Post 3

I remember there being a certain point in my childhood where I no longer wanted toys. Since I only paid attention to commercials that revolved around toys, most ads went over my ahead from that point on. It wasn’t until high school when I started noticing articles cropping up in regards to how much of our advertising is manipulated in terms of presentation, particularly when it comes to the way women a represented.

Too often in mass media, women have to show off and sell an unrealistic portrayal of an 'ideal body'. This on it’s own is already an issue, but it’s totally fair since guys sort of do that right? 

If Women's Roles In Ads Were Played By Men

Not so much. While the video is funny to watch, part of the humor comes from the fact we rarely see these gender reversals in popular media, and especially in ads. More of often than not, women are valued for their looks, so it becomes their primary commodity in advertisement. Take a look at these Guitar Hero ads. These ads parody a famous scene from “Risky Business” by integrating celebrities and the product itself. See if you can spot the difference:

You could probably tell just from the thumbnails. 

Granted the second version is a “director’s cut”. Even so, why does that even need to exist? Why do I need to see Heidi Klum in her lingerie in a commercial for a video game about music and buying expensive peripherals? Is a model going to break into my house and dance with my fake instruments? The idea of “sex sells” is all fine and good, except we don’t see it fairly applied. Where is the director’s cut of Kobe Bryant and Alex Rodriguez ripping their shirts off and dancing in their undies? The double standard sends a clear message: men are valued for their accomplishments and therefore don’t need to sexualize their performance, while the woman in this case should be put on display and show her body to sell you on the value of the product.

Kinda seems seems like they went out their way with that phrasing

There are nearly endless amounts of examples showing that, because men still occupy the majority of the high-level positions in this business, men are not subjected to the same objectification in mass media. I’ve said it time and time again in this class, I was blind to the concept of the “male gaze” for most of my life. I would never think twice about commercials like these. Some part of me assumed that women had some sort of equivalent. The cycle of this kind of imagery reinforces this shallow perception of women. It's a shame too since it’s for product for a mass audience. Meaning anybody with functioning arms, legs, eyes, and a voice. It doesn’t matter how you dress or what you look like.

This leads to another issue with representation, or lack thereof when it comes to women of color. It’s rare we get to see them represented in the media, and when they are, we to make sure they live up a “lighter” standard.

Now this was something I was even more oblivious about. I never paid any attention to how people of any race were portrayed. Again, I grew up assuming everything and everyone was equal. I assumed the lighter tone was for the subject to look more noticeable and stand out more,  but it plays into the ridiculous standard of lighter skin= beauty. It’s absurd to me as it homogenizes the way women are supposedly supposed to look, and many of them end up looking very similar. I’d certainly wouldn’t want my kids to see this stuff, as I could only imagine what these images are doing to impressionable children. It’s sexist, boring, and potentially destructive.

A band-aid on the situation would be to have harsher censorship laws on ads so kids aren’t as easily exposed to this absurdity. Perhaps an equal opportunity law that requires ads to have more equal representation of men and women in them (I’m looking at you, cleaning products ads that doesn’t involve cars). I’m also hoping that the Plus Size Model trend ends up breaking into the mainstream in a big way. Not only would that change beauty standards in the US, the cultural penetration the United States has on a global could bring about positive change on an enormous scale.