Gender, sexuality and advertisement

     Gender, sexuality and advertisement have been a hot topic for many years. Advertisers obsession with portraying beautiful and overly sexualized women in magazines can be taken back to the believe that "women are mere "beauties" in a men's culture so that culture can be kept male" as Wolf pointed out.  That believe that women are meant to mimic this non individualize creature that serves to please the viewer.  Her feelings and ideas are not relevant because all we can admire from a women is the way she looks.  This transcends to advertisement time and time again because conglomerate companies are there to please the male viewer.  Furthermore, targets women because "the surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female" as explained by Berger.

       Sexism in a sense is present in everyone's lives.  Advertisements have only taken it a step farther by displaying gender roles.  Cortes characterizes it as " a mythical WASP oriented  world in which no one is ever ugly, overweight, poor, toiling or physically or mentally disabled".  Mass media including advertising is a false screen where men and women portray assigned roles that should be imitated by the consumer.  For example, cleaning supplies advertisements almost always display the ideal housewife using their products.  Advertisement more than often go to the extremes by  representing the masculine gender role as valued while devaluing the feminine counterpart.  Another phase to this dilemma is representing only females who display the ideal beautiful woman.  Whether this was attained through Photoshop or through makeup or surgery, it sends the message that unless you are perfect you loose value in this society.

An image from a ketchup commercial devaluing women

       Advertisement's focus on the aspect of the exterior its not only limited to beauty but also race.  Time and time again we witness how the media portrays the minority in a false and unjustifiable manner.  Bell Hooks narrates how "conventional representation of black women have done violence to the image".  During the early ages of cinema the white supremacy chose to omit the presence of the black female and if they were portrayed in cinema or TV they were there "as a man in drag, as castrating bitch, as someone to be lied to, someone to be tricked, someone the white and black audience could hate".  Hooks was describing the character of "Saphire" from Amos 'n' Andy.  As we can see in the picture to the right, two African American males are shown in this comical and idiotic fashion, sort of eluding to the fact that they are a nonthreatening  form of entertainment for the white viewer.  This racism can also be seen in today's advertisements.  The minority that makes it to the screens and magazines are handpicked because of their complexion color.  In the Latino culture the lighter your skin complexion the more opportunities you have to make it.  Telenovelas only show characters that are white, tall with light eyes.  This is an erroneous representation of the Latino population whose roots originate from dark skin, black hair and dark eye Incan's, Mayan's, Aztecs and Africans. Figures in the media know this and choose alternative ways to change their appearance ranging from using skin treatments to lighten their skins, to using color contacts or dying their hair.   

              It is no surprise that there exists power hierarchy in advertising images.  Kellner describes imagistic ads  as "overwhelming persuasive and symbolic and that its images not only attempt to sell the product by associating it with certain socially desirable qualities, but they sell as well a worldview, a lifestyle, and a value system congruent with the imperatives of consumer capitalism".  Products are constantly attempting to trigger this connection between their products and high social status.  This is the reason why ads for alcoholic substances and cigarettes portray wealthy looking people partaking in expensive hobbies like drinking a bottle of whiskey and sailing across the ocean. The middle and lower class hardly can account for such activities and can only look at these images with desire.  There are numerous ads that attempt to sell a high lifestyle and consumers are willing to buy their products to appear as if they belong to this high class status.  After all, that is the purpose of images in ads to tap into the egotistical side of humanity because at the end of the day conglomerate companies just want to sell their products and are willing to succeed at this at no cost.          

             Some unintended effects these images have or reflect are the segregation of the minority.  The minority encompassing whether the gender minority such as gays socials groups or the race minority such as people of color.  Clark stated that "Advertisers fear that by openly appealing to a homosexual market their products will be negatively associated with homosexuality and will be avoided by heterosexual consumers".  This summarizes the reason why companies alienate these communities.  This fear that if gays or lesbians are in any way, shape or form connected to their product they will loose on the most fundamental matter of their existence which is to make money.  This creates a behavioral cycle in which ads are not representing the homosexual community and the heterosexual community does not know how to act or deal with this minority.  Clark also pointed out that "the result of this tension is that the capitalist welcome homosexuals as consuming subjects but not social subjects ".  The capitalist knows that homosexuals are a relevant market but they do not want to represent them in a social context due to this fear that they will be criticize.  As mentioned before racism is another unintended effect.  Although we have advanced as a society, racism is still constant in the media.  Makeup ads retain from using really dark complexion models to display their latest products and prefer women of color with lighter more refined features.

            In my opinion popular culture is found in ads.  The latest most popular trends will be exploited to advertise various products.  Actors and actresses who are part of hot news are always being depicted.  The ads are trying to sell the lifestyle of the rich and the famous.  Continuously ads recognize that the majority of the population is obsessed with pop culture whether it is the hottest technology gadget or the newest innovative way to loose weight.  As mentioned in class the body image has evolutionized, from popular culture admiring a more robust body to a more slim body and now back to a more curvacious body.  Ads have caught on to this and are more then often representing women with curves.  In some sense it is their job to keep up with pop culture because if they represent pop culture they will continue to rule over this capitalist nation.  It is definite that pop culture is also learned.  It is known that ads are a part of media in which the highest purpose is the spread of ideas.  It is to be visual, impacting and never forgettable.  It is less then often that ads critique pop culture.  Political ads are a few of the sources in which there is sense of critique.   

                                             

               The image above its a representation of how we as consumers are marionettes o advertisements.  The conglomerate companies know the specific tactics to continue to influence us in our daily decisions.  It is very sad to admit it but we are all victims whether we do it consciously or not.  The following are some images of alternatives to ads:

This ad is rebelling against unreachable body image standards. 

This one is depicting a strange figure with two lower extremities of a woman attached, sarcastically pointing out "I haven't forgotten, I have an ass"  It is rebelling against sexism. 

 

Here this ad makes fun of the fact that cigarettes were advertized as a weight loss method.  This ad say's yes you will loose weight by having lung cancer.

                During class there was some methods discussed about how we can fight against the nonsensical messages being diffused by advertisers.  Our generation is opened to new ideas and our thought of view is shaped by our experiences.  Unlike older generation who are set in their old ways because of the circumstances and experiences they went through.  Yes, education is primordial in the eradication of sexism and racism in advertising, but this education should begin in children's homes.  Parents should set the example and should teach their children how to question everything.  The key is to teach our youth about critical thinking.  In an ideal world schools would be major contributor in teaching students about wrong advertisement messages but as Kellner pointed out "US society invests over $102 billion a year into advertising, fully two percent of our gross national product, far more money than in education".  Education in the United States is highly based in testing, this makes it very hard for teacher to spend any time talking about topics such as these.  Therefore parents have the responsibility to teach and become role models for their kids.  It might not be in our generation that we will witness astronomical change but the following generations will. 


Work Cited

-Hooks, Bell. “The Oppositional Gaze.” Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992. 115-31.

-Cortese, Anthony. “Constructed Bodies, Deconstructing Ads Sexism in Advertising.” Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising. United Kingdom: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008. 45-76. Print

-Clark, Danae. “Commodity Lesbianism.” Camera Obscura. Vol. 25. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1991. Print.

 -Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. Britain: British Broadcasting Company and Penguin Books, 1972.

-Kellner, Douglas (1989), "Reading Images Critically:Toward a Postmodern Pedagogy," Journal of Education, Vol. 170