Sex in Advertisement and Its Effects on Females

Sex in Advertisement and its Effects on Females

Sex in advertising has been used for many decades to draw interest and increase the chance of a product purchase. This type of advertisement utilizes erotic images such as nude women, some sort of aphrodisiac phrases, or other sexual indications present through the media. The usage of such erotic images demonstrates to be very effective in marketing, in which they are appealing to many people, especially men. Many people might be familiar with the expression “sex sells”, in which it is a very effective marketing strategies used by many companies. Believe it or not, violence, rape, and murder, are associated with such advertisements. A piece by Jean Kilbourne, ““Two Ways a Woman can get Hurt”: Advertising and Violence” seeks to reveal the iniquitous message behind sexual advertisement. Kilbourne purposes that sexually aimed adverting is accountable for the sexualizing, degrading, and dehumanizing of women and young girls. She reasons that females are distorted into sex object, becoming pawns of advertisement, and that such illustration can promote violence, rape, and murder. She expresses her revulsion towards such practices, and aims to inform people by introducing supportive evidence. Sexual exploitation of females in advertisement is significantly hurting women and girls, and should therefore be made illegal.

One can argue that the purpose of sex in advertisement is to simply promote marketing, which on the surface seems harmless; however, the real underlying aim is to deceive consumers with arousing, and shocking imagery in order to control them (Ramirez and Reichert). Many companies find erotic sexual images to be very effective in drawing in customers because they are appealing to many men and women. According to Kilbourne, such usage of erotic images attempts to stimulate people’s mind to fulfil their sexual fantasy, or satisfy their love life with the use of their products (422). However, many of them use images that demonstrate violence, degradation, and dehumanization against women, and girls.

Kilbourne first introduces many examples of how sex in advertisement degrades, dehumanizes, and sexualizes females. She links pornography to such advertising in purpose to dominate, humiliate, and subordinate women. Kilbourne introduces an ad that embodies her work’s title, “Two ways a woman can get hurt," a shaving cream ad which indicates that a woman can get hurt by a man or by shaving with a razor. This advertisement implies the man to be a “heartbreaker," but Kilboure believes it also implies he can physically abuse a woman as well. Another advertisement that sends a mixed message is one where a man stands over a woman while she is saying “no”, but while either laughing or screaming. She explains how this ad encourages men not to take “no” for an answer, indicative of the prevailing attitude that she believes