Sex sells.
Seeing scantily clad women in the media and advertising has become so commonplace that we have become quite desensitized to it.
We may not even notice it and think it has little to no effect on our thoughts and behaviors.
A recent campaign started by a friend of mine and his classmates here at SXU sparked my interest in this issue. This campaign aims to draw attention to the objectification of women in advertising and the unrealistic standard of beauty constructed for women through these overly sexualized ads.
For example, there have been several car commercials in which the main focus is a car and an attractive woman in a bikini.
You may find it appealing, you may not be completely convinced to purchase that car afterward but it held your attention and it certainly didn’t seem too unsettling right?
I know I wouldn’t think much of it…but maybe I should.
I think women and men alike (myself included) have become so accustomed to seeing women objectified in advertising that we are largely overlooking what these ads are actually saying about women and the effect it has on us in our lives beyond those few minutes those images flash across our TV screens.
We learn a great deal of our standards and norms from the media. We compare ourselves to the images and ideas we see on TV, in movies and music and various other mass media outlets.
That’s how we determine how we measure up, where we fall in the social hierarchy, our success, our value.
So what do these over sexualized advertisements tell women about how they measure up, their place in society and their value?
One of the main messages we receive is that our value comes only from our sex appeal or sexual behavior, excluding all other characteristics that we may have.
You may have a 4.0 GPA, athletic or artistic ability, or a variety of other valuable characteristics but the only thing that matters is the way you look in a bathing suit and how members of the opposite sex perceive you, nothing else.
If you do not reach that standard of beauty, your value is significantly less.
And good luck achieving that standard. These advertisements create a definition of beauty that is impossibly narrow. And when I say impossible I literally mean impossible.
The women depicted in advertisements whether they be commercials, magazines, billboards or internet pop-ups do not appear in real life exactly how they appear in the advertisements.
Companies spend thousands of dollars on Photoshop and digital reimaging to construct an even more “perfect” woman than the model they’ve hired (who already looks vastly different than 98% of women out there).
The images and videos initially captured and the images that show up on your TV and computer screens as advertisements later on are completely altered.
So we may think they are just trying to sell you a car, or maybe they’re trying to appeal to the male market by including attractive women in their advertising.
But they are really sending women this message: You must look like this woman we’ve generated on the computer in order to be valuable and successful and your greatest asset and most important characteristic is your sex appeal.
Being mindful and aware of these messages and the serious impact advertising has on us is the first step to combating this over sexualization and objectification of women.
This unrealistic and unfortunate standard of beauty set by advertising is bringing the confidence and self-esteem of women everywhere to a shocking low.
It gives me hope to see young people recognizing that something is wrong and actually trying to change it.
To learn more about this issue and sign the petition visit this website started by SXU students or follow “She is Made” on Facebook, Twitter, Vine and Instagram.
http://www.change.org/petitions/she-is-made-demand-change-for-real-women-in-advertisement
Bridget Goedeke
Viewpoints Editor