Introduction to Mass Communication Coursework

When I took Introduction to Mass Communication, I learned there was more to communication within the business and communications industries than just simply sending emails. Years of research and dedication were put into creating the digital networks we now are able to use to communicate with our employers and colleagues. Included below is an annotated bibliography which was assigned prior to writing the final research paper for this class. I have also included the first portion of that paper here as well.

             The Sexualization of Women in Advertising              

INTRODUCTION: Women have historically been hyper-sexualized in mass media, in order to appeal to consumers who are the targets of new marketing campaigns. The belief, particularly among American advertisers has been that sex sells, and that campaigns must become more shocking and destructive of the female image to be appealing. My goal was to find information that explains the impact these images of sexualized women in advertisements have on women, and men, and look at different ways that sexualization of women manifests itself within American advertising practices, and how it has changed over time.

Bratu, S. (2013). Gender Presentation in.  Advertisements. Analysis and

          Metaphysics, vol. 12, pp. 166-171.

     Sofia Bratu addresses issues facing women within the sphere of mass advertising, politics, and specifically addresses the issue of sexual objectification within advertising. Within the political sphere it has been found that women have to work harder to be viewed on the same level as their male counterparts, due to the fact that political leadership has been considered a masculine role. However, women are given an advantage by having inherent femininity which is an asset to a candidate because they are viewed as someone who is running as an outsider. Feminine outsiderness has become more popular among women in political campaigns and has proven to be successful. Bratu addresses the theory of midriff advertising, which portrays women as slim, attractive, and youthful in order to show they have gained success within the world. A new script for this type of advertising is that it now is convincing women they are purchasing products for the empowerment and joy they will receive from self-improvement, and it is no longer focused on gaining the approval of the male gaze. In essence, women are now choosing to be sex objects within advertisements, instead of being forced into it. Bratu also addresses how advertisements are representations of our own reality, and gives a limited stage for interpretation of gender identity with the divisions of gender roles which are commonly used.  I feel this is important to my topic, because reading how the objectification and sexualization of women has shifted from a male-centered message, to a message that sells “empowerment” to women if they buy a product shows just how manipulative and unethical advertising can be. It also demonstrates how freely women are used as pawns in the global market in order for companies to make a profit.

Capella, C., L., Hill, R., P., Kees, J., Rapp, J., M., (Winter 2010) The Impact

          Of Violence Against Women in Advertising. Journal of Advertising, vol. 

          39., pp. 37-51.

Within this study, the goal was to see if violent and sexualized images of women portrayed in media advertisements play a role in perpetuating violence towards women, particularly the belief in “rape myths; false stereotypes that females enjoy being sexually abused despite their protests to the contrary.” It was found through a survey of college students online through a marketing firm that violent images of women do in fact further the perception and acceptance of popular rape myths within our culture. Another aspect of female sexualization and objectification that the researchers looked

at was whether the common belief that sex sells actually holds true in practice. They found that this belief is actually contradictory, and that sexual images make consumers less likely to buy a product from a company. The main form of reference for this study was using social learning theory to enable the understanding of how what is around us in our everyday life impacts our developments. The views society holds toward women, particularly views held by men, are enforced starting in childhood by print and television advertisements they see around them.

This study is important to consider for my topic because it gives a better understanding of how these sexualized images of women impact our culture as a whole. What I find to be most important is how the authors touch on the culpability of the advertising industry, and how their inability to regulate advertising content has caused many people to question the content of the advertisements pushed by many popular companies.                     

Conley, T., D., Ramsey, L., R., (2011). Killing Us Softly? Investigating

          Portrayals of Women and Men in Contemporary Magazine

         Advertisements. Psychology of Women Quarterly, vol. 35(3).,

          pp. 469-478.

In Jean Kilbourne’s video series, she addresses issues of female representation within advertisements, specifically occurrences of sexual violence, female objectification, and the use of unrealistic beauty standards.

Kilbourne has reinforced that women are portrayed mores passively than men, and are also more likely to be put in situations where they are acting physically defensive within an advertisement. Conley and Ramsey wanted to test to see how women were portrayed in different types of magazines, and if their research aligned with the statements made by Jean Kilbourne in her video series. They compared women’s and men’s magazines, breaking the

women’s magazines into two groups; fashion and home/domestic interest magazines. The men’s magazines included sports magazines, entertainment, and wildlife magazines. They assessed full page advertisements, which included individuals that the magazine coders believed to be age 15 or older. It was found that among all the magazines, flawlessness was more heavily portrayed in women’s fashion magazines and was not a substantial factor in women’s home magazines. Women were more often shown in active roles within home magazines, and were more likely to be shown in passive      

positions within men’s magazines and women’s fashion magazines. It was also shown that female models were more often portrayed in passive positions overall. However, when the men’s magazines were compared it was showed that the level of passivity and flawlessness exhibited in Maxim was not shown in Field and Stream, or other sports and outdoors magazines, where women were more often put into more active roles. This information is important when considering the sexualization of women in advertising because it shows that the main consumer groups who are being bombarded with negative images regarding women are young women reading fashion magazines, and men who read magazines such as Maxim. This means that women are internalizing messages that are telling them they are not perfect or beautiful enough, and must strive to reach and unrealistic standard. Meanwhile, it sets a tone for men to disrespect women when they take in advertisements that glorify the objectification of women, and violence towards women.

Dimitratos, P., Mathioudaki, K., Plakoyiannaki, E., Zotos, Y., (2008).

