Masculinity and Femininity: The Objectification of Woman
Even with the growing effect of the media, gender roles in regards to woman have not gone through a drastic reform. As a result of this lack of reform, the advertisement industry has been allowed to implement these outdated ideas into the minds of the consumer through sexualized and objectifying images of women. The advertisement for the cologne “Abibis” fragrance for men, shows a beautiful woman standing in front of a deep red curtain with soaking wet hair. The woman is in a light pink and ragged bra and an unbuttoned pair of jean shorts. On her right arm there appears to be a dirt stain on her forearm and her right shoulder. Her bra is falling off her left shoulder and is barely managing
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Theroux defines manliness when he states, “”Be a man!” strikes me as insulting and abusive. It means: Be stupid, be unfeeling, obedient, soldierly and stop thinking (Theroux 177). Theroux believes these aspects define men, and advertisement companies, just like “Alibis” prey on this mold of masculinity that has been set as a means of selling their product. In the essay, “Being a Man”, Theroux explains how men act in regards to women. Theroux states, “It is very hard to imagine any concept of manliness that does not be-little women” (Theroux, 177). This quote directly applies to this particular advertisement because it targets the fantasy of men at the cost of women. This advertisement implies that woman have to use their sexuality and ignorance of a “male” activity, like fixing cars, to attract the opposite gender. Fixing cars is a male predominant activity and many men take a lot of pride in being able to fix a car. Woman in comparison are stereotypically believed to have no knowledge of cars and end up having to call upon a man for help, which is exactly what this ad is using to help sell this product. This feeds the Americanized masculinity principles that Theroux despises so much, and this advertisement only proves that a concept of manliness sadly does not come without the degradation of …show more content…
In John Berger’s book, Ways of Seeing, he discusses how effective marketing influences human ideals, and explains that publicity can make individuals question their happiness. As a result of the insecurities in the minds of the people, advertisements are able to make a profit by selling their particular product. Berger states that “the gap between what publicity actually offers and the future it promises, corresponds with the gap between what the spectator-buyer feels himself to be and what he would like to be. The two gaps become one; and instead of the single gap being bridged by action or lived experience, it is filled with glamourous daydreams” (Berger 148). In the beginning of this quote, Berger mentions the future the product is promising, which is what draws people towards the product. The way these advertisement companies use the future to build up these elaborate and sexualized fantasies is a primary marketing strategy to sell their product, but it has a serious effect on society. These advertisement companies use the self-doubt that resonates in people and tells them that their product can provide a plug to fill that void that is felt. When this quote mentions “glamourous daydreams”, those daydreams is all the product can truly supply. Alibis can only provide a men’s fragrance; it cannot provide the beautiful woman who desperately needs help, and is just waiting to make an
Sexualizaton and objectification in the advertisements we see and the media we watch has become a very strong issue in our society. With the idea that “sex sells”, consumers don’t even realize that they’re not viewing the advertisements for what they are, but for the women (or men) that are being portrayed in a very erotic way, posed with whatever product they were hired to sell. Many articles have been written so far to challenge and assess this problem, but one written by Jean Kilbourne (1999), “”Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”: Advertising and Violence” holds an extensive amount of authority. Using her personal experience with the subject, as well as studies she has conducted herself on the topic of sexualization, she talks about how the amount of sexualization in advertising affects how society views the culture and products consumers buy. She also notes that because of the quantity and prevalence of these ads, the rate of all forms of sexual assault, specifically rape (mostly towards women of all age), increase, as well as other forms of assault. It is important to examine Kilbourne’s use of rhetorical devices, such as ethos, pathos, and logos, and how effective these devices make her article. This way, it can be examined for its validity and her understanding of her own research. Kilbourne’s article is very effective through her uses of pathos and ethos, but at the same time, it loses its effectiveness through her absence of a counter-argument, as well as a lack
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.
In an advert for a female perfume by “Givenchy” a woman is shown who holds the materialistic characteristics. This is not how it really is in society. Not every woman has prominent curves, is slim and tall. This shows how advertisements do not fairly reflect society.
