Aaron Ashba - Blog #3

As for the attached picture of what is labeled a female "career climber" or in Latin, "promotamee legsspredius", doesn't necessarily promote or advertise a specific, identified product, but immediately jumped out at me when search through the attached link for the assignment. This woman is dressed in a business suit, but exposing her bra and undergarments to promote being promiscuous within the workplace. There are arrows pointing at each of the items she is wearing that would be categorized as "sexy" in society. The entire ad plays on the "affair" with the hot personal secretary" theme, and basically labels this woman as someone that will use her sexuality to her advantage. Any woman that has any self-respect would be disgusted at the exploitation of this ad and the how it depicts this woman using sex to advance her career. In some respects, the ad not only sends an anti-feminist message to the audience, but belittles men in the same regard to say we fall prey to women and their sexual advances to give them special treatment or reward them in other ways just for the sake of sex. Not only does is this woman not considered average in terms of her appearance and build, but her body is being exploited based on its theme. It provides a distorted image of dressing in traditional business attire and what is acceptable against what is desired to men. Again, this is another way to say to our young women that not only does "sex sell", but that sex is more powerful than qualifications and good, old fashioned hard work. Since a specific product is not identified in the ad, it makes it difficult to pinpoint this back to a company or organization to boycott against, but is another example of how women are labeled as sexual toys in advertisement to gain visual attention to read the verbiage of the ad itself. It fascinates me to see the use of half nude women in advertisements for products in a woman's magazine. Does the female body itself entice all sexes to tempt the look to see what all of the fuss is about? To stop the exploitation of women in advertising, these products would have to adhere to the same principles as well to not point fingers anymore. Some sort of united front to say, "we know sex sells, but not our products!"

Aaron Ashba
WS 200

http://www.genderads.com/