Blog Post 3 : Advertising

If we have to talk about advertising, we would have to take a trip into the past and know how and when this all came about. As we know long ago there was the origin of patriarchy, where authority was exercised by man and had the absolute power to say and do what they wanted. The man at that time was considered the main head of household, or the strong sex of the relationship. While the woman was considered the weak sex and had to fulfill different roles like being at home, doing household things and taking care of their husband and children.

Advertising is a steady churning machine that produces millions of pieces of content each year. And although some of us may turn a blind eye to its presence, its effects can still leave lasting impressions on others. When Kilbourne wrote “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising” in 1989, her analysis showed that advertising painted a vision of the world in which no one was ever ugly, or overweight, or disabled; a place where women were either housewives or sex objects and where girls were expected to be “both sexy and virginal” (Kilbourne 124). Ads were conceived to support the patriarchy using film and photo techniques that would make men look dominating and superior while women looked childish and playful. We instill poor values onto young girls that damage their development with these types of subliminal messages.

Women are continually shown as sex objects throughout most ads. This is especially dangerous to younger people see ads and learn about sexual attitudes from them. “Advertising’s approach to sex is pornographic: it reduces people to objects and de-emphasizes human contact and individuality” (Kilbourne 124). Adolescents are the most susceptible since they are new and don’t have much experience as consumers, therefore making the perfect target to these ads. Young girls now are seeing younger and younger models like the one show below exploiting their bodies for high end covers giving them the idea that this is the image that needs to be obtained, this is what men are looking for when they say they want the “perfect girl.” So They undergo different changes in their face and body. Generating a perfect woman because women see her face as a mask and her body as an object. As a result, women start to feel ashamed for how they look: they aren't tall enough, skinny enough, or “perfect” enough. Surely, these ads are just a fraction of the bigger picture. Ads illustrate the values of popular culture that society indulges in.

In the article by Lindsay King-Miller, she focuses on the Dove campaign that was launched that was supposed to encourage that all women no matter what size, color, race you are, you are beautiful no matter what. But it was rather lackluster when getting that point across. She made a very important point when stating “These ads each depend on the assumption that in order to be happy, empowered, or confident, women need to feel beautiful. Dove wants us to talk about why women don’t feel beautiful. I want to talk about why that’s the only question they think is worth asking.” Which I personally feel related to, why does every women issue have to be a matter of “feeling less than” because of…. So let me buy this to make me feel my best. She mentions that companies like Dove which isn’t the only one that does this, states that if you buy this product all your worries of yourself will disappear, going again with the thought that though advertisement is meant for one to be persuaded it’s like always at the cost of ones self esteem. King- Miller goes on to mention that “it irritates me to see this kind of rhetoric elevated to the level of an important cultural conversation. Especially since, at the end of the day, all these commercials reify the sexist notion that women must be beautiful or be worthless.” Dove soon saw their errors when regarding this very colorblind ad, but doesn’t change the fact that it did happen and is still happening within many many ads.

The 5 media sources I use are Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, Instagram and Tumblr. On viewing outlets like Netflix and Hulu I tend to gravitate towards shows that involve some sort of competition whether cooking, fashion, art, singing etc, I personally like these types of shows because they don't focus on the stereotypes that men are better or the white folk are more superior than any other, it’s strictly about the talent that they have and competing to prove they are the best of the best. Showing equality and a lot of the time unity because I do see them grow together though the series and they root for each other which always bring like a smile to my face unless I’m the one being too competitive for them and screaming at the TV “NOOOO you need to win there's no friends in this game!” I’m that type of viewer. I am strongly on Youtube as well, I was a lot of makeup tutorials mainly all from Jeffree Star who breaks with barrier with his huge backing as a male teaching and educating millions on the newest makeup, his comments are outrageous but I can’t get enough of him, I also get alot of my media news from clips of the Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon shows and their high class guest. Instagram I use but mainly for memes only since who doesn’t need their daily dose of humor every couple of hours. And lastly Tumblr because of its realness, I find such humor and inspiration on that site because everyone just like collectively sit and complain about first world problems that we all can share and relate too, it's not about looking like someone on their since each page doesn't have the need for likes rather than content which I’m just genuinely all about. The one last thing I believe must be mentioned is that my review of current ads showed me that, while there has been change, we are still in an advertising world where, as Kilbourne said, no one is ugly.

I also added two funny youtube links of women and men analyzing sexist ads which is always a kick to watch.
https://youtu.be/aPGIljqjsdE https://youtu.be/6szEK_H8rHY

Kilbourne, Jean. Beauty and the Beast of Advertising. Advertising (pp. 121-125).

“Here's What Bothers Me About the New Dove Ad.” Bitch Media, www.bitchmedia.org/post/heres-what-bothers-me-about-the-new-dove-ad.