Normalizing Sex
ENGL 2000-34
5/2/11
Word Count: 1,045
Normalizing Sex and Violence
An advertisement for Guiseppe Zanotti’s line Vicini portrays of a woman’s body stuffed in the trunk of a car with just her limp legs dangling lifelessly out of the back. A Dolce & Gabbana advertisement depicts a young women being pinned to the ground and a group of males towering around her insinuating an imminent gang rape. A Valentino layout shows a strong, stern man gripping the jaw of a beautiful woman. A 2008 Duncan Quinn advertisement was somehow supposed to be selling men 's suits by depicting a strangled, bloody, half-naked woman lying on a car. All were almost instantly labeled extremely offensive, incredibly sexist, and evidently violent. These types of degrading advertisements have made their way into our mainstream media and fill the pages of popular magazines. Jean Kilbourne explains the effects of these advertisements and the dehumanizing of women’s bodies in her essay “Two Ways a Women Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence.” She explains how …show more content…
“normalizing” these views can lead to acts of sexual aggression (575). These hyper sexualized and violent advertisements appeal to men by devaluing women across the board and more so college age women, who are in the same age range as the women predominately shown in these types of ads. The images shown are negatively directed towards woman and can reap a mountain of consequences. They pave the mindsets of young males, pilot violent assaults and ultimately create a culture of fear.
The reducing of women to merely sex objects and the constant maintenance of male sexual superiority seems to ultimately construct the idea of masculinity for young adults. Mainstream fashion ads portray S&M images that leave lasting implications on our society by depicting images of men sexually touching and assaulting women. If young males are continuously exposed to ads where females are portrayed as sex objects, they are more likely to be accepting of rape-supportive attitudes and predictive of subjective levels of exploitation towards females. Many of these images of suggested violence against women glamorize rape. Jean Kilbourne writes explaining the ongoing epidemic, “Most of us become numb to these images, just as we become numb to the daily litany in the news of women being raped, battered, and killed,” (584). As there are increasingly more and more displays of aggressive acts against young women being expressed through fashion advertising, there is a steady increase of attacks on college campuses. One cannot assume that the exposure to a particular form of popular culture will result in a specific behavioral reaction in individuals but there needs to be consideration that the ads present in our society can impact our psychological understanding of gender and sexuality. As a society and more so as young adults, we take violent images, especially those against women, lightly. The images displayed in these types of advertisements contribute to the desensitization of women and men alike. Perhaps there needs to be an education in place, especially for young people to serve as a guide in deciphering images and deconstructing these ads to uncover their reasoning and purpose. More corporations are telling young girls, through their advertising, how they should look, act, eat, and feel. And more young girls are affected by depression, eating disorders, and self-esteem problems than ever before. But what message are these same corporations sending to young males? Kilbourne states, “According to former surgeon general Antonia Novello, battery is the single greatest cause of injury to women in America, more common than automobile accidents, muggings, and stranger rapes combined, and more than one third of women slain in this country die at the hang of husbands and boyfriends (584).” Another study showed that over half of campus attacks in a hundred-year span occurred in the past two decades (Vise). Is this a direct effect of such desensitization? Is this glorification of violence enabling its social acceptability? In Duncam’s article “Attraction to Violence and the Limits of Education “ he describes the unhealthy effects of our constant indulgence in violence, “It is unhealthy because democracy is built upon the freedom to dissent, which tends to be crushed by a culture of fear, and while the media is responsible for helping to generate many unwarranted fears about health and safety, one of the prime ways it engenders a culture of fear is through the constant representation of violence (Duncum 33).” These sexually violent images circulate through our society. They’re on our local store shelves, they’re on our television sets, they’re in our homes, they’re in our minds. We have created a culture of fear, through our actions and our lack of actions. We have spoken without saying a word. Telling our youth that it is okay to act violently towards women. We have clearly defined male superiority and drawn clear hierarchal lines between the two sexes. The cultural implications of these ads rely on the cultural knowledge and background of each reader. We all make sense of ads by relating them to our culture and to our shared belief systems. The effects of advertising may be intangible but there is an undeniable observation that must be made about these violent advertisements and their ability to have made their way in our everyday living and harvest a more violent way of life. There is no undoing what has been done but for the well being of the next generation, our children, our children’s children; there needs to be a change. There needs to be resistance against violent ads, a constant refusal to accept images that portray women as objects and victims of sexual assault.
Works Cited
Dolce and Gabbana ad.
Print. 2007. < http://www.manageyourshapeblog.com/.a/
6a00e54f9153e088330133f59f299c970b-pi>
Duncum, Paul. “Attraction to Violence and the Limits of Education.” The Journal of
Aesthetic Education, Volume 40, Number 4, (Winter 2006), pp. 21-38. University of Illinois Press. Project Muse. 1 May 2011.
< http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jae/summary/v040/40.4duncum.html>
Duncan Quinn ad. Print. 2008.
Kilbourne, Jean. “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence.” ReReading America. Ed. Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle. New York. Bedford/St. Martin’s, (2010) 575-601.
Valentino ad. Print.
Vicini ad. Print. New York.
