The objectification of women

Behaviour Change: The objectification of women

Emily Norris // N0430188 // FASH 20031 // Module: Communication and Message // FCP 2 1

CONTENTS

“women in the media need to be less sexualised.

Whilst being sexy is okay and great when women can feel confident about their bodies, it gets to a point where it just becomes degrading and you see the same pictures over and over.�

-Survey candidate

Figure 2: American Apparel Advert

Page 4

Page 18

A introduction to the report

Brands that are pushing female power and why they are

Sex in Advertising

Page 6-7

successful.

The Unobtailable

Page 20

Information on the media and the initial primary research

Hoping to an end

Page 8

Page 22

The Effects

References

How the media effects and shapes society

Page 23

Page 10

The Backlash

Third wave feminism and the leading of the younger consumers.

Page 12 The Consumer

Page 14

A Possibility Dadvertising and a shift i consumer attitudes.

Page 16

Sex in Advertising A introduction to the report

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Who is leading

Image References

Page 24-25 Bibliography

Page 26-27 Methodology

Page 28-29 Apendix 1

Page 30 Appendix 1.5

Page 31-34 Appendix 2.

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Figure 3: Vintage Airline Advert

SEX IN ADVERTISING Sex sells; it is used day in and day out to sell products. On a daily basis, we see and take in numerous adverts, all of which shape our view on aspects within society. These are all made to draw us in and make us want whatever is being modeled in the advert. However, the sexualisation of products is a widely used tactic companies in order to sell products.

This normally involves women that are sexually exposed, posing in seductive positions and quite often men are featured with having the dominant role.

Women began fighting for equality between sexes in the early 1880’s. In the 1920’s, women began to receive rights within the UK. Bohbot (2005) discusses the ‘gender branding’, which began to form during this period of time, of which females began to be increasingly targeted for products, especially within beauty products. In the 1970’s, women were liberated by birth control. But yet,

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after all the years of fighting, why are women still being deduced into sexual objects? Friedan (1963) comments on the media claiming that ‘the portrayal of men and women… has changed little in 20 years.’

Women are still used as objects and this is usually in a sexualized manner, with the model’s exhibiting ‘thinness, youth and flawlessness’(ibid.) These ‘ideas of bodies are some of the most dominant and consistent messages produced by advertisers.’ The images of females that are portrayed have led to an increase in negative body image, as well as many male’s still treating women as objects, just as they are shown in the media.

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Figure 5: Woman used as a table

Figure 4: WAD issue 40 cover

THE UNOBTAINABLE

Women on average view from 400 to 600 different advertisements on a daily basis (Dittritch, 2008.) A large percentage of these are aimed directly at women and are based on the gaze from the opposite sex. This not only puts pressure to conform to the beauty ideal, but also allows men to feel it is acceptable to view women as objects. ‘The Vagenda’ blog discusses women’s placement within advertisements, the workplace and society, expressing the thoughts of many women. The contributors highlight the every day sexism women face as well as the common pressure that is put upon us women, especially in terms of advertisements. The blog led me to conduct a survey in order to see the opinion of a variety of

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women aged 18+ on women within the media. The survey asked a variety of questions about their thoughts of advertisements and how it affects them (see appendix 1) In my survey, 63.34 % of people consciously observed adverts on more than a daily basis and, 90% observed them more than once a week (in that they took time to look at them in more depth and begin analyzing the advertisement.)

By taking time to observe, they are subconsciously taking in the semiotics that are used, the message the brand is conveying and this then leads to them either desiring the product or thinking about how it could be applied to them. Shields (2002) explains that ‘ways of seeing

the female body are culturally imbued codes which are consistent not only across advertising images but other visual images.’ We, as a society are programmed to judge others against the ideal that is put upon us. Despite the fact we may be aware that these images in the media are unobtainable and airbrushed, we still strive to achieve what we are shown. Through my research into magazines, I found that most of the sexualized imagery was used to sell fashion and beauty products.

My survey also showed that a high percentage of the females asked were interested by fashion, beauty and dieting advertisements. This goes to show the level in which magazines can reach and target

“women like me who see these advertisements compare ourselves which results in feeling inadequate and gives us a distorted idea on what we should look like. It creates a negative impact on how we feel about our body’s and confidence.”

