final thesis copy 4-28 (6) (2)

MAKING SEXY MATTER: THE SEXUAL PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN
MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENTS
By Lindsay Simons
Thesis submitted to the School of Communication
Of the College of Arts and Sciences of the
University of Hartford in partial
Fufillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Master of Arts
2016

MAKING SEXY MATTER 1
Abstract
This study extends previous research to examine the ways modern ads sexualize
and subordinate females in women and men’s magazines. Advertisements are known to
create the “ideal,” thin, provocatively dressed, “sexy” woman in association with their
product or brand. This research investigates these portrayals of women in advertisements
directed at male and female readerships. The magazine ad sample included both women’s
magazine’s Cosmopolitan and Glamour and men’s magazines GQ and Maxim. Females
in ads were operationally defined as “sexy” and “submissive,” and were examined for
their association with different sexual appeals. “Sexy models” were operationally
defined by scale for body type and dress while “submissive model” were examined in
terms of Goffman’s (1979) licensed withdrawal, feminine touch and ritualization of
subordination. Sex appeals included Reichert and Lambiase’s (2003) sex esteem, sexual
attractiveness and sex behavior. It was predicted that submissive and sexy models would
be shown in ads and that women’s magazines would show more sex esteem and
attractiveness. The findings showed that women were portrayed submissively, with the
majority of the ads indicating licensed withdrawal or feminine touch (72.3%). The
presence of sexy female models was only partially confirmed, as levels of dress indicated
women were dressed more demurely than sexually. However, women were sexualized by
body type because 96.4% of ads showed very thin figures. Lastly, sex esteem and
attractiveness appeals were shown more frequently with women’s magazines, while
sexual behavior was shown more within the men’s magazines.

Table of Contents
ABSTRACT..............................................................................................................1
TABLE OF CONTENTS..........................................................................................2
LIST OF TABLES.....................................................................................................4
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION..............................................................................5
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW...................................................................6
Media and Advertising Theory..........................................................6
CHAPTER 3: ADS AND GENDER IDEOLOGY....................................................13
CHAPTER 4: FEMINIST CRITIQUE OF “THE MALE GAZE”............................19
CHAPTER 5: THIN AS SEXY.................................................................................26
CHAPTER 6: SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS...33
CHAPTER 7: ENCODING SEX INTO ADS.............................................................42
CHAPTER 8: THE USE OF SEXUAL APPEALS....................................................52
CHAPTER 9: THEORETICAL MODELS.................................................................61
CHAPTER 10: METHODOLOGY.............................................................................64
CHAPTER 11: RESULTS...........................................................................................77
CHAPTER 12: DISCUSSION.....................................................................................85
Implications of Results.........................................................................94
Limitations............................................................................................97
Future Research.....................................................................................99
CHAPTER 13: CONCLUSION...................................................................................100
REFERENCES.............................................................................................................102
APPENDIX A...............................................................................................................113

APPENDIX B................................................................................................................114
APPENDIX C................................................................................................................115
APPENDIX D................................................................................................................118
APPENDIX E................................................................................................................119
APPENDIX F................................................................................................................120
APPENDIX G...............................................................................................................121

List of Tables
Table 1. Number of Advertisements Randomly Selected by Magazine Issue................122
Table 2. Frequency of Magazine Type........................................................................... 122
Table 3. Frequency of Issue Type................................................................................... 122
Table 4. Frequency of Ritualization of Subordination.....................................................123
Table 5. Frequency of Feminine Touch...........................................................................123
Table 6. Frequency of Licensed Withdrawal...................................................................123
Table 7. Crosstabulation of Magazine Type and Feminine Touch..................................124
Table 8. Crosstabulation of Magazine Type and Licensed Withdrawal..........................125
Table 9. Frequency of Dress............................................................................................126
Table 10. Crosstabulation of Magazine Type and Dress.................................................127
Table 11. Frequency of Female Model Body Type ........................................................128
Table 12. Crosstabulation of Magazine Type and Body Type........................................129
Table 13. Frequency of Sex Esteem Appeal....................................................................130
Table 14. Frequency of Sexual Attractiveness Appeal....................................................130
Table 15. Frequency of Sexual Behavior Appeal............................................................130
Table 16. Crosstabulation of Magazine Type and Sex Esteem Appeal...........................131
Table 17. Crosstabulation of Magazine Type and Sexual Attractiveness Appeal...........132
Table 18. Crosstabulation of Magazine Type and Sexual Behavior................................133
Table 19. Frequency of Other Models.............................................................................134
Table 20. Crosstabulation of Magazine Type and Other Models in Ads........................135
Table 21. Frequency of Race/Ethnicity...........................................................................136

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
In the United States, advertisements create impossible standards of attractiveness
for females, visually portraying them as sexual objects to make a product more appealing.
Sexual images of women have been prevalent in advertising throughout history, often
using attractive models in provocative dress and pose to grab audience attention. Sexual
portrayals focus on the attraction of the female body and the sexual benefits or promises
that can be experienced from purchasing the advertised product. This practice in
American culture sends the message to society that women should be objectified for their
bodies and sex appeal. The feminist perspective argues that patriarchal societies portray
women as the object of the “male gaze” (Frith et al., 2005). This is based on the premise
that women are minimized and judged on their ability to appeal to the dominant male
gender. The statement that, “men watch women and women watch men watching
women,” simplifies that idea that society emphasizes the importance of women achieving
impossibly high beauty standards so that men will be attracted to them (Frith et al., 2005).
It is concerning that younger generations are growing up exposed to the “thin ideal” and
sexualized images of women that are saturated in today’s advertising media. Young girls
are dieting and exploring their sexual identity at younger and younger ages, while boys
are learning that it is socially acceptable to objectify women for their physical
appearance. With these social implications in mind, the purpose of this study is to
examine the sexualization of women in magazine advertisements. The first research
question is, “How are women portrayed in magazine advertisements?” The second

research question examines what type of “sex appeals” are used in magazines. Lastly,
“how likely are women sexualized in women’s or men’s magazines?”
This literature will review how integrated advertising media is in our lives,
emphasizing that a critical interpretation of ads can reveal larger cultural ideologies.
Advertising is influential because it acts as a social educator, teaching us what is valuable
through images and messages. It also teaches us what is acceptable behavior as male or
female through the display of gender and power. This relationship often subordinates and
sexualizes women while placing men in positions of dominance and superiority. In
addition to gender dynamics, feminist perspectives, the objectification of women through
the “male gaze” and the pressure society places on women to be thin and beautiful will be
explored. The social implication of female media portrayals is discussed, along with a
history of how “sex sells,” detailing how advertisers have learned to sell a product with
female body and dress. Sexual appeals can be effective because they play on our most
biological instincts for reproduction and connection. These topics are investigated to
reveal the deeper meaning behind the ways women are portrayed in modern
advertisements.
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Media and Advertising Theory
Advertising is relevant today because it impacts our everyday lifestyles and
decisions. With our increasing dependence on technology and constant exposure to the
world of media, it is impossible to ignore the multitude of ads and persuasive messages
that saturate our lives. However, our cultural values have become second nature to us,

making it difficult to pick up on the social constructions we are so accustomed to within
advertisements. This is because ad creators “work to create messages with the target
audience’s attitudes, knowledge, beliefs and cultural considerations in mind” (Reichert,
2002, p. 267). In Undressing the Ad, Katherine Frith explains that taking a critical stance
in reading ads provides insight into the social norms and the ideologies that surround us.
To reveal these social norms we have to engage in demystifying the pre-existing ideas of
culture that have been ingrained in our perception (Frith, 1997). Even though research
has shown that readers are not very attentive, only spending an average of 3.2 seconds on
an ad, the repetitive inundation begins to have an impact on our perception and behavior
in reality (Frith, 1997). Cultivation analysis explains that there are cumulative effects
from viewing mass media repeatedly, and this has the power to be very influential over
audience members (Lantos, 1987).
There are many different ways that audiences process and interpret ad images.
Douglas Kellner (1995) explains how important it is to understanding the underlying
meanings of advertisements. Those who “uncritically follow the dictates of media culture
tend to ‘mainstream’ themselves, conforming to the dominant fashion, values, and
behavior” (p.8). This idea of becoming “mainstream” essentially means that people
absorb media messages and allow it to shape and mold their identities. In studying culture
or cultural artifacts, one must consciously interpret without the ideologies and prejudices
that have become ingrained in our thinking. Studying culture by taking a critical
perspective on our values reveals how the media manipulates our perception, allowing
the audience to resist dominant meanings and create their own (Kellner, 1995). There is a
distinction between “dominant” readings of media and “oppositional” ones. “Dominant”

