Raunch Culture

The issue of sexuality in advertising has been raised in the last ten years (Brooke, 2010; Bradley, 2007; Phillips, 2005; Kent, 2005 & Levy, 2005), hence the concept of raunch culture raises the question of whether women are being empowered or victimised. This essay will discuss whether raunch culture represents a wave of new feminism, focusing on whether women’s sexuality is being celebrated in a healthy and empowering manner or preyed upon by marketing’s misogynistic and exploitating image of the good life laid out in various media forms, from billboards to sex videos to television advertisements and movies. It will also identify the role and responsibilities of marketers in relation to the stakeholders involved. Subsequently, followed

While feminist movements today have been branded as “raunch culture” most notably by writer Ariel Levy in 2005; 2016 public figures in the media such as Beyonce and Amber Rose have shown that it’s all about reclaiming your sexuality.

movement and the sexual revolution. In today’s time, raunch culture is the new trend of Playboy

To conclude, raunch culture is not the issue but rather people like levy who try to compare everything women do to a man’s standard. Levy demonstrates throughout her novel the reasons why she does not agree with raunch culture but never gave a clear image on how she expects women to carry themselves. She simply shames women who try to use different methods to be successful. Levy ridicules loophole women but seems like one herself. She may not attend strip clubs and objectify women but she sure tries to be different from other women. She states that “if you are the exception that proves the rule, and the rule is that women are inferior, you haven’t made any progress” but, she is part of that percentage of women she writes about in her book because

Authors, Michael Jacobson and Anne Mazur argue, in their article, “The Iron Maiden: How Advertising Portrays Women,” that advertisements underlines sexist concepts about the ideal female and men, ads exploit sexuality. Michael Jacobson and Anne Mazur’s purpose is to describe sexism and sexuality in marketing of women and men in advertisements. Michael Jacobson and Anne Mazur aims to convince their readers that sexism and sexuality in advertisement put impractical ideas of appearance and encourages concern and self-doubt. “Everywhere we turn, advertisements tell us what it means being a desirable man or woman (1)." Michael Jacobson and Anne Mazur’s skillfully use anecdotes, metaphor, and comparison techniques to create a strong, convincing article.

Advertising is a surely understood and essential piece of the showcasing scene for any business. Advertising organizations raise and spend huge numbers of dollars every year from making new thoughts and offering effort. Numerous hours are put into imagining and building up what we see each day in magazines, announcements, TV advertisements, and so on. Commercial architects need to make their work significant to their viewers with the goal that they can identify with these advertisements and buy the things they are attempting to offer. The pressure on women to look and carry on in specific ways is profoundly imbued into our way of life. The effect that culture has on how we feel about our bodies and ourselves is barely noticeable. Commercials aim to sell products by exploiting women as sex goddess’s harms teen

There seems to be a shift in promoting products and images to woman in the current media. It seems to be playing much on “Raunch culture” (Levey, 2005) for both genders to achieve the desired outcome. Advertising has portrayed woman as sexual objects or as Kilbourne (1999) called it, objectified. However, current media has shed a new light on women, where they are not just sexual objects but active, sexually driven individuals that are empowered to choose and be free with their sexuality and decisions (Gill, 2009). However, according to Gill (2008), there are certain social aspects that this new shift would impact the meaning of empowerment and how women’s sexuality are being view, directly affecting the idea of feminism and the equality

The role of gender in advertising has been a recurring issue in society since the arrival of current media and advertising approaches. Modern media uses approaches that focus on sex and the stereotypical descriptions and concepts of the roles men and women play as customers. These methods create a female communal issue that started in the 1960s with the interpretation of stereotypical housewives. Today, this image has changed into a different societal problem for women. New advertisements are revealing women in ways different from ever before: the Robert Cavalli fashion advertisement located in Style Magazine exposes the inaccurate insights that are placed on women of a very sexualized and obedient female gender role in American culture.

Throughout the media and advertising, they fetishize women as an object rather than a person. In the first essay, Kilbourne points out an epidemic that still occurs today when Kilbourne states, “Sex in advertising is pornographic because it dehumanizes and objectifies people, especially women, and because it fetishizes products [...] meet our emotional needs” (489). This quote unfolds the truth on how advertising and media portray women as sex symbols. Both the media and advertising have women portrayed in a sexual way, which affect the image of women drastically. In advertising specifically, Solnit points out a problem that occurs in the gaming community quite often when Solnit states, “Women in the online gaming community have been harassed,

Socially this is unacceptable for women and young teens questioning their femininity. In a recent article “Many Advertisements Are Sexist” the author believes the viewpoint of women in magazines, advertisements, commercials, and campaigns are stereotyping women to be sexual. Sexist advertisements continue to use female nudity to promote products. These advertisements that downgrade woman are promoting items using seductive and attractive techniques to attract the opposite sex. It causes a psychological impact on these women and young girls who are watching the advertisements, because of the unrealistic expectations, which result of body image problems and sexual violence (Ballaro and Wagner).

Advertising has changed in many ways over the years, growing and maturing to show us what we should be. Because our own self-esteem is not enough, we rely on advertising to tell us what is beautiful and what is not. Whether we realize it or not, beauty is ultimately defined for us. Products are advertised all around us, telling us that something in our life is missing because we do not have a certain product in our possession. Ranging from make-up to plastic surgery, most of this advertising is geared toward women. This can be shown through the advertisements analyzed in this essay. Both ads depict women who are approachable. The older ad depicts simplicity and innocence, while the current ad shows a more complex, sexual look. The images

The role of sex in advertising is debatable and most individuals, including industry experts, conclude that having the target audience of an advertisement comprehend the overall message being sent in an advertisement is the essential objective. In order for a message to get across, the advertisement must first get the attention of the target audience or market. After all, if advertisers are unable to get one’s attention they will not be able to send a message. There are many strategies that advertiser’s and marketers use to capture an audience’s attention. One such tactic used by many advertisers goes with the belief that sex sells in advertising. Sexuality is an influential motivator, and many advertisements use sexually explicit images

Commonly sensual commercials showcase women that are modeled to be “real” women. These women have no wrinkles, dazzling bright eyes, the perfect body, pearly white teeth and many more features that not the everyday women does not have. According to The Balance, “ Advertising, marketing, and the fashion industry have created a new type of woman that does not exist in the real world.” Commercials present these women often in commercials in bikinis or revealing clothing making the average women want to be them and men are told from an early that these are the ideal women. Women are told from an young age as well that they must be the women they see in

“ads feature provocative images of well-defined women (and men) in revealing outfits and postures selling clothing, alcohol, beauty products, and fragrances. Advertisers such as Calvin Klein, Victoria’s Secret, and Pepsi use these images to cultivate a ubiquitous sex-tinged media presence” (Reichert,2002 pg. 242).

However, the ‘male gaze’ is not without its criticisms, and recently there is said to have been a ‘sexualisation of culture’ (Gill 2009 p.138), with new and diverse methods involving sex and sexuality being displayed in advertising. Three emerging depictions of women in advertising, claimed to be distinct from the ‘male gaze’, are the ‘midriff’ (Gill 2009 p.148-151), the ‘vengeful sexy woman’ (Gill 2008 p.46-49), and the ‘hot lesbian’ (Gill 2009 p.151-153).