Who Really Wins?

By: Krystal Clemente

Everywhere is the potential of influence, the chance to be persuaded and informed of things you did not even know were there. Televisions are in almost everyone’s home “every day and every night, for good or bad it is part of us” (Ashton, 2002). The manner women are typically portrayed in the media relates directly to the types of media that exist, in this case it is spotlighting reality television programs and game shows. These specific types of programs particularly exploit women (Ashton, 2002). Although prejudices more often then not are becoming left behind in this genre of television stereotyping is seemingly inevitable. Stereotypes are “like codes that give audiences a quick, common understanding” (Smith, 2002). Therefore a woman’s “role in society is already laid down,” and women are definitely not portrayed or viewed as equals with men (Mannix, 2002).

Networks offer shows such as Fear Factor, The Price is Right, The Anna Nichole Smith Show, Survivor, Wheel of Fortune, and Big Brother, which seem to only feature women for viewing pleasure. The public perception of women is altered by the way these specific types of shows represent women. Case in point, the women chosen such as Helen on Big Brother and Anna on The Anna Nichole Smith Show are illustrated as unintelligent, ditzy, and childlike (Hill, 2001). These types of women are misrepresenting every woman and are only there for entertainment value, to draw attention and certainly not to be taken seriously.

Women on television have to “be beautiful, thin and younger than their male counterparts and willing to use heir sexuality for laughs and titillation” (Ashton, 2002). Women accent and assist the leading male of a show and are there basically to add visual appeal. The truth is it works; beautiful women make anything look better and more desirable from household cleaners to extravagant cars. Game shows like Wheel of Fortune and The Price is Right have capitalized on this notion of the universal appeal of a beautiful woman to accent the prizes on their shows. Where as a man regardless of how attractive he was would look ridiculous flaunting him self around prizes (Batty, 2002). These informal regulations have caused scandals to break out on The Price is Right when some of “Barker’s Beauties” were fired for being too old, or for gaining weight and replaced with younger, thinner, more beautiful women.

However, society seemingly tries to balance out the wrongs with the rights when executive decision makers do not predetermine the winners such as on Survivor and Boot Camp. Both reality shows can be often characterized as a man’s game, but both reality shows have had a final outcome where a woman won beating out many men. Although with any type of minority including women there rarely is a large voice to defend them, but society will not always continue to endorse such a crude way of thinking. Unfortunately as long as the most revenue is being taken in, those dollars will have the power. The power money contains will continue endorsing products. Those endorsements have led to the “destructive behavior that reinforces the inequalities between women and men” (Ashton, 2002). Women have very little say about how they are represented and are hardly seen as strong and capable (Smith, 2002). Women in today’s society are becoming stronger yet are less respected. The continued negative reinforcement game shows and reality television has on women maintained the way society and media will use women. It is only adding fuel to the fire that is already burning.

The Perceptions Left Behind by women in videos

By: Brad Coombe

The perception of women today in entertainment is that they are sex objects. The media uses women to promote everything, as it was stated before, “sex sells.” For example, the Miller Lite commercial has two women arguing over why they think the beer is the best and then they start ripping each other’s clothes off in a seductive manner. More importantly, the media uses attractive women to make money and because of this, there are false perceptions of women. Concerning this, I will be discussing how women are perceived in home entertainment.

First of all, there are many media where men and women can get false perceptions of women. One of the most recognized pieces of home entertainment portraying young, attractive, wild girls on spring break is the Girls Gone Wild series. These videos indicate that girls on spring break get drunk and take their clothes off and the girls deem it to be acceptable behavior. The important factor here is that the girls are being marketed for a company that ends up making millions of dollars off of them and they do not receive anything, but it is their raunchy behavior that is selling on video. The company that is marketing the Girls Gone Wild videos is a mastermind. The president of Girls Gone Wild is Joe Francis and according to an article in the Arizona Republic Staff Editorial, “last year he sold ninety-million dollars worth of Girls Gone Wild videos” (Arizona Republic, 2003). Not only that, but he hired Snoop Dogg, a well-known rapper, to take a camera crew down to the hottest spring break places to capture drunk girls doing crazy things. “They line up to get drunk and degrade themselves for the lecherous amusement of others. They think they are hip and in control of their bodies” (Arizona Republic, 2003). So what do these girls think once they sober up, get back from spring break, and see that they are on the cover of a video that is selling their bodies? In an interview, Denise, who was a girl on the Girls Gone Wild video, explained, “I feel embarrassed and ashamed. I cannot believe I acted that way and I really hurt my parents,” (Summers, 2003).

