Does anyone else feel like its really not that funny when women are shown as stupid in advertisements? In class, Megan mentioned genderads.com and I decided to check the website out. One "section" of advertisements that I found interesting was labeled simply "As stupid." All of the ads focused on women being the joke behind the message, and showed them appearing dumb and inferior to men's intellect and ability. I have seen the TJMaxx ad before about "scoring high on nonverbal skills" implying that often times, women may not get as high of scores compared to men. So is the ad saying you will "make an not only was putting down women's intellect-and non-verbal skills...but really seemed ineffective to me altogether. I included two more in this post-but the one that stood out to me the most was an advertisement for hosiery. I don't know what year this ad was released-but I found it completely ridiculous and felt it really put women down. The text read- "Stretching your mind is like stretching your legs. It just takes longer." I am not usually someone who is very protective about women's rights or equality-but this ad makes me sick. Seriously? Not only is it making women look completely dumb, but it is saying that women as "best known for" or "most appreciated" for "stretching their legs." Maybe I'm misinterpreting the ad-but it seems pretty sexualized to me. Along these lines...it also trivializes sex, saying that it takes a longer amount of time to gain knowledge (reading?) than it does for a women to "open her legs." Maybe the message literally meant stretching legs like what you do after a workout, but for some reason, I feel like that wasn't the exact message. The picture of the woman reading in a very awkward leg position opening just ties in with my analysis of this ad. It's very common to see women in advertising in an unfair way, but often I don't think about women being in ads and shown as stupid or dumb. These ads were kind of a wake-up call for me, and I definitely will be paying more attention to the imaging and actual meaning behind some text-and checking out to see if more ads are making women appear less intellectual than men. What do you think?
I definitely agree with you that these ads a bit rediculous for the kind of age we are in today. I couldn't imagine seeing the computer or hosiery ad in today's magazines (but then again, I don't read too many of today's magazines). Would a Cosmo magazine put something like one of these ads in their magazine? I wouldn't think so. Now for the hosiery ad, my impression was that she's spreading her legs for sex; supporting the fact that you said it gives off a vibe that gaining knowledge is just too complicated and time consuming, so just put on some hosiery and "girl" it up. Now the top ad about the computer is the one that stood out to me the most. It reminded me of Jessica Simpson and that whole stage the nation went through watching her "airhead" comments on television. I feel like that ad (along with her show) gave girls the impression that being ditsy comes along with looking that good. It's like tv shows like that give off the idea that being stupid corresponds with looking good, making girls think at a young age that they being smart is "ugly". Sorry I kind of went off topic, but I just kind of rolled with it. I definitely agree with your comments though and understand your point of view.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with this post, too. I think these ads are entirely ineffective. An ad that so blatantly makes women look stupid would definitely not make me want to buy the product. They might think they're being clever and witty, but they're just making themselves, the company and the product look sexist and unattractive. What especially bothered me is that these were ads TARGETED at women. Not that they would be any better at all if they were targeted at men, but do they really think that women would buy products because of an ad that made them look stupid?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, I feel like many times women are seem as stupid in advertisements. I find this almost if not more offensive then when women are wearing barely any clothing or are shown as objects instead of people. I feel like in society in general and a gender stereotype is that women are stupid and seem as less then men. I’ve always been bothered by this. I know it is better now then it has been in the past, but the whole idea still does not just seem right. I feel like women are seen as not successful, even if they hold the same position in a workplace that a man does. Advertisements like these certainly do not help the situation.
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