American Sexploitation Essay -- Media Sex Advertising Essays

American Sexploitation What does a pair of shoes have to do with sex? Absolutely nothing, but take one look at a popular magazine and the media makes it crystal-clear that they will use sex to sell just about any product. From jewelry to cleaning supplies, the media promotes a tarnished view of femininity to sell their products. Every day in America, women get bombarded with thousands of advertisements that promote popular culture's unrealistic views of femininity; images of beautiful, submissive, sexual, and virtually flawless women. Advertisements tell women what they should look like and if they do not meet society?s standards, then they must try harder. Women continue to emulate the females in advertisements in order to pronounce their femininity and gain acceptance by both males and females. Fashion designer Jimmy Choo, as well as larger companies such as Avia and Reebok, use scantily-clad women in their advertisements to sell their shoes. These advertisements present femininity in sexually exploitable ways that objectify women; this need to fulfill society?s vision of the ideal woman has a profound physical, as well as psychological, affect on young women and the unrealistic standards they set for themselves. The equation A + B = C has always symbolized a mathematical certainty, but what if A and B represented shoes and C stood for a scantily-clad woman? This shows exactly what Avia has done in their new advertisement for running shoes. The two-page advertisement equates Avia?s new running shoes with a beautiful woman. A picture of a tattooed, shirtless, muscular man jogging appears above a large ?A? on the first page. Beside picture ?A? lies a picture of a sleek black, white and gray running shoe with a... ... young women face, they do contribute to them by making it acceptable to market women?s bodies and misrepresent femininity in order to sell their products. Clearly, advertisers not only sell their products, but they also manipulatively sell values and concepts of the socially constructed ideals of femininity in America. Works Cited Avia. Advertisement. Maxim Nov. 2002: 23-4. Jimmy Choo. Advertisement. Cosmopolitan Jan. 2003: 132. Kilbourne, Jean. ?Beauty? and the Beast of Advertising.? Reading Culture. 3rd ed. Ed. Diana George and John Trimbur. New York: Longman, 1999. 178-81. Reebok Classic. Advertisement. For Him Magazine Mar. 2002: 125. See Reebok?s Classic Campaign. Reebok. 13 Jan. 2003 . Still Killing Us Softly 3. Narr. Jean Kilbourne. Ed. Sut Jally. Media Education, 2000.