Sexism in Advertising Essay ⋆ Essays on Controversial Topics ⋆ EssayEmpire

Americans see thousands of advertisements for products and services every week, and many of those commercial messages contain representations of women that are unflattering, demeaning, and offensive to many. Over the years, parents, teachers, religious organizations, feminists, media critics, and public interest groups have all voiced concerns over commercial messages that debase women. The images and narratives used to sell products frequently reinforce gender stereotypes, emphasize body-image anxiety, and objectify and hypersexualize the female body, even in advertisements directed toward the very female consumers they are targeting.

Emphasizing The Look

Because the design of so many of the products of the fashion, cosmetic, and beauty industries creates a “fashionable look” as a selling point, women are constantly bombarded with advertising messages that tell them to change or improve their appearance. The high-fashion models whose images sell everything from clothes to makeup, lingerie to perfume, become the cultural standards of perfection. Ads often promise or imply that through the use of the product, consumers can be more like the thin, flawless models in the ads. As consumer culture inevitably compels women to compare themselves to the hyper-thin, air-brushed icons of beauty, it is no wonder that many women, especially vulnerable teenagers, report high levels of anxiety about their appearance and body image.

Unrealistic standards of thinness and perfection rob young women of a sense of confidence in themselves, but the unique emphasis on appearance as a cultural measure of women’s worth presents a significant problem for women as well. In the past, patriarchal Victorian society defined feminine worth primarily by appearance. Women were to be seen and seldom heard. Under patriarchy, social value resides in a woman’s ability to present herself as a pleasing sight, one able to satisfy the male gaze. Cultural critics observe that consumer society also tends to measure a woman by her appearance and ability to achieve the look, not on her merits or success in the larger public and economic spheres. Feminists argue that recognizing a woman’s social value requires going beyond appearance. Only then will society recognize a woman’s social contribution and achieve gender equality.

Selling Sex

Using sex to make a sale remains a favored marketing strategy for many products, and ads that sell sex along with products are standard features in the world of advertising. Men and women are often targeted with different messages, and ads for men frequently present women in sexually available and vulnerable positions, especially in cigarette and alcohol advertising. Scantily clad models in alluring and sexualized poses draw the interest of male consumers and in doing so objectify women as little more than commercially designed male fantasies.

Images of sexually alluring models are also featured in ads targeted to women. These women present cultural ideals of feminine sexuality, for they are able to attract the opposite sex. Becoming the object of desire by emulating the image, wearing the product, or using the perfume promises to confer a degree of personal power to women, the power of attraction.

Images that use female sexuality to stimulate male desire and objectify women leave both sexes without representations able to affirm one another’s full humanity, evoke mutual respect, or recognize shared emotional needs. In addition, sex is often associated with power, and images of objectified sexuality, together with vulnerability, reinforce cultural attitudes that condone force and even violence against women.

Sexism and Violence

Whether selling makeup, sneakers, or high fashion, many advertisements depict women as victims of violence or feature the threat of violence toward them. Since many advertisements are primarily visual, these messages are often implicit, or implied by the photograph, not directly stated in the advertising copy. An ad for perfume featuring a nude woman pictured from behind, her hands bound across her back with an expensive bracelet, is an image of implied violence. The woman is constrained and helpless, and her nudity amplifies her vulnerable state. Through the camera’s perspective, the viewer becomes a voyeur, catching her from behind. She does not look back at the viewer and, because her face is hidden, she expresses no emotion and cannot make her presence felt. Such visual qualities present women as objects, and in this case, a sexualized object, bound and vulnerable. Many other, more explicit images depict women who appear to be dead lying on floors. Others are being slapped or threatened, drugged or placed in submissive poses. Images of violence and the threat of violence against women exist across the visual landscape of consumer culture, and such imaging reveals, at least in part, how women are defined and imagined in our culture. The visual geography of advertising also reflects what types of behaviors toward women are acceptable in our society.

Marketing Women’s Liberation

As women have struggled for equality over the years, many advertising campaigns have picked up on the themes of liberation and independence. Possibly the best example of marketing the idea of women’s liberation can be found in the long-running campaigns of Virginia Slims cigarettes. But critics charge that slogans like “You’ve come a long way Baby,” appeal to women’s desires for equality and independence, while selling them a harmful product that leads, ironically, to dependence on nicotine. Even as advertisements represent the hopes and desires of female consumers, purchasing a product rarely fulfills such aspirations.

Cultural critics and social scientists writing from many different perspectives argue that commercial images of women are important forms of social communication that contain influential messages affecting public attitudes about the place of women in society. Advertising images play on gender stereotypes, and as they do, they reinforce harmful gender biases. Calling for an equality of imagery is one step along the way to social and economic practices that treat women as full and equal partners with social standing in our society.

Bibliography:

Andersen, Robin. 2002. “The Thrill Is Gone: Advertising, Gender Representation, and the Loss of Desire.” Pp. 196-208 in Sex and Money: Feminism and Political Economy of the Media, edited by E. R. Meehan and E. Riordan. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Berger, John. 1990. Ways of Seeing. New York: Penguin. Frith, Katherine T., ed. 1998. Undressing the Ad: Reading Culture in Advertising. New York: Peter Lang.
Jacobson, Michael F. and Laurie Ann Mazur. 1995. Marketing Madness: A Survival Guide for Consumer Society. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Wolf, Naomi. 2002. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used against Women. New York: HarperPerennial.

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