Throughout Jean Kilbourne’s film, Killing Us Softly 4, she states that advertisement is frequently used to communicate with potential consumers and persuade them to buy certain products. While advertising’s main purpose is to sell products, modern advertising does more than just sell a company’s merchandise. Advertisers create the values, images, and concepts of love and sexuality that every member of society is pressured to meet; they tell consumers who they are and who they should be. Modern advertising tends to portray the two genders, male and female, in completely different ways. Men are described as powerful beings who are believed to be insensitive and brutal; they are posed and photographed in positions that create a perception of strength and dignity. On the contrary, women are viewed as the weaker sex and taught to believe that their outward appearance determines their value in society. In a Cosmopolitan magazine, a Miss Dior perfume advertisement uses a beautiful naked woman, with long, brown hair and brown eyes, barely covered by a blanket to sell their product. While the perfume being sold should be the focus of the ad, the woman occupies most of the image lying on a bed in a provocative position. She appears to be around twenty-two years old, which appeals to the belief that sexuality only belongs to the young and attractive. In today’s society, women are viewed as vulnerable, objects used to please men, and flawless.
Lips, Neck, Breasts – all logical body parts to be shown in advertisements for cologne, right? Sadly, in today’s society, the answer is yes. We are bombarded on a daily basis with thousands of advertisements. They are impossible to avoid and even more impossible to ignore. Whether consciously or unconsciously what we see in these advertisements affects us as a culture. In many of these advertisements women’s bodies are dehumanized. In Jean Kilbourne’s article, “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt,” she argues, “ads affect us in far more profound and potentially damaging ways. The way that ads portray bodies – especially women’s bodies – as objects conditions us to seeing each other in dehumanizing ways, thus “normalizing” attitudes that can lead
The media is constantly spewing out over-sexualised adverts which they shove down our throats. Perfume adverts all have one thing in common. They all have beautiful models in various states of undress. Women are subject to stereotypical views in advertising and are restricted to certain gender roles. These stereotypes are having a negative impact on society. Adverts that portray
“Advertising is the art of arresting the human intelligence just long enough to get money from it.” (Shah, 2012) The goal of advertising is to capture their target audience’s attention and to create something memorable to sell their product. One advertisement campaign that has managed to do this quite well is Old Spice a men’s body wash brand that is among the top competitors. Successful advertisement is what creates a brand, even if you have a great product without good advertisement a product cannot be successful. In the advertisement campaign for Old Spice Men’s body wash the advertiser uses sexual appeal geared toward the female demographic, and the use of false cause to play on men’s insecurities of to convince viewers to buy their product.
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
Forensic science is the application of scientific analysis to tangible objects related to criminal activity. As science expands in its research, it is applied to the forensics field. Among the most prevalent is biotechnology. Biotechnology was developed by the manipulation of biological elements and remains closely tied to society and it needs. Although many of the advances and discoveries are used to produce goods as foods, and medications many of the innovations benefit forensic science as well. The biggest contribution being DNA analysis, providing additional and conclusive information on biological evidence sources, but with the use of DNA analysis comes social and ethical issues in society because of the amount of information obtained in a sample.
