Sexualization And Objectification Of Women And Girls In The Media

With the dramatic influence of the rapidly growing world of the media, today’s dynamic business environment consists of constant competitions between businesses for gaining consumers attention. Advertisements are everywhere and are considered to be an extremely powerful tool used to influence the lives of the public (Kilbourne, 2010). Popular culture, and the societal trends in which they follow, are strongly influenced by the messages that are projected through advertisements; and although advertisements could be used in a beneficial manner to spread positive messages, often they have the complete opposite effect.

The advertising industry has a long history of using sex to sell products, and nowadays women are being sexualised and misrepresented throughout all forms of the media. Not only does this affect the self-esteem and body images of women across the globe, it also sets a tone for the way they are viewed and treated by the opposite sex, creating a more sexualized culture. The objective of this essay is to draw attention to the sexualization and misrepresentation of women in advertisements and explain how this objectification creates a negative impact on society as a whole. Objectification of women through the media has been an issue in Western society from the very beginning. Pre- and post-war advertisements mainly focused on societal gender roles, supporting the view of women being homemakers and existing to service the man, both physically and sexually. Women in advertisements were seen cooking, cleaning, taking care of the children and husbands, and were always depicted as being “lesser than” men (See photoset 1 below). With the rise of the Women’s Movement in the 60’s, advertisers came under scrutiny for their sexist portrayals of women. Although this helped destroy the idea of women solely belonging in the home, the sexual representation of women throughout advertisements since then has escalated tremendously. Brands strive to capture the attention of consumers by accompanying their product with sexualized and abusive images of women. Modern-day ads show women as being objects, half-, or fully, naked, abused, assaulted or even murdered.

A 2007 Dolce & Gabanna advertisement (see photo 2) shows a woman dressed in a short dress being pinned to the ground with three men surrounding her. This ad promotes the idea of women being small, submissive parties, readily available for those who desire them. It could also be seen and encouraging gang rape, as the men hover over the body of a women who looks as though she is unresponsive (Spargo, 2015). American Apparel, a North American clothing company based in the United States, has regularly broken advertisement rules for using exploitive images of young women (Sharkey, 2015). Many of their advertisements show provocative images of young women who are posed in vulnerable or sexual positions, with little clothes on (see photoset 3). These advertisements completely objectify and sexualize women and are rooted by patriarchal notions about women’s worth in society; reducing women to no more than body parts to be claimed, reinforcing the idea that women’s primary purpose is to be appealing to men. We now live in a culture where the female body has been degraded to such an extent that our society accepts and normalizes the abusive sexualization of the female gender. Exposure to advertisements that encourage this view of women leads to body image disturbance, altered expectation of reality, violence against women and pressure to conform to unrealistic standards.

As Kilbourne (2010) said, “Ads sell more than products. They sell values, they sell images, they sell concepts of love and sexuality, of success, and perhaps most important, of normalcy”. These sexually degrading advertisements that surround us every day are shaping the attitudes and beliefs of society, whether it be consciously or not. They are creating this sense of illusion of what it means to be a real women and are encouraging men to strive for this ‘perfect woman’, even though they are a product of multiple hours of makeup and photo re-touching (Kilbourne, 2010). The issue here is that advertisements are everywhere in today’s society and are virtually unescapable. Without even meaning to, companies are influencing future generations and promoting the idea that violating women is normal, and that women should be treated in an abusive manner. This sets the tone for how people in this culture view and act in relationships, and leads to increased sex crimes, domestic abuse, violence against women and bullying. Not only is the use of women as sexual objects insulting, it also has a very large impact woman worldwide. The way women are portrayed throughout media is extremely unrealistic but could be terrifyingly damaging. Women face an immense amount of pressure trying to live up to these unreachable standards of beauty, romance and living which are presented to them almost every second of everyday. “Women and girls compare themselves to these images every day,” said Kilbourne, “and failure to live up to them is inevitable because they are based on a flawlessness that does not exist” (2010). In the present culture, “sexual objectification of women is being repackaged as empowerment” (Gill, 2009) and women, especially young, are using what they see in the media as a way to define themselves.

For example, being a young woman who has grown up during this time period, I have found that a lot of how I viewed myself was influence by the women I was surrounded by. Often time I found myself comparing other women to the way I looked and wishing I had what they had, or looked the way they looked. Half way through 2018, 69% of girls states that the models that are displayed in different forms of advertisements have a major influence on their idea of a perfect body (Suggett, 2018). The pervasiveness in the media of this unrealistic idea of what is beautiful or attractive creates a repeating cycle of disappointment which could often lead to low self-esteem, negative body image, depression and several different forms of eating disorders. One study found that ¼ people are depressed due to the way they view their body. Another found that 1/3 women say that they would sacrifice a year of life, just to be able to obtain the ideal body weight and shape (Swinson, 2011). Furthermore, advertisements offer a specific look and lifestyle rather than offering a product. Our culture is bombarded with advertisements which hold this sexual attitude, and idea of women’s bodies that is unrealistic. This unattainable expectation has had a very negative impact on women all around the world, often resulting in long-lasting trauma that they have to deal with for the rest of their life.