Figure 6: Soud Calubur V Ad.

-Candidate from Survey

women. They get caught up in the tyranny of the media and the idea of an unrealistic image of themselves.

This has led me to believe the media is intrinsically liked with the rise in body dissatisfaction, as it is evident that year upon year, there is a rise in eating disorders.

In order to see the level unrealistic, misogynist images of women within advertising, I went through a selection of magazines and tallied up the different types of advertising and to deepen my research (see appendix 1.5.) I was shocked to find that almost half of advertisements with models in are sexualized.

The magazines I studied were a random selection of Marie Claire, Elle, cosmopolitan and Dazed and

confused. My results revealed that shockingly, in most magazines almost half of the advertisements that included models were in some way sexual. Some images implied sexual acts, some rape and some that a woman needed a man. Some of the most shocking were images such as Tom Ford’s ‘For men’. The images for this advertisement feature a naked, oiled up women with implications of rape by the way that the bottle is pushed in between the models thighs. Imagery like this degrades women candidate #4 expressed her feelings that “Women need healthier imagery, which is possible and ordain, in order to feel better about themselves and the people around them. Whether this can be

done by simply not using software privileges such as Photoshop and AirBrush, we may never know. But a definite guarantee is that no matter how much we may change the media representation now, of any particular group of people, it will need years to evolve and merge into the centre of the collective image of “said” people.” This quote is a perfect illustration of my beliefs towards the media and the reason as to why I wanted to later conduct a deeper interview as to the type of healthier imagery that would appeal to women.

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THE EFFECTS

“70% of females feel there is too much sexuality within advertising” -Bohbot 2005

My online, anonymous survey helped me analyze how advertising affects people and the different thoughts on how women are exhibited in the media. It revealed a great tiredness for over sexualized images of models, as well as the lack of diversity in terms of the shape and race of women.

A candidate within my survey explained her thoughts on the topic of women’s portrayal within the media, writing that the representation is ‘ an ill representation of how people should look/act and assimilate themselves among others that are within the same paradigm (see appendix 1).’ This candidate has shown a similar attitude towards the media as Sheilds (opt.cit) in that, as humans, our cognitive thinking is to mirror what we see around us.

Bahear (1980) expresses her view; ‘ we think we should look more closely at how attitudes are conditioned and even manipulated by the media.’ It seems evident that people feel and

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believe that advertising does have an adverse effect on our thinking within society and body image, affecting our perceptions. Dittirich (opt.cit) notes that 68% of females feel worse about their self-esteem and body image after looking through your typical glossy magazine.

Following my survey and magazine analysis, I interviewed 8 different people in order to give me a broader range of research. In my interviews with 8 different candidates, I got each female to comment on 4 different advertisements of women that were all different. From this research, I was able to reaffirm my previous research in that women dislike the sexualized images of women in the media. All 8 candidates said that the image of Tom Ford’s ‘for men’ made them feel uncomfortable. The image was described as ‘derogatory’, ‘disgusting’ and ‘overly sexual.’

Sayuri stated that both images a and d ‘really hammer home that women

are sexual objects.’ All interviewees commented upon the negative portrayal of women in the media.

Most candidates commented on image B as positive (shown on page 16 and 32..) Tracy mentioned that the female in the Nike advert ‘looks happy and confident like the type of person I want to be’ (see appendix 2.) All candidates seemed to understand the extent of airbrushing and unrealistic portrayal of women, however they still felt pressurized under the reign of images. Jacqueline remarked that the media’s ‘attitudes and assumptions that women are incompetent’ (ibid.) When the media exhibits women in such a way, they are stripping that female of any power and objectifying the rights of women

Figure 7: Tom Ford ‘ For Men’