readings mean the audience interprets media consistent with the dominant cultural
ideology and intent of the ad, such as with an image of a powerful male. While
“oppositional readings” denote audience interpretations that are different from the
dominant ideology (Kellner, 1995b). Furthermore, an examination of semiotics, or the
study of sign communication, explains how cultural “signs” form meanings. Kellner
(1995b) elaborates by saying a rose can be interpreted as a sign of love, or getting a good
grade on a paper is a sign of skill. It is useful in criticizing media because it reveals how
codes and signs create meaning. For example, “advertising shows how commodity
solutions solve problems of popularity, acceptance, success, and the like” (Kellner,
1995b, p.12). A semiotic analysis of an advertisement of a woman caressing a man may
be a sign of adoration or infatuation, revealing deeper meanings about gender and
sexuality.
To uncover these underlying ad assumptions, Katherine Frith (1997) uses the
critical theory of “deconstruction” as a foundation for interpreting the messages in
advertisements. Deconstruction can be defined as reading an advertisement in an
oppositional way in order to expose the unintentional meanings that give credence to the
larger inequalities at hand. In reading the background and the foreground of an
advertisement, the product can be interpreted as “the signified” to which the background
is the “signifier,” and “together they both form a sign” (Frith, 1997, pg. 4). The
background and foreground are equally important in reading an ad because they create
context and meaning. In Undressing the Ad: Reading Culture in Advertising, Katherine
Frith (1997) implements three levels of meaning in deconstructing and analyzing print
advertisements. The first stage is reading “the surface meaning” or the initial impact a

reader gets from quickly viewing an advertisement. As the name implies, the “surface
meaning” is simply the major components, people or objects that create the ad image at a
basic level. The second stage is “the advertisers intended meaning” or the message that
the advertisers want the reader to retain from seeing the ad. The third stage is “the
cultural or ideological meaning” which is based on the reader’s personal interpretation
that stems from their culture, knowledge and experiences (Frith, 1997). However, readers
also connect advertisements to their own experiences, which create a new complex level
to the interpretation of an advertisement. This stage takes some of the power away from
the advertisers intended meaning because it is interpreted based on individual rather than
universal knowledge. Marketers tend to rely on a culture’s common ideologies because
they will connect with the larger audience.
Ads act as a mirror to culture in the sense that examining them can reveal our social
norms, but also may project those ideologies and stereotypes back onto us. Much of what
we learn about our culture comes from the media images and representations of reality.
Media images “help shape our view of the world and our deepest values: what we
consider good or bad, positive or negative, moral or evil” (Kellner, 1995). The
interpretation of images plays a role in establishing cultural values and expectations of
behavior (Klassen et al., 1993). So it follows that in analyzing ad representations we can
learn a lot about our culture. Sut Jhally (1987) explains that ads function in two ways.
The first is that we depend on their meaning for the definition of our own social lives and
the second is that they depend on our “knowledge of referent systems for the operation of
meaning” (Jhally, 1987, p.139).

Social cognitive theory is important for understanding the media’s impact because
it pinpoints the psychosocial ways mass communication influences human thought and
behavior (Bandura, 1994). The first basic premise of this theory is that the self and
society interact and influence each other, such that personal cognition, behavior and the
social environment equally contribute to the way we learn from the media (Bandura,
1994). The second premise is that humans have agency and are “self-organizing,
proactive, self-reflecting, and self-regulating, not just reactive organisms shaped and
shepherded by environmental events or inner forces,” (Bandura, 1994, p.121). Our
environment is not just absorbed, it is understood through each unique cognitive
processing. This cognitive processing determines what we give our attention to and how
it gives meaning to our lives. With this complex processing, members of society have
some control over the way they receive their social environment and therefore become
involved in the trajectory of change and adaptation within social systems. Human agency
and social structure mutually influence each other so that people are the producers of
ideologies presented in mass media, as well as the product of its influence (Bandura,
1994).
The component of this theory that is most important to study is how the mass
media persuades members of society so that they become the products of its influence.
Bandura (1994) says that the influence is due to “observational learning” and
“modeling.” Observational learning is the cognitive way individuals examine and learn
from others behavior, and then model or replicate the behavior themselves (Bandura,
1994). It plays a major role in how children are socialized because they model after their
particular gender, thus teaching them how to behave like boys or girls. The capacity for

observational learning has served an evolutionary function for humans because it
“enables them to expand their knowledge and skills rapidly through information
conveyed by a rich variety of models” (Bandura, 1994, p. 126). By vicariously viewing
others actions we learn what behaviors are rewarding or punishing for ourselves. The
effectiveness of observational learning is mediated by attention, personal values, salience,
attractiveness and functional value of what is being modeled. This will be explored later
in the reviewed literature in terms of whether “sexy” or objectified female models are
positively received based on audiences personal values (i.e. conservative, feminist,
pleasure-oriented) and the idea that being attractive or sexual is learned to be socially
rewarding. While attention processes are important for the reception of a stimulus, the
observer must retain the information by constructing it into their memory or seeing it
repeatedly, such as with the constant exposure to ad messages. Lastly, the behavior can
simply be encoded or translated into action by the observer. With technology and
observational learning, the mass media has the power to project new ideas and ways of
thinking onto much of the population. This has major implications for the way in which
women are modeled and perceived in the media. Observational learning is a strategy used
by advertising campaigns because observing the rewards vicariously through ad models
can lead to purchase intention. The attractive female models seen everywhere in ads sell
products based on the promises for attractiveness, male pleasure and positive social
recognition. For example, “drinking a certain brand of wine or using a particular
shampoo wins the loving admiration of beautiful people...masculinizes self-
conception...invites social recognition and amicable reactions from total strangers, and
arouses affectionate overtures from spouses” (Bandura, 1994, p.138).

Although mass media may be an influential social educator, the messages it sends
are not reliable. Stuart Hall (1997) explains that it is important to define the word media
“representation” because it indicates actively selecting what to present and how to
construct it as opposed to the simple act of portraying things as they exist. This
distinction illustrates how ads may not be a reliable source of the norm because they are
constructed and manipulated by larger media conglomerates. Major media companies
have begun to overtake many mass media domains in order to control more media
production. These major media conglomerates are gaining control over the production of
many of American sources of media, leading to a homogenization of the messages and
information audiences receive on a regular basis. Today, corporate conglomerations have
increased, with single companies having extensive control over media production
(Kellner, 1995b). This reinforces the need for awareness of what we absorb from media,
keeping in mind these corporations agenda for profit.
Media companies that produce and distribute magazines and television
programming determine “what sorts of artifacts will be produced, what structural limits
will determine what can and cannot be said and shown, and what sorts of audience effects
the text may generate” (Kellner, 1995b, p. 10). They have the ultimate power to control
and frame the type of media at their disposal. They release media based on a profitable
response they anticipate from viewers and with this in mind, decide what should be said
and what images will be most beneficial. Geoffrey Lantos (1987) quotes, “American
advertising...simplifies and typifies. It does not claim to picture reality as it is but reality
as it should be—life and lives worth emulating” (p.122). For this reason, Kellner (1995b)
explains why it is useful to examine media in terms of the cultural and aesthetic

production motivations of media companies. He says that “dominant cultural forms are
structured by well-defined rules and conventions, and the study of the production of
culture can help elucidate the codes actually in play” (p.11). In other words, analyzing
cultural values in media can reveal trends in the media’s coded message and illuminate
dominant ideologies and cultural values.
CHAPTER 3
ADS AND GENDER IDEOLOGY
One set of ideologies and cultural values that are encoded in ads is gender.
Vivian Gornick points out that advertisements do not simply capture how men and
women behave in the real world, but instead present to us how we “think” men and
women should behave (Goffman, 1979). This reinforces the social institutions that
function to make sense of the world and maintain social order. Although, that is not to
say that gendered behaviors are natural and universal. They are socially determined
through interaction and learning passed down from generation to generation. Gornick
explains Erving Goffman’s (1979) perception of this, which is that “the details of social
behavior are symptomatic revelations of how a sense of self is established and reinforced,
and the sense of self, in turn, both reflects and cements the social institutions upon which
rests a culture’s hierarchical structure” (Goffman, 1979, vii). In other words, advertising
and the media send messages about gender that are conceptualized and internalized by
the audience, thereby perpetuating the social structure and gender norms. This is
supported by Kellner (1995) who asserts that advertising and the media, “are forms of
pedagogy that teach us how to be men and women. They show us how to dress, look, and
consume; how to react to members of different social groups; how to be popular and

