Not Good Enough: The Decriminalization Of Women In Advertising

“Advertising is the art of persuading people to buy something” (Arend, 2014). In this billion-dollar world of advertising, consumers continue to be persuaded by the treacherous cycle which seems to never end. Aside from inviting us into stores to “shop for what’s new and trending”, advertisements push women over the edge of discovering what they currently “do not have” or lack, hence why they need to purchase a certain product. In fact, the reality of being a female consumer is that, advertisements geared towards women subconsciously portray an insufficiency of a physical quality, thereby persuading female consumers to purchase products in hopes of being “perfect” or “good enough” within socially constructed standards of physical appearances.

Firstly, advertisements showcase ageism as majority of them portray young women only. While analyzing the Eaton Centre’s advertisements, I noticed that no advertisements contained images of older women (or older than thirty years of age) which points to the first shortcoming of women’s advertisement: age. In fact, even stores which cater to women of all ages such as The Bay, Reitmans, and Old Navy had young women dressed in their clothing ads asrather than a diverse mix of all aged-women. This is problematic as older women are consistently reminded through advertisements that their age to shop at certain stores have passed, and therefore they lack the “prime age” and are now, insufficient due to their age. According to Patricia Arend, advertisements during the 1950’s and 60’s also featured primarily young women since they were presented as sexual objects; only young women could be presented promiscuously in ads (2014). Thus, this notion continues to be present today in the advertising world, despite our attempts to stray from

However, as consumers, we are brainwashed into changing our physical qualities consistently based on what is “new and accepted” among our societal considerations of which qualities are attractive and which are not. Furthermore, these judgements of which qualities are considered attractive versus which are not date back to the 1900’s yet again, where women were presented promiscuously solely to attract men (Arend, 2014). In fact, the sociology of gender comes into play here as we discover that women continue to be objectified even today, although their objectification is not always direct to men anymore, but also to other women as well. When we as consumers, find a piece of clothing attractive on a female model showcased in an ad, we begin to imagine ourselves in that piece of clothing and begin to ask ourselves questions: will I look attractive in that?; will that dress hug my curves properly?; will that shirt hide my muffin top? In doing so, we characterize the model as an “object” that we hope to look like when we purchase the outfit she models. And, if we are unsatisfied with how the clothing appears on ourselves, we begin to feel insufficient and wonder what makes us any different from the model. In this moment, we reflect on the qualities we lack rather than the qualities we possess; our identifying qualities which may or may not fit into societal standards