Fun Stuff > CHATTER

Women imagined in advertising => Gender, sex and society

<< < (5/17) > >>

McTaggart:
I think I've mentioned these before but the ads that have offended me most have been the Australian government's Australia Says No (to violence against women) campaign. The ads in question are here and here.

They were directed to All Australian Men (this is never explicitly stated but it's implied in the actors they choose and how they dress them; I can see the meeting where they built this campaign in my head, all middle of the range media graduates reciting their textbooks), and they framed it in such a way that violence against women was entirely separate to violence in general and was solely the fault of this nebulous All Australian Men entity. To me it implied that every man is guilty of it or will be guilty of it, and therefore that it's a part of the Australian Male identity. That it's expected or even necessary to truely be a part of All Australian Men. But what if you're not a part of All Australian Men, I'm male and australian but I don't fit into this group, but it's the group al All Australian Men. Am I unAustralian? But that's the heaviest offence there is and I don't think I'm a bad person. Am I unMan? (oh hey look, is unMan worse than Man? Well yes, clearly, you can see it in Man being the rule and unMan being the expection) I've got to be in some set, but I'm not a boy and I'm not a woman; I'm also not The Elderly or Our Kids, who are the two genderless groups. There's no group for me but does that mean I'm less than those in the groups, I must be since they're awarded with labels and recognition and there is none for me. Should I strive to become an Australian Male? But I hate part of what goes with that and a lot of the rest just isn't who I am.

So I guess that they just alienated me from the group that I guess I'm technically in, but while I'm a citizen I don't really count myself as an Australian (I think this is down to all the people who are most loudly Australian were all arseholes in highschool, that I have what I see as a healthy distrust of nationalism (thankyou Mr Dickson), that the people who live here are a pretty diverse lot in my experience and I guess that I emigrated here when I was little though I don't really feel that it's affected me that much but I figure it's important enough to mention) and I have similar issues with counting myself as a Man, but they're a whole lot fuzzier to pin down.

tania:
i don't like when people who are skinny are told they are unnatural or unhealthy either. i know quite a few people who are skinny and have a hard time gaining weight even if they want to. i think the main issue in advertising is that there is only really one body type depicted, which is the the super skinny one. rather than demonizing skinny people and using larger people in advertising instead as a solution, i think a better answer is to just use models of all different sizes and send the message that people look different and they are all still beautiful and that's okay.

another thing i find interesting is that photoshopping and airbrushing are becoming more and more commonly used in advertisements. like, you'll take a photo of someone, and then there is a really intense computer editing process where they then do all kinds of things like make this person's 25 inch waist even tinier than it already is, and enhance their cleavage, and make their legs longer, and so on. lots of people don't know this though! i mean, they know airbrushing happens but they aren't directly told "hey, in this photo, they made her waist 3 inches smaller than it actually is". there is already more than enough evidence available from millions of media studies proving that after looking at advertisements, many women feel bad about themselves and experience a decrease in self-esteem. i wonder how women would be affected by looking at images of other women who have bodies which are not just very skinny and exaggerated but actually 100% impossible to ever attain due to the fact that they are basically computer generated.

Drill King:
Man, why are there so many super smart girls that just make my life so much easier because I never have to post anything because they say it all, and better than I could.

MrBlu:

--- Quote from: Alex C on 27 Feb 2009, 10:29 ---Yeah, see, I kinda forget about those really ridiculous ads because the only magazines I get are Popular Science, and National Geographic. Now I have to know that shit exists again.


What the hell people?

--- End quote ---
I read tech and HR mags, so I only see black women with curly hair.

It's so hot.

ruyi:
Thanks to all of you for your contributions so far.

McTaggart, I'm on my phone so I'm not going to look at those ads you linked right now, but going off of what you said in your post, I would say another large problem with those ads is that in alienating males, they fail to engage people who need to be allies and part of the solution.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page