Moreover, this type of home entertainment puts false perceptions of women into the mainstream of America; such as women are objects, unintelligent, and irresponsible. Furthermore, according to the Arizona Republic their staff sees them as, “silly little girls whose bodies matured before their brains did” (Arizona Republic, 2003). Many women do not want to be categorized as that. There are women who are generalized because of what other women have done and that is a shame. The perception of college girls being wild, irresponsible, promiscuous, unintelligent fools is the reputation those girls on the videos are giving to the rest of the girls and it creates problems when there are encounters with the opposite sex. For example, men who negatively generalize women probably would not have much respect for women and that could cause conflicts between them.

In conclusion, home entertainment leaves behind perceptions that affect women and men’s views. For girls on spring break acting “wild” because of alcohol, it gives the impression to men that all they have to do is give women alcohol and the “wild” inside them will come out. There are always going to be perceptions of general groups of people derived from the media and movies, but it is the difference in how you act that is going to change a person’s perception.

Where are the Men in Cleaning Advertisements?

By: Sarah Broerman

Household cleaners and cleaning appliances have long been an essential part of the American household. Advertisements for these products range from those seen in television, to those in magazines and on the internet, becoming omnipresent in popular media. When looking carefully at these advertisements, it is clear that cleaning supply companies depict women. What may not be clear is that these advertisements are only depicting women. They not only assume that women are responsible for all of the household chores (even if they have other careers), but also assume that the men never help out with any household tasks. Although this view of sex roles is heavily rooted in the history of the American family, it is inapplicable for many families in today’s society.

There are many examples of female dominance in the sales of household cleaners. Magazines such as Better Homes & Gardens, Family Circle, and Better Housekeeping routinely feature ads for cleaning supplies, and are some of the few magazines that do so. In the most recent issues of all three of these magazines, twenty-one cleaning supply advertisements were found. Of these twenty-one, only one advertisement featured men. Although there was an advertisement with men present, the ad did not show the house or any domestic setting that women are routinely found in when selling the same products. In similar circumstances, the internet presents much the same demographics. Out of the eight sites for popular cleaning supplies that were visited, only one featured men at the core of the commercial. Television, too, has an overwhelming amount of cleaning supply commercials, and only a handful of those feature men at all. Women are depicted as spouses or parents with no other occupation twice as often as men in television commercials (Renzetti & Curran, 2002, p 156). Cleaning supply commercials are perfect for fitting women into these roles. With such statistics present, one would question the validity of these advertisements and their portrayal of sex roles is difficult to believe that as more women enter the workforce, men still refuse to help out with housework, as cleaning supply advertising indicates. Recent demographics suggest that the number of women 16 years of age or older in the workforce has risen from about 20% at the turn of the century to about 60% in 1999, according to the White House report on the economy (Cohn, 2000). In addition, the number of working, married women has dramatically increased from about 14% in 1968 to about 43% in 1999 (Cohn, 2000). For a number of years women have been a significant part of the workforce, and the sole responsibility to take care of the household cleaning has diminished. It has become a shared responsibility in many homes. Moreover, the Census Bureau found that in 1993 there were 14.8 million U.S. husbands with wives working outside the home and children under 14 years of age. Of those men, about 1.9 million were the primary-care providers for the children when the mother was working--up from 1.7 million in 1988 (Nakamura, 1999). Additionally, recent studies suggest that women have reduced and men have increased their contributions to household chores, suggesting that cleaning supply advertisements are no longer accurate in their representations of women or their representations of men (Renzetti & Curran, 2002). Cleaning has become not a woman’s job, but a parents or spouses job, no sex attached.

Cleaning supply advertising suggests that women are still the sole house workers in a family unit. Although this tradition is heavily rooted in American history, the validity of such clear-cut sex roles should be questioned in today’s society. Women are entering the workforce, and men are staying home and caring for the house and kids. As women and men watch and read cleaning advertisements, they find that the ads are inaccurate, always representing women as the essence of a house worker despite the demographics that suggest otherwise. Many women and men are still left to wonder where the realistic representation of sex roles lies. It is certainly not in cleaning supply advertisements.

Women in Food & Drink Products

By: Andrew Church

With all the advertising that women are shown in― sports advertising, fashion/clothing advertising, make-up advertising, house supplies advertising, et cetera― they all seem to be portrayed pretty much the same way. With advertising dealing with food and drink products, women are not portrayed that much differently than the women being portrayed in other types of advertising, for example women in make-up advertising.

