WOMEN IN ADS
WOMEN IN ADS This book was created in order to bring this issue to the light. It is set up to inform the public of the issue of women being objectified in advertisements by offering history, statistics, and other information related to the topic. By reading the information in this book, we hope to further the public knowledge on unfair advertising methods which will hopefully lead to a change in the types of images we see of women. We believe there is a very important issue that needs to be addressed and hope to educate the public on the sociological damage that has arisen from the depiction of women in ads.
CONTENTS 04 Overview
08 History
12 Stereotypes
14 Relationship to Sociology
20 Statistics
ADVERTISERS ARE STILL UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT “SEX SELLS”
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n the world of avertising, companies tend to use images they believe will help to make their product sell. These images tend to include things such as making the product look like it works far better than its competitors’ and everyone being generally happy about using whatever the product may be; but along with these images comes images that reinforce stereotypes such as those about women. In today’s world, there aren’t many ads that don’t include either an image of a young attractive woman or a woman that is busy doing housework while her husband is nowhere to be found. These types of images portray women only as sex objects or as subservient housewives to their husbands. Though on the rise, it is still very rare to see a woman portrayed in a position
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Advertisers are still under the impression that “sex sells” and that women are still the only ones doing housework. “Studies of advertisements in a variety of men’s, women’s, and general interest magazines have categorised women in various roles:
housewife, decorative element, sex object, and dependent on men;” The objectification of women has for the most part always existed in advertisement and has been the driving force behind many feminist movements. Though in recent years, women have
started to use sex appeal as a way of empowerment and therefore don’t get as offended by some of the advertisements of today; they still have strong feelings about the way women are objectified in the ads we see daily on TV and in magazines.
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SEXISM AGAINST WOMEN WAS SOMETHING THAT WAS NORMAL Advertisements during this time were depicting women as picture perfect housewives, which became quite damaging to the fragile and impressionable American women.
Sexism towards women in advertising has always been an issue in the history of American society. Women have always been expected to fill specific gender roles as the cleaning, cooking, or child bearing sex machine. Today’s society has most certainly evolved to where such discriminationis extremely discouraged and looked down upon. During the 1950s, however, sexism against women was
something that was normal and expected by both men and women. Regardless of how insulting or chauvinistic ads were towards women, people were socialized to tolerate and accept the female house-wife stereotype. Ads in the 1950s most commonly advertised wives being completely controlled and influenced by their husbands, feminine products to help impress their husbands, cleaning
products, and endless cooking and references to the benefits of staying in the kitchen. These vintage ads that included phrases such as, “Don’t worry darling, you didn’t burn the beer!,” “Men are better than women!,” and “Christmas morning: she’ll be happier with a Hoover!” not only created a stigma for women in general, but they were shockingly blunt and irrefutably left no room for interpretation.
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Society’s interpretation of beauty has significantly changed over time and will always continue to change. For example, in the early to mid-twentieth century, women were considered beautiful if they had fair skin and a full, curvy figure. Having tan skin simply meant that you spent too much time outside, which was further associated with the working class. Having a voluptuous body meant represented a fertile and wholesome woman.
As years passed, women gradually became slimmer and darker skinned. In today’s society, beauty is almost the exact opposite as it was in the early twentieth century. Women are socialized to want to have tan skin with a very thin body frame.
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FALSE SENSE OF BEAUTY Gender stereotypes are beliefs about sex linked roles and traits, psychological characteristics, and behaviors describing men and women.
Women are usually stereotyped in four different categories in advertising which are: Traditional roles (depvendent and housewives), non-traditional roles (non-traditional activities, career oriented women and voices of authority), women in decorative roles (concerned with physical attractiveness and sex objects), and lastly women in neutral roles (portrayed as equal to men). It is unusual to see a woman in a high-level professional role. These depictions of women (especially in the decorative role) can have a very negative
impression on women as many of the ads shown are of altered and airbrush pictures, creating a “false” sense of beauty. As a society we are still far away from equality in the media. Women are still being used as sex objects” and “houswives” in advertisements which is just perpetuating the stereotypes. Unfortunately, as long as the images presented by the media sells it is not likely companies will stop using stereotypical and sexist depictions of women.
