This was a big year for women: The first serious female presidential candidate, the first predominately female state senate, the first female Top Chef. Yet the advertising world has not caught up to the advances of half our population and continues to use stereotypes and violence to prey on our most vile desires. Here are the worst of them--the trends that won't die despite our cultural outrage, and personal boredom.
BONDAGE - This year Remy Martin debuted it's "things are getting interesting" campaign that features a mediocre Website and a series of billboards/magazine spreads depicting women in degrading bondage positions. You may think, "hey this one shows two women, there aren't even men involved, how can it be sexist?" But most of the ads (not available online) have men between the two women in controlling positions. And even without that, these women are obviously putting on a show for an outsider, not having a passionate lesbian love affair for themselves. These types of ads gain traction in cultural periods of female advancement--capturing the fantasy of "putting us back where we belong."
Remy Martin describes its followers as "influential, social, and multicultural urban males, ages 25 to 35." Men of this ilk and age range (read: over 16) should know better than to fall for this kind of pandering. If we switch the view from this being sexy, to this being a pathetic attempt to make an undersexed male feel powerful in the face of female accomplishment, the image loses its appeal. I would like to start a "things that are not interesting" campaign, which would include men insecure enough about themselves that they can't talk to women who aren't physically degraded. I would also include cognac.
RAPE -- The world of high fashion has been the worst offender in the violence-as-art game. Cavalli had pirates, Chanel had a wife beater, and now Dolce and Gabbana has this.
Let's get this out there now: It's not edgy, it's ridiculous. This is a gang rape, and any woman that sees those shoes instead of that message deserves those shoes. Any man who doesn't see that this is rape is probably looking at one of the hard bodies in the background and therefore not really a threat to women.
"SLUTS" -- Much like the Calvin Klein ads of the early 90s--you remember the ones that made you feel like you were watching child porn, cause you sorta were--this ad offers a young woman (with the face of a small child) posed in a sexually suggestive manner. They are offering you a virgin in looks and expression, and a slut in the tagline: "You know you're not the first." She's been fucked before--she knows what she's doing. She's been used so you can do whatever you like to her. That's the implicit message of this ad. She's young and nubile, but not prudish. She's the ultimate fantasy: a virgin who won't say no to anything.
This combination of the Madonna and the whore is ultimately a fantasy of degrading both body and mind. This girl is in no way a threat: she's young and won't say no, no one has to offer her anything, she is just there for your needs, just like a car.
GIRL ON GIRL ACTION -- Oh my god is this played out. We get it, some men find the idea of two women together appealing. MTV has reality shows devoted to it, casual and exploitative lesbianism is now a part of our culture. But aren't companies like Nikon supposed to be better than that? They bring us goofy Ashton Kutcher commercials (not that those are okay either) and sponsor the Boston Red Sox (yeah, that's pretty bad too). But they are a staple of the photography world and should be held to a higher standard than Tila Tequila. There are many meanings to the term corporate responsibility and one of them is not to fetishize female sexuality.
CUM SHOTS -- Forgive me that lewd term, but I didn't know how else to phrase it. I can't open a magazine anymore without seeing a thinly-veiled coital moment posing as an advertisement for some sort of beauty product. Jezebel tracked these for a while, rounding up the worst offenders.
The images and tag lines reinforce the idea of women sex receptacle, and therefore simply a receiver of sex, not one engaging in an equal process. This ad reads "I Want You All Over Me," which is as subtle as it is sexy. As Jezebel points out, women like orgasming too, sex is not just about male pleasure, it's a two way road and all of these ads find their own way around that truth.
The fact that these trends are so widespread is not the fault of the advertising world--these people are paid to appeal to our ids, they are often self-aware in their tendency to make the world harder for women, that's the life they've chosen. It is mainstream companies like BMW, Mitchum, Nikon, mainstream publications that host these images, and mainstream readers who use these products despite their appalling treatment of women that are truly to blame. The advertising world reacts to client demands and consumer activity--we have control over only one of those fields.
Follow Alex Leo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AlexMLeo
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I will say this: the Alternativ
I have a problem for your inability to see objectific
It's time to bring back boycotts. This crap is out of control.
Anyway, where's the outrage over the nearly nude male models in abercromie
Again, this has nothing to do with the ways people like or want to have sex. These advertisem
I found this video in the comments. It's actually really good at summing up what's wrong with these ads.
http://www
What I see is an elevation in fantasy and its mix with reality. America is a wholly repressed nation, especially compared to the inverse relationsh
In another Huffpo post, Betty Page is lauded. Is that o.k. since she was a Top?
You know how many commercial
What distubs me more is the disolution of sexuality in some of these commercial
I say live it up large and loud and point out the fantastic relief many of us find in living out fantasy with mutual consent in the face of insecure repression
Now I'm ready for the bitchslap.
You're fooling yourself if you think that advertiser
Yep. I stand corrected. You're exactly right.
Feeling sexy is one thing. Thinking that sex is all men think you are good for and being OK with that, is quite another.
I call these woman Republican
. I'm sure there were people involved with the making of these ads who had a bad taste in their mouth, but 'they went along' because we as individual
Is that really too much to ask for? Is the consumer really asking to be lied to by buying these products? Not me I don't by anything fashionabl
Credit and financial crash in the US was written on the wall in big red letters.
They should all watch that movie where the institutio
What kind of ads should Calvin Klein's agency create? Ads with women in beekeeper suits? Alex seems to see dirty sex in every ad. I think she believes that one should not divulge that they are interested in sex. (Very old fashioned.
I find it cowardly for a woman to be afraid to be/show that she is a woman. It is natural for us to be attracted to the opposite sex and to sell what will help make us be more attractive
After all, we are not the Taliban.
they can look sexy without posing in gang rape scenes. Sex is the easy sell, they should try to be more creative.
I was curious about the post and maybe a bit skeptical but Alex Leo is completely on the mark. There is a slutificat
BTW not only is porn boring but the women in those flicks are clearly NOT having fun and often look like they are in pain...it'
How many times have you seen "Everybody Loves Raymond" type ads in the last few years? I have to say its in the thousands and I don't watch much TV at all. You know what ads I mean, the idiot guy with the wife who knows better; damn someone that stupid is SO lucky to have a wife that can lead him around like the man child he is right?
There are at least as many ads that portray men badly, I would even say possibly more (since its far more "edgy" and yet non controvers
Seriously, if you think women are getting a bad shake, you need to look at a broader sample size of ads.
But what I find even more disturbing is how "feminism" has become, today, an excuse to show off one's body and titillate men. These teens today see strippers as role models ! To many of them, that's what "feminism" means. I am a high school teacher, and I see this constantly