If you were to look around in magazines, billboards, t.v. adds, posters, even in your local convenience store (as I did at CVS recently) and more importantly if you were to pay close attention, you'd start to see trends as to how women are represented and used in advertisements. Furthermore, that these categories even have names and classifications that have been studied and formulated by psychologists and industry professionals for years, and they are constantly being evaluated and kept up to date.
After all, the average US resident is exposed to approximately 5,000 advertising images per day!
(Aufreiter, N., Elzinga, D. & Gordon, J. (2003) Better Branding. The McKinsey Quarterly, 4.)
Though we all might say that advertising has no effect on us, it does. Even subconsciously. Jean Kilbourne (pioneer in women's studies and advertising, and advertising studies) claims that only 8% of the advertisement is taken in by the conscious brain (where that number comes from, I have NO idea-- taken from the documentary Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising's Image of Women). The rest of it is just taken in and stored in the back of our minds!
These categories are: the artificial look, dismemberment, commodification, the feminine touch, relative size, function ranking, ritualization of subordination (on the floor, the kiss, woman as child, licensed withdrawal).
Well, let's go.
The Artificial Look
In a nutshell, these advertisements portray an ideal of beauty that is practically impossible to achieve, because it's artificial. Whether done through airbrushing, implants, photoshop or other means (physical or digital), these images invade society and project a standard that is ridiculously incredible to live up to, nigh impossible. The body types that are the norm for most models in fashion and even in advertising constitute roughly 5% of the women population. It's not a fake body type, just hardly anyone has it or has the possibility to attain it. When women are surrounded by images "superior" to their own, they look for ways to make themselves more like the idols. The means that the companies want is spending. Products can serve to fill a void inside, fill you up so to speak (but not really, nothing is a true solution for a real relationship). Companies want and through advertising encourage relationships (friendly and even sexually) with products. Unfortunately, another outlet for trying to attain this practically impossible perfection is for consumers, dissatisfied and/or insecure with their body, to turn to self harm (such as anorexia, bulimia, depression, etc.) Of course this is not what the companies would profess to want, however it can not be denied that it is a dangerous side effect of the inundation our society receives from the artificial look.
Dismemberment
Have you seen ads that only feature... features? Sexy legs, just lips, eyes, hands, breasts, midriffs, etc.? That's dismemberment for you. Because this form of advertising applies more frequently to women, it has a greater affect pertaining to women. Think about this for a moment: in dismemberment type ads, how many feature an entire head? Entire torsos, sure. Entire pairs of legs, sure. But heads? Whole faces? Lips, eyes, ears... but less frequently. This is significant because it's dehumanizing in a way. When all you see is parts, you don't get a sense of the person as an individual, just as parts. Unfortunately, this has subconscious consequences as well. It causes the readers (including men!!) to look at the dismembered bodies of women as just that: parts. No identity, no dreams or hopes or intellect. The woman in the image is valued for her parts and not her self. Now I know that I could be considered to be going overboard with that analysis (which stems from many similar and nigh identical ones) but it buys into another topic: women are selling the product. Women become objects for consumption? Maybe that is too far. But a big ploy on the part of the advertisers is product as the lover: the relationship. I got into that a little bit up above, but that's a really long post for another time.
Commodification
These ads are when woman are basically marketed AS the product!! One such example I saw during the 30 minutes I watched of the SuperBowl was this: the GoDaddy commercials. GoDaddy is an internet domain name service, yet instead the Pussycat Dolls advertised like it was a stripper bar. Two college age or so mildly attractive guys (because guys have significantly lower standards than women do) are besieged by the New Pussycat Dolls (a band, I know, but endorsement almost isn't the point, GoDaddy is notorious for using such ads) in skimpy clothing prancing around advertising for GoDaddy. As the boys stupidly question "is this heaven?", the quasi-postergirl for GoDaddy, Danica Patrick lounges nearby wearing next to nothing while titles including "domain names", "hosting", "email" and "websites" flash in the sky. While referred to as the "GoDaddy internet cloud", the way they are using the women in the ad makes it seem as if he product entitles the users to a "pleasure cloud". While hot girls and good sex have nothing do with domain names, it doesn't stop advertisers to employing the tactic. Facts are facts: scantily clad women engaged in what seems more appropriate for a stripper bar gets viewers.
The Feminine Touch
This is an interesting one... While females are often dehumanized and objectified, it cannot be denied that in mass media they are also seen as precious (even if only sexualized). While male hands are usually shown in positions of power or engaging in acts of utility, female hands are usually depicted gently holding or caressing something. The goal behind this is that the object of the caress (the product) will also be seen as precious and desirable because of the woman's touch.
