Sex sells, if you believe otherwise, turn on the television, open a magazine, or take a walk around the town. The average human being is bound to come across some sort of advertisement in their daily lives. Advertising has become such an impacting influence in today’s society that human beings are beginning to rely on it. Along with an increase in advertisement, I think its safe to say that today’s society has also seen a significant increase in sexuality and the producers and suppliers of America’s favorite products are capitalizing. It has become increasingly common to see less clothes and more sex in ads today and unfortunately the female body is the biggest victim. And although advertisers are exploiting the female body, it is our culture today that has allowed this objectification of women to happen.
It is the history that preexist today’s society that has allowed the objectification of women to be ever more common and sometimes unnoticed. Since the beginning of time, women have always been the victims of the man’s elite status and thought process. Throughout history women have been molded from the Victorian woman to the common housewife to the sex objects of Ads today. Women have become mere products and prisoners of our society and as a society we have devalued the female body: “In assigning value to women in a vertical hierarchy, it is an expression of power relations in which women must unnaturally compete for resources that men have appropriated for themselves” (Wolf, 121). Take a few ads from the above collage for example. The Francescobiasia ad on the bottom left corner of the collage leaves me confused to what exactly is the product, “Is it the purse or is it the female body holding it”? Unfortunately, the consumers who witness this ad most likely don’t ask this question because we have been structurally conditioned into thinking that women are indeed products.
Our society today has become obsessed with the female body and also with sex. And instead of fighting ads like the ones above, we have accepted it. Many women have emulated it and use it as a model: “I plastered my family’s refrigerator with pictures of models I’d torn out of YM, Seventeen, Sassy, and Teen, and also Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Mademoiselle-a strategy I used to remind me not to eat”(Higginbottom, 93). It has fueled female competition that has been influenced by ads seen above. Women want to be the sex object that receives the attention from men because “A woman’s sense of worth in our culture is still greatly determined by her ability to attract a man” (Hesse, 18). Therefore in a world where we are obsessed with sex and are constantly using women as objects, I believe it is safe to say that, sex sells.
Works Cited:
Hesse-Biber, Sharlene Nagy. The Cult of ThinnessHigginbotham, Anastasia: Teen Mags: How to Get a Guy, Drop 20 Pounds, and Lose Your Self-Esteem. 93-96
Wolf, Naomi. "The Beauty Myth." Gender and Women's Bodies (1991): 120-125.