Vise, Daniel de. “Report examines violent attacks on U.S. college campuses.” The
Washington Post. 19 April 2010. <
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/18/AR2010041802652.html>
5/2/11
Word Count: 1,045
Normalizing Sex and Violence
An advertisement for Guiseppe Zanotti’s line Vicini portrays of a woman’s body stuffed in the trunk of a car with just her limp legs dangling lifelessly out of the back. A Dolce & Gabbana advertisement depicts a young women being pinned to the ground and a group of males towering around her insinuating an imminent gang rape. A Valentino layout shows a strong, stern man gripping the jaw of a beautiful woman. A 2008 Duncan Quinn advertisement was somehow supposed to be selling men 's suits by depicting a strangled, bloody, half-naked woman lying on a car. All were almost instantly labeled extremely offensive, incredibly sexist, and evidently violent. These types of degrading advertisements have made their way into our mainstream media and fill the pages of popular magazines. Jean Kilbourne explains the effects of these advertisements and the dehumanizing of women’s bodies in her essay “Two Ways a Women Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence.” She explains how …show more content…
“normalizing” these views can lead to acts of sexual aggression (575). These hyper sexualized and violent advertisements appeal to men by devaluing women across the board and more so college age women, who are in the same age range as the women predominately shown in these types of ads. The images shown are negatively directed towards woman and can reap a mountain of consequences. They pave the mindsets of young males, pilot violent assaults and ultimately create a culture of fear.
The reducing of women to merely sex objects and the constant maintenance of male sexual superiority seems to ultimately construct the idea of masculinity for young adults. Mainstream fashion ads portray S&M images that leave lasting implications on our society by depicting images of men sexually touching and assaulting women. If young males are continuously exposed to ads where females are portrayed as sex objects, they are more likely to be accepting of rape-supportive attitudes and predictive of subjective levels of exploitation towards females. Many of these images of suggested violence against women glamorize rape. Jean Kilbourne writes explaining the ongoing epidemic, “Most of us become numb to these images, just as we become numb to the daily litany in the news of women being raped, battered, and killed,” (584). As there are increasingly more and more displays of aggressive acts against young women being expressed through fashion advertising, there is a steady increase of attacks on college campuses. One cannot assume that the exposure to a particular form of popular culture will result in a specific behavioral reaction in individuals but there needs to be consideration that the ads present in our society can impact our psychological understanding of gender and sexuality. As a society and more so as young adults, we take violent images, especially those against women, lightly. The images displayed in these types of advertisements contribute to the desensitization of women and men alike. Perhaps there needs to be an education in place, especially for young people to serve as a guide in deciphering images and deconstructing these ads to uncover their reasoning and purpose. More corporations are telling young girls, through their advertising, how they should look, act, eat, and feel. And more young girls are affected by depression, eating disorders, and self-esteem problems than ever before. But what message are these same corporations sending to young males? Kilbourne states, “According to former surgeon general Antonia Novello, battery is the single greatest cause of injury to women in America, more common than automobile accidents, muggings, and stranger rapes combined, and more than one third of women slain in this country die at the hang of husbands and boyfriends (584).” Another study showed that over half of campus attacks in a hundred-year span occurred in the past two decades (Vise). Is this a direct effect of such desensitization? Is this glorification of violence enabling its social acceptability? In Duncam’s article “Attraction to Violence and the Limits of Education “ he describes the unhealthy effects of our constant indulgence in violence, “It is unhealthy because democracy is built upon the freedom to dissent, which tends to be crushed by a culture of fear, and while the media is responsible for helping to generate many unwarranted fears about health and safety, one of the prime ways it engenders a culture of fear is through the constant representation of violence (Duncum 33).” These sexually violent images circulate through our society. They’re on our local store shelves, they’re on our television sets, they’re in our homes, they’re in our minds. We have created a culture of fear, through our actions and our lack of actions. We have spoken without saying a word. Telling our youth that it is okay to act violently towards women. We have clearly defined male superiority and drawn clear hierarchal lines between the two sexes. The cultural implications of these ads rely on the cultural knowledge and background of each reader. We all make sense of ads by relating them to our culture and to our shared belief systems. The effects of advertising may be intangible but there is an undeniable observation that must be made about these violent advertisements and their ability to have made their way in our everyday living and harvest a more violent way of life. There is no undoing what has been done but for the well being of the next generation, our children, our children’s children; there needs to be a change. There needs to be resistance against violent ads, a constant refusal to accept images that portray women as objects and victims of sexual assault.
Works Cited
Dolce and Gabbana ad.
Print. 2007. < http://www.manageyourshapeblog.com/.a/
6a00e54f9153e088330133f59f299c970b-pi>
Duncum, Paul. “Attraction to Violence and the Limits of Education.” The Journal of
Aesthetic Education, Volume 40, Number 4, (Winter 2006), pp. 21-38. University of Illinois Press. Project Muse. 1 May 2011.
< http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jae/summary/v040/40.4duncum.html>
Duncan Quinn ad. Print. 2008.
Kilbourne, Jean. “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence.” ReReading America. Ed. Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle. New York. Bedford/St. Martin’s, (2010) 575-601.
Valentino ad. Print.
Vicini ad. Print. New York.
Vise, Daniel de. “Report examines violent attacks on U.S. college campuses.” The
Washington Post. 19 April 2010. <
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/18/AR2010041802652.html>