Modern Day Ads: Sexy, Classy, and Racey. Not In A Good Way.

“.. It is through media images that we come to know what that performance is supposed to look like.” - Michael Kimmel, Misframing Men

Race and sex/gender roles go hand in hand when it comes to advertising. When one may think it’s just a brand advertising to sell their product to a mass audience, there are subtle aspects to where either race, sex, and class is inserted. That is what marketing is all about after all – how to lure you in and get you into their products to something that’s relatable and pleasing to the naked eye. When you fall for it, it’s an addictive trap one falls into without even knowing. Due to this type of media, advertising plays a huge role in molding the human mind into stereotyping with the subjects of race, sex, and class. 

In bell hooks' Understanding Patriarchy, she says, "Citizens in this nation fear challenging patriarchy even as they lack overt awareness that they are fearful, so deeply embedded in our collective unconscious are the rules of patriarchy.”

Especially with today’s media, sex and gender roles are often highlighted compared to race. Maybe the reason behind it is because we, in America, are much more diverse than ever before, but the racist ads are still present nonetheless. Male or unisex products every now and then slip in a sexist advertisement depicting the "sex symbol" of a role females play in society, or in a male's society specifically.

Because of these ads, males and females are used to playing this certain stereotypical role exposed by media and advertising. Hence, there's a sense of lost in their true identity.

Just like what Judith Butler once said, “... gender is an act which has been rehearsed, much as a script survives the particular actors who make use of it; but which requires individual actors in order to be actualized and reproduced as reality once again.”

The advertisement by QSOL gives a very blunt caption next to a woman's face with bold red lipstick on. Comparing a server to a woman is ridiculous. It's either this QSOL advertisement that women are easy, or something along the line of doing blow jobs. As a matter of fact, it may be both. It is obvious that QSOL's audiences is selling to males, and maybe younger males for that matter since it's a server/computer-related ad. Males are given the role of dominance, strength, and toughness. They are still, and somewhat, the definition of the modern day breadwinner.

While a female's role is often degraded in the male's eyes in advertisements, the degrading doesn't stop there. Female-focused advertising usually picks on looks, and how to please a man.  This whole advertising scheme is a psychological effect one's mind. For women, this is similar to what Betty Friendan mentioned in the "Feminine Mystique". Today's modern women can be compared to her description of the 1950s housewife - weak, sensitive, ditzy, gullable, and so much more. Check out this ad by KFC, you'll see what I'm talking about!

Looks are what matters most to them A majority of women feel the need to look good at all times for everyone, especially for their male counterparts. There seems to be a mindset where if they don't look a certain way, their boyfriends (or husbands) will leave them.

I remember one of the controversial magazine covers during my years in high school was the Rolling Stones magazine that featured Katy Perry in her bra and panties on the cover. In order to sell this magazine, Katy Perry became the victim (like every other person in the industry) of photoshop. The photo above shows the original (left) and the actual cover of the issue of Rolling Stones (right). Whoever edited her photos made her lighter, skinner, and toned; the ideal image of how beauty is really depicted. Not to mention the way she's dressed, her placement and her posture tells all. Sex does sell. Females play this sexy role in which they end off to be sex objects in the reader's eye.

One can go on and on about the sexism going on in advertising, but there are times were race and class are the main subjects. History reads that White Supremacy was dominant. As a matter of fact, it still is in the advertising industry.

Both women shown in the Versace ad strongly shows the relations of sex and social class. The white woman lives in luxury, probably doing luxurious things, while a woman of color acts as a maid in the background. However, both figures are shown to be good-looking enough for the advertisement. It goes back to the role of women. It's a cycle.

The China Times advertisement in Dubai may be humorous but it places the stereotype of Chinese people and the rest of the Asian community - they all have chinky eyes. One can think this is rather true, but it's not true that Chinese food will bring out the Chinese in you. Other than that, there's nothing much to say because the advertisement speaks for itself. 

Physical features are always going to be the main attraction in advertisements since that's what attracts the audience, and that's what shapes our roles.

Am I right, Ellen?