Sexism in Advertising

Advertisements are everywhere we turn, whether they be presented in magazines, television, billboards or the internet. It is very difficult for a person to separate themselves from the advertisements and be able to live their lives without it having some affect on them in some way. The media plays a critical role even in early childhood. One author from one of our readings described how the media begins to mother and father a person's children because it places so many ideas and concepts into a child's mind.

Images in advertisements are usually very derogatory towards women because most advertisements are created by men. There are images that objectify women because the media and its images are largely controlled by men. Advertisements dictate what is the most popular or highly desired and people view ads as always wanting to obtain what is shown. manipulate The media has dictated that women are only powerful through their beauty because it enables them to be deemed more suitable for marriage.

Men make up the majority of media producers and men dominate the power hierarchies in media. For instance, the picture of a nerd kissing a hot model is not as appealing to women as it is to men. Definitely.



In Feminist Manhood, Bell Hooks states, “Patriarchal culture continues to control the hearts of men precisely because it socializes males to believe that without their role as patriarchs they will have no reason for being. Dominator culture teaches all of us that the core of our identity is defined by the will to dominate and control others. ” Men are driven by the images of power and hot women and they have become so consumed with these images that if they don't have the women and the power they are seen as less of a man.
Here is a link to a GNC commercial that sells the image of a muscular boxer and they try to make it seem as though he can be relateable to any average guy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akZgaFo0lAw

In Cutting Girls Down to Size, Jean Kilbourne states, “Advertisers are aware of their role and do not hesitate to take advantage of the insecurities and anxieties of young people, usually in the guise of solutions.” advertisers take advantage of a person's insecurities and manipulate people into buying their products.Advertisers create an image of a woman and uses that image as a model for how the rest of the women in the world should look. Advertisers create products that make a woman's ideal image seem more easily attainable. In all reality  the perfect image is unattainable for normal folks and the desire to want to be "perfect" creates somewhat of an addiction to perfection. An addiction to perfection fuels a consumer to want to buy more products to achieve their ideal look.



Sexist images in advertisements and in the media can have a negative effect on the ideologies of little girls. Images have a profound way of influencing the minds of young girls such as the skimpy clothes seen in music videos to the way that the media portrays the ideal woman. Little girls take notes when they watch their mommies put on makeup and when they see what the promiscuous girl from a movie wears when she wants to get attention from the boys at school.

Disney movies for instance teach little girls that getting married is pretty much their life's dream. Throughout the entire movie the Disney princesses are trying to find love or trying to find a way to be with their "true love." The Disney princesses teach little girls that they are supposed commit themselves to men who have power  and by doing that they will have achieved their life's goal. There are no Disney movies that empower young women and Disney should reinvent  their movies. They should create entirely new movies with new characters because the time period is much different now. This would also mean that Disney would feature character with different ethnic backgrounds because majority of the Disney character's are white.

The images that we see everyday has become popular culture so much to the point that most people don't realize the effect that images has had on our society. It is extremely rare to see our popular culture being critiqued or changed in any way because people have become so accustomed to it.

An alternative to mainstream images would be to create movies and advertisements that are empowering to women and limit the amount of sexist images and media that is shown on television. My main target would be television programming because most people spend a ridiculous amount of hours watching television shows. Children's programming would be a great place begin to introduce new images that are not sexist or hierarchical because they are the most open to new ideas and concepts. 


Here is a link to an Arthur segment of Postcards From Buster that was banned on PBS because it featured a lesbian couple. I believe that children should be exposed to different forms of a family because there are families in the world that are not "traditional."       Link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhPLHBAO1Kg

This is the type of Children's programming that should be provided to children because children should be knowledgeable about different cultures and different ways of life so that they can be more well rounded individuals for the sake of the future of society!