Another variation of this category is the act of self touching. The woman is seen to be caressing herself (most notably in perfume commercials) and is making herself out to be precious. This would actually not be too bad... right? But unfortunately, the message that is sent is that the woman is only precious because of the product. This is usually a huge tactic in marketing perfumes: the thought being that by wearing a certain scent, the desirability of the woman increases and she is sexier because of the product.
Relative Size
This one is more or less straight forward. In these types of advertisements when women and men are shown paired together, the man is always taller. Now I'm not going to argue that this is strictly unfair, because on the whole, men do indeed happen to reach taller heights than women. On the other hand, in 1 in 6 pairs of randomly paired men and women, the woman would be taller than the man. That aside, because I don't expect 1 in 6 ads showing that trend, the height thing is taken differently. In most advertisements, height is taken as a status symbol, and still is very much in real life. I don't know how many girlfriends I have talked to (and even myself...) have not even considered the possibility of having a relationship with a guy who was shorter than they were. Sometimes they were the same height and even that was not an option because the girl would not "be able to wear heels" with him. I have to admit, I have felt this way at times too. I've never turned down a prospective relationship due to that reason, but with my current boyfriend, who is a good 4 or so inches taller than I am, I was overjoyed that I would be able to wear heels around him and still be shorter. This way of thinking has been taken advantage of by the photographic and video media. The man wears the pants. The man is in power. The man does the talking. In cases where the man is shorter than the woman, he is most often weakened by age or sickness or is of a lower social class (i.e. servants or less desirable jobs).
The only exception I have really found to this rule is when the woman is on top of the guy, especially in Calvin Klein ads... but that's a whole different story.
Function Ranking
This again is also fairly straight forward. In advertisements where woman and men are paired together, the man will usually be shown doing the work. Or whatever is cooler and the woman will either be delegated to watching or doing the chore. In other ways, women can be helping the man with whatever function is being performed, though she will take a back seat and either perform secondary functions while the man performs the primary functions, or she will be helping, either as an assistant or as a decorative accessory.
Ritualization of Subordination
a) On the Floor
Jumping off of the relative size paragraph, height is a status symbol. Thus, when persons are lowered, they can be showcasing a social identity or place in a relationship as well. Women are most often shown on the floor or on beds, couches etc. and are positioned either as objects of pleasure or playthings for men. This degrades women and objectifies them as well as conveys to the male audience that thinking of/treating women as such is acceptable and just.
b) The Kiss
When kissing is shown in advertisements, women are most often seen leaning back, welcoming the advance of the man. The man is shown initiating and leading the act. Though I'm not going to argue that this doesn't happen in real life, in advertisements, woman are most often seen as submissive and men as dominating. Such as 'On the Floor', this representation of what is supposed to be a consensual act of love (or I guess in some cases just casual hooking up), is often depicted as an act of power on the part of the man and that women are supposed to submit to the sexual desires of the man. In some cases, the woman is coy and refuses the advance of the man, then submits willingly to her pursuer with reckless abandon. This portrays a very unhealthy image to males audiences, that women are playthings and that refusal could be interpreted as desire.
c) Woman as Child
In many advertisements, woman are depicted as dependent, helpless and needing protection. While protection is always nice, women are not helpless, just as all men are not all-powerful. Women thus are sometimes depicted in a childlike role and will be shown wearing little-girl clothes, sucking lollipops or being generally very silly in ways that would not be socially acceptable for women their age in public. In this way, the message is sent that women should remain young, dependent and coy. Also, older women are greatly underrepresented in the media, further enforcing this point. On the other side of the silliness however, is the sexualization of young children. Young girls will either be dressed up and sexualized through poses and or positioning with others just as women will dress up as young girls in similar positions. This further enforces the mentality that women (no matter the age... except maybe the older demographic) are sex objects and playthings.
d) Licensed Withdrawal
When looking at advertisements, it can reasonably be stated that on the whole, men are depicted in action. They work, play, do. Women on the other hand can be found as submissive and withdrawn from the social scene. This does not mean that they are unhappy, but simply that they take a backseat to the happenings or they are overcome and emotional (as is a stereotype of women as compared to men). They will often be depicted off in a dreamy state, lost in their emotions, or covering themselves, the most notable with the symbolic silencing of the hand over the mouth. What is conveyed with these images is the impression that women are things to gaze at and are not doers but watchers.
These are the most common categories when it comes to Advertising's Image of Women. There are, of course, other types of images that convey unfair or unhealthy stereotypes, but for the most part, these are a fair representation of what is out there.
I would like to add that I freely acknowledge that not all advertisements depicting women are harmful or degrading and that many sexualized acts between men and women are indeed depicted as consensual. This project, however, seeks to expose and illuminate the negative images being projected at America and the consequences they engender.
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