Sex, Stereotypes and Beauty

[aesmael]

    lost_angelwings showed me this presentation. It puts me in mind of a recent idea I had - to count advertisement images encountered each day featuring sexualised portrayals of women versus the number showing men in a similar manner.

    It took a while to load for me.

Comments

[lost-angelwings.livejournal.com]

:O

You might explode your brain keeping track of all the sexualized portrayals of women during a day? :(

[aesmael.livejournal.com]

Possibly. I suspect the number will be manylots. However I am more interested in the amount of advertising featuring sexualised men, so many people think 'but men are objectified too' is a valid rebuttal.

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

Men may be objectified but I think you'll find the ratio of objectified men to objectified women vanishingly small.

Hmmmmm. I wonder how the ads look in the Gay press? I wonder whether you'd find more objectified men there?

[aesmael.livejournal.com]

That is what I suspect also, although I want to verify that I am not missing it. Could be tricky since I do not go out often.

From what I have heard, depictions of men in gay-oriented magazines map much closer to those of women in the mainstream ones. I never see those for sale though, even when there are pornographic magazines intended for heterosexual men on the rack.

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

A starting point might be the local Gay newspaper (which only works if you're in/near a major urban centre). For example here in Vancouver we have Xtra West which comes out once or twice a week.

A quick non-scientific look at the ads on their website seems to support the hypothesis of objectified men.

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

I've been aware of the phenomenon for a long time, but the way they showed it in that presentation still has an incredible impact.

I trained myself to not be influenced by advertising early on and I'm very sceptical about any claims made but it's amazing how much the subliminal message sinks in. I look at myself in the mirror and see a very unconventional woman and the potential is there for me to get very upset because I'll never meet conventional beauty standards. I have to be constantly aware that those standards are created and maintained by the advertising/entertainment industry, and are therefore immediately suspect.

[aesmael.livejournal.com]

::nod:: I try to do the same but it still gets to me too. One reason why none of my icons are photographical. I may see (or think I see) what they are doing usually but often I will desire something unattainable even while denouncing them.

It is fun, though, to pull apart advertising and try to identify the specific levers they are trying to pull, or guessing what the product is.

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

Deconstruct the ads as fast as the get constructed... : )