Sexualization Of Women In Advertising Essay

Advertising is a two hundred fifty billion dollar industry and affects us all in our normal daily lives. One person alone is exposed to over three hundred advertisements every single day whether that be through billboards, posters, pictures, or commercials. Advertising is a major aspect of our lives many will say we are not influenced by ads while wearing UGG boots and a North Face jacket. The topic of women in advertising has been an issue in society since the beginning of popular culture in media and when advertising methods started to first be practiced. Today’s media centralizes around the idea of sex and the use of “beautiful” women. These methods establish a social problem with women that began long ago and still continues today. In Jean Kilbourne’s Video, Killing Us Softly 4, she discusses how the media has portrayed women in advertisements for many years. As demonstrated in the two advertisements below, women today are viewed negatively by the public and themselves when they do not have the ideal model body. As Kilbourne stated in her video, “Women are taught from a young age that they need to look a certain way in order to be beautiful, they need to have the quality of being thin to be desirable.”

The first image is for Victoria’s Secrets and the sale of their bras and underwear. This ad
Ads tell women how to look, whether it be their hair, clothes, or body type. The ads today, doing this, are causing young girls, teens, and women to have low self-esteem, eating disorders, and social anxiety. Women should be able to love the body they have without being scrutinized by the public or needing to find alternatives to fix their problem areas. Should we hate our bodies because we have curves? No. Should we have to be stick thin to be beautiful? No. There is nothing wrong with your body, but there is a lot wrong with the messages which try to convince you