Particularly, it is very common to use sexually attractive women in advertisementsregardless of the product is related to sexuality. The use of sexual women images in advertisements is so widespread that such images are found in the advertisements for most product types from clothing to motor cars, from cosmetics to furniture. It is an interesting choice to expose a women’s body when trying to promote a hamburger. This type of advertisement is a way of downgrading women and objectifying them. As Bai states “The Guess advertisement from Maxim has the women aware of being wathced and posed to reveal her sexual prowess.
Cover Girl uses famous faces like Sofia Vergara to promote their products. Advertisers are constantly trying new ways to catch the consumers eyes such as using signs, advertising strategies, advertising formats, exemplifying the product being used, modes of address, and using their brand, all of which are strategically executed to make you want to purchase their products. Seventeen Magazine is a magazine that targets teenagers and young adults (mainly female). This magazine focuses
The stereotypes of teenage girls through Magazines Media is a part of our everyday lives we tend to scan it, see it, watch it and absorb it into our minds constantly. The majorities of teenage girls across the world are influenced by what the media say 's and publishes. In today’s world, magazines key target is advertising secure products. Teenage magazines are associated with tactical fashion and beauty tips that include many images of beautiful girls to persuade teenage girls to purchase the products they are advertising. Just look at this magazine cover of the popular Teen Vogue where it characterizes classical representations of adolescent girls.
Through the media, all women the world over are exposed to the Western ideal of beautiful women with slender, ageless bodies (Poorani, 2012:1). According to Cohan (2001:324) advertising often develops its own values, artificial or false, of whatever is good for the consumer. He states that advertising
This leads to "women viewing their bodies as a never-ending project, with the goal of appearing as a younger woman" (Martens, in class). The more women are expected to appear youthful, the more society pushes these beauty standards which in turn perpetuates the issue and allows skin care companies to continue profiting off an abundance of anti-aging skin care products. Not only are these skin care products often expensive, they are almost exclusively targeted towards women rather than for both women and men. This perpetuates the double-standards of beauty for women and men. Men are not expected to purchase such products and are often praised for their aging, leading them to not having to worry about their skin or appearance as they age, while women continue to fork out money to meet unrealistic
This enforces the targeted audience during the timeframe to use the magazine as the main beauty standard. The model highlights the beauty in her looks, placement and positioning of her body in a suppressive manner. This emphasizes the manner women were to portray, due to male authority over women. This shows that the value of the magazine as it encourages the reader to look at the beauty standard as the social norm. Furthermore, the background vs foreground background flowers evokes a sense of purity, innocence and grace emphasising how women were expected to display conservative and high standards of morality.
According to Finley (2012) “average young woman’s perception of her body is fat”, we live in an era where perfection is the requirement to be accepted by society. An era where body image is so important for anything you do, people judge others by their looks rather than abilities or interests. Our role models are no longer an inspiration because of their ideas or contributions, a role model now days are those who can fit perfectly in body suits or tight dresses. We aspire for thinness and perfection, so, what is this thing that is making today’s youth in our forever quest for beauty? Media has been present since long time ago, they presented the ultimate fashion or the ideal body.
Throughout American history, people have admired a skinny body and a slim figure. According to New York Times, “There has been a progression towards thinner and thinner models in ads and magazines: twenty years ago, the average model weighed 8 per cent less than the average woman – but today’s models weigh 23 percent less” (Simmons n.pag.). The dramatic increase of percentage in thinness is alarming for future generations. Not only does this mean that the body has been prioritized as more important to this generation, but to reach this high of a standard is harder. By putting ads in magazines to promote healthy weight and self worth, readers are more aware of these unattainable ideals.
Is this really how we want advertisements to make us feel? When you think of the western world, objectification and insensibility should not be the first thing that comes to your mind but by promoting the sexist advertisements, this concept is not uncommon. Most of the models in ads are shown as sexy and leave little for imagination, and this can result into women thinking they need to be alluring in order to get attention. It is not unusual to see naked body parts often even without a face, which wants to show a women’s body is more important than their ideas, knowledge and talents. Women are already not well-represented, and partly due to these ads, they have to fight extra hard against the idea that they do have brains behind their bodies.
The media has such an influence on women that their mental perception of themselves can become distorted. Many of them see the pictures in magazines and social media and believe that they need to look like what they see to be counted as beautiful. The problem with this is that all the pictures they are looking at are photoshopped or retouched to perfection. This makes it impossible for girls to healthily look like these ideals because only 5% of the female population in America naturally comes close to portraying these “ ideal” body types. This highly affects females ideas of themselves and can lead to them using unsafe methods of weight control behaviors.