successful and how to avoid failure; and how to conform to the dominant system of
norms, values, practices, and institutions” (p.7). Ads and mass media essentially teach us
how to look and behave like females and males. According to Kellner (1995b) ideology
can be ideas or images that portray the superiority of one group over another, such as
men over women, and then reproduce these ideas of inequality. Gender ideology
encourages sexist stereotypes of women and male domination; reproducing the unequal
power among the sexes. Such ideologies make subordination seem natural and “thus
induce consent to relations of domination” (p.9).
Gender is our deepest trait as human beings (Jhally, 1987). The classification of a
person as either male or female impacts the individual’s understanding of who they are.
Gender norms are so embedded in society and culture that “gender can be communicated
at a glance (almost instantly) because of our intimate knowledge and conventionalized
codes of gender display” (p.136). In Gender Advertisements, Goffman (1979) breaks
down our social constructions logically so that we begin to realize that what we accept as
“natural” should be questioned. He narrows in on the details of human expression and the
meanings that are conveyed in things such as gesture and posture, and how this speaks to
our cultural values. As humans we exhibit “displays” that are socially learned but coded
as natural, that are interpreted by others in social situations. There are certain displays
that are characteristic of each gender, such as the submissive body language of a woman
or the commanding posture of a man that we learn to emulate without question.
Goffman’s (1979) frame analysis explains how these poses are captured and manipulated
by the photographer to present a stereotyped image of a woman or man. In frame
analysis, advertisements can be read according to the human pose such as positioning and

expressions, which form the “display.” According to Goffman, the displays “informs the
viewer about the social identity, mood, and intention of those portrayed, and
simultaneously educates the viewer regarding acceptable behaviors and relationships for
her or himself” (Klassen, 1993, p.32). This reiterates the idea that advertisements are
socially instructive of how we “should” behave according to our gender.
Goffman (1979) examined gender displays and posing within over 500
advertisements. The common display categories he found were “relative size,” “the
feminine touch,” “function ranking,” “the ritualization of subordination” and “licensed
withdrawal.” Goffman (1979) explains “relative size” as the way a person’s power or
authority is expressed in terms of their height or size in relation to the other person in an
image. For example, this would be shown in an ad where a man is taller than a group of
women, portraying his power and their submission. “The feminine touch” refers to the
way that women, more than men, use their fingers or hands to caress or delicately touch
objects instead of holding it firmly. “Function ranking” explains how men are portrayed
in executive roles when appearing with women in ads, such as a man performing the
activity while the woman watches. Goffman presents ad examples of women assisting
men with an activity, with men shown in the commanding position. “Licensed
withdrawal” is when women are shown removed psychologically or distant from the
situation such as with shyness, covering the face and hiding or withdrawn body positions.
“Ritualization of subordination” is when someone physically lowers themselves in
submission, with examples showing women laying down or lowering their head to the
camera or in respect to a male figure. From his studies, he argued that the relationship

between men and women is “portrayed as a parent–child relationship, one characterized
by male power and female subordination” (Hatton & Trautner, 2011, p. 258).
Female subordination was shown in Krassas, Blauwkamp and Wesselink’s (2001)
study. They examined the different types of sexual content in men and women’s
magazines. Using Cosmopolitan and Playboy, magazines for female and male’s
respectively, they attempted to determine if the sexual content differed by audience. They
sampled four issues of each magazine from the middle year of each decade the magazine
was published, encompassing the years 1965, 1975, 1985 and 1995. Krassas, Blauwkamp
and Wesselink (2001) predicted that the content would differ by magazine and that both
magazines would present “women as sexual objects who should seek to attract and
sexually satisfy men” (Krassas, Blauwkamp & Wesselink, 2001, p. 754). Using Erving
Goffman’s monograph Gender Advertisements (Goffman, 1979), they revealed the
meanings behind the pose in both men and women as well as coding for nudity. Their
findings indicate that both magazines “pose their female models in a manner that
communicates dependency, submissiveness, and sexual availability. Each magazine most
commonly depicts women as sexual objects, whereas men are most commonly spouses or
partners” (Krassas, Blauwkamp & Wesselink, 2001, p.763). Males are portrayed as more
active or functional in relation to object compared to females that use touch in a
“decorative or sexually suggestive manner” (p.763). Although the assumption is that a
women’s magazine like Cosmopolitan would not objectify women because of their
female readership, they found that this was not the case. Similarly, Lindner (2004)
examined women in Time (general interest) and Vogue (women’s fashion) magazines
over a 50-year span, from 1955 to 2002. Also implementing Erving Goffman’s gender

role coding, she found that “advertisements in Vogue, a magazine geared toward a female
audience, depict women more stereotypically than do those in Time” (p.409). It is
noteworthy that a magazine with a woman’s readership promotes female subordinate
stereotypes. Lindner (2004) explains that Vogue does this purposefully as part of their
advertising strategy. The “portrayal of women as inferior and ‘flawed’ is a necessity for
the existence of a women’s fashion magazine such as Vogue, which is primarily a means
for advertising and selling products that are suggested to be a “cure” for women’s
feelings of inferiority and inappropriateness” (Lindner, 2004, p. 420). Linder’s (2004)
cumulative analysis of advertisements in Time and Vogue, showed that 78% contained a
female stereotype. For example, women were shown to be mentally drifting from the
scene, lowering themselves in submission to others control and as decorative objects
placed in the image for looks. In other words, “women in magazine advertisements have
been increasingly shown in highly sexualized ways, for example, or as adopting body
postures that suggest a need for protection and control” (Lindner, 2004, p. 413). A study
of magazines published in 1993 and 1994 found that men were shown as taller or in
dominating postures and looking down at women, with women in shrinking postures that
didn’t take up space (Umiker-Sebeok, 1996). Women were shown as more withdrawn,
vulnerable and in positions showing dependence on the man, while men “were likely to
take control over women’s bodies, by lifting them up, containing their space by
encircling their bodies, by blocking access to the women’s body, or by putting their arms
around the women’s shoulders” (Lindner, 2004). In regards to interaction with products,
women were shown displaying “feminine touch” by lightly touching or grazing objects
with their hands. The images of gender displays portray men in positions of power and

women in positions of passivity or subordination.
This male-female, subordinate-dominant relationship can be explained by the
notion of “hegemony.” It is as a form of social control because people accept and follow
a certain hierarchical order in society (Frith, 1997). This concept is important in
discussing gender power dynamics because the social order inherently places members of
a society in subordinate and dominant groups. The subordinate, oppressed groups are
women in our society (Lindner, 2004). They often do not receive the same respect and
opportunities that men do. Despite the Women’s Movement of the 1970’s,
advertisements display women in stereotypical roles such as mother, homemaker, beauty
or sex roles that don’t accurately depict what women have to offer (Lindner, 2004).
Females continued to be portrayed this way in the years that followed, most often shown
in home settings or protected by men. The gender that benefits from this oppression, both
socially and economically, is the male dominant group. Males benefit economically
because women receive lower wages in the same positions that men hold (Lorber, 2010).
Although there has been improvement over time, women are also still expected to do
more housework and child rearing than men. Not to mention that in situations where men
and women present the same quality of work, “men still get greater recognition and move
up career ladders faster” (Lorber, 2010, p.5). These are examples of the way gender
inequality still exists, and the media can be used as a reference in identifying oppressive
views of women.
Advertisements show us how the dominant class is addressing “their particular
target audiences, and also what these ads may be saying—sometimes through
exclusion—to members of the non-target audience” (Frith,1997). Ads appeal to this

dominant group of males through sexual objectification at the expense of the female
population. These ads locate men in patriarchal ‘active’ roles and women in ‘passive’
roles of the sort envisioned in Femininity, in which Freud describes women ‘in so far as
their nature is determined by their sexual function’” (Reichert et al., 1999, p.16). Women
are viewed for their bodies and the potential sexual pleasure that men can gain from
them. Reichert et al. (1999) explain “sex serves as a dominant frame with ever-increasing
prevalence, a hegemony that defines how male and female bodies are objectified and
gendered to audiences” (p.16). This thesis study will be counter-hegemonic, in the sense
it will illuminate these inequalities. Feminism and feminist media theory are responses to,
and critiques of, such inequalities.
CHAPTER 4
FEMINIST CRITIQUE OF THE “MALE GAZE”
Feminist scholars have much to say about these inequalities, firmly believing that
human “experiences are shaped by patriarchal structures in society, gendered identities,
and power relations between women and men” (Swami et al., 2010, p.365). The
hegemonic relations of men and women value a feminine ideal, an ideal formed by an
oppressive male dominated society. Traditional gender roles place men in power
positions where women are subsequently inferior and valued for their looks, domestic
abilities and passivity. These gendered expectations are age-old, but only began to be
called into question with feminist movements.
Feminism is defined as “a social movement whose basic goal is equality between
women and men” (Lorber, 2010). Women have struggled to receive the same rights and
social status as men throughout history. The three feminist “waves” are female social

