Examples Of Sexism In Advertising

According to the documentary “Killing Us Softly 4,” average Americans are exposed to approximately 3,000 advertisements a day. Advertisements (hereafter referred to as ads) are everywhere, and they are inevitable. Sex appeal is one of the major advertising techniques that all types of media widely use. Many advertisements, thus, use sex appeal to attract consumers; however, many ads involve gender behavior patterns that give viewers the wrong idea about gender roles or ideal standards of beauty and deliver sexist messages about women in a degrading manner. This paper will examine the stereotypical and unrealistic portrayal of women in both men and women’s magazines: GQ and Glamour.
The first picture is a “Tom Ford’s male fragrance” advertisement

It does not inform us anything about the product’s features, but female’s nude body. Hence, Tom Ford’s fragrance campaign is an advertisement that involves a high degree of sexism. This particular advertisement demeans women’s status and underestimates women’s power by objectifying female figure. It objectifies the female model by concealing her face, which is so-called fascism, and overly accentuating her body. On the other hand, men, the targeted audience, are in a position of power and dominance where they can choose to own women. The ad is again suggesting inaccurate standards of beauty for men and women. It suggests females should spend their time, money and energy to decorate their appearance to attract men, whereas males should be well off enough to afford a luxury perfume to have sex with women. However, the model’s body on the ad above is edited hundred of times to create skinnier legs, flatter abdomen, shinier skin, and bigger breasts. Magazines are creating an impossibly perfect looking body that pressures girls to starve themselves to become thinner. Media also provide boys ideal images of the female body that does not exist in an ordinary world. Therefore, the wrong messages about women make many men expect their real life partner to be impossibly perfect, and they can’t help themselves from