Comparing Women In Dolce And Gabbana Advertising
Yaury 1
Jessica Ovina Yaury
Bodies Revealed / Bradley Lane & Karen Stuhldreher
Essay #1
1/30/12
Today, advertisements use sex appeal to attract the audience’s eyes. As Berger writes in ‘Ways of Seeing’, “Publicity increasingly uses sexuality to sell any product or service” (Berger 144). Men and women are portrayed in provocative poses and shown to the world to sell clothes, shoes, jewelry, and any other kind of apparel. However, women are more exposed than men in a more demeaning way. By showing barely dressed, sylph-like women being objectified by men to satisfy their desire, these three ads I selected emphasize women’s role as sexual objects, conveying that sexual objectification is empowering.
The first Dolce & Gabbana advertisement depicts a scantily clad woman, wearing a tight black dress and a pair of stilettos. She is lying down under …show more content…
a half naked, good-looking man, who is holding her down by her wrists, presumably about to have sex. Around them, there are four other attractive men stand nearby watching, most likely waiting for their turn. Whereas she is not smiling and instead shows a face of weakness, the males all have a serious expression. This ad portrays the woman as a sexual object. It emphasizes that the female power can be achieved through sex and sexual exhibition. Looking at the expression of the women, she doesn’t seem to enjoy being sexualized, but she proudly flaunts her physical features, which are overall sexy and attractive. In other words,
Yaury 2 women are told to give pleasure to men and not to take their own sexual desires into consideration. It illustrates sexual objectification as empowering and hence to satisfy men and not themselves. In addition, the advertisement also paints a picture of what the ideal woman should look like. The woman in the ad is clad in tight dress, which is shaped like a bathing suit, hugging her crotch and revealing her long, naked legs. She is tall, extremely slender, and has a long voluminous hair. According to the ad, this is the ideal woman. This is what men want.
Moving on to the second ads by Dolce & Gabbana, a tall and barely dressed woman is standing strong, while a man beside her is on his knees.
It conveys that the woman is empowered and in control. She seems to have some sort of authority over him as she leans forward, and he tilts back. But, if we look carefully, with her practically naked body, she curves her back and pushes her breast seductively into the man’s face. Even though he appears to be submissive, her extremely slender and nearly naked body is clearly shown as a sexualized object for him to enjoy. This ad supports John Berger’s theory, that “the ‘ideal’ spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him” (Berger 64). Men are always portrayed as the viewer of women, whose appearance give pleasure to him. We can see that this ad places the woman in a position of power, while at the same time sexually objectifying her body. It somehow implies that being a sexual object is a source of power. In order to attain female sexual empowerment, woman needs to be very thin, barely dressed, and objects for men to
look.
Yaury 3
The last image is a racy ad by Calvin Klein, which portrays a topless young woman, lying on a bare-chested man, while kissing a second shirtless man. Another man lounges alluringly on the floor with his shirt and jeans unbuttoned. All of them are showing their love for great jeans, and each other. Unlike the first ad, the girl in this ad doesn’t look like being coerced by the men. It seems that she is voluntarily doing sexual activities and let her mostly-naked body to be a sexual object for three men. What caught my attention is the girl looks really young, I guess about fifteen years old. By presenting a young, super skinny, and scantily clad model, the advertisement creates a message that being young and sexual is what men desire. This semi-nude ‘threesome’ or probably ‘foursome’ advertisement is encouraging young women to attract men, showing that having sexual activity with three men simultaneously is favorable, and they can do it while wearing Calvin Klein Jeans.
These three advertisements are good examples of how media, fashion designers in particular, are focusing on the role of women being sexual objects. They emphasize women’s willingness to expose her body, to gratify and cater to what men desire. They support Laura Mulvey’s idea, that “In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness” (Mulvey 62). At this point, Mulvey explains that woman are often depicted as an object to be looked at, and the way they are looked at by men is usually associated with sexual interpretation. In
Yaury 4 that way, she is describing the women’s value of “to-be-looked-at-ness”, which objectifies women to satisfy men’s desire. They also create an ideal image of how women should look like to attain men’s attraction, which is unbelievably skinny and rarely achieved in nature, if they do exist. This image could make women feel dissatisfied with their body and become obsessed to meet the standard. Such unrealistic goal may result into eating disorders and low self-confidence, as historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg indicates that, “The increase in anorexia nervosa and bulimia in the past thirty years suggests that in some cases the body becomes an obsession, leading to recalcitrant eating behaviors that can result in death. But even among girls who never develop full-blown eating disorders, the body is so central to definitions of the self that psychologists sometimes use numerical scores of “body esteem” and “body dissatisfaction” to evaluate a girl’s mental health” (Brumberg xxiv-xxv). Here, Brumberg shows that many women are vulnerable for developing eating disorders, which at the worst case can result to death, while others, who do not suffer, still put much concern on their body. We can see how advertisements can ruin one’s life and the influence becomes inevitable as we see them everyday and everywhere.
