Gloria Steinem's Argument About Women In Advertising

In Gloria Steinem’s “Sex, Lies, and Advertising” Steinem explains how sex and lies are the basis for so many advertisements in popular magazines and other cultural stages including technology shows and car buying. Advertisements are “media-wide influences” are a continual theme throughout the writing of Steinem (201). Steinem’s magazine eventually did not take ads due to the fact Steinem could not find ads that did not degrade women (201). Steinem believed that ads were sexist and did not positively support women (202). After the stalemate companies began to partner with Ms. Magazine such as JVC and IBM (206). Although some companies such as those in the tobacco industry want only

In the video “Killing Us Softly”, Jean Kilbourne explains how ads portray women in our world. Women are portrayed as fragile, more vulnerable, and less powerful. Ads are photoshopped to make their bodies the “ideal image” of what women should look like. Ads promote sexual and unhealthy images of women. The pictures are photoshopped making the models body shape and skin color completely different to what her actual body looks like. It changes her face to look more appealing, body shape thinner, white or light skinned, and bigger breasts. Ads also create a climate for violence against women. Ads portray men as strong, big, and more powerful. Men don’t live in a world where their bodies are criticized and judged every day. Men are less likely

After the analysis and comparison of the six selected advertisements, it is time to think about the question what the differences reveal about the image of women in advertisements. Did the role of women really change here, too? This question cannot be answered with a simple Yes or No. On the first look the modern advertisements seem to focus on positive feelings, while the advertisements of the 1950s, in contrast, evoke rather negative emotions. This is demonstrated especially on the example of the shampoo and the anti-aging cream advertisement. However, their actual statements are quite similar: the anti-aging ads suggest that a woman should look younger than her age if she wants

Advertisements are made to grasp a consumer’s attention to the item the creators are selling, and sometimes the decide to objectify an entire audience in hopes of receiving attention from the male population. Studies have shown that as time passes, women become less affected and offended by the oversexualization of women in advertisements. Therefore, women have become desensitized to their objectification, to the point they now view it as normal. During the initial period of the hypersexualization of women, advertisements about women in traditional roles such as housewife or being in the kitchen, receded. In 1991 a new wave of feminism appeared, where women are trying to reclaim their bodies by embracing sexuality, while it is a good concept,

Jean Kilbourne is an advocate for women and is leading a movement to change the way women are viewed in advertising. She opens up the curtains to reveal the hard truth we choose to ignore or even are too obtuse to notice. Women are objectified, materialized, and over-sexualized in order to sell clothes, products, ideas and more. As a woman, I agree with the position Kilbourne presents throughout her documentary Killing Us Softly 4: The Advertising’s Image of Women (2010) and her TEDx Talk The Dangerous Ways Ads See Women (2014.) She demonstrates time and again that these advertisements are dangerous and lead to unrealistic expectations of women.

The level that sexism occurs in advertising in 2017 seems to be inequivalent to those seen in 1960’s advertising. The gender roles of women in 1960 were defined and marketed as being submissive, subservient and less than a mans role. Ad’s that air in 2017 show the side of this gender inequality and it is more rampant than initially thought. A quick search turns up just how many advertisers use sex to sell products, ideas and endorsements. As pointed out in Female Stereotypes in Print Advertising: A Retrospective Analysis by Yorgos C. Zotos, Eirini Tsichla, “Gender stereotypes in the media, and the mass media in particular, have a long-recognized capacity to define “socially-acceptable” ways of being or relating to others, as well as to

Throughout the reading, it takes about how feminism is used as a selling tactic, which I agree it's true. Ads use words that will attract women to feel more powerful and equal to men. If they get this object they will instantly get equality and the motive to go and rule the world. Ads trick the consumers into actually buying their products. They research and find the best tactics to be able to use feminism to their best advantage. They use the female influence for marketing ploys. Ads should also target men, transgenders, the elderly and everyone. Ultimately I think ads should not be so gender oriented. Ads are being used to the advantage of companies and they are wanting to be able to control what outsiders are buying.

Women are suppressed and degraded in society. They are merely seen as pets for males or care-takers of the house and children. The advertisement on women’s equality is rhetorically effective due to its connection to the audience, emotional appeal, and how things are positioned in the ad, as well as the misogynistic comments and how society depicts women.

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

Advertisements are everywhere, combining images and words together to create a message to sell a product. The initial impression is that the advertisers are just trying to sell their products, but there often seems to be an underlying message. It is often heard that “sex sells.” So, many advertisers will use beautiful women and men in their advertisements to try to market a product. The hope is that “sex will sell,” and people will go out and buy what the ads are selling. There are many advertisements and commercials that use this approach. Prime examples of this are the advertisements for Orbit Gum and A Diamond is Forever. Also, the commercials for Levi jeans use sex to promote the sale of their brand. As a way to

Advertisements are intended to make their audience feel remarkable if and only if they purchase what is being publicized. In 2005, Dove launched a “Real Beauty” campaign in an effort to reassure women of their physical beauty. The campaign featured women of all different shapes and sizes to connect with each body type. However, this campaign would not be advantageous to both the consumers and advertisers if the advertisers did not get their fair share. Gloria Steinem, author of “Sex, Lies, and Advertising,” is strongly challenged by Dove’s campaign by exemplifying how Ms., a magazine that Gloria was co-founder of, eliminated advertisements in order to maintain journalistic integrity. However, Jennifer L. Pozner, author of “Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ Backlash,” utterly supports Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign by concurring with Dove’s powerful message of confidence. Despite their opposing views on advertisements, both women share a common ground: Advocating the empowerment of women.

Sexist ads show that society is dominated by the same masculine values that have controlled the image of women in the media for years. Sexist advertisement reinforces gender stereotypes and roles, or uses sex appeal to sell products, which degrades the overall public perception of women. The idea that sexism is such a rampant problem comes from the stereotypes that are so deeply embedded into today’s society that they almost seem to be socially acceptable, although they are nowhere near politically correct. Images that objectify women seem to be almost a staple in media and advertising: attractive women are plastered all over ads. The images perpetuate an image of the modern woman, a gender stereotype that is reinforced time and time again by the media. These images are accepted as “okay” in advertising, to depict a particular product as sexy or attractive. And if the product is sexy, so shall be the consumer. In the 1970s, groups of women initially took issue with the objectification of women in advertisements and with the limited roles in which these ads showed women. If they weren’t pin-ups, they were delicate

In the documentary Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women by Jean Kilbourne, she talks about how women are depicted in advertisement. The average American will spend 2 years of their life just watching advertisement, and most of these people will make the claim that the ads were not effective to them. Jean Kilbourne stresses that the advertisement companies make their ads quick and cumulative so that they almost seem forgettable. However, the advertisements will still resonate in your mind unconsciously. Kilbourne argues that the objectification of women in the advertisement industry: negatively affects the mental health of women with the societal need to be perfect, encourages the eroticism of violence, and tells women they need

Gender role bias in advertisements has been so prevalent for so long that the untrained eye wouldn't even discern it. All the same, these biases, for the most part, put women in subordinate positions and men in dominant ones. This assumption on both the genders is unfair and demeaning. These ads portray women as subservient and play toys for men. Not only do the models depict an image nowhere near close to reality, but their bodies are scantily clad and what few clothes they are wearing are very revealing.

The Tiger Beer advertisement shown in the appendix is a clear example of the objectification of women in advertising. The Tiger Beer advert was made to appeal to men from the age of 20 to 60. The advert seeks to get a cheap laugh from the target audience with the image of the woman in a sexual pose and the picture of the beer. The ad promotes the idea that beer is the most