Advertising Biases Against Women: Femi-Nazi or Family Cause?

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Often in advertising, there are images of women that offend some people, who see them as degrading, while others think they are harmless. However, upon a closer examination of the facts we will find that it is truly demeaning and not just a situation propelled out of proportion by ultra-feminists or what some people term “femi-nazis.” Although it is a feminist issue, it is also a family issue. Everyone has a sister, a mother, a grandmother or female friend who could potentially be harmed by being objectified in these ads. This can incite violence against a woman, damaging the woman as well as her family or friends. In Jean Kilbourne’s “Killing us Softly 3,” Kilbourne advances the idea that the advertising industry makes “. . . deliberate choices,” and “. . . tactical decisions designed to sell their particular brands by selling particular brands of femininity . . . undermining the way girls and women see themselves, while normalizing the violence done to them by men” (mef pp 3). Nevertheless, why do people, including women, still till tend to buy from the stores/retailers who advertise in this fashion? As we attempt to answer this question we will look at the biases created by these ads, and their affect on the people who are looking at them. With this evaluation, we shall discover that it is not just feminists over-reacting, but an issue for all humanity with ramifications for women’s rights, health and safety for years to come.

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...

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...tely go away, but with the ads that depict women as victims done away with, it might help to reverse the trend of carnage against women, and make a better world for us all.

Works Cited

Bruin Kathy. Emaciation Stinks Stop Starvation Imagery. Dittrich, Liz PhD. Beginnings. 9 Nov. 2004. .

Fauldi, Susan. Backlash The Undeclared War Against American Women. New York, New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1991.

Kilbourne, Jean. “Killing Us Softly 3 Advertising’s Image of Women.” Study Guide. Media Education Foundation. 9 Nov. 2004. .

Paglia, Camille. “Crisis in The American Universities.” Gifts of Speech at Sweet Briar College. M.I.T. Cambridge, Mass. 19 Sep. 1991. 9 Nov. 2004. http://gos.sbc.edu/p/paglia.html>.

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