Objectification of women works with benevolent sexism to further oppress women in the media through its effects on self-esteem and well-being. Rollero’s (2013) article “Men and women facing objectification: The effects of media models on well-being, self-esteem and ambivalent sexism” examines media representations of men and women and how they are related to levels of sexism and psychological well-being. The literature on objectification has mostly indicated the connection between viewing objectified media representations and women’s body displeasure and motivation to achieve a slim body. The goal of the current study was to further past research by studying the effects of objectified media images –considering both male and female models– on psychological well-being, self-regard, and support of sexist states of mind. 166 undergraduates (51.8% males) participated in the study. Results indicated that objectification of men lessened men’s happiness, whereas objectification of women was more damaging because it lessens women’s happiness, appeal and social self-confidence. Furthermore, objectification of women affects men’s validation of sexist attitudes, increasing aggression toward women while decreasing aggression direct to men. Typically, only women are examined in studies of objectification. The inclusion of both male and female effects in the article makes it unique in comparison to other similar studies. Furthermore, the inclusion of both males and females allows for
Although it may be unethical to advertise females as sex objects, the provocative ads are believed to be influential on the customer’s purchasing decision. Whether Suit Supply is genuinely trying to sell their products or just draw attention to their brand, the business is creating advertisements that are considered extremely sensual and inappropriate. Apparently, this “sexual revolution” is the new way to sell fashion; sex sells. The advertisement for the Dutch company, Suit Supply, includes sexual references to make a memorable impression on the customers and influence them to purchase the product. Their goal is to make the customers fantasize about the advertisement, which would hopefully cause them to buy the product. Not only are the
Advertising ideologically shapes our perceptions of beauty and strongly influences our ideas, attitudes and values within one’s culture. Advertisers achieve this powerful and direct communication through signifying practices which gives meaning to words and images (Kang, 1997). For example, the exploitation of women is most apparent in TV beer commercials, where the promise of sex and fun is the norm (Hall, Crum, 1994). For example, the Swedish Bikini Team commercial for Old Milwaukee beer. In this commercial, large-breasted blond women wearing bikinis were portrayed as fun companions brought in especially to party with very few men.. Through the exploitation of women in advertisements, this oppression leads to social problems, such the development of eating disorders by young women attempting to achieve the conditioned idea of the “ideal image” (Kang, 1997).
In 2014 there was an online survey that questioned many women about sexual harassment. In a survey of 811 women, “Over 99 percent of the female respondents said they had experienced some form of street harassment (only three women said they had not). Examples of these gestures would be hip thrusting, hand motions that simulate sex acts, or gestures with mouth or tongue. Over 80% of women have been targets for sexually explicit comments” (Statistics – Stop Street Harassment Studies). Over the last 30 years objectification and sexualization in advertising, media, music videos, video games, and many other platforms. What is sexual objectification? What does sexualizing mean? Sexual objectification is the act of treating a human being as a an
“[Masculinity/ femininity] refers to the extent to which a culture values aggressiveness, competitiveness, looking out for yourself, and dominating others and nature versus gentleness, cooperation, and taking care of others and living in harmony with the natural world.” (Wood) Toula is pressured to marry a nice greek man, while her brother is expected to marry a greek virgin but does not receive the same pressure. Gus also has some expectations of Nick to partake in masculine activities unlike Toula where he is accepting of Toula wanting to take “pottery classes.” Evidence of this is when Nick is trying to show Gus his drawings for the menu and Gus completely disregards his efforts, always responding with, “Where did you get this?” And when Nick says that he drew it, Gus responds with a grunt. “Long term/ short term orientation refers to the extent to which members of a culture think about long term (history and future) vs short term (present).” (Wood) “Individualistic cultures generally rely on low-context communication style, which is direct, explicit, and detailed.” (Wood) “Collectivist cultures typically rely on a high-context communication style, which is indirect and indetailed and which conveys meaning more implicitly than explicitly.” (Wood) Gus is very oriented around the future and therefore follows along with the principles of long term orientation. Even before his children have grown old enough to date, they are already taught that Greek women are to grow up
Womanhood is often associated with femininity while manhood with masculinity. Masculinity is the idea that men are tough both physically and mentally. Femininity, a term associated with being women is used to describe a women’s comportment and attitude. A gentle individual male or female, who wears dresses, skirts, high heels, makeup, and has long hair would be identified as feminine. Unfortunately, society judges and criticizes a women who do not depict feminine characteristics. Such women are regarded as either homosexual or queer. I chose two pictures of Grace Jones to compare in this essay since she happens to be a gender bender and victim of alike persecutions. Additionally, Grace Jones is a supermodel and singer from Jamaica, who’s renowned for cross-dressing and artistic fashion styles (Williams). The picture titled, “Grace Jones/Nightclubbing,”was derived from the National Portrait Gallery,while the other from, “Essense” website, Jones demonstrates that women can be feminine or soft in one picture and masculine or hard in the other picture through her appearance.