Nothing as It Seems

The superstar divas, the ultimate housewife, the fine corporate competitor, all of these are examples of women stereotypes used to promote the female image in the media. Advertising as a popular art form has exploited the shocking and the repulsive in the shape of the sexual, the bizarre, the romantic, the vicious, and the stereotypic. The image of women has been principally distorted, being depicted as decorative, sexual, and desirable: objectified. The pursuit of beauty through consumption is now considered among the vital survival skills for women. Images of women’s bodies are everywhere. They seem to be omnipotent, as they sell everything from food to luxury cars: “by using sexual interest as a tool of persuasion to draw interest to a particular product” (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), and by using women as sexual enhancement to sell products and promote TV programs. This conscious lack of ethical standards in the media is a way of stereotyping women, as well as imposing beauty standards, pressuring women to be sexually attractive.

Twentieth Century advertisers now relate products to real human desires and emotions, and intentionally use unconcealed sexuality, passion, the fantastic, and snob appeal to sell their products. On many occasions, women are pieced-up in these advertisements: it is no longer a display of a full person on display but rather a display of chests, thighs, waist, or legs, necessary to her sex object status, in