The two images on the right that I found are very degrading to women. In the image in the middle, the advertisement is insinuating that all women are good for is sex. Also, it is sending out a negative message to women that if you have large breasts then people will look past your flaws. This makes women who do not have large breasts feel like they are not good enough or less of a woman. It makes women seem more like objects than a human being.
The image on the bottom is sexually degrading to women. Majority of people who see this advertisement, even pre-teens, know what this ad is trying to imitate oral sex. Again, this ad is making women seem more like sexual objects rather than people. It is also putting down women by making it look like the woman is about to perform oral sex on a sandwhich to apparently target male customers. This reinforces the idea that all women are good for is sex.
In almost all of the ads I found, including the two above, were white women. Even the ones from websites discussing negative advertisement of women were mainly caucasian women. This shows that other ethnicities do take a backseat when it comes to body dissatisfaction issues in the mainstream. Also, both women are obviously skinny and are made to look very sexually desirebale. This makes women connect being desirable only with skinny models and contributes to women having a negative self perception.
The image that I found on the top I believe is an advertisement that is working against dominant messages about normative gender and sexuality. There is barely any make-up on the woman's face and there is nothing sexually suggestive about this photo. "Beauty rooted in enviromentalism" is written at the top which is promoting beauty in the form of a quality in a woman not on their physical appearance.
If I were to make an advertisement to empower both men and women I would make sure that nothing sexual was implied. I would also try to keep a picture of either a man or woman out of the advertisement so there would be more focus on the product itself. However, if I did include a picture of a person I would make sure that majority of the focus in the ad was on the product rather than the person or people in it.
Anywhere you go, especially a college campus, you will hear boys talking smack such as "i need a girl im craving a sandwich" and comments alike. So the picture of the girl with the wonderbra came as no surprise to me. I could picture a guy sitting there saying, "she cant cook, but who cares? look at her rack!" This is a humor that appeals to guys so maybe they will buy their woman a wonderbra. All in all though, it just goes to show that most womans breasts are sex objects for guys entertainment. By a woman willingly being in that ad, this picture sends out the message that we as woman think of ourselves this way too, like we are just here to show off for men. But that is in no way true. However, how are guys supposed to ever respect our feelings on that if they see that there ARE woman out there who dont mind portraying themselves as such?
ReplyDeletei think that the two ads were very degrading towards women and I can deinatley see how women get frustated with these types of advertisements.
ReplyDeleteI think the two ads chosen for part one are a great representation of the absurdness of the way companies degrade women through marketing of their products. The bra advertisement is trying to say "i have huge, nice boobs thanks to this awesome bra, who cares if i cant cook". That's ridiculous. Manufacturers think it's ok to use a women's beautiful assets as a way to attract the wrong type of attention to sell their product(s). It's degrading to not only the women being used for the marketing, but for all women out there to see.
ReplyDeleteAnother example of using a women's assets for marketing is this Mercedes advertisement for their new model car with eight airbags:
http://adoholik.com/2008/03/07/mercedes-benz-s-class-8-airbags/