American advertising is killing us softly

Since the dawn of the advertising industry, women’s bodies have been used to sell products. From beer bottles to hamburgers, the tenet of advertising that says “sex sells” is used as a justification for ads that superimpose a product onto a woman’s body or uses one part of a woman’s body to showcase the product. Jean Kilbourne’s film “Killing Us Softly 4” investigates this trend throughout advertising in the last several years.

While an ad here and there can seem like a fairly innocuous thing, when the objectification of women in ads becomes a widespread practice, it can have a significant impact on the way that women see themselves, and, subsequently, the way that men see women. The American Psychological Association created a task force to study the effect of the sexualization of women on young girls and found some rather disturbing results. When young girls are consistently exposed to the sexualization of women in the media, it can have cognitive and emotional consequences, such as an impaired ability to concentrate or solve problems. It can also affect the mental health of girls; the three leading mental health problems associated with exposure to sexualization of girls are eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression. It can even go so far as to affect the attitudes and beliefs of girls. A sad reality is that many young girls and teens place such an importance on appearance and how other people view them that they self-objectify, turning a critical eye on their own appearance and how it looks to other people, mainly men.

So where does this leave us? While it may not seem like one person alone can change the culture, if people work together to educate those around them about the negative effects of the objectification of women in the media, amazing things can happen. If we actively promote media literacy in our schools and engage in thought-provoking discussions about these kinds of topics, then maybe we can at least begin to create some change.

#Advertising #Sexism #Objectification