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Hegemonic Masculinity In Advertising

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The majority of modern society’s advertising conveys an oppressive message to American women. In advertisement campaigns, women are typically only considered and marketed as beautiful if they fit a very specific mold that society has created. Women who don’t fit this mold of being feminine, thin, and pretty are shamed and encouraged to change. However, it isn’t just the “ugly” women who are shamed in the media. There is a consistent message that runs throughout advertisements that suggests that women are lesser than men, and that they exist solely for the benefit of men. Countless advertisements feature thin, beautiful women as either over-sexualized objects, or as subordinates to their male counterparts. The mold created by society and advertisers for women to fit into is not entirely attainable. More often than not, models are Photoshopped and altered to the point that they don’t even resemble themselves. W. Charisse Goodman suggests, “The mass media do not …show more content…

“Faking Beauty: Photoshopping Sends Unhealthy Message to America 's Youth, AMA Says.” ABC News, 29 June 2011, abcnews.go.com/Health/faking-beauty-photoshopping-unhealthy-americas-youth-ama/story?id=13960394. “Hegemonic Masculinity and Emphasized Femininity.” Purushu Arie, 22 Feb. 2016, purushu.com/2016/02/hegemonic-masculinity-and-emphasized-femininity.html. Marks, Hallie. “Death to Dead Women In Ads.” BUST, bust.com/feminism/10073-death-to-dead-women-in-ads.html. “One Picture Is Worth a Thousand Diets.” The Invisible Woman: Confronting Weight Prejudice in America, by W. Charisse Goodman, Gurze Books, 1995. “Pamela Anderson Shows That All Animals Have the Same Parts.” PETA, www.peta.org/features/pamela-anderson-shows-animals-same-parts/. Sharp, Gwen. “Redtape Shoes ‘Live Your Fantasy’ Campaign.” The Society Pages, 26 Dec. 2009, thesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/12/26/redtape-shoes-live-your-fantasy-campaign/. Sontag, Susan. A Woman 's Body- A Put Down or Power Source.

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