movements against gender inequality. The first wave of feminism spanned the 1830’s to
the 1900’s, and their goal was to establish equal rights for women such as a voice in
politics and for the right to vote, or suffrage (Dorey-Stein, 2015; Lorber, 2010). Women
were forced to fight for the rights that should have been inherently given to them such as
the “right to own property and capital, to borrow money, to inherit, to keep money
earned, to initiate divorce, to retain custody of children, to go to college, to become a
professionally certified physician, to argue cases in court, and to serve on a jury” (Lorber,
2010, pg. 1). The U.S. Constitution was written to exclude equality for slaves, indentured
servants and women of all social classes (Lorber, 2010). Women were grouped as having
no rights or freedoms right alongside slaves, speaking to the profound inequality of this
period. Lorber (2010) says that women’s “freedom” was the same as children in the sense
that they were “economically dependent and deriving their social status from their father
or husband” (p.1). This is where the first wave of feminism provides the historical roots
for some of the gender equalities present in advertising and media, previously mentioned
in the review of the literature. For example, in Goffman’s (1979) ads he recognized that
women are often shown in parent-child relationships or with the male displayed
powerfully and the women displayed subordinately. It wasn’t until the end of the 19th
century and early 20th that women were given the right to vote and increased economic
freedom from their husband. In addition to these freedoms, first wave feminists were
fighting for “a woman’s right to ‘own’ her body and to plan her pregnancies” (Lorber,
2010, p.2). Lorber’s (2010) statement illustrates that a woman did not even have rights
over what to do with her own body, as it was illegal for doctors to give women any kind
of birth control contraception because of traditional views of family. Still today, feminists

fight for a woman’s right to her body with the controversy surrounding Planned
Parenthood and abortion. Once woman-controlled contraception was legalized, there was
greater sexual freedom and acceptance of sex before marriage (Lorber, 2010). On the
downside, first wave feminists feared contraception would increase male’s objectification
of women because it enabled sex for pleasure rather than for reproductive purposes. Due
to the increased sexual freedom, the legalization of female contraception may have been a
turning point in the way men view women, their bodies and sex. Men could now engage
women for casual sex and pleasure purposes, potentially increasing objectification.
Historians also recognized this turning point, emphasizing that Post World War II
marked the transition for understanding sexuality. Birth control reinforced the message
that sex should be an enjoyment activity and the media distributed the message about
pleasurable sex to American audiences (Myers-Shirk, 2001). The understanding of
sexuality in America had changed drastically from the colonial era to the twentieth
century, as Americans moved “from a reproductive ideal to a pleasure ideal. That is, they
moved from seeing sex primarily as a means for reproduction to seeing sex primarily as
an avenue for pleasure” (p.83). Social construction theorists believe that biological sex
drive did not change over time, but that society and cultural context influenced the way
sexuality was understood. For example, as women’s rights increased so did the idea that
women and men should enjoy sex for pleasure rather than reproduction. Sexuality soon
became enmeshed with identity, as an individual’s self-concept encompassed sexual
behavior and desires (Myers-Shirk, 2001). The end of the nineteenth century spurred a
new gender and sexual ideal, emphasizing “the distance between masculinity and
femininity by highlighting the importance of sexual aggressiveness, downplaying the

virtues of restraint, and celebrating physical prowess and labor” (p.86). In other words,
men could now show less restraint and more sexual aggression when pursuing women.
The second wave of feminism “focused on the workplace, sexuality, family and
reproductive rights” following World War II from the 1960’s to the 1980’s (Dorey-stein,
2015, para. 3). This movement was focused on passing the Equal Rights Amendment to
the Constitution for gender equality. According to Lorber (2010) the second wave was
spurred by Simone de Beauvoir’s publication of The Second Sex in 1949, which
explained that Western women allow men to “set the standards and values, and women
are the Other who lack the qualities the dominants exhibit,” where men will always be the
first sex and women will be the second to them. In the 1970’s and 80’s, feminist groups
were working to improve many different areas of gender inequality. There were feminists
who aimed to increase women’s “legal rights, political representation, and entry into
occupations and professions dominated by men,” while others wanted to “eliminate
sexual violence, prostitution, and pornography; sexist depictions of women in the media
and cultural productions; and sexual harassment of women workers and students”
(Lorber, 2010, p.3). Lastly, the third wave of feminism started in the 1990’s and
continues to present day. This wave attempts to continue to bridge the social, economic
and political gaps in gender inequality (Dorey-Stein, 2015). These feminist movements
rejected conventional gender stereotypes; simultaneously creating social awareness about
the ways American culture facilitates gender inequality. There is also now a post-
feminism or “neoliberal” feminism, which hyper-focuses on the individual rather than the
larger social forces creating gender inequality.

It can be concluded that women in these movements wanted the right to vote, the
right to be successful outside of the home. Once they realized the oppression of their
human rights they became active feminists motivated by female equality. Feminist
Andrea Dworkin (1974) describes the more current sexist oppression of women and how
women are not supposed to have a “sense of dignity or self respect or strength, since
those qualities are directly related to a sense of manhood” (p.23). She points out women
are portrayed as the damsel in distress or victim even in our cultural fairy tales. Any
association of a woman with masculine traits of power or strength is viewed negatively in
our society and these types of images are scarcely seen.
In 2014, researchers looked at the different portrayals of female athletes and
fashion models in Sports Illustrated magazine (Kim & Sagas, 2014). They chose to look
at athletes for comparison because traditional gender stereotypes lead advertisers to
“emphasize sexuality rather than athleticism” (p.124). This speaks to how universal
stereotypes about women that are not flexible in depicting women in ways that oppose
feminine norms. Likewise, Sports Illustrated is known for perpetuating stereotypes about
women with their annual swimsuit edition. The swimsuit models are often female athletes
in scanty bathing suits posing in sexual positions. The research found no differences
between fashion models and athletes in terms of suggestively revealing clothing or
covering the breasts with hands. The sexualization of female athletes shows that they
“were obviously spotlighted as fashion models, not as athletes” because society cannot
accept females displaying the masculinity associated with athleticism (p.137).
Aside from the passive subordination women are expected to display, women are
supposed to be beautiful. They are supposed to be beautiful, attractive, sexually appealing

and sexually available. In Western society, “even if a woman is not born beautiful, she
can make herself attractive” (Dworkin, 1974, p.113). Dworkin (1974) says beauty can be
described in exact detail, by “her mobility, spontaneity, posture, gait, the uses to which
she can put her body” (p.115). Women are told that every body part from eyeliner,
straightened hair to weight and physique must be perfect. She explains that men desire
this because they want a woman who “takes care of herself.” Dworkin (1974) believes
“beauty standards are the major substance of male-female role differentiation, the most
immediate physical and psychological reality of being a woman” (p.112). The concept of
beauty or attractiveness is a significant trait characteristic of the female gender, an
ideology that is the product of patriarchal societies. Being a woman entails being
attractive or striving to be so, in order to please the males that objectify them for their
appearance. Feminists have coined this as “sexual objectification” because women are
viewed as “instruments of sexual pleasure and visual possession for a heterosexual male
audience” (Hatton & Trautner, p.273, 2011). The sexual objectification of women is
“both a theoretically and a socially relevant construct: it further develops the notion of the
body as a social construction and points to a central form of gender discrimination” (Peter
& Valkenburg, 2007; Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). Clearly these standards of
attractiveness value women as sex objects, allowing masculine societies to perpetuate the
gender inequality.
Objectification theory itself is the underlying perspective behind the degradation
of women. Our culture sexually objectifies the female body, teaching women to view
themselves from the observer’s perspective (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). The theory is
focused on the quality of women’s lives in a “sociocultural context that sexually

objectifies the female body and equates a woman’s worth with her body’s appearance and
sexual functions” (Szymanski et al, 2011). Objectification theory is directly related to the
concept of the “male gaze.” This is the way that men minimize women by viewing them
as sexual objects for their pleasure. Gould (1994) explains that sexual images of females
are “male oriented” and are purposefully put in advertisements for males to look at.
Males view the female body solely for its sexual function with no regard for the unique
internal thoughts and intelligence of the woman as a person (Fredrickson & Roberts,
1997). It is a concept that represents the power of masculinity and the submissiveness of
the female, where the female is an object of male conquest. As males have continued to
view women in this objectified way, women have also learned to view themselves
through the lens of the “male gaze.” This makes women perceive their bodies for how
they can manipulate it to be sexually appealing or alluring to men. Audiences are
“therefore encouraged to look upon the bodies of Cosmopolitan's female models as a man
would, to evaluate her own body by those standards, and in turn, to remake herself
according to that model. Femininity is, thus, defined by the ability to attract a man—to
undergo the male gaze and be judged suitable” (Krassas, Blaukamp & Wesselink’s, 2001,
p.766). This is shown by the fact that in 2001, the well-known women’s magazine
Cosmopolitan posed women in “demeaning ways,” sending the message to its female
readership that they should be sexy and subordinate for male gain (Krassas, Blauwkamp
& Wesselink, 2001). This study also found that the sexual rhetoric between Cosmopolitan
and Playboy did not differ by male or female audience because both magazines display
women for their sexual appeal and as objects of the male gaze, illustrating that female
objectification may not be restricted by the gender of the audience. This is supported by