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THEY HAVE TO LOOK LIKE THIS Everyday women look at these images and believe that they have to look like this. To add further comparison, men believe that the women in advertisements are what real women are supposed to look like.
In Western culture, advertisements are viewed daily and in these ads women are portrayed in unrealistic ways. Most ads expose women who are very thin and attractive. These imagessend messages to young girls and women that you have to look like this or you are undesirable. The obsession of staying thin comes from comparison theory, where people look at others and determine who is in the better state of attractiveness. Unfortunately, the media depicts women as very thin, tan, large breasts and toned butt with perfect make-up and hair. Everyday women look at these images and believe that they
have to look like this. To add further comparison, men believe that the women in advertisements are what real women are supposed to look like. A survey proved that women who viewed thin and attractive women in ads showed loweself-esteem than the women who viewed ads with average looking women. In social context this shows that women are put up to this standard that they have to be very thin, pretty and basically a bombshell. Beside looks, women are expected to perform female gendered tasks such as cleaning, cooking and taking care of the husband and children, all while looking perfect.
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The seriousness of this issue is what makes it a social problem. It is not that a few women have eating disorders, it is that a lot of women believe that their bodies have to look like the models in the media.
This is showing that U.S. society is based on looks and attractiveness, rather than emotions of real people who are more than just looks. Women should realize that advertisements wrongfully
portray women as thin sex goddesses and this image is not real. Women do not have to be thin to be beautiful or show their cleavage and give sexual favors to get what they want. Through education, women can
gain respect and promote a healthy body image and ignore what advertisements are representing.
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THEY DEPICT MEN AND WOMEN DIFFERENTLY There is no doubt that advertisements are everywhere, in fact the average woman sees about 400 to 600 advertisements per day. There have been numerous studies done on the scope of advertisements and how they depict men and women differently. It been found that sexuality in advertisement have continued to increase since the 1980’s.
AVERAGE WOMAN WEIGHS
140
POUNDS
AVERAGE MODEL WEIGHS
117
POUNDS
SEXUALITY IN ADVERTISEMENT HAS INCREASE Also more female models as apposed to male models are suggestively dressed in these advertisements. In general interest magazines, men are less likely to be suggestively dressed than in 1984 and female models are more likely to be portrayed in decorative roles than are men, and less likely to be featured in more non-stereotypical or equal roles.
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ADVERTISEMENTS ARE EVERYWHERE There have been numerous studies done on the scope of advertisements and how they depict men and women differently
It was also found that 28% of female models in television commercials had comments made about their looks, as apposed to male models that were commented on looks only 7% of the time. Even in advertisements aimed towards children the difference can be seen. For example in a study that looked at Saturday morning toy commercials,
it was found that 50% of commercials that were aimed at girls discussed physical attractiveness within the advertisement, while none of the commercials aimed at boys referred to appearance. Many questions then arise as to how these commercials effect women and their body image.
69% of girls in one study said that magazine models influence their idea of the perfect body shape.
Exposure to the “ideal” body images has been found to lower women’s satisfaction with their own attractiveness.
The average U.S. woman is 5’4” and weighs 140 pounds whereas the average U.S. model is 5’11” and weighs 117 pounds.
44% of women who are average or underweight think that they are overweight.
30% of women chose an ideal body shape that is 20% underweight and an additional 44% chose an ideal body shape that is 10% underweight.
In a study 47% of girls were influenced by magazine pictures to want to lose weight, but only 29% were actually overweight.
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That is why this book was created in order to bring this issue to the light. It is set up to inform the public of the issue of women being objectified in advertisements by offering history, statistics, and other information related to the
topic. By reading the information in this book, we hope to further the public knowledge on unfair advertising methods which will hopefully lead to a change in the types of imagest we see of women. We believe there is a
very important issue that needs to be addressed and hope to educate the public on the sociological damage that has arisen from the depiction of women in ads.
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