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Figure 8: Law Revenue Girls

THE BACKLASH

A recent example of this objectification includes Robin Thicke’s video ‘ blurred lines.’ This video gives the impression that women are nothing but objects of a man’s desire and are ‘represented in instances of powerlessness (Ruby, 2007) it is implied that women have an animalistic nature in which they cannot resist a man. This video caused many women to speak out through their disgust of the portrayal of women. It also caused a backlash of spoof videos, which often used role reversal in order to exhibit the ludicriousity of which the women are shown in the video. Three law students from the University of Auckland created their feminist parody, which reached 450,000 views within three days on YouTube. The group; Olivia Ludbrook, Zoe Ellwood and Adelaide Dunn call themselves the Law Revenue girls and created their video ‘defined lines’ to put across their feminist perspectives by allowing people to question why it seems ridiculous to see a man in place of the woman. Ludbrook commented in an interview with The Independent that women are not treated equally and explains how the Law Revenue Girls were ‘addressing the culture of objectifying women in music videos’

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(Battersby, 2013.) This supports the view point of Gordon (2000), who indicates that the ‘attractiveness and the capacity to compel a man’s attention become perhaps the most central elements to self esteem.’ The goal of most women has become to attract the attention of the opposite sex as opposed to a career. The introduction of these parodies and videos such as Aphex Twin’s ‘Window licker’ twist the stereotypical music videos with women in, exhibiting how, as a society this objectification has somewhat become the norm.

Vyer (ibid) describes today’s media is viewed as ‘a growing subculture that is changing our ideas.’ The more we see the hyper- sexualized media the more it is becoming ‘increasingly endorsed and accepted.’ Swedish brand ‘by PM’ highlighted this when they used American apparel’s advertisements for female clothing and flipped the gender roles. The brand called their images ‘American Apparel’ and used a series of images for a shirt advertisement for inspiration and re created the shots (shown bottom right). The male advertising for the unisex shirt (shown top right) is a plain, natural shot of the model. Whereas, when it is aimed at women, the shirt is

used as the only garment the female woman is wearing as she poses in a sexual manor.

When looking at the images, they look misplaced. In my opinion, they highlight the level in which we are in as a society in that we are used to this imagery of women yet when it is a male, we dislike it. For example, the ‘Defined Lines’ parody was removed by YouTube for being too ‘inappropriate despite the fact it was less revealing than the original. Gordon (ibid) explains that female roles are still predominately institutionalized by male control, and, in doing this; the media attitudes cannot be available to change. Despite females making up 70% of purchasing decisions (Mayer, ibid), advertisements are still repeating their sexist work, which, so far from my research, does not appeal to women. Candidate #23 (see appendix 1) from my survey summarizes this up, confessing, “It is hard to feel attractive and confident when the industry promotes such an unachievable image. People are starting to doubt themselves, its exhausting trying to keep up.” This is the attitude that came across from most of the candidates from my survey.

Figure 9: American Apparel Advert Figure 10: by PM role Reversal

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Figure11: Book Cover.

Figure 12: Feminist protester

THE CONSUMER My survey revealed a large number of people aged 18 to late 20’s beginning to speak up about feminism. This third wave feminism is fighting back against the continuing lack of equality and respect for women. This target group of feminists is what I believe is going to push for the end to objectifying women. Websites such as ‘thirdwavefoundation.com’ and ‘The Vagenda’ blog along with numerous twitter accounts are pushing this movement. This target audience, as discussed previously is the gateway to a shift in people’s attitudes. My survey and interview results all express similar views and interestingly, it was the younger audience that conveyed greater opinions on the subject of changing how females are represented in advertising as well as society. To the right is an example of how this target group of women are fighting back.

This sarcastic Amazon review quickly went viral and was supported by many women.

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Figure13: Amazon BIC pen review.

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Figure 15: Oral B Power of Dad

Figure14: WowDad app

A POSSIBILITY

Without a radical change, the media will still continue to devour people’s self-esteem forming more eating disorders and confidence issues.

Dittirich (opt.cit) reveals that 68% of people feel worse about their body after reading a magazine. This goes to show the ‘continuing mistreatment and oppression of women’ (Bentz and Mayes, 1993) Instead of women being empowered, they are put in a negative light. Candidate #40 reaffirmed this, declaring “I don’t understand why we live in a culture where it is okay to make you feel inadequate about yourself.” Instead of the advertising drawing females in, it is beginning to repel women from confidence and lead them to insecurities and lack of comfort within their own skin.