In advertising that is dealing with food and drink products like bottled water or any other type of food or drinking product being sold on the market, women seem to be a focus in the advertising. Crockett (2002) argues that sexual innuendo in advertising has nothing to do with the product itself. She explains, “The magazine ad from VIBE is a simple one: A young, black woman lies on a fluffy cloud against a pink background…Oh yeah, and she’s completely nude…what does this have to do with bottled water”(Crockett, 2002)? Well to answer that question is that in today’s modern generation it is safe to say that sexuality is a way of selling a company’s product. In this day and age, advertisement of a lot of products has nothing to do with the product itself anymore.

With women being portrayed in advertising today as described above, they are being used as sexual objects to lure guys in to trying and buying such products as bottled water that are out in the market today.

Disempowering Images?  Media Representations of Women in Sports

By:  Todd Buck and Kara Cox

               In the ever-competitive sports marketplace, female athletes are finding there is one way to guarantee attention and generate some income:  remove the clothing.  Media is now focusing more on how women’s bodies are depicted instead of their athletic ability.  Advertising is one of the most powerful social forces that is virtually inescapable, pervasive, and subtle.  These ads that are showing women are rich, cultural narratives created from multiple dialogues about the roles, athleticism, and sexuality of them.

These days, advertising is more about being a woman and less about the sport and the drive that goes into competing. Gender markers are desperately maintained in women’s sports ads through the images, text, and ideology. Recently, many advertisers such as Nike are distinguishing themselves by not relying on these codes.

Today, the media’s representations of female athletes are more focused on the beauty of being a woman. In the past, these ads were highlighted on the athletic capabilities and the power of the female body, however they emphasize the dominant culture through the blatant sexualization of the athletes’ bodies (Balsamo, 1996). This is being accomplished by techniques with the camera on focusing on certain parts of woman’s body. An example of this is the Women’s World Cup in 1999, when Brandi Chastain tore off her jersey after scoring the game-winning penalty kick for the U.S. there was more focus in on her sports bra rather than her team’s athletic exploits. “Female athletes don’t get that much attention and press, their images are not that accessible. The times that you know the press will be interested is the time that they are not fully clothed. That’s the saddest part of all” (Starkman, 1999). Three-time Olympic gold medallist Marnie McBean said, “Athletes are working their bodies all the time, they’re proud of what they’ve done. [Posing nude] can be like the equivalent of an architect putting up a picture of a building they’ve drawn; some of their work they are proud of.” McBean goes on to say that if woman athletes feel they need to get naked to get attention for their athletic talents then it is a real shame. Another example of female athletes getting attention for their appearance rather than their talent is the infamous Williams’ sisters. Venus and Serena Williams are watched all over the world, not only for their athletic ability in tennis, but because of their ever-so-daring outfits. I have read more articles and heard more commentators talk about their outfits that seem to get shorter and skimpier then the fact that Venus can serve a tennis ball at 123 mph to her opponent (Sportsline.com, 2000).

There is not a big difference anymore between ads in fashion magazines, sports magazines, and pornography. Each is classified to be so different, but the media thinks that the only power women have over men is due to sex appeal (DeAngelis, 1990). Women are being photographed in certain ways to facilitate the male gaze and emphasize female sexuality. They are placed in unnatural poses, such as bent over or completely laid out, both standard porn techniques. In an ad featuring a professional female basketball player, she is posing in a rare stand that a male basketball player would not be in. Her posing like this is to show that she is sexy and delicate, not strong and able to make a three point shot. These fantasy woman/sports models all possess the female beauty in our culture. They have long hair (preferably blond), large lips, and perfect skin. She is slender and has perfect delicate skin, which of course creates unreal beauty and fitness standards, which in turns sells the magazines.

As we can see, women in sports advertising are women first athletes second. Gender hierarchy is maintained by muffling images of strong women, and exhibiting them as sexy.

Fashion Manipulation

By: Warren Chan

Fashion has long been the burden of self-conscious people, especially those who cannot afford to keep up with the upper class. Men have been affected, but women are by far the more afflicted sex. Men mostly feel pressured to adhere to certain fashion rules as they pertain to clothing only. Women, on the other hand, are made to deal with a constant flow of criticism that assures that they are not pretty enough, not thin enough, and not wealthy enough. Some can believe that they are one or two of those, but too many women believe that they are not currently, nor will they ever be, all three. Such problems in perception can lead to marriage without love, poor nutrition, and depression.

Today, the problem is more pervasive than ever, with more opportunities for advertisement than ever before. Images of “perfect” women are no longer limited to the likes of the Sears and Roebuck catalog. Now there are magazines that deal only with fashions. In media, currently, the weight and size of models is only achievable by 5% of the female population. The Social Issues Research Centre estimates that less than 1% can as well fulfill the standards for facial features and so forth (1997).