Stankiewicz and Rosselli (2008) who state that “the fact that it is women who are
sexualized in magazines [that are] geared toward both men and women indicates that
women’s bodies are constantly on display to be judged,” and “the message to both men
and women is clear: a woman’s value lies largely in terms of her appearance and
sexuality” (p.587)
Today’s society sends conflicting messages to women that they should be
independent but obligated to sexually satisfy men. These patriarchal themes are seen in
Krassas, Blaukamp & Wesselink (2003), which used Goffman’s (1979) classifications
within Maxim and Stuff men’s magazines, finding that women are “clearly the focus of
the male gaze. They are portrayed primarily as mere sexual objects, posed in ways that
convey their sexually availability, and scantily clad, waiting to be ogled and possessed by
the male viewer” (p.113). Men in these magazines, however, have identities and are
shown in natural and less sexualized ways. This is shown not only in the images, but also
in the magazine content. The articles in Maxim and Stuff explicitly give advice to men on
how women should look, with a lack of clothing and unrealistic figures. The images thus
match the content, depicting women with perfect bodies and lack of clothing. In this way,
media and advertising content teaches both men and women to equate thinness with
sexiness, and vice versa.
CHAPTER 5
THIN AS SEXY
The media is notorious for praising women’s bodies as sexy when they are thin or
fit, and body shaming them when their weight fluctuates. Thin women are everywhere,
especially in magazines where they’ve been shown to have a, “a thin or ectomorphic

body type” (Lindner, 2004; Umiker-Sebeok, 1996). Not only are magazines flooded with
images of slender women, but they also push their readership to lose weight with
products, tips and advice. They “feature beauty products, fashion, and diets to
keep women focused on exterior ‘problems.’ However, the products themselves claim to
satisfy internal needs for connection, self-worth, and love” (Nordin, 2000, para. 6). The
media creates these exterior problems so that their products can be the solution to looking
and feeling better. Staying thin and dieting is highly emphasized in American society
because a tight, fit body is desirable and a “fat” one is not. This stems from the notion of
the “male gaze” because men are attracted to petite women they can dominate. Markula
(2001) explains that the media contradicts itself because it advertises “firm but shapely,
fit but sexy, strong but thin.” It’s contradictory because women are expected to be fit, but
not too muscular. They are also supposed to be curvy with larger breasts and buttocks,
and simultaneously thin. These contradictions and makes the ideal women impossible to
accomplish, yet women keep trying. Even though “ads with attractive models may have
resulted in lower satisfaction with the self, subjects found the ads appealing and liked the
products featured in them” which confirms research that attractive models are more
favorable than unattractive models (Ritchins, 1991, p.82). A possible explanation for this
is that consumers want to buy the products to improve appearance so that they will be
satisfied in the future, a response advertisers hope to elicit.
It was the rise of eating disorders in women that caused the “thin ideal” in the
media to be examined more closely. According to Silverstein et al. (1986), not only does
the media promote a “slimmer, more weight conscious standard for women than for
men,” but the “standard for bodily attractiveness is slimmer now than it has been in the

past” (p.520). Over the twenty-year period from 1960 to 1980, the ideal body for women
became thinner and thinner (Garner et al, 1980). These authors suggest that popular
culture media such as Playboy and the body types of Miss America Pageant contestants
embody this trend of thinness because the weights and sizes of the models significantly
decreased. From 1970 to 1980, the women who won the pageant were always thinner
than the rest of the contestants (Garner, 1980). Women’s thinner shape in the media was
considered contradictory, considering that the average women had become increasingly
heavier with increasingly better nutrition. Garner (1980) also noted there was an increase
in weight loss articles encouraging women to achieve this ideal body.
Silverstein et al.’s (1986) research is comparable to Garner’s (1980) study
because it also investigates the rise of the culture of thinness. They created four studies
measuring thinness in the media. They analyzed the bodies of television characters as
potential role models, used magazine articles and advertisements to understand the
current standards of attractiveness and examined the curves of female movie stars and
females in photos from women’s magazines. Results indicated that “the standard of
bodily attractiveness presented on television and in popular magazines is slimmer and
more oriented to dieting and staying in shape for women than it is for men” (p.531).
Furthermore, there was a significant decline in the bust to waist ratio from the 1950’s to
the 1980’s in photos of women in female magazines and non-curvaceous bodies were
also increasingly noted in famous female actresses. Women who connect with any type of
media are exposed to a thin “standard of bodily attractiveness” (Silverstein et al. 1986).
One explanation for this standard of bodily attractiveness is the media’s relentless
promotion of the “ideal woman.” So what exactly is the American standard of the ideal

woman? What do all men desire and women compete to achieve? Pieraccini and Schell
(1995) provide the following description:
“Women have traditionally been exploited by some advertisers to sell products.
And in the process, myths about women have been reinforced. Advertisers have
sold us the myth that all women must be thin. Advertisers have sold American
women the myth that the ideal woman is blond. Media campaigns have reinforced
the myth that women must remain youthful to be desirable. The myth
communicated is that product use makes a woman sexy. The reality is that sex
sells” (Pieraccini & Schell, 1995, p. 121-29).
Essentially, the media sends the message all women must be thin and youthful to
be sexy. Particularly, the fashion industry has shifted from curvy to skeletal, where “self-
discipline and efficiency are prized over self-indulgence” (Heller, 2000, p.107). The
industry praises women for dieting, starving and self-restraint in maintaining small
figures with no curves or fat on their bodies (Heller, 2000). A recent study analyzed
advertisements from a collection of 2007 women’s health and fashion magazine issues to
determine how female models were portrayed. Wasylkiw, Emms, Meuse, and Poirier
(2009) found that women were thin in 95% of the fashion magazines and 55% of the
fitness magazines. A mere 6% of the models across magazines had a softer, fuller figure.
Consistent with the “ideal woman,” their overall findings confirm that the majority of
models were young, thin and white. It is clear that thin models have almost become a
staple of our culture, but whether these models are beneficial for advertising remains a
question. University students answered a web survey that asked them to rate a brand after
being exposed to garments worn by thin, overweight and obese models (Aagerup, U.,

2011). As it turns out, brand impression was contingent on the weight of the model
wearing the clothes. Slender models were associated with “competency” and were the
most positive for brand perception. Consequently, “heavier set” models were considered
detrimental to fashion brands because they seem “low in sophistication” (Aagerup, U.,
2011). Heavier set models were viewed as problematic, which speaks to America’s
negative stereotypes about “fatness.” According to Wang (2008), “being fat is one of the
most devastating social stigmas today” because they “are openly stereotyped as mean,
stupid, ugly, unhappy, less competent, sloppy, lazy, socially isolated, and lacking in self-
discipline, motivation and personal control” (p.1900). Weight discrimination exists in
American society where heavier people are denied jobs and treated poorly compared to
thinner people (Wang, 2008). There is a negative stereotype associated with “fatness”
because the assumption is that it is a completely controllable choice. The more that
people believe body weight is in one’s personal control, the more they will discriminate.
However, Wang (2008) says that “just like other chronic diseases, fatness results from the
interaction between genes, environment, and personal choice” (p. 1910). As a result of
this cultural weight discrimination, it is beneficial for advertising companies to employ
skinny models. The large amount of thin models in advertising, in turn, perpetuates the
norm that women have to be thin to be attractive and reinforces negative stereotypes
about weight.
From the standpoint of the male gaze, it is believed that the main criterion in a
female partner is that they are thin and attractive. Wake Forest University Psychology
professor, Dustin Wood, says his studies show men favor slim bodies over heavier ones.
He also says that when it comes to general attraction, “thinness and confidence are kind