Ross and Nightingale (2003) discuss in their book ‘Media and audiences’ explains how ‘the media industries are not immune from the impact of social and cultural changes.’

The perceptions within media can change. The cultural view of dads within the media has seen a big change within the past few years.

There has been an emergence of what is termed ‘dadvertising.’ It has

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been acceptable for men to be stay at home dads and fathers that are well involved within their children’s lives, which was once seen as unmanly and a woman’s task. Stylus writers Ward and Payne (2013) state that ‘it is becoming more socially acceptable to become an active, hands- on dad.’

Having read this, I did some research into ‘dadvertising’ and came across many advertisements that reinforce Ross and Nightingale’s claim. These dadverts are becoming more and more popular. Examples of this are the ‘Huggies dad test’ and oral b’s ‘power of dad’ adverts, b oth of which show the father and child relationship and highlight the importance of a father within the child’s life. Alongside this advertising has been a creation of apps such as the ‘Wowdad’ app, which is created ‘for dads on the go.’ The app features places to change your baby, places to eat, places to play and ‘pamper time’ which includes stores, salons and yoga places.

So, if the perception of men has changed, why can this not apply to women? The term ‘feminism’ seems to be so frowned upon by many in modern society. Many people associate the term feminism with bra burning misandrists as opposed to the belief in the equality of the sexes.

With online sources such as the blog ‘the f-word’, ‘the vagenda’and writers such as Sam Killerman, feminism is able to be widely read upon and could help to re-educate people’s beliefs. The blog discuses everyday sexism and moreover the pressure that the media lays upon women to look like the societal ideal.

Bohbot (ibid) described advertising as ‘selling oppression and consumption’ in terms of women.

Instead of empowering females, it elicits women for sexual arousal.

Shields emphasizes that the media ‘have an impact on our attitudes, perceptions and behaviors.’ What we see shapes our opinions. Gill (ibid) reported that 51% of advertisements did not effectively market to females.

From my research, I feel this is down to the level of unachievable models and the amount of repetitive imagery we come across on a daily basis.

Figure 16: Kindling spread

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Figure 17 & 18: Nike Advertising

WHO IS LEADING

A brand that markets well is Nike, with a turnover of 25,313 mil USD (Anon,Osiris), Nike is a without a doubt a brand giant. My interview showed a positive reaction to Nike’s advertising. Candidates described the advertising as ‘positive’, ‘powerful’ and showed a like for their portrayal of women. The brand’s advertising stands out amongst others, exhibiting strength in body and mind within women. Ward (2013) discusses that ‘a brand must s be separate from generic otherwise its not a brand.’ Nike’s advertising features women of all shapes, sizes and races. This widens their audience as many more people can relate to their brand. As part of their marketing, they have campaigns specifically for women as part of their ‘Nike Training’. These feature

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well-known athletes such as Serena Williams who show good exercises for women as well as videos on what these athletes have faced in terms of sexism. Their marketing is aimed to give women a strong sense of strength. The videos use powerful phrases such as “I am making myself strong” and “we are the girls that never quit” (Nike Women, Youtube , 2012.) The marketing gives women a united force, in which together we are one, defying the rules. Their recent advertising eliminates sexism with #make the rules. The hashtag comes alongside athlete’s issues they have faced and how they overcame them.

This story based form of advertising helps to connect with women; Gill (ibid) explains that women’ focus on lifestyle and story telling

for inspiration.’

Another brand that uses this type of advertising is Adidas who has began forming similar campaigns to Nike with #mygirls and their formation of their women only stores. Similar to Nike, their campaigns feature females as part of a team, and put emphasis on physical and mental strength.

Candidate 22 from my online survey commented, “women need more aspirational figures not on appearance... but for merit of their qualities/achievements” which is the approach that both Nike and Adidas put forward. They offer positive role models that are athletes. The emphasis on mental strength and mindset is positive for young girls growing up. However, it can also lead to female’s feeling inadequate in terms of body size.

Figure19: Adidas Campaign

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Figure 20: Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches

With brands such as Dove pushing the feminine power, it may be possible to see a shift in the perception of women within the media. Dove’s ‘self- esteem’ work has become more that just a campaign, it has become an involved project that aims to teach people, children, teachers and parents about self-esteem within females and how to get it. The website features quizzes for children and many videos that help women to feel positive about their body.

