Images
in advertising seem to perpetuate ideas of sexism, racism, and other power
hierarchies. Granted the main idea of these images is to sell whatever
miscellaneous product to the public, however, these power hierarchal ideas are
being sold alongside these products, further tainting our minds and corrupting
society. Women are generally the “objects” on display in advertising, and yet
these images rarely if ever portray women in a positive light. “Ads portray
women as sex objects or mindless domestics pathologically obsessed with
cleanliness” (Cortese, 54). This persistent imagery seems to be a brainwashing
mechanism that helps to enforce the patriarchy within our society. Girls seem
to be given nothing to aspire to other than being “sexy" and “desirable”.
But sexy and desirable for whom? The patriarchy that I mentioned sheds light on
the recurrence of advertising being in favor of appealing to the standards of
the American White male. Women are merely there to be objects of desire for him
to gaze upon. Women are there to feed an appetite,
not to have any of their own” (Berger, 55).
Advertising
has taught women of all ages, and races to hate themselves, simply by offering
them products to “fix” their imperfections, and if no automatic imperfections
can be identified, women are taught what to aspire to, that they most probably
do not possess. Makeup, Spanx, Push-up bras, skin lightening creams, anti-wrinkle
serums, permanent relaxers, weave, etc. The list goes on and on. All of these
products are offered to women an effort to help them “fix” what is wrong with
them, and to help make them more desirable. “Advertisers
are constantly bombarding consumers,
especially women, with the message that they are inherently flawed – that what
they are or what they have is not enough, too much, or not good enough”
(Cortese, 63). Granted, a lot of these products I condone the use of, so I’m
not going to argue that they shouldn’t be purchased and are blasphemous things
that should be condemned, however, I do acknowledge the effect that these
things have on women and young girls. It is almost sad to see how a lot of
women I know change emotionally based on what they wear, whether they have on
makeup, and so on.
It is not to say that women are the only ones who are
continuously hounded by advertisements to correct who they are. Men are also taught what to do, how to look,
and how to act through advertisements and media. However, the ways that men are
being targeted are much more subtle and a lot more dangerous due to the fact
that it is hard to show men how they are being oppressed by patriarchy just the
same as women. Men are taught to be stoic, be a playboy, be “cool”, be “macho”,
be fit, muscular, tall, etc. And it’s terrible that people subscribe to the
images that are being put out in the media. “Advertising
images of women from sexpots to airheads not only sold brand products and
services but also helped to shape social attitudes on relationships and 0n the roles and status accorded to women. It
follows that these images of men confirmed that some women increasingly view
men as sex objects, jerks, or nerds” (Cortese, 61).Women want the tall,
muscular, cool guy that men want to be (some, not all, I don’t want to make any
false generalizations).
I
sit and think about myself and how I envision the “ideal” man or woman, and the
“ideal” man would be about 6 feet tall with well define, relatively large
muscles, and brooding/mysterious, and the “ideal” woman would be about 5’7 with
long hair, breasts that are big, but not too large, a really small waist, and
large hips. So basically, David Beckham and Beyonce are what are engrained in
my mind as “perfection”. Ironically, Beyonce seems to be one of the only Black women
(maybe I guess Rihanna), who is considered beautiful across the board, by
almost everyone regardless of color (although she has been getting paler as
time goes on).
Changing
the way advertising perpetuates all of these power hierarchies, would be
difficult, if not impossible. I think that a change would have to occur in the
ways of thinking, and the sorts of images that are displayed. I think that ads
should be sort of gender neutral. Men should be in ads doing laundry, cleaning
the house, (dare I say, be a covergirl?), alongside women. And women should be
displayed as mechanics, police officers, and other stereotypical “men” positions. “Real” people should
be featured in ads, not just men and women who fit into the patriarchal view of
beauty. I feel that if this were to
happen, it would bring about a generation of children who are more open minded
and not clouded by the judgments of what a “man” does, and what a woman is supposed
to do. Change really comes about through children. Trying to force an 80 year
old man to change his mind is almost impossible, but raising a child in a way
that teaches acceptance, and tolerance, and open mindedness, would help to
bring about a slow, but sure change to the ways that have kept society so
constricted. This may sound really strange, and generally not on topic with
this whole idea, but it is very on topic. In the movie 13 Going on 30, Jennifer
Garner works for this magazine called Poise, and they are becoming less
popular, so her character, Jenna Rink thins of a way to revamp the magazine by
featuring images of real people, and community, and shifting the way that
beauty is advertised, and essentially, this idea that was had in the movie, is
my idea on what needs to happen in order to bring about change in our society.
Works Cited
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. Penguin Books
Limited, 2008.
Cortese, Anthony J. Provocateur:
Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising. Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers, 2007.
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