The Dangerous Ways Ads See Women

Jean Kilbourne is an amazing activist and cultural theorist who has studied the image of women in advertising for over forty years. Kilbourne speaks about the affect advertisements have on everyone and how they can alter the way our minds see certain people and groups of people.

At the age of six-months, babies are able to recognize the logos of large corporations, this has now shifted the target audience of advertisements to younger ages. Ads affect people regardless of how they think they perceive them. You may say you don't pay attention to certain aspects of the advertising world, but your subconscious definitely picks up on these messages.

Photoshop seems to be the main culprit of these advertisement woes. Eliminating thigh gaps, but also taking away a very important female reproductive organ on accident. In a Ralph Lauren advertisement, Kilbourne shows the audience that the models head seems to be bigger than her pelvis which is an anatomical impossibility. She also lets us know that this extremely thin model was fired from her job for being "too fat". She was probably a size 0 model, there is no situation where anyone should be fired from a job because of their size.

The following picture to the right is an ad for hair gel, but it seems to focus on other aspects of a woman's body. It reads:

"Your breasts may be too big, too saggy, too perky, too flat, too full, too far apart, too close together, too A cup, too lopsided, too jiggly, too pale, too padded, too pointy, too pendulous or just too mosquito bites. But with Dep styling products, at least you can have your hair the way you want it."

Now obviously this ad isn't cerca 2014, when the TEDx talk aired. It's probably from the fifties or sixties. It's still shocking to see how sexualized women are in advertisements. Put in unnecessary positions and postures to sell jeans, or a sandwich. A Burger King advertisement mentioned by Kilbourne contains highly sexual suggestions for a sandwich. A sandwich of all things.

Little girls are being hired to model for padded bras and thong panties when they haven't even hit puberty yet. It's upsetting how sexualized women are in advertisements and the media. It definitely shapes the way everyone views women. Weak, vulnerable, for male consumption, wherever and whenever they want it. This fuels rape culture and misogyny and only increases the need for feminism and equal treatment.

Yes, I know men are sexualized in ads too. An advertisement for a cologne doesn't need a wet man sitting in the shower in his underwear. Advertisements that sexualize males teach them how to be sexual and how to view women, not portraying them as sexual objects.

If you love TEDx talks as much as I do and are interested in listening to more of Jean Kilbourne's amazing work, click here!

stay peaceful (and be wary of the media)!!