One of the most disputed issues regarding women in advertising is an appalling lack of different body types, meaning women with different shapes and sizes. The underlying problem here is that advertisers often rely on sex to sell products. The vast majority of consumers embrace only emaciated women with perfect skin and larger-than-average breasts as sexy. If only men were exposed to this kind of exploitation, then the problem would be much smaller. Men cannot fully understand, but women are constantly bombarded with the idea that the figure they should attain, through whatever means necessary, is just this form. For many, such is an impossible goal. However, other products are advertised that offer a “solution” to the “problem.” These items are miracle pills and diets. The commercials for these products shamelessly show before and after pictures that are often blatantly two different women. Moreover, the products usually contain some form (if not more than one) stimulant, a few of which have been identified as serious health risks, even when used properly. Women are also presented with some ludicrous diets. Few and far between are the warnings of combining these two. In next to none of the advertisements is there a noticeable warning. Hence, some women fall into anorexia and bulimia and combine those already dangerous eating habits with, essentially, legal speed.

Perhaps one of the most disturbing trends becoming more and more prevalent in fashion advertising that utilizes women as sex objects is the portrayal of women as young (teen and preteen) girls. Even worse yet is the frequent sexualizing of young girls themselves. People today are increasingly pressured to mature more quickly than generations before them. The problem applicable here is that sexuality goes with maturity and now we see early teenage girls wearing expensive next-to-nothing garments. These ads only fuel pedophilia and perpetuate the fallacious notion that young girls need such clothing. In a roundtable discussion, Vicki Smye (Clinical director/provincial nurses coordinator of Eating Disorder Program) and Tannis MacBeth (UBC Professor) pointed out, “The prevalence of increasingly thinner and younger female models in fashion advertising is having a significant impact on the body image and self esteem of more and more girls and young women; girls as young as four are exhibiting dieting behavior and eating disorder treatment programs cannot keep up with the demand for their services,” (Graydon, 1997).

But She’s Only Twelve

By: Timothy Booker

In an age where the phrase “Sex Sells” is known to most adults it is alarming to find that sex is also being used to market to children. More and more girls in advertising are finding themselves dressed similar to their young adult and grown counterparts in the industry. Young girls are being made to dress and act sexier and sexier to sell everything from clothing to yogurt. On basic broadcast channels such as FOX as well as cable channels like Disney Channel these children are shown with what little cleavage they contain as they provocatively attempt to pedal their products. According to an article in by the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Communications, “Billions of dollars are being spent to encourage children and adolescents to buy products that are not healthy for them, with American advertising messages often including inappropriate sexual innuendos in an attempt to sell their products” (Committee, 1995). These sexual innuendos are aimed not only at adults but to children as well during their programs. One can hardly sit down to enjoy a cartoon without viewing an eleven year old aggressively shaking her hips to sell colored markers to children or a young girl sucking a Go-Gurt pop seductively. The Disney Channel currently runs a series of advertisements for their shows featuring girls in their teens and younger dancing around in clothing and style similar to the pop idles of today.

These practices are unhealthy to the young women that are featured in these advertisements because they are now seen as sexual objects not as children. Many people have heard what some males on this campus “would do to those hot Olsen Twins.” Three years ago, when I began college the Olsen Twins were only fourteen years old and boys had their pictures on their walls with countdowns until they were “legal.” Who is to blame these young men though when these young girls have been marketed since they hit puberty as sex symbols? They use their beauty much as Barbie Dolls to sell their videotapes and merchandise.

Young girls are marketed to differently than boys. Advertisements aimed at young boys feature them doing normal child things such as playing with matchbox cars, beating each other up with inflatable boxing fists, and playing with action figures based on their favorite cartoon characters. Advertisements aimed at young girls, however, show these young ladies aspiring to be older as they take Barbie to the club, use makeup kits, and create false dinners to serve to friends. The dress is different also. Young boys advertisements feature boys dressed in normal youthful attire, while young girl advertisements feature the ladies in tight form fitting outfits unsuitable for their age group.

Young girls in advertising have the unfortunate position of already being forced to sell themselves sexually in a market where males clearly dominate. Not so much as for one to want to have sex with the girls but just enough to grab ones attention, these advertisements have young ladies shaking hips, doing dips, and flat out seducing the audience. It is unfortunate, in a society that is supposed to be above such outdated forms of marketing for adults, that sex is used to sell most commercial products in our nation. It is downright disgraceful that our nation would use the same methods for a twelve year old to sell crayons that are used for a twenty-four year old woman to sell lingerie.

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