Throughout this semester, there has been a range of women and gender issues that have focused on hegemonic masculinity, diversity, and intersectionality. This essay will focused on one of the main topics discussed in class being how women are presented and exploited in advertising media and violence against women. These two topics work handed in handed being that the consequence of how women are viewed leads to violence against women. This essay will discuss power and status, sexual identification, race, economics and exploitation and how they all intersect with violence against women and representation of women in advertising media.
Power and status is one of the main aspects of how women and their bodies are represented and exploited. When
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When it comes to advertisements women of colour are portrayed as animals, they are regular depicted as wild and fiery. Women of colour bodies are views a sexually available and insatiable. Looking back at history, we can see that women of colour bodies where exploited through slavery because their bodies relegated to certain jobs based on their physical appearance. Crenshaw (1991) explains the women of colour are burned with poverty, child care responsibilities and lack go job skills and this consequently leads to violence. Also, immigrant’s women are also prone to spousal violence because these women are depending on their husband for their information about their legal status. There is a relationship between gender and race when it comes to domestic violence and domestic violence is shaped by race in different ways. Advertising media contributes to violence against women by turning women/women of colour into things, objects and representing and contrasting human as things is one step toward to justify violence against them. In turn this leads to violence against women as a result of how the adverts portray women as things have objectification women, which is our rape …show more content…
The consequences of exploitation of women it does not only devalue women, but it also becomes normalized. Through different advertisements women are represented in various ways that leads to women looking at these to adverts and in turn internalizing it and feel less beautiful in comparison to the attractive women on the advert. It makes men expect these unrealistic expectations of how women should look and behave. It cause psychological disorders such as bulimia and anorexia among young girls because these young girls look at themselves and they see how they look and want to be more skinner to fit the ideal body type. Adverts are using violence to sell products and this again devalues women. Violence against women is a key role in advertising media and more violent images have be can very popular. The effects of violent images in the advertising media is allowing violence against women to be and look normal and acceptable, rather than being unacceptable, wrong and unusual. The images are showing women as victims of violence and are try to implement a normalized to the issue of violence against
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 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...
Instead, women are being discriminated and treated as inferior due to the stereotypes that are portrayed in the media. The media creates and reproduces ways of seeing that at a minimum reflect and shape our culture. We can look at the media to understand more about a culture’s values and norms, if we realize the limitations of looking at the media. For example, one may ask, does the news based in the United Sates represent what the American culture is like, or only what stands out from everyday American culture? The answer to that is no. Instead, the media represents what it thinks it will be able to sell and is supported by advertisements. This includes violent acts, the sensationally and inappropriate. Jhally reminds us that “it is this male, heterosexual, pornographic imagination based on the degradation and control of women that has colonized commercial culture in general, although it is more clearly articulated in music videos” (Jhally 2007). Therefore, “media content is a symbolic rather than a literal representation of society and that to be represented in the media is in itself a form of power—social groups that are powerless can be relatively easily ignored, allowing the media to focus on the social groups that ‘really matter’” (Gerbner,
Kilbourne includes various advertisements where the woman is the victim and target. The advertisements and media depicted women being overly sexualized, they promoted or glorified date rape, sex is the most important aspect of a relationship, fetishizes various products, and made men believe these were the correct ways to view or treat women. The audience these advertisements are appealing to are men because media depicts women as always being the victims. Men are lead to believe that they should buy certain products as portrayed in media or advertisements because they will get the attention from the ladies. “The violence, the abuse, is partly the chilling but logical result of the objectification” (Kilbourne 498). When women are so used to seeing themselves as objectified they soon start to believe it. Women become more vulnerable because it shows men that anything is possible with just a spritz of perfume or a certain brand of an alcoholic drink. Industries do not think twice before making an advertisement because they are not the victims. Violence is the main problem that arises due to advertisements. “Women are always available as the targets of aggression and violence, women are inferior to men and thus deserve to be dominated, and women exist to fulfill the needs of men” (Kilbourne 509). As long as industries make money, nothing is off limits to put on advertisements even if it is making someone a victim. No remorse of any sort is shown because as long as money is present nothing else matters to the
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
These companies can essentially brainwash those who watch their advertisements into believing whatever they choose. An advertising company may release a commercial that shows gender stereotypes such as the breadwinning Dad, and the stay-at-home mom and have no ill intentions; but they are subliminally reinforcing gender norms and stereotypes through their ad. Women of all ages see sexist advertisements and believe that deviating from gender norms is wrong and therefore have to live their lives in a way that is unauthentic for their self, and dangergoud for their health. Dr. Suzanne Petroni, a Senior Director at the International Center for Research on Women, found that “gender norms and inequality have a significant link for suicide and vulnerability”(Valenti.Sexism). Women are taught through advertising that men are dominant and powerful beings, and that women should live their lives submissively and in fear. Although research has proven that sexist advertisements can incite violence against women, it fails to fully explain the consequences of these hostile advertisements on a woman mental and physical
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.
The image that the media has created of women through advertisements, magazines and movies, has significant affects on how the public views women. The mass media has created a specific look for women to have by portraying that women should look young, be slim, have flawless skins and meet all the beauty components of the society (Davtyan-Gevorgyan 2016). The women in the media are used in association with household or sex objects and will lack important roles (Ibid). In advertisements, women are more likely to be have specific roles to gain the audiences attention, such as: laying down sexually and touching themselves or the products (D’Enbeau 2011, 55). However, majority of the ads also restrict women to home, show them as dependent on men and use them as sex objects (Ibid).
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 average American is exposed to hundreds of advertisements per day. Advertisements targeted toward females have an enormous effect on women's thoughts, attitudes, perceptions, and actions. Most of the time, women don't even realize these advertisements are formulating self-image issues. These ideals surround them daily and they become naturalized to the ads. Advertising creates an entire worldview persuading women to emulate the images they see all around them. In order to create a market for their products, companies constantly prey upon women's self esteem, to feel like they aren't good enough just the way they are. This makes women constantly feel stressed out about their appearance (Moore). Advertising has a negative effect on women's body image, health, and self-esteem.
An article by Christina N Baker, Images of Women’s Sexuality in Advertisements: A content Analysis of Black And White Oriented Women’s and Men’s Magazine emphasizes on how women’s are portrayed in media such as advertisements and Magazine. The author analyzes how media has a huge impact in our society today; as a result, it has an influence on race and gender role between men and women.
The objectification and misjudged representation of women in the media The media portrays social groups in a particular way for their own benefits. However, these portrayals affect a lot of people and especially women who are portrayed negatively in the media. Girls and women are affected by advertisements who portray women unrealistic and could start thinking bad about themselves. For that reason, the particular focus of this task will be why women are objectified and portrayed negatively in the media and give examples to give more meaning to my arguments.
For example, in a sketchers ad, a women is dressed in various costumes that are risqué, with tons of makeup. This advertisement is being seen by young girls, and female adults. Their image of beauty is going to be completely different from what beauty actually is. Levels of shame about one’s body is increased greatly, it creates appearance anxiety, dissatisfaction, and negative mental health. Some girls even become anorexic because they strive to get the “perfect body”.
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
South African society has a strong emphasis on the rights of women and securing ladies against abuse and this may impact the way in which ladies are depicted in advertising in their