Their most recent videos include ‘real beauty sketches’, in which a forensic artist draws how women view themselves and how others see them. The stark difference between the two sketches is shocking and exhibits the lack of confidence the women have in themselves. The

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video allows the viewers to see how negative people are when it comes to viewing themselves. Rather than looking upon positives, negatives are picked out, as we feel inadequate in comparison to air brushed models.

Other videos by Dove include ‘the evolution of a model’ which reveals how airbrushed images are.

The impact that media has on our own self evaluation is clear in Dove’s advertisements. Putting this point forward allows more women to understand it is a united feeling rather than a singular one.

Candidate #22 in my online survey made the noteworthy comment that “Future generations should at least have the choice of being able to understand the beauty behind a women’s face, and not cringe at their improbability.”

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Figure 21: Woman used as furniture.

Figure 22 (Right): American Apparel Advert

HOPING TO AN END

Advertisements that we see undoubtedly have very ‘selective view of reality’ (Shields, ibid.)

And, as we see up to 600 different advertisements a day, they shape our opinion. In our opinion ‘thin females are considered to be sexually attractive’ (Cortese, ibid) but this shouldn’t be the case. Slim, 6ft tall models are a minute of the population and are not an ideal to aspire to. ‘Advertising is one of the most powerful mechanisms through which member assimilate… their cultural ideologies on dominations’ (opt cit.) Candidate number #7 in my online survey amplifies this opinion, explaining; ‘-’ Women fought for rights to be equal and yet we still

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endeavor to achieve the ideal, which somewhat takes us full circle in that we are objects of a man’s desire.

In my opinion, the way to change these advertisements is to follow the footsteps of the women speaking up. With a continuing rise of women joining the third wave feminism, the eradication of sexualised images could be possible. If more people begin to stand and fight back at advertisements such as Tom Ford’s ‘for men’, legislations may be able to be put into place that caps the level that brands objectify and sexualize women. In replace of this could be advertisements that exhibit a more realistic view of women

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IMAGE REFERENCES

REFERENCES

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Page 5: Figure 3: Airline advertisement. See figure 1.

Page 6/7: Figure 4: Wad magazine cover issue #40. 2009. Found Via Mag pile: http://magpile.com/wad/spring-09/ Figure 5: Women used as a table for accessories. 2013. Found via The Vagenda blog: http://vagendamag.blogspot. co.uk Figure 6: Soul Calibur V ad. 2012. Found: http://www.buzzfeed.com/copyranter/violence-against-women-in-fashioncontinues-unabated Page 9: Figure 7: Tom Ford’s ‘for men’ advertisement. 2012. Found: opt cit.

Gordon. (2000). Eating disorders: Anatomy of a social epidemic. Second Edition. UK: Blackwell publishers ltd.

Ruby, J. (2007). Women in the media. Off our backs. 37 (1), 14-17.

Page 10/11: Figure 8: Still from Law Revenue Girls Spoof ad of ‘bad girl’. 2013. Found on: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=tC1XtnLRLPM Figure 9: American Apparel advertising 2013. See figure 1.

Figure 10. Role reversal ‘American apparel’ ,by PM. 2013. Found on BuzzFeed: http://www.buzzfeed.com/copyranter/ american-apparel-marketing-women-vs-men

Sheilds (2002). Measuring up: How advertising affects self image. Philadelphia,Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Press. iv, 17, 30, 71, 81, 159- 161, & 184 Ward and Payne, (2013). Dadvertising. Stylus: online, found at: http://www.stylus.com/lpvpns. Last accessed: 08/12/2013

Page 12/13: Figure 11: Sorority Sluts book by Jan Hudson, 1962.

Figure 12: Feminist Protester. Date anon. Found: see figure 5.

Figure 13: Amazon Review on Bic Cystal for women. 2012. Found Via Stylus.

Ward, (2012.) Marketing to women. Stylus: online, found at http://www.stylus.com/ctdjyw. Last accecced4 10/12/2013

Page14/15: Figure 14: screen shot of the ‘wow-dad’ app. 2014.

