The Women 's Health Magazines

The sexualisation of women in advertising has become a very prominent and controversial issue in today’s society. Many brands, products and campaigns we are presented with portray women as being available and willing sexual objects, who exist to cater to the male gender. Gucci is one such brand that does this, focusing on emphasizing the sexual appeal of the female gender in order to sell their products, because as advertisers know: ‘sex sells.’ This new cultural shift can however, be seen as politically regressive for women, as the ideology it brings negatively impacts how women are viewed by society and how they view themselves.

She does this by describing advertisements for different products. One example she uses is an ad for Possession clothing. She describes the ad by saying “Sometimes it’s ‘all in good fun’ as in the ad for Possession shirts and shorts featuring a man ripping off the clothes off a woman who seems to be having a good time” (492-93). This is an example of how most men in society see women as their property and how they can do whatever they want to them whenever they want. As well as describing the ad for the Possession clothing line, Kilbourne uses an example of a Pepsi commercial featuring Cindy Crawford. The commercial is of Crawford getting out of her car to go buy a Pepsi while being checked out by two young boys (502-03). This is showing how even from a young age, boys are taught that it is okay to view a woman as something that can just be stared at and thought about in ways that are nothing but sexual and objectifying. Kilbourne also makes a point to explain how if the roles were reversed in some advertisements nothing would change. She does this by using an ad for jeans. The ad shows a little boy lifting up a woman’s skirt and looking up it (507). She states “it may seem that I am reading too much into this ad, but imagine if the genders were reversed. We would fear for the little girl who is unzipping a man’s fly in an ad” (507-08). She does this to explain that no

The settings of the advertisement, which are a business building, a restaurant, and a street, clearly represent the three different classes of the upper- class, the middle-class and the lower-class. Additionally, women's different types of clothing also represent the different classes. The girl in the business office has worn a well-groomed suit, which suggests that she belongs to the upper-class. Women in the street have worn jeans, which suggests that they belong to the lower-class. The advertainment also sells some messages to the dominant elite with the product. The first message being communicated is that women are products that are meant to be consumed and when a product is bought, women come with the product. The main character in the advertisement has worn a jean and has opened its buttons, which suggests that he is a lower-class person. After he chews the Clorets gum, which is a high-end product, he is considered an upper- class person who attracts all the girls wherever he goes. Women are attracted to him just because of the fresh air created by the gum and before consumption, he could not attract women. Therefore, it is the gum that attracts women, not the guy. The second message of the dominant elite that is communicated to the audience is that women should sell their body to the men. All women in the commercial try different sexy poses in front of the man in the advertisement to attract him. The woman in the

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

The image shows a woman having a dinner date with another man. I took an interest in this image because it is an advertisement for women but she displays masculine traits. She is the main focus because the ad is trying to sell dry shampoo for women. Her posture contradicts the common female posture in advertisements. The first thing that I noticed was that her hands are clenched as if she is saying she won or she achieved an objective. Her facial expression agrees with her hand position. These two postures strengthen each other to tell the people looking at this ad that if you use this product than you can achieve a “hot date.” This message relates to the theme of compulsive heterosexuality. The woman takes the masculine role

By the traditional definition of femininity, women are passive and submissive (Devor 390). However, in this ad, the woman shows neither characteristics. She is confident as shown by her pose. Her confidence along with her position in power rather depicts masculinity, which is characterized by ¨confidence and self-reliance¨ (393). The woman also does not restrict her movements to minimize space as expected from traditional femininity. She lifts both her arms high in front of her, occupying a lot of space. Together with the portrayal of elitist values, the nontraditional feminine depiction of the woman in the ad appeals to the working women, telling them that they too can become or appear like her who can support herself successfully. Through the ad, women will believe that, by buying the Carolina Herrera bags, they can become financially and socially well-off by their own efforts and will, without having to be dependent on

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

Pathos is the advertiser’s ability to appeal to the viewer’s emotions. The appeal of emotion is the strongest form of persuasion in this particular advertisement. All women know what it feels like to be absent of confidence, or to feel feeble and weak in society just because they are not a man. The commercial also appeals to emotion because the viewer is reverted back to their carefree childlike mentality.

