Sex in popular culture is the most effective way to catch the consumer’s attention. In other words, sex sells, and the consumer buys without questioning or investigating. In today’s capitalistic society large corporations rely heavily on sex ads to catch the eye of the consumer. This can lead to grave consequences for both genders because the ads portray men and women as sex objects. Furthermore, popular culture turns the consumer into a trained desensitized and sexist person. Killbournes essay “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt,” proves that depicting men and women as sex objects is harmful to the individual because it allows society to justify abuse and eventually leads to sexism, racism, addiction, and depression towards men but especially …show more content…
To add to this, ads establish gender roles for men and women, men always have “to be ready,” Women must give in to men’s desires, promiscuous behavior is looked down upon for women, but for men, it is embraced. All of this causes even more sexual aggression towards women. Women in many ways are depicted as only objects, and the owners are the men. In comparison to males, Killbourne explains, “Men’s bodies are not routinely judged and invaded. Men are not likely to be raped, harassed, or beaten” (Para.11). Men have the upper hand and women are oppressed systematically largely thanks to consumerism. Mostly all if not all of the ads show men as the power figures and women as secondary objects. Incredibly dangerous just like Kilbourne’s expressed, “Turning a human being into a thing, an object, is almost always the first step toward justifying violence against that person” (Para.24). This quote hits the nail on the head; nothing is more inhumane for a human than to treat them as an object with no regard for their existence. Women and are routinely objectified that in return leave them seriously powerless and vulnerable for prosecution, Kilbourne implies that for men is it the opposite, men have to be “ready for action”,(Para.39), ready to justify violence and aggressive behavior towards women because that is what advertising has led them to believe over the years. Nevertheless, it is clear that in today’s environment, gender roles are pre-established for men and women. Sexual harassment is now becoming a norm in society, along with violence and aggression. This trauma is rooted deep within society; we can only assume that women are the ones that are paying the high cost of abuse and
Jean Kilbourne’s “Two Way a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence” is a section of a book titled: “Deadly Persuasion: Why Women and Girls Must Fight the Addictive Power of Advertising” that was originally published in 1999. It is about the images of women that advertisements illustrate. The central claim or thesis of the document is that: “advertising helps to create a climate in which certain attitudes and values flourish and it plays a role in shaping people’s ideas” (paraphrase). The author wants people by all genders and young children to acknowledge a right attitude towards what is shown in the advertisements so that the standards of behavior will not be influenced. As a result, it enables the negative contribution from the advertisements to be limited or eliminated.
The world is becoming more aware of the gender hierarchy occurring in our society. Men are consistently leaders and placed in positions of power while women are seen as inferior. Jean Kilbourne, author of “Two ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”, investigates this ideology as she looks throughout media and advertisements and highlights their sexually explicit commercials that degrade woman. In comparison, Allan G. Johnson, writer of Why Do We Make So Much of Gender?, discusses how the world’s view of gender has changed over time and how it has affected the world. Kilbourne and Johnson outline the presence of a gender hierarchy but do not accurately interpret why it happens. The underlying presence driving patriarchy is hidden deep in men’s resistance
This thought has been held on for far too long. 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.
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...
Advertisements are all over the place. Whether they are on TV, radio, or in a magazine, there is no way that you can escape them. They all have their target audience who they have specifically designed the ad for. And of course they are selling their product. This is a multi billion dollar industry and the advertiser’s study all the ways that they can attract the person’s attention. One way that is used the most and is in some ways very controversial is use of sex to sell products. For me to analyze this advertisement I used the rhetorical triangle, as well as ethos, pathos, and logos.
Thus, we can assume that the audience itself, the members who believe in the content of ads and its sincerity, as well as, people who agree with the portrait of the women that is being created are the only prisoners in this particular situation. “To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images” (Plato 868). On the other hand, according to the Jean Kilbourne, author of “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt” what is not mention to the public is the fact, that many women from the very young age during the process of finding out the truth and being blinded by the “light” are fighting with depression, low self-esteem, eating disorders and sexual harassment. “I contend that all girls growing up in this culture are sexually abused – abused by the pornographic images of female sexuality that surround them from birth, abused by all the violence against woman and girls, and abused by the constant harassment and threat of violence” (Kilbourne
Watching television growing up, half of the time spent watching was filled with advertisements. Most of the time, the ad would include a beautiful woman, barely dressed, doing something sexually suggestive. The whole advertisement would consist of this, while most people have no idea what the product being sold is. Then at the very end, they provide a brief description of the product. This is an example of using sex to sell products. It is no secret that advertisers have been using sex to sell their products for years. These tools are used in all types of advertisements. However, this is not just selling sex, it is selling elitism. It is selling the status of “hey, if you can get our product, you can get these types of girls”. Elitism is
In prevalent culture, the term “sex sells” acts as a beacon in the minds of many young girls: What used to be just a simple terminological play on words to express the sexually explicit culture of magazines and the sale of fad products, is now being used in a literal sense. Teen girls have grown to believe that selling or “giving away” their sex has become the norm and saying no is now the equivalent of writer Sylvia Plath sticking her head in a stove, or in other words, committing social suicide. Many of these girls do not know that they are being sexually exploited because of this. They believe in their heads that they have no choice when it comes to performing these sexual acts and fail to realize they are being exploited by men (or women), which more often than not ultimately results in dire situations in the end.
