The Objectification and Dehumanization of Women in Advertisement

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Recommended: Advertising and the female Body

Everyday we expose ourselves to thousands of advertisements in a wide variety of environments where ever we go; yet, we fail to realize the influence of the implications being sold to us on these advertisements, particularly about women. Advertisements don’t just sell products; they sell this notion that women are less of humans and more of objects, particularly in the sexual sense. It is important to understand that the advertising worlds’ constant sexual objectification of women has led to a change in sexual pathology in our society, by creating a culture that strives to be the unobtainable image of beauty we see on the cover of magazines. Even more specifically it is important to study the multiple influences that advertisements have on men, women and young girls, all of which will be discussed and analyzed in this paper.

The goal of advertising is inherently to appease a certain customer base in order for those customers to be willing to consume the companies’ product, however, what this appeasement has done is create a “toxic cultural environment”(Kilbourne) in which it is “okay” to objectify and dehumanize women in order to sell a product. Yet, advertising, as a collective whole, sells women the idea that how they look is what is most important because of how they express the ideal image of female beauty. On every cover of every magazine, advertisers portray women in the most ideal, impossibly perfect way possible that tells both men and women what a woman should look like, and that in particular, they exemplify white traits such as light skin, straight hair, and thin lips. However, the “beauty” of women that we see in advertising is not achievable by a normal member of our society simply because the flawlessness we see ...

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...tacey J. T., and Ming Lei. "Sexual Objectification, Sports Programming and Music Television." Media Report to Women 36.1 (2008): 16-23. Print.

4. King, Barbara L. "Images of Gender and Race in Super Bowl Advertising." Media Report to Women 40.1 (2012): 6,11,18-19. Print.

5. Knight, Becky, MPH. "Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising's Image of Women." Contemporary Sexuality Mar 2012 2012: 8-9. Print.

6. Mbilinyi, D. A. S., and Cuthbert K. Omari. Gender Relations and Women's Images in the Media. Dar es Salaam: Dar es Salaam University Press, 1996. Print.

7. "Mental Health; Women's Sexual Satisfaction, Self Image Increase After Cosmetic Surgery, Study shows." Women's Health Weekly (2006): 126. Print.

8. Morna, Colleen Lowe. "Missing the Mark?" Sister Namibia 19.4 (2007): 24-5. Print.

9. Parks, Joy. "MAD MEN, Mad Women." Herizons Spring 2009 2009: 22,23,25-27. Print.

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