of the big two.” Smith, Waldorf and Trembath’s (1990) study examined whether weight
and attractiveness are true qualities men look for in women. Using personal ads in
singles’ magazines, they found that 56.9% of males think physical attractiveness is the
most important characteristic while only 26.4% of females found it important. Thinness is
a trait males look for in a partner because “requests for a thin partner were made by
significantly more males (33.6%) than females (2.2%)” (Smith, Waldorf & Trembath,
1990). Furthermore, a study where men and women rated attractiveness of people in
photos showed that 95% of men consider thinness to be a mark of attractiveness
(Giovanelli, 2009). These studies give credence to the idea that males consider thinness
and attractiveness to be interrelated. Males focus on females for their physical allure
rather than their emotive and non-physical attributes, and these are sexist notions. Studies
have shown that sexist attitudes are associated with a stronger belief that thinness was
important for the attractiveness of women. Swami et al. (2010) measured attitudes
towards women through “various forms of sexism, the tendency to objectify others,
media exposure and endorsement of the thin ideal” (p.365). They found that sexist beliefs
among men predicted ratings of thinner female figures as attractive. Benevolent sexism,
or a tendency to idealize women’s traditional roles and viewing them as subservient, was
especially associated with favoring thin women. The preference for thin women was also
associated with higher scores of objectifying others. The conclusions indicate that sexist
views of women and attractiveness perpetuate gender stereotypes while putting extensive
pressure on women to meet standards of beauty and thinness.
Markula (2001) explains that the culture of thinness is detrimental. “If only slim
and toned women are attractive, most women with normal figures are classified as

unattractive. Consequently, to look attractive in this society, the majority of us have to
engage in activities—like dressing, applying makeup, dieting, exercising, or, most
drastically, reconstructive surgery—to mask or alter our body shapes” in order to achieve
the ideal body (p. 237). In deciding what is and is not attractive, the media is creating
self-esteem issues in women because they cannot measure up to the ideal. It impacts
women’s self-perception because they overestimate the size of their bodies and strive to
be smaller. Myers and Biocca (1992) found that “watching even 30 minutes worth of
television programming and advertising can alter a woman’s perception of her
body”(p.108). Female pop stars and celebrities such as Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian and
Miley Cyrus become icons of beauty and sexuality to audiences (Kellner, 1995). These
celebrities are all over media coverage, praising them for their revealing dress on the red
carpet and sexy “bikini-bod.” The media examines them largely based on physical
appearance, dress and body type. Similarly, Agharad N. Valdivia discusses her research
on lingerie catalogues in a chapter of Katherine Frith’s book Undressing the Ad. Her
research is based on the idea that America has created a “culture of slenderness” in which
“thin-ness” has become a quality that is inseparable with attractiveness (Valdivia, 1997).
Aside from deviations from the norm such as the Dove’s Beauty campaign, the
advertising world only portrays women as impossibly thin. Due to the fact advertisements
are promoted to the general public, these thin women are often perceived to represent the
whole population (Lindner, 2004), when this is not the case. The reality is that women
come in all shapes and sizes (Markula, 2001). Yet, the media still exclusively presents
thin or fit models and consumers continue to feed into it. In purchasing the magazines for

beauty and exercise tips, they are participating in the cycle of oppressive media (Markula,
2001).
CHAPTER 6
SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS
Physical attractiveness has become a highly coveted trait in American society. Its
importance is largely due to the media and its idealized images. The way that individuals
respond to media images determines whether ideal attractiveness is produced on a
societal level. Ritchins (1991) believed that social comparison between the self and the
advertised model often elicits these responses. Social comparison theory is when people
consciously or unconsciously compare themselves to the models in advertising and are
driven to evaluate themselves by contrast and similarity. The result of the comparison
process is known as “satisfaction theory,” which here translates to the evaluation of a
model in advertising. Satisfaction is determined by the amount of discrepancy between
the standard and perceived performance, here being physical attractiveness. If one’s own
perception of their appearance doesn't meet the ideal attractiveness, they will be
dissatisfied. Ads with “highly attractive models have the potential to shift evaluation
standards for attractiveness evaluations” based on whether viewers cognitively
compartmentalize models with real people or as a separate category (p.73). The impact
on attractiveness evaluations is shown in a study that exposed males and females to
Playboy and Penthouse nude females. After viewing the media images, nude females of
average attractiveness were rated lower due to the comparison to idealized images
(Kenrick et al, 1989). The study also showed that male exposure to magazine nudes was
associated with lower satisfaction in sexual partners and believed to be a result of

comparing their partners to media depictions. In sum, they revealed that exposure to
idealized images left men less satisfied with the physical appeal of their partners and
found ordinary women to be less attractive by comparison. It also illustrates that there is a
greater judgment of females as a result of media consumption, which adds to the pressure
on girls and women to embody the “ideal.”
Ritchins (1991) studied female social comparison of attractiveness, and
associated levels of satisfaction as well as impact on perceived standard of attractiveness.
Results showed more than 50% of respondents compare themselves to models and that
“the comparisons were salient and seem to be an ongoing consequence of viewing ads
with beautiful women models, a leisure activity in which virtually all of the women
reported frequent participation” (Ritchins, 1991, p.75). One third reported not only
negative feelings about themselves from viewing these ads, but also motivation to change
their appearance if it was achievable. Subjects exposed to ads with attractive models were
less satisfied with their own appearance and “subjects who saw attractive models rated
stimuli of average attractiveness lower than they would have otherwise” (Ritchins, 1991,
p.79). This means that ad models set a standard for attractiveness in society and that
constant exposure to high levels of attractiveness sets the bar high for real life physical
appearance.
The pressure the media puts on women to be attractive has impacted women and
girls alike. They compare themselves to these images when, in reality, the magazine
models have most likely been extensively photo-shopped and edited to create unrealistic
expectations of beauty and “sexiness.” When it comes to sexy images, Stephen Heller
(2000) explains that the ad producers’ goal is always perfection. He says that “photoshop

is the tool of our search for the perfect, the tool of our mythically male side, the side of
the mind that wants to stretch the Cosmo girl so that she is just a little bit more, well,
perfect” (Heller, 2000, p.33). He explains that sexual drive is based on reproduction and
essentially genetic perfection, so in creating the perfectly proportioned woman
advertisers appeal to our instinct to procreate with the best possible mate. In other words,
images of women are photo-shopped from the perspective of the male-gaze and the
search for body perfection.
Images of women in magazines are also unrealistic because models have most
likely had surgical work done on their bodies, which has now encouraged normal women
to feel surgical changes to their body are necessary to be attractive. According to the
American Society of Plastic Surgeons, “15.6 million cosmetic procedures, including both
minimally-invasive and surgical, were performed in the United States in 2014, an
increase of three percent since 2013” (“Plastic Surgery,” 2015). The most common
surgical procedures in order of their prevalence are as follows: breast augmentation, nose
reshaping, liposuction, eyelid surgery and facelifts. They also explain that buttock
implants and lifts are “among the fastest growing procedures” (“Plastic Surgery,” 2015).
The high demand for plastic surgery shows that women are unhappy with their bodies
and striving for body perfection.
Further studies have shown that the “culture of slenderness,” which advertising
creates, is linked to “diseases such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia and have detected
girls dieting at younger and younger ages” (Valdivia, 1997, p.227). As early as 1991, the
weight of fashion models was 23% lower than the average woman (Valdivia, 1997).
According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Eating

Disorders (2015), approximately 30 million people in the United States suffer from an
eating disorder, whether it is anorexia, bulimia or binge eating. Some of their statistics
include that 91% of women surveyed on a college campus had reported dieting, with 86%
reporting an eating disorder by the age of twenty years old (“National Association,”
2015). The pressure to be thin is a major concern because it has spread to younger and
younger ages. A study used images to survey preadolescent children from public
elementary schools in Indiana and found that that females selected an “ideal self”
significantly thinner than their actual self (Collins, 1991). Their “ideal self” was even
thinner than the male’s selection of “ideal self” and “ideal girl.” During the height and
weight measurement, girls in particular made it clear that they did not want their
classmates to know their weight. It was noted that a second grade girl said that she was
“forty-eight pounds of fat” after being weighed (Collins, 1991). More recently in 2003,
grade-school girls were presented with thin, sexy women and grade school boys with
strong, muscular men. They found a relationship between girl’s responses and
internalization of media images as well as body esteem (Murnen et al., 2003). The
“greater the awareness of the thin ideal for women, the more they wanted to look like the
women pictured and the more important it was judged to look like them,” (p.434). These
young girls considered it important that they become the thin, sexy women observed in
the images. Additionally, the girls had stronger responses to the objectified images of
women than boys did to the objectified images of men; believed to be because girls are
exposed to more of these images and cultural pressures of attractiveness. These studies
show growing weight concerns in pre-adolescents, so it is important to realize that this
has potentially gotten worse with present day pressures to be thin.

