Advertising featured in my brother's oral exam, and for some completely weird reason they never discussed what types of images are used to advertise - female bodies or parts thereof. These weird gender blinkers made me curious - with something as omnipresent as using female, heavily sexualised bodies to sell (other) objects, how can they really arrive at any kind of solid analysis of any kind of advertising, especially in ads about alcohol...?
Crocky and I soon discovered Jean Kilbourne's oeuvre on women in ads through her "
Killing Us Softly" series focusing on women in advertising. She also has a documentary on thinness in advertising called "
Slim Hopes", and what I liked especially about that "Slim Hopes" is the connection she draws between thinness and moral purity, especially virginity. She has some really neat examples of how the metaphors that used to surround sexuality and moral is now associated with eating because both of those "appetites" have to be controlled.
Some of her main points from the
study guide:
« Food & Advertising »
- Food and diet products are often advertised with the language of morality. Words such as “guilt” and “sin” are often used to sell food.
- Sex is frequently used to sell food. Many ads eroticize food and normalize binging. These ideas support dangerous eating disordered behaviors.
- Thinness is today’s equivalent of virginity.
- Women are shamed for eating, for having an appetite for food.
- Control is often associated with thinness in advertising.
- The obsession with thinness is related to the infantilization of women and the trivialization of women’s power.
- Prejudice against fat people, particularly against fat women, is one of the last socially accepted forms of prejudice.
- Women are sent the message that they shouldn’t eat too much, that it is appropriate to eat only a cereal bar for breakfast, and that they gain power and respect by controlling their bodies. When advertising for food is examined in conjunction with the prevalence of extremely thin models, we discover a recipe for disordered attitudes toward eating.
Jean Kilbourne.
She also almost quoted Granny Weatherwax ("There's no greys, only white that's got grubby. I'm surprised you don't know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That's what sin is.")
« Objectification »
“Women are constantly turned into things, into objects. And of course this has very serious consequences. For one thing it creates a climate in which there is widespread violence against women. Now I’m not at all saying that an ad… directly causes violence. It’s not that simple, but it is part of a cultural climate in which women are seen as things, as objects, and certainly turning a human being into a thing is almost always the first step toward justifying violence against that person.”
Jean Kilbourne.
Hardly news, but the documentary/talk is entertaining and interesting to watch even in spite of the annoying watermark and the miniature size.
I can't wait to see if one of our libraries has it.
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