Advertising and Selling Rights

      The concept of dualism exists across all spectrums of the world, serving as the foundation for society: good or evil, love or hate, and success or failure.  With established alignment, one can only exists on the left or the right, leaving nothing between the two forms of extremes. The social identity of a human, despite the complexity of the human mind, is no exception to binary reasoning; there is male and female, each identity serving as the polar opposite for the other. Dualism transcends between the spoken and written languages, dictating the thought processes of humans; it has formed social, political, and economical structures of society in its image, functioning as social dualism.

      However, dualism greatly hinders the social consciousness by limiting the thought process into two categories of extremes. The two defined categories that arise from the idea of duality evoke a sense of inequality due to its underlying differences As a result, dualism and inequality inevitably becomes synonymous; it permeates into the social world, embedding the idea of duality into race, class, and gender: white or black, rich or poor, and man or woman.

A beauty product ad; the ad depicts that a woman (and her identity) is incomplete unless the product is used. Not only does it show that women are incapable, it also depicts the values women are bounded to.

      In order to capitalize on the monetary opportunities within the corporate world, social dualism has become powerful weapon within the world of advertisement. In a society, reinforced with centuries of the “male gaze,” advertisements have become the modern version of oil paintings, depicting “a world ordered by sexual imbalances,” where “pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive female,” (Mulvey, 837). In one of the United State’s largest broadcasting events, the reputation of the Super Bowl advertisement has become legendary; it has become one of the many forms of the epitome of popular culture. However, its reputability does not make it immune to the teachings of the “male gaze.” For example, in 2013, during forty-seventh Super Bowl, Fiat launched a commercial starring Catrinel Menghia, a Romanian fashion model. In the commercial, a male figure mistaken Catrinel Menghia for a Fiat automobile; the commercial instills the male gaze teachings and utilizes the theme of duality through the juxtaposition between Catrinel Menghia and the Fiat automobile. The male character initially engages the act of gazing while the female character is gazed upon. As the commercial progresses, the female transforms into an automobile, objectifying her and reinforcing the underlying power hierarchies that exists between men and women. Although the female character is shown to act, she is immediately punished by being transformed into a car. The commercial strongly reinforces Mulvey’s claim on the sexual imbalances that has lead to the established power hierarchy. Despite its use to entice and entertain, the Fiat commercial is one of the many Super Bowl commercials that sexualize and dehumanize women.

Putting into question, the value and worth of women; this ad was used with regards to auto-dealerships.

      Overly sexualized representation of women are not only limited to Super Bowl commercials. The mass media culture, today, “serves government and the economy,” (Wolf, 63). With the goal of selling and making profit, advertisements have targeted women by manipulating the ideal image of a woman. In her literary work, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women, Naomi Wolf argues that the beauty and appeal of a woman have become integrated into their identity and values. The reinforcement supplied by the mass media has allowed stereotypical images of women to thrive where “women are allowed a mind or a body but not both,” (Wolf, 59). Under this notion, imbedded binaries form; to be ugly means to be intelligent and to be beautiful means to be foolish. This idea is displayed in the Mercedes-Benz commercial, starring two female characters. The first female enters the library and orders fast food. When the second female corrects her of her location, the first female asks again in a lower volume. The commercial embraces the concept of stereotypical images of women proposed by Wolf. The first female is depicted to be pretty and foolish while the second female is depicted to be less appealing and smart. Society’s stress on the image and beauty of a woman has become so deeply systemic that the objectification of woman is no longer a myth; it is a common theme shared across all forms of mass media.

One of Mentos' campaign for their gum. The ad juxtaposes sex (as a form of service) and gum (a marketed object).

      In the their mission to sell, the world of mass media has saturated the image of sexualized women and its association “with success and sexual desirability,” (Wykes and Gunter, 215). According to Wykes and Gunter, the constructed social identity also influences the economical and political identity of a female. Success and beauty become associated with socioeconomic standings and mental health. The media questions the identity of a woman; it constructs a disparity, between the ideal image of a woman and the average woman, to the extent of impossibility.

      The Fiat commercial and Mercedes-Benz commercial both utilize humor and a male’s object of interest. In order to address the issues of gender and sexuality across all forms of advertisements, we must recognize the abusive of irony and humor within the realm of entertainment. Both the Fiat commercial and the Mercedes-Benz commercial attempt to mock the male gaze through the usage of humor; it acknowledges the stereotypical images of woman and the binary relationship of men and women.  However, it indirectly reinforces the very ideas it addresses by acknowledging the stereotypical types; they to concede the ideas they are trying to mock. A similar situation can be seen in the 2016 Oscar awards where numerous jokes of racism were exchanged; Hollywood essentially acknowledged and mocked the ideas presented by black actors, boycotting the event and yet it presented no solution to the issue. The usage of humor serves as a tool for devaluing the issues many activists are trying to address.

        Within the world of mass media, there are no accidents. I believe that every thing that is displayed on screen, to a great extent, is planned and organized. Rather than using humor to undermine the efforts of various activists across all spectrums of reforms, a more serious tone must be utilized. Although advertisements serve as a form of entertainment with the intent to sell, the rights of all human beings must not address in humor. It must not be forgotten that human rights cannot be bought or sold. Ultimately, the lines separating the social, political and economical world are thin; it is vital that we understand that not all ideologies can be shared across all aspects of society.

Citations:

Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. 1999. Web.

Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used against Women. 1991. Web.

Wykes, Maggie and Barrie Gunter."Conclusion" from The Media and Body Image. Web.