Post 3 sex sells

          A majority of advertisements have to do with sex. Especially when it comes to clothing, perfumes deodorant, make up etc.  A lot of them can be very detrimental to young girls who see these unbelievably perfect photo shopped women and they begin to feel inadequate compared to them. They might feel that these women are what would be the ideal woman. They might fear that they aren’t pretty or beautiful enough to attract boys or keep them. So they become self-destructive or buying all the latest make ups and going on diets to try and become that beautiful feminine woman so they can keep their man or attract them. As Kilbourne states in cutting girls down to size, “The culture, both reflected and reinforced by adverting urges girls to adopt a false self, to bury alive their real selves, to become “feminine”, which means to be nice and kind and sweet, to compete with other girls for the attention of boys, and value romantic relationships with boys above all else.” (pg130)

            When it comes to sexist ads I feel that the axe body products are on the top of my list. If you Google search axe body ads you find that 90% have to do with these half naked sex crazed women that are going crazy for this average looking guy because he’s wear axe body spray or used axe shampoo. Women are then degraded to be sex hungry wild animals looking for the next good smelling man to rip his clothes off and have her way with him. So it seems that if you wear axe , even if your kind of ugly, you’ll get hot chicks. To exemplify the sex theme I found an ad from March 2004 which was an Easter running ad of axe body spray which showed a woman’s hand cradling two Easter candy eggs in a plastic bag. And simply says at the bottom enjoy the axe effect this Easter. So if you use axe you will have a woman cradle your balls?

            It seems that also in many advertisements that women seem to be shown dominated by men. As if women are there to only serve, obey, and to stare at. For most beer and liquor advertisements all of the women are nearly naked with their breasts barley being covered or their skirts so far up your afraid that their vagina is going to pop out at any given moment. You don’t even notice the women’s faces you just end up noticing their bodies. They might as well not even show any of their faces since I bet that they never get noticed anyways. As Bell hooks writes in Understanding patriarchy, “At church they had learned that God created man to rule the world and everything in it and that it was the work of women to help men perform these tasks, to obey, and to always assume a subordinate role in relation to a powerful man”. (pg18)

            I don’t think that advertisements can show a women being powerful without ending up making her look like a sex object at the same time. Maybe one day this can be accomplished but only if sex doesn’t continue to be the cheap and easy way out to try and sell a product.