Essay Sample on Sexism in Advertising: Impacting Global Gender Equality

Introduction

Typically, sexism in the advertising sector has been the present topic for multiple years. Sexism continues to prevail in the advertising industry. It has proposed how the female gender is portrayed in the advertisement affect how the role of women in the global society is viewed, and how they should act and behave themselves. Indeed, a sexist advert would, therefore, work against societal equality among gender. Sexism means a stereotypical depiction of female gender, objectification, and degrading as well as abusive depiction regarding the opposite sex (Stemple & Tyler, 2014). Sexual portrayals among women in the advertisement are applied to justify that sex sells and is primarily frequently used to attract more customers or for inspirational reasons. Generally, ads portraying women in disclosing poses and sexual orientation have been realized to create more attention, hence more buying of a particular product. Sexism in the advertising and its impacts on the consumers’ attitudes and assumptions has been broadly analyzed in various research studies. Most advertising companies have applied Robert Goldman’s “Reading Ads socially” to explain how social relations influence advertisements (Goldman, 1992). They conduct this analysis to support their arguments that society's expectations develop ads that wrongly support stereotypes against the female gender. Therefore, this article illustrates how society portrays sexism through advertising and its stereotype effects on women.

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Critique Commodity Feminism

Robert Goldman is a renowned scholar globally concerning the main topic of how capitalism portrays itself via advertising imagery and symbols. In his book; Reading Ads Socially, Goldman develops a claim for the advertising that serves to implement the society’s status quo on the aspect of sexism (Goldman, 1992). He argues that advertisements can be applied to ‘deconstruct society.' Moreover, this particular deconstruction creates extreme societal scrutiny where people reside. He proceeds to illustrate how the advertising guides the consumers to mainly focus on the imaginary meanings within the advertisement that seldom use to the item being advertised itself (Stemple & Tyler, 2014). Hence, based on these Goldman’s claims, make people feel that the advertising has negative impacts on the society.

Indeed, regarding Goldman’s explanations, the products under the advertisement are not observed for the attempt manufacturers took to produce them. Instead, consumers require the items due to the meanings that the adverts have offered them. However, such implications do not relate to the items being advertised themselves. In criticizing the commodity feminism, Goldman argues that advertising not only promotes products but also promotes values and cultural representation of the society, affecting those who are exposed to it. Even though there is an increase in societal equality and workforce, the female gender is still broadly portrayed as the weaker gender in the advertising sector (Artz et al., 1999). Typically, the way women are depicted in the advertising industry has not changed over a more extended period. In his literature work, Goldman proposes that there is a close relationship between the portrayal of women in the advertising as well as how women should appear and behave, and as a result, affect the societal explanation on femininity.

Analysis of the Consumers’ Attitudes on Sexist Advertising

Additionally, when examining these sexist ads, most consumers view them as more disgusting than other ads. Besides, Goldman argues that the attitudes of women are usually more negative toward sexist ads that what they are toward the non-sexist appeals (Stemple & Tyler, 2014). Generally, sexism in the advertising, as well as its influence on consumers' assumptions and attitudes, has been broadly applied and evaluated in several research studies. Most researchers have indicated that even brief channels of exposure to the stereotypical form of advertising can highly portray stereotypical beliefs in society (Goldman, 1992). Besides, the majority of the advisements describe female gender; the sexist advertising is also an extreme step of creating distorted images of the body concerning feminine beauty and body slimness, developing unachievable standards for the female gender to attain. The commodity feminism targeting beautiful women only focus on the particular parts of the woman’s body is sequencing a targeted beauty model to the consumers (Rossi & Rossi, 2015). Hence, commodity feminism negatively influences how women depict their body shapes.

A research finding has indicated that when women get exposed to commodity feminism, their attitudes, as well as perceptions towards the brand product as well as their purchasing behavior potentially, will alter. Another study also has shown that consumers exposed to certain advertising containing sexual features depicted negative perceptions and attitudes toward the brand product and advertising agency (Artz et al., 1999). In contrast, other research studies have reported the positive impact of sexist advertising. For example, a particular finding indicates that the consumers' perceptions and attitudes toward the commodity feminism and their buying behavior showed positive outcomes if there were sexual appeals in the advertisement. Most experts have also suggested that it is the difference between when the model is passively portrayed sexually. If the woman is active in the depict, it may show feministic power and is not negatively sexist (Rossi & Rossi, 2015). However, Goldman argues that civility in advertising is an essential aspect that can influence the credibility of the whole advertising sector. It is very dangerous because it may offend the consumers and hence damage the entire intention of such an advert.

Gender Perspective

From the perspective of gender, most research findings have realized clear distinctions between the genders as far as sexist advertising is concerned. Generally, how both men and women portray sexism indistinguishable situations and events have been recognized, leading to some fascinating theoretical growth (Stemple & Tyler, 2014). Some research findings have discovered that female gender overall responds to advertising more attractive than their male counterparts. Nevertheless, some research has also found that women dislike female-related sexual appeals, like nudity and sexiness, more generally than men (Artz et al., 1999). Moreover, women's attitudes towards a given advertising brand have been realized to alter negatively more so if it has sexual content in the advertising. Another study reports that women most often used sex appeal for advert purposes than men (Goldman, 1992). Usually, whenever sexual themes are applied, women are more important to the female gender models, which significantly show on sexual violence and specific nudity. In contrast, men feel more positive as well as energized from those types of adverts (Rossi & Rossi, 2015). It is discovered that ads frequently are more favored when an individual of the opposite gender is conveyed instead of an individual of the same gender.

Conclusion

In conclusion, consumer perspective and attitudes are, in general, negative towards the organization through the use of commodity feminism or sexist feminism. The negative originates from how the women are depicted in the advertisement, as most of them are regarded as aggressive to women. Therefore, the advertising organization should adopt the most effective ways of advertising their brands without necessarily offending female gender. Generally, Sexist ads portray women as weaker gender; thus, the advertising agencies should adopt more strategies that respect women and the opposite gender in the society, as claimed by Robert Goldman in his literary work, “Reading Ads Socially.”

References

Artz, N., Munger, J., & Purdy, W. (1999). Gender issues in advertising language. Women and language, 22(2), 20.

Goldman, R. (1992). Reading Ads Socially (Rutledge. New York, NY.

Rossi, S. R., & Rossi, J. S. (2015). Gender differences in the perception of women in magazine advertising. Sex Roles, 12(9-10), 1033-1039.

Stemple, D., & Tyler, J. E. (2014). Sexism in advertising. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 34(3), 271-273.