Throughout time, female sexuality has been exploited for capital gain. Advertising is one of many examples. Advertisements have objectified women and their sexuality in order to sell a range of products from the 1950’s and through to now modern society. Bell and Howell, and BMW both manipulate sexuality in order to create an impactful and memorable ad, however it is at the expense of women. These ads reflect the social standing, ethics, and mindset of society in regards to the value of women in each time period.
The mindset of society during the 1950’s kept men and women on different levels, women being on the lesser one. However, women were targeted in advertising as they made the primary buying decisions in the household, similar to today.
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During this time period, society viewed women as possessions themselves, and saw their purpose strictly to serve the family unit, with special attention catered to her husband. She was meant to be well kempt, and swift with her chores and responsibilities, not unlike women in our modern society. Even today, a well-kept woman is the one that prospers, including career women. This specific ad plays more to the body image contention of what the ideal woman of the time should be. She is thin, Caucasian, well endowed, made up with perfectly coiffed hair, and is seemingly happy being a purely physical specimen in this case. In regards to the BMW ad, the girl portrayed is just so, a girl. She embodies today’s image of the perfect woman. A blonde haired, blue eyed, young girl. Our society places high value on youth and innocence which is what this ad exploits not only in the art chosen, but also in the message (purity myth). This ad selling BMW used cars uses the tagline “You know you’re not the first, but do you really care?” equating this young woman and her supposed “light tainting” (in regards to her virginity), to a used car. Purity is a ridiculously important concept in our society because it is a pivotal factor in deciding whether a woman is worth a man’s time, …show more content…
While although sexist, they maintained a confident demeanor in the art chosen. Using the Bell and Howell ad, it is clear that the woman is standing upright with excellent posture in a head on shot. This exudes a level of confidence. During this time period, women were assuming different roles. New appliances were being introduced that allowed women to spend less time in the house and more exploring other interests besides family. For example, going to college to pursue an education. However, many women dropped out in the 50’s as well either for marriage post war, or because they weren’t planning on pursuing a job with the education they were receiving. They then relapsed to the traditional female image. The women who did look to pursue other interests and even challenge their husband’s opinions were seen as troublesome because challenging the image of masculinity automatically meant she was forgoing her femininity. There are several examples of women being shown as proud, strong, upstanding people in 50’s advertising even though they clearly assume the more subservient role in the ad itself. The BMW ad is interesting as to the way that it was created. The camera angle itself is taken from above which is known to make the subject look smaller, and meek. This was done purposely to make the girl look even more inferior to further stress how her sexuality as a woman is meant to be submissive and weak, to be dominated
This thought has been held on for far too long. In a consumer-driven society, advertisements invade the minds of every person who owns any piece of technology that can connect to the internet. Killbourne observes that “sex in advertising is pornographic because it dehumanizes and objectifies people, especially women,” (271). Advertising takes the societal ideology of women and stereotypes most kids grow up learning and play on the nerves of everyone trying to evoke a reaction out of potential customers, one that results in them buying products.
In “Beauty… and the Beast of Advertising” Jean Kilbourne argues that advertisements sell a lot more than just their products: “They sell values, images, and concepts of success and worth, love and sexuality, popularity and normalcy” (1). Kilbourne states that in advertising there are two types of women, “Housewives” and “Sex objects”. Kilbourne calls the sexually objectified women “a mannequin, a shell” because their beauty is flawless, they lacks all of the imperfections that make people appear human (2). Kilbourne also states that these women are all skinny, often tall and “long-legged”, and youthful (2). She claims that all “beautiful” women in ads obey this “norm” (Kilbourne 2). Kilbourne strongly states that advertisements lack the sense
Advertisements have become more unique and creative since the 1940’s. They not only cater to the family life, but also the single life. Automobile advertisements in the 1940’s were directed towards the modern family. Although there are still automobile advertisements that show happy families in nice cars; there are also advertisements for certain vehicles that are more geared towards single people. Marketing is constantly changing to meet what the majority population wants or needs.
Advertisements in Life magazine showed women mainly in ways were they were responsible for kitchen duties and taking care of their husbands. In the early 1950’s, there were recurring ads of women with refrigerators. In an advertisement from 1950, a woman is dressed like a typical housewife standing next to the refrigerator showing all the features it entails. It gives off the message that during this period of the 1950’s, society saw women as the face of the kitchen and a majority of the duties as a housewife took place there. Another advertisement from 1950, gives a clear indication of gender roles. In the advertisement for a refrigerator, the women and her daughter are shown organizing their refrigerator, and the man is shown as carrying in the refrigerator. The advertisement expresses that women are more fit for domestic work and that men are more for the labor tedious work that a woman cannot do. In an advertisement from 1953 to sell health insurance, the man who is selling health insurance puts a picture of himself and his...
Advertising has become a means of gender socialization because it is a way for people to learn the “gender map” that lays out the expectations for men and women based on their sex.