Advertising in American culture has taken on the very interesting character of representing our culture as a whole. Take this Calvin Klein ad for example. It shows the sexualization of not only the Calvin Klein clothing, but the female gender overall. It displays the socially constructed body, or the ideal body for women and girls in America. Using celebrities in the upper class to sell clothing, this advertisement makes owning a product an indication of your class in the American class system. In addition to this, feminism, and how that impacts potential consumer’s perception of the product, is also implicated. Advertisements are powerful things that can convey specific messages without using words or printed text, and can be conveyed in the split-second that it takes to see the image. In this way, the public underestimates how much they are influenced by what they see on television, in magazines, or online.
A common trend in the entertainment industry today is the objectification of women in society. Sexualizing women are seen in media such as; movies, advertisement, television show and music video, where their main focus is providing the audience with an image of women as sexual objects rather than a human. This is detrimental to society since the media is producing social stereotypes for both genders, which can further result in corrupted social habits. Objectification in media are more focused on females than male, these false images of women leave individuals with the wrong idea of the opposite sex. As media continuously use sexual contents regarding women, the audience starts underestimating women. Specifically movies, it allows media to shape the culture’s idea of romance, sex and what seems
Advertisements have been featuring sexual images to increase sales since the nineteenth century, and the phrase ‘sex sells’ is so popular even children know it. From cigarettes to soap to underwear to jeans, sex is used to sell everything, and the image of a naked women is one of the most popular examples of this. In the Weyenberg advertisement, the woman is topless and completely uncovered by anything but her own arm, despite the fact that she is selling a shoe. There is no correlation between the object being sold and nudity, they are actually direct opposites, but the company will still use it because they are more likely to sell shoes to men if the advertisement makes them think of sex. This image of women has not changed in the four decades since this advertisement was created, and it is so normalized that most people never stop to think about what is so inherently wrong with that. In 2013, just three years ago, Robin Thicke released a song encouraging rape that was able to sell astronomically well, and then he posted a music video featuring topless women being used as sexual objects that encouraged sales even more, and all because it features women and sex. Both the advertisement from 1974 and the music video from 2013 present women as sexual objects as a way to increase sales of the product, and since they
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
You can see in the media in almost all occasions women being sexualized. From beer to burger commercials women in the media are portrayed as sexual beings. If they are thin and meet society’s standards of beautiful they are considered marketable. Over the...
With so much exposure to this type of media, it is easy to become desensitised to it. With America becoming numb to the violence in these advertising tactics, domestic violence is an increasing problem as brutality against women has become trivialized. Jean Kilbourne 's “‘Two Ways a Woman can get Hurt”: Advertising and Violence’ argues that violence in advertising profoundly affects people in a skewed physiological manner, leading to violence against women. Kilbourne insists that “...violent images contributes to the state of terror...” felt by women who feel victimized by men who “...objectify and are disconnected...” from the women they mistreat (431). She furthers her argument by dictating that “....turning a human being into…an object, is almost always the first step towards justifying violence against that person” (431). So much of the media that America consumes is centered on dehumanizing women into an object of male enjoyment. It is difficult to have empathy toward a material object. Because of this objectification, men feel less guilty when enacting brutality upon women. Violence becomes downplayed because it is seen everywhere - in advertising and media - and this has contributed significantly to the cases of domestic violence in America. America has become numb to violence against women in advertising, leading to an alarming increasing domestic violence in this
Women are victims of domestic violence, receive sexist remarks, and undergo objectification in the media. Domestic violence occurs due to the gender and power inequality in opposite sex relationships. Society has expectations of how male and female should behave in intimate relationships: men are expected to be the providers and the dominant ones while women are devalued as secondary and inferior. Therefore, issues of power, control, and autonomy are the main reasons for domestic violence. Every day, women experience sexism whether it is on television, at work or even at home. Society sees men as biologically superior creatures compared to women. Sexism has become very common and even acceptable and this is the problem (Gill, 14). If from a young age females endure sexist remarks, they would naturally accept those remarks and easily become the victims of the patriarchal society. Another personal problem that affects women is the objectification in the media. Sexually objectified pictures of women appear in television advertising, on the web and in newspapers. This encourages girls to think of and treat their own bodies as objects of others’ desires. Women try to improve their social position, yet sexual objectification reduces them to the status of mere tools for men’s purposes and makes them preoccupied with their appearance (Gill, 14). Women should have enough courage to