Sex in Advertisement and Its Effects on FemalesSex in Advertisement and its Effects on FemalesSex in advertising has been used for many decades to draw interest and increase the chance of a product purchase. This type of advertisement utilizes erotic images such as nude women, some sort of aphrodisiac phrases, or other sexual indications present through the media. The usage of such erotic images demonstrates to be very effective in marketing, in which they are appealing to many people, especially men. Many people might be familiar with the expression “sex sells”, in which it is a very effective marketing strategies used by many companies. Believe it or not, violence, rape, and murder, are associated with such advertisements. A piece by Jean Kilbourne, ““Two Ways a Woman can get Hurt”: Advertising and Violence” seeks to reveal the iniquitous message behind sexual advertisement. Kilbourne purposes that sexually aimed adverting is accountable for the sexualizing, degrading, and dehumanizing of women and young girls. She reasons that females are distorted into sex object, becoming pawns of advertisement, and that such illustration can promote violence, rape, and murder. She expresses her revulsion towards such practices, and aims to inform people by introducing supportive evidence. Sexual exploitation of females in advertisement is significantly hurting women and girls, and should therefore be made illegal.
One can argue that the purpose of sex in advertisement is to simply promote marketing, which on the surface seems harmless; however, the real underlying aim is to deceive consumers with arousing, and shocking imagery in order to control them (Ramirez and Reichert). Many companies find erotic sexual images to be very effective in drawing in customers because they are appealing to many men and women. According to Kilbourne, such usage of erotic images attempts to stimulate people’s mind to fulfil their sexual fantasy, or satisfy their love life with the use of their products (422). However, many of them use images that demonstrate violence, degradation, and dehumanization against women, and girls.
Kilbourne first introduces many examples of how sex in advertisement degrades, dehumanizes, and sexualizes females. She links pornography to such advertising in purpose to dominate, humiliate, and subordinate women. Kilbourne introduces an ad that embodies her work’s title, “Two ways a woman can get hurt,” a shaving cream ad which indicates that a woman can get hurt by a man or by shaving with a razor. This advertisement implies the man to be a “heartbreaker,” but Kilboure believes it also implies he can physically abuse a woman as well. Another advertisement that sends a mixed message is one where a man stands over a woman while she is saying “no”, but while either laughing or screaming. She explains how this ad encourages men not to take “no” for an answer, indicative of the prevailing attitude that she believes
”Dating between men and women is an act of socialization. Adopting a nonfeminist approach to gender differentiation and intergenerational gender differentiation, Kilboure calls for a redefinition of socialization. She asserts that there are two kinds of people who are considered to be human—a male and female who are considered to be human at some point in time. Kilboure also emphasizes that the only thing that defines men and women is their socialization. This is based on the “weird idea” that the woman in which one ends up at first looks the other way while she is at some other point in their lives. A good example of this is the socialization of women that takes a step back and begins to reflect their experience of gender in their socialization of other people. This is an idea that is becoming increasingly common with younger generations of women. However, the problem with this approach is that the idea of ’emness’ is not only limited to the feminine but also also to men. For example, many young men would not view women and girls from a male perspective only because this would cause them more anxiety to be treated as being feminine. There is a need to reflect on how male people and women are viewed by adolescents, and the role they must play in these interactions. This can help make it easier for younger men and women to identify with young men who are women and girls, and make socialized relationships easier for younger men and women to be perceived as women by the adult population.
Conclusion
Kilbourne has proposed these strategies as interventions that can change societies. Her work in relation to this topic will not be considered in this book. She also provides an example of what she believes may be going on at the intersection of gender, socialization, and societal change. The fact that women still have to be considered as part of society’s gender-associative continuum is evident. She also points out that this doesn’t mean there is nothing there. She wants to push more and more people toward the concepts that are more relevant to understanding of women’s gender and socialization. She does that even when she is not explicitly advocating a particular model that does not address the problem. That lack of action is reflected in the use of the concepts that she brings up here. It is also manifested in her use of the terms “genderfluid” and “sexfluid,” which have often been used to describe women’s socialization. One might argue that if Kilboure were to pursue interventions that focus on gender, instead of being driven by a particular political agenda, we would all have a gender fluid system. The use of some terminology or phrases to describe a system may be appropriate for a more general problem than the issue Kilboure is concerned with. It is not the gender fluid. Rather it is the socialization of a culture. It is also the notion of the society where we should be thinking about and being based on a woman’s experience of gender.
References
Carroll, R. L. (2009). Gender and the role of sex in the cultural cycle: An econometric assessment of a feminist social framework