This phenomenon suggests that all women are required to remain loyal wives and stay at home mothers who aspire to achieve perfection. In “Mirrors of Masculinity: Representation and Identity in Advertising Images,” Jonathon E. Schroeder and Detlev Zwick claim that “highly abstract connections are made between the models, a lifestyle, and the brand” resulting in a need to associate these products with a specific way of living (25). Instead of simply displaying these luxurious bracelets and handbags, the ad creates an elegant environment through the incorporation of sophisticated items. The women are dressed elegantly in dresses and blouses, adding a conservative element to the ad. The ad presents a rather stereotypical image of the very successful heads-of-household type mothers who have brunch with other elite women in an exclusive circle. Everything from the merchandise they sport to the champagne glasses down to the neatly manicured fingernails provides insight into the class of women presented in this ad. The body language of the women strips the image of the reality element and instead appears to be staged or frozen in time. This directly contributes to the concept of the gendered American dream that urges women to put up a picture-perfect image for the world to see. Instead of embracing individual struggle and realities, the American dream encourages women to live out a fabricated
Through the application of physical appearance, audience and text the ad unfortunately paints women in a negative manner. The ad employs tactics that reel society into believing that women must put a man on a pedestal in order to gain his admiration. Women have the right to be treated equally and deserve to be represented in a positive light so the culture can fray away from following beliefs similarly portrayed in this 1930s advertisement. We must teach the next generation that although it is in our nature to nurture those around us, there are no boundaries or restrictions for women to excel in society for the
The documentary Killing Us Softly 4 discusses and examines the role of women in advertisements and the effects of the ads throughout history. The film begins by inspecting a variety of old ads. The speaker, Jean Kilbourne, then discusses and dissects each ad describing the messages of the advertisements and the subliminal meanings they evoke. The commercials from the past and now differ in some respects but they still suggest the same messages. These messages include but are not limited to the following: women are sexual objects, physical appearance is everything, and women are naturally inferior then men. Kilbourne discusses that because individuals are surrounded by media and advertisements everywhere they go, that these messages become real attitudes and mindsets in men and women. Women believe they must achieve a level of beauty similar to models they see in magazines and television commercials. On the other hand, men expect real women to have the same characteristics and look as beautiful as the women pictured in ads. However, even though women may diet and exercise, the reality...
Sex is everywhere in our society. It is on TV, magazines, radio, billboards, and basically anywhere you look today. People cannot get away from sex in advertising because so many companies use it. Sex appeals are used in advertising all the time, and people love to look at it because 'Sometimes people listen better with their eyes' (Steel 137). Sex in advertising is an effective technique that is used today. It helps companies successfully sell their product in our market. Of course it has to be directed at the right audience, and sold at the right places in order for it to work.
It was also the use of sexual ads that helped create the idea of the ideal women in America. In the 1920s, women were starting to break away from the fact that it was not acceptable for them to smoke or drink in public. The rebel against this the started wearing shorter skirts and sometimes even pants, to show that they were not just homemakers. The feminism fight really began at this time, when women were starting to dress like “flappers” and were started working outside the home. By the 1920s, 25 percent of women were employed and no longer just homemakers (Goodrum and Dalrymple, 1990. p.68). In the 1920s, the ideal woman was a flapper and in the 1940s it was Rosie the Riveter. As Frank Rowsome Jr. puts it, “ the ideal women is continuously
Advertising in American culture has taken on the very interesting character of representing our culture as a whole. Take this Calvin Klein ad for example. It shows the sexualization of not only the Calvin Klein clothing, but the female gender overall. It displays the socially constructed body, or the ideal body for women and girls in America. Using celebrities in the upper class to sell clothing, this advertisement makes owning a product an indication of your class in the American class system. In addition to this, feminism, and how that impacts potential consumer’s perception of the product, is also implicated. Advertisements are powerful things that can convey specific messages without using words or printed text, and can be conveyed in the split-second that it takes to see the image. In this way, the public underestimates how much they are influenced by what they see on television, in magazines, or online.
The portrayals of men in advertising began shifting towards a focus on sexual appeal in the 1980s, which is around the same that women in advertising were making this shift as well. According to Amy-Chinn, advertisements from 1985 conveyed the message that “men no longer just looked, they were also to be looked at” as seen in advertisements with men who were stripped down to their briefs (2). Additionally, advertisements like these were influencing society to view the male body “as an objectified commodity” (Mager and Helgeson 240). This shows how advertisements made an impact on societal views towards gender roles by portraying men as sex objects, similarly to women. By showcasing men and women in little clothing and provocative poses, advertisements influenced society to perceive men and women with more sexual
middle of paper ... ... “Three in four Americans (76 percent) say that a woman's appearance on the job is likely to affect whether she is taken seriously. Eighty-four percent of women and 68 percent of men agree with that statement”. To sum up, it is often said that advertising is shaping women gender identity, and some have argued that the statement is true, because of the higher amount of sexual references of women that advertisements show and the damage that occurs to women’s personality and the public negative opinions of those women.
The objectification of women is a huge issue in society and is often led by advertising. However, many men still believe that the adverts depicting women in a sexual and often passive posture are not very offensive, but rather very funny or sexy. However, how would they feel if it were their daughter or sister being advertised throughout the world as a sexual object? 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.
In the capitalistic society, sexual objectification of women has become one of the most popular and effective ways of promoting a product. Female bodies are used in a lot of commercials. Not only do females reveal their body parts for the sake of ‘sex appeal’, they are often identified as a product itself, sometimes even regardless of the context.