Advertising Rules Everything Around Me...

As a vegetarian of almost seven years who also abstains from wears fur or leather products, I tend to agree with what PETA is trying to bring to light. However, while they are doing good work in the name of helping out animals, they undermine that same good work by falling into the various sexist advertising techniques and campaigns that the advertising business has been using for decades. 

Advertising is guilty of promoting a "society of spectacle" of sorts, one where both men and women, but especially women, are bombarded with images telling them how they "must" look in order to have any sort of social status. In her article, "Cutting Girls Down To Size", Jean Kilborne talks about how this way of thinking is part of the "American Dream" 

"These images play into the American belief of transformation and ever-new possibilities, no longer via hard work but via the purchase of the right products." (Kilbourne)

What Kilborne is trying to say is that instread of going out and "making it", you can simply buy the hot new car out on the market and rock the freshest gear, you'll be a part of society's elite without actually earning it. 

It's not just the new clothes and material things that are being pushed down consumers quotes, it's also this idea that the only way women look good is if they wear a dress size that hovers around zero, which is border unreasonable and forces women to get eating disorders along with misguided ideals how how they should look and act. 

While "the feminine mystique" is most likely the number one tool for ad execs to use, doesn't mean that females are treated with the equal respect that men are. The proof of this is so vast and noticeable, al you have to do Google the phrase "sexist advertising" as what comes up is page after page after page after page of various examples of how in the advertising world, women are little more than mindless sexpots who can't do anything for themselves but be sexy. Naomi Wolf sums this up perhaps the best way possible by saying in her article "Culture", "women are allowed a mind or a body, but not both." 

It's that sentiment that permeates every facet of pop culture, from music ( Katy Perry is held in a higher regard in most circles then say Patti Smith and Joan Jet) to movies and TV. Has there been attempts to change his way of thinking, absolutely but for some reason, the honestly that people like Gloria Steinem and bell hooks are preaching is falling on mostly deaf ears. I do see this changing though with the aging of more rigid-thinking generations. Hopefully that comes sooner rather than later.