November 25,
2012
High School
Population
Dear American
Adolescents,
What is more
appealing, a beautiful mind or a beautiful body? Most would want to say a
beautiful mind, but unfortunately this day and age it just so happens that the
latter of the two is the more common answer, whether one says it or not. Our
society is fueled by individual image and appeal while it should be driven by
individual creativity and uniqueness. It is well known that current media plays
a very large role in the lives of everyone that it touches (specifically young
adolescents who are still learning who they are), and needless to say, that
nowadays the media finds a way to touch just about everyone’s life in one way
or another. Billboards, magazines, commercials, buses, milk cartons, blimps,
t-shirts, and even pens are just a few of the items and methods that major
corporations use to spread their logos and get their names into peoples’ minds
in order to make a sale. These methods may work for their initial purpose, but
it is clear that they have many very negative outcomes towards the
visualization and importance of the female gender and their potential roles in
society. In order to produce a better outcome in the future, the next
generation should avoid media born influences and stray from mirroring the
media’s objective and oppressing imagery.
Advertisers draw
upon the inner desires in people, and then they play off these desires by
creating a sense of appeal in the ads in which they design. At first it seems
like they are being creative, but when looking at current day ads it is clear
that consequently their methods objectify both genders, but much more often
specifically women. The mainstream structure of current day advertisements
appeal to sexual desire, which is believed to be innate in every human being,
and by playing off this desire ads create an image of physical beauty and
sexiness in order to grasp the attention of those who see their ads. Now that
sex in advertising has been so consistent it gives viewers the idea that it is
all that matters and in order to be happy they must look for physical beauty
rather than inner beauty in their significant others.
This is where
the line for objectification begins. An article written by Naomi Rockler-Gladen
titled “Media Objectification of Women” gives a clear definition of what media
objectification is, “Media that objectify women
portray women as physical objects that can be looked at and acted upon-- and
fail to portray women as subjective beings with thoughts, histories, and
emotions” (Rockler-Gladen 1). So by advertisers using sex in advertising and
portraying women as objects diminishes their unique values and puts all women
on the same level, which is that of unimportance and whose values are based
solely on physical and sexual image.
Distinguished
author Jean Kilbourne has written many articles pertaining to this exact topic,
and one in particular, “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt” goes over some similar
points. For example, Kilbourne’s opening sentences, “Sex in advertising is more
about disconnection and distance than connection and closeness. It is also more
often about power than passion, about violence than violins” (Kilbourne 575).
Kilbourne sets the stage by drawing a major parallel in ads and pornography,
trying to degrade the value of the ads themselves and point out the clear
difference in the feelings and ideals in which they present.
Now the major
corporations that put out these degrading ads may see no fault in what they are
doing because they are spending their hard earned money on the advertising
schemes in order to make more sales and in turn more money. Other corporations
will most likely see this as genius because it is just merely business at work
and they are doing what they need in order to stay on top of the marketing
brackets. But while the major business owners are thinking of themselves and
how to make more money by exploiting the female gender, they don’t realize the
severely negative effect that their work is having on the general female
population. The exploitation is resulting in women’s desire to emulate the
women that they see in advertisements, by wanting to be skinny and wear sexy
attire and be submissive towards men, and this has a harmful effect on their
health, unique talents and personal individuality. If advertisers were to draw
upon different desires in the general population, rather than solely sexual
desire and physical image, then perhaps they wouldn’t have such an extreme
effect on people and they would be able to express their inner uniqueness and
personality. The outcome of different advertising schemes would be much more
appealing than the objectification of women and their diminishing value.
I myself
recently graduated from high school and just turned twenty and am now out of my
teenage years. During my time in high school, and still to this day, I was able
to see first hand what kind of influence the media can have on the younger
generation and how they mirror these influences in their everyday actions. I
remember an old Axe commercial that showed women walking around, but the only
thing that was visible of them was their upper body and lower legs, while
everything else was edited out. The commercial had a man who put on Axe
deodorant and walked around town while the women’s bosoms followed him around
and then the man runs into a woman and she becomes whole again. This shows me
how the Axe Company clearly believes that breasts are the only thing men see on
women, and in order to achieve what they want they must purchase Axe body spray. An article written about this same exact ad
states, “This new Axe spot from BBH, New York,
reaffirms the brand's worldview by literally reducing a woman to a headless,
walking pair of breasts” (Nudd 1). Nudd explains how reducing women to just
this image objectifies their “more important features”, while it is 100%
inaccurate. This was a popular ad that influenced a lot of my high school peers
to purchase the product and also speak objectively of women concerning their
breasts and buttocks.
Another popular
ad that came out a few years ago was produced by the Carl’s Junior and was made
with the same intent as any other ad, to persuade customers. The ad was a
commercial that star a very sexy woman who was in short shorts and a bikini and
she was washing an old tuned up car. The woman would hold the hose and scrubber
and walk around the car spraying water everywhere, while not saying anything
provocative or intelligent, and then spray herself and proceed to lying on top
of the car. Just in the heat of the moment, towards the end of the commercial,
the woman pulls out a giant Carl’s Jr. burger and takes a big bite out of it
while still wet on the soaking car. The corporation is trying to advertise
their famous large burger, but for some reason it only shows up until the very
end of the commercial and followed by the brand name. The advertising scheme
pulls in viewers by showing a hot girl who is soaking wet in a bathing suit
while washing a car, and then finishes the message by showing her take a bite
of the “delicious” burger. There seems to be a controversial view as to why the
woman is in the commercial anyways, she does not do or say anything that explains
what is in the burger or even anything about it but instead shows off her body
to gather attention.
The overall view
of the female gender is constantly diminishing due to the continuing production
of mainstream corporation advertisements and their consistent use and abuse of
the socially constructed view of beauty. If this continues there will be a blatant
shift downwards on the importance of women and all women will seize to be taken
seriously. In order for there to be even a glimpse of light shed on this
situation, there must be room for reformation in the ideals of corporation
advertising. The goal can still be to make a sale but should be, rather, to
accentuate a different desire in all potential customers. Because the
advertisement world is and has already blackened the original sexual desire
innate in humans, they must change their methods of persuasion before the
culturally constructed male figure has all power and value over that of women,
and before the younger generation grabs hold of these ideals with their
learning minds and over emulates them as they grow up. There is much to think
about and work on.
Sincerely,
Zack Newland
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