consciousness, causing a habitual and vigilant self-monitoring of outward appearance.
The objectification of women is a huge issue in society and is often led by advertising. However many men still believe that the adverts depicting women in a sexual and often passive posture are not very offensive but rather very funny or sexy. However how would they feel if it were their daughter or sister being advertised throughout the world as a sex object?
In the essay “Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body,” author and philosopher Susan Bordo discusses the history and current state of male representation in advertisements. While using her feminist background, Bordo compares and contrasts the aspects of how men and women are portrayed in the public eye. She claims that there has been a paradigm shift the media with the theory that not just women are being objectified in the public eye, but also men too. Since the mid-1970s, with the introduction of Calvin Klein commercials, men have started to become more dehumanized and regarded as sex symbols. In a similar fashion to how Bordo describes gender, race plays a similar role in the media. People of all different ethnicities and cultures are being categorized into an oversimplified and usually unfair image by the media over basic characteristics.
The documentary Killing Us Softly 4 discusses and examines the role of women in advertisements and the effects of the ads throughout history. The film begins by inspecting a variety of old ads. The speaker, Jean Kilbourne, then discusses and dissects each ad describing the messages of the advertisements and the subliminal meanings they evoke. The commercials from the past and now differ in some respects but they still suggest the same messages. These messages include but are not limited to the following: women are sexual objects, physical appearance is everything, and women are naturally inferior then men. Kilbourne discusses that because individuals are surrounded by media and advertisements everywhere they go, that these messages become real attitudes and mindsets in men and women. Women believe they must achieve a level of beauty similar to models they see in magazines and television commercials. On the other hand, men expect real women to have the same characteristics and look as beautiful as the women pictured in ads. However, even though women may diet and exercise, the reality...
The portrayals of men in advertising began shifting towards a focus on sexual appeal in the 1980s, which is around the same that women in advertising were making this shift as well. According to Amy-Chinn, advertisements from 1985 conveyed the message that “men no longer just looked, they were also to be looked at” as seen in advertisements with men who were stripped down to their briefs (2). Additionally, advertisements like these were influencing society to view the male body “as an objectified commodity” (Mager and Helgeson 240). This shows how advertisements made an impact on societal views towards gender roles by portraying men as sex objects, similarly to women. By showcasing men and women in little clothing and provocative poses, advertisements influenced society to perceive men and women with more sexual
Fredrickson, Barbara L., and Tomi-Ann Roberts. (1997). "Objectification Theory: Toward Understanding Women's Lived Experiences and Mental Health Risks." Psychology of Women Quarterly. 21: 173- 206. Print.
...r young, impressionable mind will have been exposed to more than 77,000 advertisements, according to an international study. Last week, it confirmed the link between the images of female perfection that dominate the media and increasing cases of low self-esteem among young women..” (Shields,2007). The propaganda techniques such as liking, sex appeal, and celebrity endorsements are used in advertisements constantly. Commercials on television, billboards, magazines, and various other advertisement types are everywhere you look in America, and sadly it has become very important for women of all ages to try to be perfect. We come into contact with these messages every day, and the beauty industry is getting bigger and bigger. Propaganda has molded our worldly perception of beauty and will only continue to hurt us and gain from our lack of self-esteem if we allow it to.