Yaury 5 Image 1 Image 2 Image 3
Jessica Ovina Yaury
Bodies Revealed / Bradley Lane & Karen Stuhldreher
Essay #1
1/30/12
Today, advertisements use sex appeal to attract the audience’s eyes. As Berger writes in ‘Ways of Seeing’, “Publicity increasingly uses sexuality to sell any product or service” (Berger 144). Men and women are portrayed in provocative poses and shown to the world to sell clothes, shoes, jewelry, and any other kind of apparel. However, women are more exposed than men in a more demeaning way. By showing barely dressed, sylph-like women being objectified by men to satisfy their desire, these three ads I selected emphasize women’s role as sexual objects, conveying that sexual objectification is empowering.
The first Dolce & Gabbana advertisement depicts a scantily clad woman, wearing a tight black dress and a pair of stilettos. She is lying down under …show more content…
a half naked, good-looking man, who is holding her down by her wrists, presumably about to have sex. Around them, there are four other attractive men stand nearby watching, most likely waiting for their turn. Whereas she is not smiling and instead shows a face of weakness, the males all have a serious expression. This ad portrays the woman as a sexual object. It emphasizes that the female power can be achieved through sex and sexual exhibition. Looking at the expression of the women, she doesn’t seem to enjoy being sexualized, but she proudly flaunts her physical features, which are overall sexy and attractive. In other words,
Yaury 2 women are told to give pleasure to men and not to take their own sexual desires into consideration. It illustrates sexual objectification as empowering and hence to satisfy men and not themselves. In addition, the advertisement also paints a picture of what the ideal woman should look like. The woman in the ad is clad in tight dress, which is shaped like a bathing suit, hugging her crotch and revealing her long, naked legs. She is tall, extremely slender, and has a long voluminous hair. According to the ad, this is the ideal woman. This is what men want.
Moving on to the second ads by Dolce & Gabbana, a tall and barely dressed woman is standing strong, while a man beside her is on his knees.
It conveys that the woman is empowered and in control. She seems to have some sort of authority over him as she leans forward, and he tilts back. But, if we look carefully, with her practically naked body, she curves her back and pushes her breast seductively into the man’s face. Even though he appears to be submissive, her extremely slender and nearly naked body is clearly shown as a sexualized object for him to enjoy. This ad supports John Berger’s theory, that “the ‘ideal’ spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him” (Berger 64). Men are always portrayed as the viewer of women, whose appearance give pleasure to him. We can see that this ad places the woman in a position of power, while at the same time sexually objectifying her body. It somehow implies that being a sexual object is a source of power. In order to attain female sexual empowerment, woman needs to be very thin, barely dressed, and objects for men to
look.
Yaury 3
The last image is a racy ad by Calvin Klein, which portrays a topless young woman, lying on a bare-chested man, while kissing a second shirtless man. Another man lounges alluringly on the floor with his shirt and jeans unbuttoned. All of them are showing their love for great jeans, and each other. Unlike the first ad, the girl in this ad doesn’t look like being coerced by the men. It seems that she is voluntarily doing sexual activities and let her mostly-naked body to be a sexual object for three men. What caught my attention is the girl looks really young, I guess about fifteen years old. By presenting a young, super skinny, and scantily clad model, the advertisement creates a message that being young and sexual is what men desire. This semi-nude ‘threesome’ or probably ‘foursome’ advertisement is encouraging young women to attract men, showing that having sexual activity with three men simultaneously is favorable, and they can do it while wearing Calvin Klein Jeans.
These three advertisements are good examples of how media, fashion designers in particular, are focusing on the role of women being sexual objects. They emphasize women’s willingness to expose her body, to gratify and cater to what men desire. They support Laura Mulvey’s idea, that “In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness” (Mulvey 62). At this point, Mulvey explains that woman are often depicted as an object to be looked at, and the way they are looked at by men is usually associated with sexual interpretation. In
Yaury 4 that way, she is describing the women’s value of “to-be-looked-at-ness”, which objectifies women to satisfy men’s desire. They also create an ideal image of how women should look like to attain men’s attraction, which is unbelievably skinny and rarely achieved in nature, if they do exist. This image could make women feel dissatisfied with their body and become obsessed to meet the standard. Such unrealistic goal may result into eating disorders and low self-confidence, as historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg indicates that, “The increase in anorexia nervosa and bulimia in the past thirty years suggests that in some cases the body becomes an obsession, leading to recalcitrant eating behaviors that can result in death. But even among girls who never develop full-blown eating disorders, the body is so central to definitions of the self that psychologists sometimes use numerical scores of “body esteem” and “body dissatisfaction” to evaluate a girl’s mental health” (Brumberg xxiv-xxv). Here, Brumberg shows that many women are vulnerable for developing eating disorders, which at the worst case can result to death, while others, who do not suffer, still put much concern on their body. We can see how advertisements can ruin one’s life and the influence becomes inevitable as we see them everyday and everywhere.
Yaury 5 Image 1 Image 2 Image 3