Frederickson and Roberts (1997) define self-objectification as the internalization
of an observer’s perspective on one’s own body. It is when women or girls view their
body strictly in terms of how it looks to others and not by its function (Vandenbosch &
Eggermont, 2012; Frederickson & Roberts, 1997). They explain that there is an overlap
between body idealization and self-objectification because body idealization is when one
compares their size and appearance to the ideal, while the emphasis on bodily appearance
as necessary to be beautiful is defined as self-objectification. Self-objectification is
further explained as the emphasis on “appearance-based” body attributes, such as health
and physical fitness (Vandenbosch & Eggermont, 2012, Frederickson & Roberts, 1997),
or when one compares themselves to media projections of the ideal body. Vandenbosch
& Eggermont’s (2012) study showed that, due to the media and sexual content, women
and girls are socialized to have an objectified and critical view of themselves and their
own body. It examined adolescent exposure to sexually objectifying music television,
primetime television programs, fashion magazines and social networking sites in relation
to the internalization beauty ideals, self-objectification, and body surveillance
(Vandenbosch & Eggermont, 2012). They found that girls internalized the sexual media,
exhibiting symptoms of self-objectification and body surveillance. Body surveillance is
the behavioral component of self-objectification, because it is when one treats the body as
an object to manipulate. Individuals exhibiting higher levels of body surveillance devote
more time to monitoring their appearance so they can meet beauty standards (McKinley
& Hyde, 1996). This finding confirms that girls are learning to view themselves for their
exterior appeal at a young age, which has the potential to develop into eating and mental
disorders.

Aside from encouraging body issues, the pervasive “sexy” female role model and
sexual explicitness in the media has played a major role in the increase of adolescent
sexual behavior. Constant exposure to sexually explicit media normalizes and promotes
sex and sexual relations. Adolescents can simply pick up their iPhone, flip on the
television, surf the Internet, flip through a magazine and come across images and ads that
present sexual ideas. Geoffrey Lantos (1987) explains that children do not have the
knowledge to recognize persuasive intent and pay more attention to commercials than
adults. More importantly, they are in a developmental stage “when gender roles, sexual
attitudes, and sexual behaviors are being shaped” (Gruber & Grube, 2000, p.211). Thus,
they are more malleable and therefore are more receptive to sexual content. Research has
shown that adolescent sexuality is associated with media use, as “adolescents use the
media as sources of information about sex, drugs, AIDS, and violence as well as to learn
how to behave in relationships” (Gruber & Grube, 2000, p.211). It teaches them
acceptable behavior and how they should view not only themselves, but the opposite sex.
Girls begin to learn to view their body as objects for male attraction and boys learn that
objectifying women for their bodies is normal. One study found that exposure to sexually
explicit media led males to expect a variety of sexual activities and females to expect sex
early on in relationships (Aubrey et al., 2003).
Reichert et al. (1999) believe that sexual content in advertising has increased
since the sexual revolution and has in turn led to “sexual freedom and permissiveness”
(p.9). Research shows that Americans report increases in their sexual behavior and
having sex at an earlier age, illustrating that the sexual culture of advertising and popular
media is having an impact on sexual freedom (Reichert et al, 1999). According to the

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 47% of U.S. high school students surveyed
in 2013 have reported having sexual intercourse, with 15% reporting sex with four or
more people. The increase in sexual permissiveness has led to health concerns about
sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancy’s. Almost half of the 20 million
new STD’s each year are from youth aged 15 to 24 and in 2013, it was estimated that
273,000 babies were born to teenage girls (“Sexual Risk Behaviors,” 2015).
With these statistics in mind, it is imperative to ask, “Are sexual appeals merely a
marketing tool, interchangeable with other appeals such as humor and fear, or are they
used to promote a deeper quasi-moralizing agenda, such as the idea that casual sex
among young singles is desirable” (Gould, 1994, p. 77)? The impact of this type of media
on social beliefs about sex is important to explore. In particular, we have to look at “those
who are direct targets of the ads and those who might be indirectly affected by them, such
as children” (Gould, 1994, p.76). Previous research has brought to light the harmful
effects sexually explicit media can have on children and young adults. The amount of
sexual content in the media across all different mediums combined with the easy access
to this content is cause for concern (Peter & Valkenburg, 2007). Ward & Friedman
(2006) showed that adolescents exposed to a TV clip objectifying women had increased
notions of women as sex objects and stereotypical attitudes about gender roles. They also
found that more “frequent viewing of music videos and talk shows, and strong
identification with same-sex characters were each associated with greater levels of
dating/sexual experience (p.133).” This association demonstrates that frequent media
exposure has the potential to normalize sex and many sexual partners. In addition,
advertising brands like Calvin Klein and Victoria’s Secret are major contributors to the

pervasive sexual content (Tom Reichert, 2002). The increasing sexual media ideology is
exemplified by a recent Calvin Klein advertising campaign. The campaign sexually
exploited young teens in their ads using suggestive content and imagery. This campaign
was successful and gives credence to the idea that sex sells in advertising, “but only if it
is more shocking and more graphic than preceding campaigns” (Reichert et al., 1999,
p.8). Calvin Klein’s sexual portrayal of young teens in their ads explains why more and
more teens are exhibiting sexual behavior and objectifying their bodies at younger ages.
It teaches women and girls what they “should” look like and how they should behave to
get attention.
It is clear that, not only are adolescents exploring sexuality at younger ages, but
they are also learning to objectify the female body. Peter & Valkenburg (2007) studied
whether sexual media is associated with adolescent’s belief that women are sex objects.
They investigated whether varied levels of sexual explicitness and different media
formats (i.e., magazines, TV, and the internet) had an impact on these beliefs. Aside from
sexually non-explicit magazine and TV content, they found that all other forms of
sexually explicit exposure in the media was positively associated with viewing women as
sex objects. Although their study found exposure to media can determine whether
adolescents in general view women as sex objects, Ward et al. (in press) specifically
examined boy’s perceptions of women. They investigated the relationship between
exposure to sexualizing magazines and boy’s beliefs about female courtship and
objectification. They found “that the more boys consume sexualizing magazines, the
more importance they assign to girls’ body size and sexual body parts” (p.15). Boys that
consumed more of these types of magazines were also more likely to exhibit gender-

stereotypical courtship strategies. Another study examined the impact of media on
adolescent boy’s views of women. They were asked to view commercials of women
meeting the thin ideal and then record whether they thought thinness or attractiveness
were important traits to have in a girlfriend (Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2003). In some
boys, they found exposure to attractive women in the media impacted their beliefs about
the ideal women. Boys that were highly or moderately invested in appearance were
influenced by the commercials; with those highly invested believing that attractiveness
and slimness were important qualifications for a girlfriend. These studies expose how the
media is planting the seed early-on for boys to value women for their bodies and
attractiveness.
These studies detail the many negative repercussions of the sexual objectification
of women. The violence and mistreatment of females is the most alarming form of gender
inequality. Women “are vulnerable to beatings, rape and murder—often by their
husbands or boyfriends, and especially when they try to leave an abusive relationship”
(Lorber, 2010, p. 5). The media fuels the fire “when the bodies of girls are used in sex
work—pornography and prostitution. They are on display in movies, television, and
advertising in Western cultures” (Lorber, 2010, p.5). A 2008 study examined the
relationship of the media’s portrayal of females as sex objects in relation to violence
(Stankiewicz and Rosselli, 2008). By analyzing women as sex objects and victims in
1,988 advertisments from 58 popular U.S. magazines, they found that one in every two
advertisements presented women as sex objects. Consistent with previous findings,
men’s magazines portrayed women as sex objects significantly more than any other
magazines. More importantly, seventy-three percent of ads that showed women as

victims also showed them as sex objects (Stankiewicz & Rosselli, 2008). The
“simultaneous presentation of women as sexualized and distressed reinforces the
association between women’s sexuality and the experience of physical and emotional
pain,” which could potentially normalize violence or mistreatment of women (p.587).
Specifically, it was reported that 9% of women in men’s magazines displayed them as
sex objects and as “targets of violence, manipulation, or sexual aggression, as lifeless, or
in bondage,” showing that “women’s submission is eroticized in a subset of
advertisements” (p.587). The results from the Stankiewixz and Rosselli (2008) study shed
light on the negative ways female sexual subordination in advertising images can lead to
harmful cognitions, behavior and action in the real world. Viewing women as sex objects
degrades the female gender and their worth, representing them as vulnerable targets to be
controlled and dominated by men.
CHAPTER 7
ENCODING SEX INTO ADS
Sexual content in advertising has been generally defined by Reichert and
Lambiase (2003), as any stimulus within the ad that people interpret as sexual. Reichert
and Lambiase (2003) use Richmond and Hartman’s (1982) research on sex in advertising
to define it as “overt message elements often include physically attractive models whose
alluring bodies are partially revealed by provocative apparel. More subtle sexual content
such as double entendre, innuendo, and suggestive meaning requires viewers to complete
the intended reference” (p.121). Sex in advertising is also defined as “mediated messages
(i.e., television commercials, magazine ads) containing sexual information with the
persuasive purpose of selling branded goods” (Reichert, 2002, p. 243). When one thinks

