advertising's influence on the image of women.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the average American sees approximately 3,000 advertisements in one day. Ads try to sell us anything and everything…from toothpaste to vacation spots.  We see them in magazines, on television, in newspapers, and on billboards. Yet we all feel as though we are personally exempt from the affects of advertising. We just ignore it or don’t pay attention to it…while wearing our UGG boots and Buckle jeans.

We may not recognize the affects that advertisements have on us, but according to Jean Kilbourne in her documentary Killing Us Softly 4, advertising’s influence is quick, cumulative, and for the most part, subconscious. The affect that advertisements have on us as consumers is quite undeniable, even if subconscious. But what about the affects that ads have on us as people?

Advertisements not only convey messages about their products, but about who we should be as people, especially as women. These ads tell women that how they look is what is most important about them and use their bodies, or parts of their bodies, in their ads. The use of women in this way in advertising has detrimental affects on society as a whole. Some of these major affects are creating false ideals of what women should look like, silencing, and objectifying women.

Women are told today that they need be nothing more than long legs, a small waist, and large breasts, but the images of women in advertisements are almost impossible to attain. According to the website Healthy Place, today’s fashion models weight 23% less than the average female. Also, a young woman between the ages of 18 and 34 has a 7% chance of being as slim as a catwalk model and 1% chance of being as thin as a supermodel. But it was also found in this study that 69% of girls said that magazine models influence their idea of the perfect body shape. This reliance on magazines to portray the ideal body shape for women has lead to an astounding increase in cosmetic surgeries because of the impossibility of women reaching these standards by natural means. According to the website Plastic Surgery Research, in 2008, almost 92% of cosmetic surgeries were performed on women. Kilbourne’s documentary, it is stated that from 1997-2007, the number of cosmetic surgery procedures increased 457%.

Cutting women down to merely a size not only results in plastic surgery, but it silences them.

The message that women are looks and nothing more causes the disintegration of individuality and self-worth. Woman are often portrayed in ads as embodiments of innocence or even in bondage. Common poses in ads are of women covering up their mouths or dressed as young girls.

There is even an increase in ads that depict women as enslaved.

These depictions of women convey the message that women are passive and without power. With this idea of women increasing, the amount of violence against women increases as well. Advertising is filled with violent images against women and even eroticizes violence.

But this increase in desensitizing society to violence against women has lead to an increase in the violence itself. According to the Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse, domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 and 44. This is more than car accidents, muggings, and rapes combined.

Violence is also the result of the objectification of women in advertising.

Instead of seeing women as people, women are reduced to objects, helping to seemingly justify this violence against them. In many types of advertisements, women are shown as merely part of the product instead of an individual themselves.

This depiction of women dehumanizes them into something merely to be owned. Women are also commonly dismembered in ads. One part of woman’s body will regularly be highlighted in an ad. Also, heads and faces of women will routinely be excluded from an ad, reducing her to merely her body.

We many not each feel that we are personally affected by advertisements, but it’s no question that our society is. But advertisers won’t change themselves because the worse we feel about ourselves, the more they benefit. Therefore, it is up to us to speak up. We must pay attention and be aware of the messages that advertisements are conveying. Encourage education and discussion on the advertisements that so constantly surround us. And as the advertisements begin to change, so will the attitudes of our culture on the image of women.