Women as Objects

Jean Killbourne's "Killing Us Softly" is an awakening short film with a powerful message. Our advertising is steeped in sexism. From women's magazines to television commercials, and even more importantly and more surprisingly men's magazines, women are unfairly and unhealthily put on display. In trying to untangle this web, she makes two very valid points. Killbourne says that first, women are often photoshopped in every part of their body - feet, legs, arms, stomach, waste, neck, nose, eyes, hair, breasts, and even skin (she jokes of a woman who in question has no pores). Then after obtaining this "perfection," the women are some how constructed in the ad as an object. Within these two issues lies enormous problems.

After our discussion on Wednesday, I started wondering how saturated in sexism are we? Is it something that can be spotted every now and then? Or is it a regular presence? Right as I stepped off of the subway, I was answered. On the walls were two posters (pictures above). Here the ad is doing exactly what Killbourne speaks of. The woman in this picture is photoshopped to have perfect her, perfect skin, and a perfect figure. "Perfection" is even in the ad's wording - 'Cocktails Perfected.' Also, this ad is alluding to a product that is not American. There is an Asian dragon and the word "Orient," yet the woman is still very white. Lastly, this ad is doing what Killbourne says is very dangerous; the woman is made into an object. The ad isn't selling a product, it's selling her. She is made into a cocktail - something foreign, exotic, and sexual.

This sort of Clutter advertising is truly everywhere we look. On the way to or from anywhere, when one steps off of the subway, these sexist ads are in our faces and unconsciously getting into our heads. When women look at these types of ads, they are given an unfair and unhealthy standard of what they are expected to look like. The women in these ads are supposedly what men really want and we are to buy anything that will make us similar to them. When men look at these ads, they see women as objects. This is a very dangerous mental transaction that happens all too often.

Killbourne says that this objectification of women is dangerous because it sets a precedent that we can be treated that way. Once we are made objects, we are treated as objects. The Huffington Post published an article about the violence in sexist advertisement. In one ad, a women is blatantly situated in what appears to be a gang rape. This is one of the most violent situations a women can find herself in, and yet Dolce and Gabbana is using it to sell a product. In the BMW ad, the woman - again a white and photoshopped - takes up the entire space. You have to look very carefully to find a BMW logo in the corner to know they are advertising a car. In this ad, the woman is being compared to a used car. The writer says: ""You know you're not the first." She's been fucked before--she knows what she's doing. She's been used so you can do whatever you like to he." This is atrocious. Again, it sets a precedent that woman are objects and thus can be treated like them.

How do we change this? Kate Winslet, for example, is an amazing role model. She demonstrates the kind of action that women, with her kind of status and power, should take. However it doesn't seem to be enough. There needs to be a change within the advertising companies themselves. While we fight them, they are still making money. While I am hopeful that someday we will find the change we eagerly crave, I fear that for now we will unfortunately have to continue being surrounded by these sexist ads and messages. Our only tool right now to fight back is our consciousness and awareness.

Hanson, Ralph E. "Chapter 11." Mass Communication: Living in a Media World. Washington, D.C.: CQ, 2008. Print.

Kilbourne, Jean. Killing Us Softly 4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTlmho_RovY

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-leo/five-trends-the-advertisi_b_149354.html