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Advertising: The Negative Impact on Womens Lives
Introduction
Advertising perpetuates outdated ideas about family or career choices and often narrows women down to their sexuality or parts of their body in particular. Sexist and discriminatory advertising often has a negative impact on women and men. It assigns them a social role in which many do not feel comfortable. Young women especially suffer from the image of a woman presented to them. It encourages unnatural and unhealthy body sizes and often reduces their value as a sex symbol. As a consequence, advertising increases the stereotype of women of all ages, resulting in increased sexualization of women, their low self-esteem, and various diseases, including mental health diseases.
First Effect of the Portrayal of Women in Advertising: Impact on Society
Almost all girls and women periodically feel the pressure of the idea that their appearance is far from beauty ideals. They believe that they must meet the standards set by media culture ( Killing Us Softly ). Each girl can tell her own story about how, after scrolling through a glossy magazine or Instagram feed, she had a feeling of her inferiority. Since advertising is aimed at quick sales success, it must be fast and clear. That is why she uses simple, highly ritualized modes of representation. As a result, role-playing clichés are fixed and recreated. Advertising forms images and ideas about women and men, about their appearance and behavior. Usually, cultural and individual awareness of life and body is actively shaped through these ideals of beauty, body image, and lifestyle.
Perfection conveyed in advertising can have a narrowing effect and, in the extreme, make one sick. As stated in a video by ChallengingMedia, even in primary school age, self-image is negatively affected by sexist advertising images ( Killing Us Softly ). Young girls are particularly affected by the sexualized image of women passed on. Sexualization in advertising has been linked to the three most common mental illnesses affecting girls and women: eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depressive moods to the point of overt depression.
Second Effect of the Portrayal of Women in Advertising: Ideas About Women
Sexist forms of advertising are also reduced to classic female and male stereotypes:
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Women are mostly depicted as sexual objects, young, beautiful, and desirable, and are limited to passively service, provocative or aesthetic activities. A woman always seems available for sex and acts like an object, a commodity without a will, and always interchangeable. The woman is often depicted as a dismembered body ready for sex and reduced to separate body parts. As shown in the examples given by ChallengingMedia, there is a focus on separate parts of the body, which are sexy.
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In addition, advertisements ask women always to wear makeup for a heterosexual man. The Killing Us Softly video provides examples comparing models in real life and how they are portrayed on magazine covers.
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Women are often portrayed as caring housewives and mothers, showing their strengths in the household, with children and a husband this is their place. Usually, even in advertising for household appliances, the focus is on women, as this is what will help them in everyday life.
At the heart of these attributed characteristics are the concepts of competence and self-affirmation. Men are portrayed in ads to reinforce the traditional gender division of labor. Achievement, activity, success, technical excellence, and strength are portrayed as masculine. Forced masculinity is encouraged, or men are denied the opportunity to run a household. Women in advertising are not treated as separate independent individuals with their strengths and weaknesses. Instead, an image is created that is comfortable for most stereotyped men. Women are constantly objectified, which leads to psychological instability for both women and men ( Killing Us Softly ). As a result, the female population is constantly exposed to danger from dominant and superior men.
In advertising, the conventional image of a woman is a young girl with model parameters and regular features who radiates femininity and tenderness and does not have cellulite, stretch marks, acne, wrinkles, scars, and body hair ( Killing Us Softly ). It is obvious that this image is at odds with the real picture of the world, in which women of various physiques and ages are represented, not without all sorts of shortcomings.
The modern generation is increasingly opposed to the depiction of unnatural images. Consumers do not want to see women in advertising who have nothing to do with the real picture of the world this causes their negative emotions and anxiety. Thus, brands should use realistic images of women in advertising, thereby supporting customers and increasing consumer loyalty to their company.
Conclusion
Any stereotypes are simplified one-sided ideas, and gender patterns are no exception. However, gender often serves as the starting point for audience segmentation. Creating advertising with common gender roles in mind is a familiar practice in marketing. It is very easy to take the characteristics of both sexes and develop an advertisement for the target audience. However, these characteristics are often outdated and do not correspond to current realities. For example, typical advertising stereotypes: a woman sits at home, looks after children, and cannot park a car, and a man goes to work and earns money. Such ideas about the social roles of women and men break the real picture of the world. It is displayed not only in the general misconception about women but also negatively affects their self-esteem, which can lead to serious health problems.
Work Cited
Killing Us Softly 4: Advertisings Image of Women. YouTube, uploaded by ChallengingMedia, 2011, Web.
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