          Images of Women in Online. Advertisements of Global Products: Does Sexism

          Exist?Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 83., pp. 101-112.

  

     The goals of this study were to provide evidence regarding the portrayals of women in online advertisements, and to explore how females are portrayed on various web sites targeting different groups. What they found through their research indicated that women are more often shown as passive within advertisements placed in magazines targeting a female audience, however within male magazines men were more likely to be in a position of submission to women. It was also shown that within female audience based magazines there were the strongest images of female portrayals of sexism, such as showing women in traditional gender roles or hypersexualized images, as well as images pushing excessive use of cosmetic products. Conversely, within the magazines geared towards male and general audience readers women were more often shown in active roles within an advertisement. Women were more often shown in non-stereotypical gender roles, often places in professional situations where they held positions of power and were not just there to assist a male supervisor.

This information is important because it is important to understand that the majority of harmful advertising depicting the image of women, is targeted to women. Though these images the objectify women do impact the views that men hold of women in society, it is clear that the negative messages are sent directly to the female population in order to sell them a plethora of beauty, fitness, and dietary products that will make them appear more attractive and allow them to conform to society’s unrealistic beauty standards.    

Kilbourne, J. Killing Us Softly, Pt. 4: Advertising’s Image of Women. (2010)

          Cambridge Documentary Films, Inc.

In the fourth part of Jean Kilbourne’s video series she addresses how women are portrayed in advertisements, paying particular interest to advertisements that are presented in fashion magazines, advertisements for cars, and other products where the female body is objectified in order to sell to goods to consumers. Kilbourne argues that mass advertising is not only trying to sell hyper sexuality, and often sexual violence to men and women. It is also selling an unrealistic image of beauty, in all advertisements and magazine covers her film shows how the female body is dissected using Photoshop, and then using photo editing tools different body parts from multiple women are used to create the “perfect female image”. This level of flawlessness is unattainable, yet we make women believe we must look like these models to have value. This is problematic because the average women in America is between the sizes of 12-14, not a 00. Women need to see reflections of themselves in advertisements for the products they plan to purchase.

Pfanner, E. (2005). No Hunks in the Alcohol Advertisements, Please. We’re

           British. The New York Times. August 1, 2005 issue.

British advertising regulators banned the use of sexually driven images within alcohol advertisements in hopes of lowering the rate of binge drinking in young adults. The Advertising Standards Authority has specifically targeted the company Lambrini, known for its semi-sparkling party drinks and advertisements featuring attractive young women. The regulators believe that showing advertisements between attractive young women trying to entice attractive males sends the wrong message about alcohol to young adults. Lambrini was forced to run advertisements past a team who reviewed them, making sure they fit within the regulations that had been put in place by the advertising watchdog group. I think this information is important because it shows that other parts of the world are actively regulating the content of the advertisements that are targeted to young men and women.

DISCUSSION: advertising. It has been documented that women are presented as passive, hyper-sexualized, flawless objects within American advertising. It is a common belief that sex sells in the advertising industry, however the research reviewed shows evidence that sexualized images of women actually deter consumers from making a purchase. There are also Sexism is rampant in advertising, particularly American significant differences in the female image that is presented in various types of magazines. It has been documented that women are more likely to be shown as unrealistically flawless and hypersexualized in women’s fashion magazines than they are to be objectified in men’s magazines. There are many facets to the issue of sexualization of women in advertising, and the articles and documentary used as resources have served as a credible reference to gather information from in order to gain a better understanding of this issue.

Research Paper Introduction and First Section

INTRODUCTION: Women have historically been hyper-sexualized in mass media, in order to appeal to consumers who are the targets of new marketing campaigns. The belief, particularly among American advertisers has been that sex sells, and that campaigns must become more shocking and destructive of the female image to be appealing. My goal was to find information that explains the impact these images of sexualized women in advertisements have on women, and men, and look at different ways that sexualization of women manifests itself within American advertising practices, and how it has changed over time.

MIDRIFF ADVERTISING AND BODY IMAGE

The female body is the most scrutinized in our culture, we pick apart women until they are nothing more than arms, legs, stomachs that aren’t thin enough, breasts that are too small, or lips that lack fullness. There is an image that mainstream media wants to portray of women, and that is skinny, fit, and attractive young women who are successful and happy. The use of a slim and attractive female body within advertisements is a tool to sell false female empowerment, by buying product A, B, or C you will become empowered because it will make you slim like the woman in the advertisement. These messages that women consume on a daily basis through films, advertisements, and television shows furthers the idea that sexiness and beauty are the only true forms of capital a female can hold. There has now been a shift in advertising which has taken the focus away from messages that exhibit women who are trying to please men, but who are instead self-motivated to present themselves in an objectified way in order to please themselves, and gain power and control through the modification of their appearance. Sofia Bratu explains why midriff advertising has proved to be problematic for women, especially when it comes to the individual self-concept.

Midriff advertising re-sexualizes women’s bodies, and is notable for its reconstruction of the anxieties and the labor involved in making the body beautiful, and for articulating notions of

women’s self-determination and agency (women are entirely autonomous agents, no longer constrained by any inequalities or power imbalances). Midriff advertising entails a move from an external male gaze to a self-policing narcissistic gaze. Through sexual subjectification women must understand their own objectification as pleasurable and self-chosen, and are

endowed with the status of active subjecthood so that they can “choose” to become sex objects. (Analysis and Metaphysics, Volume 12, p. 168)