The poses of women in these ads are displayed as if they have desire to be conquered by men. In Max shoes printed ads, an Asian woman is lying on a man shoe. The man shoe is intently magnified much bigger than her whole body. Her hands, breast, waist and hips are tied into the man shoe laces. However, it seems that she is more relaxing than feel like to resist being tied. The purpose of this intention is to elicit sexual arousal of the men. Also, the woman wears no shoes and bends her knees slightly. This pose makes the woman appear to be a doll waiting to be untied by men to play with. Wanting to be crushed, she looks like an object, a human toy that is always there available to please

American Apparel`s advertisements are very controversial and banned in some countries because of their portrayal of women. In the advertisements of their products, women are depicted as sexual objects because of the different ways they are portrayed in comparison to men. Men look professionally and formally dressed in the advertisements compared to women looking almost naked and sexual. In this specific ad by American Apparel, pathos is used but in different contexts. In the ad targeted toward the male audience the ad is appealing to the emotions, on the other hand the ad targeting women is using sexual appeal.

It is often proposed that the western world is almost equal in terms of power relations within gender. The society may be moving towards equality, but the progress is yet slow. Furthermore, even though the society is changing, the media lags to reflect the power struggle taking place within society. While occupations are making great progress in diminishing inequality, the media still portrays messages that objectify women, and deprives them of the respect that is readily awarded to men. Men are seen as powerful, rich, confident, and athletic, while women are judged on their outer beauty and their sexual appeal (Jacobson & Mazur, 1995). The advertisement by adidas, as seen in figure 5, carries the connotation that when a man wears adidas shoes, he becomes a ‘panty dropper’. The denotation is that it is an advertisement for adidas shoes, which can be noted through the symbolic sign of the logo. The denotation of the advertisement could also be that there is a man who is standing in a relaxed position, and there is a woman who is standing on one leg with the other resting on the man. There is also some writing on the page, which states, “The first thing she notices… Are your shoes”. The critical connotation, then, is that women, being the superficial people that they are, will look at a man’s shoes and if the look pleases her, she will express her interest in a very sexual manner. The words combined with the actions create interpellation. The

Ever wonder why an ad can show a woman in a dominant, and empowering role but stillsexualize them? We see it in everyday media whether it’s on the internet, television, or amagazine ad. Society would show a powerful woman in an ad but would display her as onlybeing powerful through sex. Lavazza The Espresso Experience ad displays a women hoveredover two baby boys with a wolf-like fur on her back while holding a cup of espresso. This ad isalso a visual of the old Italian myth about a “She-Wolf” finding two twin boys and raising themto be great leaders and build the empire Rome. In this case the women in the ad is representing avery powerful role with being the “She-Wolf” but is hyper sexualized by her posture, bare legsand arms, and gaze. Displaying the female in a mothering role with such a sexual position willnot protect stereotypical cultural views men and women have on each other. The ad is notdisplaying the actual value of a strong nurturing women but instead belittling her by using herstrength as a sexual attraction. Gender roles in advertisement can change and rearrange culturalviews on men and women.Through the analysis of the ad it is visible that they emphasized her body posture into asort of arch position. The body gesture of the female suggests a mothering and nurturingfeature. She is hovering over the kids for protection almost in an animalistic way. Usually, when

The man is fully clothed in a suit, which represents power and formality. It is extremely suggestive as it looks like he came to this position without the woman’s knowledge or consent since her sunglasses are pushed up for her to see. He is in a dominating position where she has to look up at him and the man’s face isn’t shown in the ad, which shows that he is confident. The ad is suggesting that if you have Sky Vodka, you can look glamourous and wealthy as well. The men are always given more power and a higher status than the women (Appendix A). The second image reveals how femininity is portrayed. In the ad for Dolce and Gabbana’s Monico Lipstick, notice the lightness of the woman’s hand touching her face, the touching of one’s face, especially the finger-to-mouth pose is reminiscent of a child. She is also dressed seductively with a come-hither look on her face that is bold and suggestive (Appendix A).

Though shoes are multi-functional objects, the advertisers have chosen to appeal to high self-monitors through this symbolic imagery. Though the specific monitoring of the audience is unknown, Nike shoes often appeal to those who are high self-monitors, as buyers are willing to pay a high price to obtain the brand recognition and high status that accompanies the purchase of the Nike brand. The advertisers should choose to print this advertisement in media that focuses on a man’s self image, such as a men’s fashion magazine.

For most of history, girls and women have been told they have to look and act a certain way. Not only are they told this, but they are exposed to many ads and types of media that promote looking ‘perfect’. I think that everyone, male or female, should be themselves and not give in to the pressures caused by media and advertisements. However, doing this is very hard for people as these ‘expectations’ are everywhere, especially for women and girls. In fact, a study conducted on mass media showed that women’s magazines contained 10.5 times as many weight loss ads as men’s magazines did. I think that women and girls should be happy the way they are for several reasons; perfection never stays perfect, changing yourself for others and not yourself causes unhappiness, and trying to be someone else can be dangerous.