Products and women
Gloria Steinem, in her article “Sex, Lies, and Advertising”, reveals the impact of advertisements on the content of magazines by describing her insights about the market as a cofounder of a women’s magazine in which only advertisements with healthy images of women are selected. In my opinion, advertisers often use female seduction to sell products to consumers and the targets are not only women and magazines, but also the whole society including both genders and most forms of media. The images of successful women compiled by commercials around us are always related to how attractive a woman can be, and the society often can’t resist following that trend on how to view and value women.
Steinem describes one of the influences advertisements bring to women is that “it made us feel contemptuous of other women […] we assume there must be women out there somewhere who do love it [the images of women created by advertisers]” (161). I greatly agree this since I was a victim of this unrealistic characteristic of advertisements. When we were both elementary school kids, my younger brother and I believed in most of the things shown on the television. My brother always teased me that I was a mediocre sister because I never put on make-ups, don’t look like, dress like or act like the females shown on television programs. I was upset about this for a while before I finally realized that this was not my fault, nor my brother’s. The advertisers should be guilty of this catastrophe. As a boy, commercials are most influential to how my brother views the opposite sex. Images of women and girls are stereotyped by the media as a support to the advertisers and manufacturers. “Clothing advertisers like to be surrounded by editorial fashion spreads; food advertisers have always expected women’s magazines to publish recipes and articles on entertaining; and shampoo, fragrance, and beauty products in general insist on positive editorial coverage of beauty aids – a ‘beauty atmosphere,’ as they put it – plus photo credits for particular products and nothing too depressing; no bad news” (Steinem 165). Just as women magazines are filled with complementary copies that favor the advertisers, TV programs and other forms of media also compile with this trend, and both boys and girls gradually adapt the way females are presented to the public.
Next, Steinem thinks “publishing ads only for gender-neutral products would give the impression that women have to become ‘like men’ in order to succeed” (Steinem 165). Women have to accomplish career goals like men nowadays. This is originally a positive notion, but again the advertisers are abusing this new image of women. “Emancipated woman competing on equal terms in the workplace, setting the pace in the sexual revolution, and utilizing her burgeoning feminine wiles to accomplish her aims” (Kurtz 79) is the description of 1990s women’s images in an article where different images of women in different eras are being discussed. That actually implies threateningly that women are able to make use of her female seduction to achieve her career and society goals in this century. If a woman is attractive physically, she belongs to the triumphant group in the society because everyone likes her, and her success is depending on that. However, is this a healthy value that women really need to acquire in order to be in the same pace as men? I rather believe that women’s achievements in all fields should be dependant on creativity, humor, investigation and uphill struggle, just as men do for centuries. Disgusting commercials promoting the usage of sexy images for females to strive for identity in the society also convince men that women want to be successful through this system too, thus affecting how the whole population views women’s success.
In the last part of her article, Steinem states that actually alert editors of many women’s magazines do realize what is the impact of unhealthy commercials on people. However, they just can’t do anything for the meanwhile if they want to maintain a lower cost of production. Things are changing gradually hopefully though, and “everyone is striving to use more real girls – many companies are very outspoken about having varied body types and diverse ethnic backgrounds” (Tsui). The commercials should focus more on the positive image of women, and people actually prefer that: “survey respondents also want ads that combine realism and aspiration” (Tsui). Making the advertisers alert of this is a very important act that conscious readers and consumers should take now.
Though powerful for looking at the seduction process in advertising, this is weakened by the acknowledgement of the negative effects this process may have upon women. If more people is alert of this and reflections can reach the advertisers, then perhaps the trend of “selling the feminine seduction” in advertising can slowly disappear. We definitely don’t want the values of our society be ruined by advertisers, and in order for men to treat women with the same respect and professionalism with which men treat other male colleagues, it is essential that we should stay critical of what is going on now with the advertising world.
Works cited
Kurtz, Jan. “Dream Girls: Women in Advertising” USA Today Jan 1997 p70-79.
Steinem, Gloria. “Sex, Lies, and Advertising” Signs of Life in USA 3RD Edition. Sonia Maasik. Boston: Bedford, 2000.
Tsui, Bonnie. “Time to get real: Teen girl survey rates advertising.” Advertising Age Vol 7, Sept 18, 2000 p47.
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