Figure 15: Still from Oral B advertisement. 2012.Found via: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aspFH44S8BM Figure 16: Spread from magazine ‘kindling’ issue 3. 2012. Can be found via: http://kindlingquarterly.com

Nike women. (2012). Voices. YouTube Nike Women Channel, 23 Jun 2012. [Online: Available at: http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=f1ighxU1vYw&list=TL9z_8sQ6bQXFTMQwFMqcOeGEors6bPtvK] Last accessed: 30/12/2013 Ross & Nightingale. (2003). Media and Audiences- New Perspectives. England: Open University Press. 8,9,43, 53

Page 16: Figure 17 & 18- Nike advertisements. 2013. Found via http://www.nike.com/gb/en_gb/.

Page 17: Figure 19: All in for my girls- Adidas.2013. Still form campaign video. Found Via: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=tmCeJb8AaA0 Page 21: Figure 20: still from Dove’s ‘real beauty sketches. 2013. Found via: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=litXW91UauE Page 22: Figure 21: Woman used as furniture. See figure 5.

Page 23: Figure 21: American Aparel advert: 2011, See figure 1.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Sheilds (2002). Measuring up: How advertising affects self image. Philadelphia,Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Press. iv, 17, 30, 71, 81, 159- 161, & 184

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Ward, (2012.) Marketing to women. Stylus: online, found at http://www.stylus.com/ctdjyw. Last accecced4 10/12/2013 Friedan.(1963). The feminine mystique. Penguin Publishers.

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METHODOLOGY In order to deepen my essay on the objectification of women I have conducted primary research as well as secondary.

Using a mixture of both has helped to shape alongside reaffirm my views on the subject of women within the media.

20/12/2013 to 25/12/2013

From 10/12/2013 until 30/12/2013 An online survey

Magazine Analysis

To begin my Primary research, I conducted an anonymous online survey in order to get a varied and honest opinion from a wide range of women. The age range of my survey was from 18+. My best response from my survey was unexpectedly from the age group of 18-24. I expected the most powerful views to come from the ages of 30 up, so it added interest and more thought for my research.

From the results of my online survey, I decided to begin analyzing a variety of magazines myself in order to see the ratio of sexualized advertisements. I based my categorization on the levels of nudity, the gaze, the placement of objects and the stance of the model. If an advertisement showed a high level of nudity and a sexual pose of the implication of sex, I would class it as a sexualized advertisement.

The results of this showed that almost half of every magazine had images that objectified women. Some magazines such as Elle consist of mainly advertisements, so when reading the magazine, over a quarter is sexualized images.

Discovering the high level in just magazine advertisements was shocking. It reinforced my secondary research in terms of the rise of body dissatisfaction. It also led me to look at music videos such as Robin Thicke’s ‘bad girl’, which is a very sexist video that objectifies females with the implication they are animals.

For Results see Appendix 1.5

Age Range of candidates within my survey.

From: 30/12/2013 to 6/01/2014 An Interview.

From my responses, my thoughts about the sexualisation were reaffirmed in that women dislike the way other females are presented. Over half from my survey felt that women were portrayed in a negative light and a high percentage admitted that the way women are in the media needs to change.

Having collected my secondary research and discovered a consumer group that supports my report, I selected 8 of my target consumers and conducted and interview with them. I asked their opinions about the women in the media, the portrayal of women and their opinion of four different advertisements that presented women in different lights.

I ensured I used a broad range of types of people that were of different ages and occupations. From my interview, all interviewees wrote that Tom Ford’s ‘for men’ advertisement made them feel comfortable. Every person expressed disgust and a big dislike to the image. Supporting pre-assumptions, the Next and Nike advertisements provoked positive response and were liked by the candidates. My research upheld my research in that women do not like images of unrealistic ideas and objectified women. Using the younger audience with strong opinions; third wave feminists could help in the behavior change of the media.

For survey nswers see appendix 2

For survey nswers see appendix 1 Above are some of the results from my survey about feelings towards the media as well as the most frequently used words of which I have put into a world.

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APPENDIX 1

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APPENDIX 1.5

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APPENDIX 2

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“The advertisements that stick out in my head are the ones that make the woman look powerful and in control.�

-Candidate from survey

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