Advertising -- Scott Fleisher

    Society today functions with the assumption that women must be beautiful beyond all possibility and that men are inherently in control. Effectively, advertisements hold the role of creating these views, these gender identities that people feel compelled to fulfill. This creates limitations in what people can and cannot do: what men are supposed to do versus what women are supposed to do.

The way women are portrayed in an actual shampoo ad

    From a very young age, girls are taught to value their beauty, and subsequently consider it part of what makes them “worthy.” A girl of worth is someone who is small and attractive; perfect for the male eye to view. This creates a mindset where girls must always be aware of their physical flaws, and must make every effort to correct them. More specifically, “if a woman has ‘acceptable’ breasts, then she must also be sure that her legs are worth watching, her hips slim, her feet sexy, and that her buttocks look nuder under her clothes.” (Kilbourne 124). One can see this in many different advertisements. For example, a shampoo commercial on TV might include a naked woman on camera, albeit censored, but still suggestive, to associate women with this idea of beauty and cleanliness.

    If any advertisement featuring a woman was redone starring a male, it wouldn’t only feel very odd to watch, but might even feel unnatural, and impossible, to the viewers. The primary reason for this is because ads are directed toward specific demographics in society. In order for advertisements to target a group of people, that group “must be 1) identifiable, 2) accessible, 3) measurable, and 4) profitable. In other words must be knowable to advertisers in concrete ways” (Clark 143). As a result, the advertisers do research on particular groups so that they can ingratiate themselves among their targets, hoping to manipulate them into buying products by associating them with what a specific group would consider “attractive.” 

This is an old ad that sought to keep women in the house

    In addition, finding ways to manipulate their target audience implies that they learn how this group thinks. They figure out the most common thoughts within a group, and then exploit it relentlessly in their advertisements, and this in turn is what helps to create the stereotypes that are so often portrayed in them. For example, women are associated with being beautiful and clean because there was a time where all they did was tend to the house, keeping away from the outdoors and dirty jobs and chores, (which were reserved for men) and occurrences like this helped create an image of them as “pretty things,” as objects to be viewed. In effect, it is because these advertisers are so diligent in trying to market to the most consumers that they can, they effectively create images of each demographic.

    Facing off against a formidable foe like advertisements for our own identities is a very difficult fight, primarily because children are easily influenced by the messages they send, due to the fact that they are still new to the world, they absorb a lot of information easily, and they lack the ability to pick out the truth from the lies. For example, girls learn at young ages what kind of image they are supposed to fulfill. Particularly, society pushes onto young girls that their weight has a lot to do with how worthy they are, and these girls become obsessed with the idea of remaining or becoming skinny. “There is evidence that this preoccupation with weight begins at ever earlier ages for women” (Kilbourne 124). In other words, they become the image they think is most desired, and they realize what it is at very young ages, which puts pressure on them to conform, leading them towards low self-esteem and developing habits like anorexia. On the other side of the gender spectrum, boys see that girls are supposed to be a certain way, and put pressure on girls by teasing and ridiculing girls who fail to complete their predestined task of beauty.

Another interesting reason for why it is so difficult to prevent these advertisements from shaping us has to do with the industry standards themselves. In a photo of a woman, the model is usually nice and skinny and shapely. However, thanks to today’s level of technology, the industry has the ability to hide the fact that even the models can’t hold the standards of their own photos. The programs that are used to doctor up any photo can take someone average, or maybe even above average, weight, and then slim them down, usually to the point of impossibility. 

This is an image of what the model looks like (left) and what she turns into (right)

    The main reason for all of this has to do with the fact that men are in control of the industry. “Men look at women, and women watch themselves being looked at” (Wolf 58), because the male gaze is what has objectified them. If advertisements emulate what we think we already know, then it is because men today have inherently assumed the things I have discussed, subconsciously, based on their own personal histories, the views they are taught in history classes, what they see their parents tend to think, and of course, because of what advertisements of all kinds have told them. One way to break such a perpetual cycle of sexism would be to first understand the effects that these messages have on children, and then to understand what that means for the future of society. A good way to acknowledge this would be to start teaching children how to pick out the truth and the lies in advertisements at a very young age, perhaps starting in kindergarten or first grade (or at the very least, point out that these representations aren’t how people actually are). Another way to fix the problem requires more and more women, who at least lean toward feminism, to break into advertising and change social standards from within, given that advertisers are primarily men and women who follow patriarchal thinking. It is important that this be changed, because women are people, and should not be devalued and dehumanized to being worth only as much as they look good.

Works Cited

 Clark, Danae. "Commodity Lesbianism." N.p.: n.p., n.d. 142-51. Print.  
Kilbourne, Jean. "Beauty and the Beast of Advertising." N.p.: n.p., n.d. 121-25. Print. 
Wolf, Naomi. "Culture." The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used against Women. New York: W. Morrow, 1991. 58-85. Print.