of sexual content in the media, they may think of a buxom women in bathing suits
washing cars in commercials or even remember Christina Aguilera dressed in a schoolgirl
outfit with a short skirt, shirt unbuttoned licking a lollipop in a Sketchers ad (Cortese,
1999). It can also be fetish-ized objects and exaggerated or emphasized parts of the body
(Reichert, 2002). Kurtz (1997) explains that “often the female body is fragmented into
components, each part given separate allure through products.” Moreover, there is is a
degree that sexual content can be related to the advertising strategy and that includes low
and high association (Reichert, 2002). Low association is when some aspect of sexual
content is used to grab product attention, such as with an attractive woman posing next to
a car in promoting a car company. In contrast, high association is when the sexual content
is inseparable from the ad message. This is common in beauty or hygiene ads where the
message directly says that using the product will make you sexier or attract more suitors.
From a historical standpoint, the United States has used females and sexual allure
to grab the viewer’s attention and create product interest. The public nature of advertising
allows for detailing the progression of how products have been sold and how females
have been portrayed throughout the years. Reichert and Lambiase (2003) explain that sex
in advertising can be traced to the 1850’s when advertisers used nude women to represent
tobacco brands, saloon and alcohol ads. The post-Industrial Revolution era of the 1890’s
led to a shift in consumer necessity to buy and bargain. The focus became on comparing
the best competing brands, with women now often the major targets for consumption.
Advertising in the 1920’s sold products based on glamour and enjoyment, focusing more
“on the consumer and less on the product. In the process, they confirmed an
elemental truth. The consumer was a she. Advertising’s New Woman embodied

the promise of modernity--youth, sexual freedom, style, and conspicuous
consumption. She embraced ‘The Look’ preached by the missionaries of
the markets. Her life was an ensemble of new styles” (Kurtz, 1997, para. 6).
This was the turning point in advertising strategy where leisure and looks became
the selling point, and product consumption was associated with helping women achieve
superficial and materialistic desires. However the 1920’s also brought women the right to
vote, and in the next 10 years, the number of female college graduates increased 300%
(Kurtz, 1997). The new social dynamic led to more powerful and independent images of
women yet the following years of depression led to advertisers desperate attempts to sell
products with emotion, such as sexual content. In the 1950’s, the setting of ads was in the
home with the housewife, emphasizing the gender spheres of men producing goods
outside the home and women consuming them within the home. Thus, advertising
“idealized the domestic sphere with women as its guardian,” (Kurtz, 1997). This brought
early research of women as the “sex-role” type “which suggested that women were
highly stereotyped in the home, as decorative sex objects, dependent on men, and not
making important decisions” (Valdivia, 1997, p.226). A decorative sex object meant that
the woman was placed in an ad for her body and looks—an object of decoration. Sex,
youth and freedom became highly prevalent in the advertising of the 1960’s with “wider
categories of beauty to choose from, ranging from waiflike to voluptuous” (Kurtz, 1997).
It was during the 1960’s women’s movement that sex in advertising began to be
researched; predicting sexuality in advertising would only increase over the years
because of the media’s predilection to play on gender and sex (Reichert et al, 1999).
Kurtz (1997) explains the dream woman of the time embodied many identities such as

good chef, mother and independent working woman, all the while staying sexy and
keeping up with the pressures of the culture of beauty. At this point, advertisers had only
begun to realize that they should market other female ethnicity and races besides their
predominantly white models. The images of a “real woman” continued to be
contradictory, as they are shown as sexually available, as a domestic housewife or as a
career professional. Later, images of women dressed “sexually” saturated the media in
the 1980’s within music videos and prime time television (Reichert et al., 1999). This
was believed to be a result of sexual freedom and liberalism during this period. However,
it was also argued that factors such as awareness of sexually transmitted diseases,
conservative politics, family values and a consciousness of sexism in ads, hindered the
increase in sexual content (Reichert, 1999). Towards the 1990’s, female images became
gradually more modern, taking into account different facets of the female gender such as
age, ethnicity and accomplishments. Yet, it seems that sex in advertising is still widely
used today and that “advertising's prevailing model of beauty remains young, white, and
emaciated” (Kurtz, 1997).
Sexually explicit advertising is effective because it connects with our biological
drive as humans. Anthony J. Cortese (1999) indicates, “the exposure of one’s flesh seems
to trigger primeval sexual motivations in members of the other sex” (p.32). He further
explains that our cultural ideas about sex can simply be explained by biology and
evolution. In some animal species, the male tries to get the females attention by fighting
other males or exhibiting displays of strength. Reproduction is a driving force of all
species and lust is an instinct that facilitates it. Men and women use many tactics to
attract a partner with men using primarily power and resources while women “are more

likely to display evidence of their youth, health and fertility in the way they dress and
accessorize themselves” (Cortese, 1999, p.30). Lust and sexual allure in advertising are a
reflection of society and human’s most basic function of reproduction and sexual
selection. Men are naturally attracted to health and fertility in women in such a way that
“a pretty face and shapely legs, buttocks, and breasts signal youth and health and tap into
the male’s primary urge: to reproduce” (Cortese, 1999, p.31). Advertisers play on our
most basic urges to arouse male attention at sexualized images of women.
There are a variety of ways that women can be sexually advertised including
degree of dress, playful obscurity of body parts, innocent facial expressions and
permissive posing (Heller, 2000). Other forms portray women and men engaging in
sexual interaction or use textual innuendos, camera framing or context to convey the
sexual message (Reichert, 2002). Body display, or degree of dress is primarily used when
“attractive models wearing clothing that accentuates well-defined physiques. Revealing
clothing includes women in short skirts, underwear and low cut blouses...” (p.244). In
ads, nudity refers to the appearance of a naked woman, with only the genitals or breasts
covered. Reichert and Ramirez (2000) asked respondents in a study to describe the sexual
aspects of an ad. Camera eye contact and flirtatious gestures such as head tilt and neck
exposure were considered sexual. Interaction between two models could be kissing,
caressing or any suggestive contact. Reichert (2002) says that setting can set the tone for
the sexual nature of an ad, shown in romantic beach locations or dimly lit bedrooms.
Textual innuendos are the verbal way that images often get sexual meaning. Reichert
(2002) uses the example of a rice ad, where a woman is shown with her finger between

her lips with the sexually suggestive line, “the first time it kind of scared me” (p.272).
These outline some of the basic concepts of sexual content in advertising.
The vast majority of people describe sexual content in terms of visual ad imagery
(Reichert & Ramirez, 2000). This confirms Soley & Kurzbard’s (1986) research on the
sexual content of magazine advertisements published during 1964 and 1984 to determine
how sexually explicit ads have changed over time. These dates were selected for analysis
because they represent periods before and after the sexual revolution. Although the
overall percentage of sexual content did not increase from 1964 to 1984, they noted that
the type of sexual content did in fact change. Not only did sexual illustrations become
more overt, but also visual sex increased while verbal references decreased over the
twenty-year period. Visual sex was most represented through dress and undress, and
Soley and Kurzbard (1986) found that “female models are more likely to be portrayed as
suggestively clad, partially clad or nude than male models” (p..53). The research asserts
women are more sexualized because males dominate the industry and find these
depictions of women appealing (Soley & Kurzbard, 1986). Examples of ads characteristic
of this increase in sexual dress of the 1980’s include Calvin Klein’s fragrance featuring a
nude couple embracing or a financial advice magazine ad showing women lying around
in lingerie (Soley & Reid, 1988). Using coding for nudity, a study examined men’s
(Esquire and Playboy) and women’s (Redbook and Cosmopolitan), as well as general
interest magazines (Time and Newsweek). The results confirmed that models seductively
or suggestively dressed had increased from the 1960’s. Comparing magazines by gender,
it is significant to report that females were more likely to be “sexily dressed” than males
in men’s magazines. In 1984, 43.7% showed women suggestively clad, partially clad, or

nude. Moreover, half of the ads presenting female models alone were nude. Soley and
Reid (1988) conclude that advertising is a form of communication that reflects cultural
changes; specifically in regards to the way women are viewed. The findings show women
are much more likely to be dressed “sexy” and shown wearing less than males. They
attribute this to the advertising industry reacting to increasing sexual openness. Similar to
Soley and Kurzbard’s (1986) and Soley and Reid’s (1988) study, Reichert et al (1999)
showed that compared to 1983, models were portrayed more explicitly in 1993, with
women three times more likely to be portrayed explicitly than men. It is evident that there
has been a steady increase in promiscuous dress and nudity in female media images.
Sut Jhally (1987) explains that people are innately attracted to sexual imagery
such as high heels, short skirts and nudity. He reasons that our culture has led all of us to
“objectify women in some way at some time” (p.139). Researchers Katherine Frith et al.
(2005) examined how the culture in United States conceptualizes beauty and sex appeal
in comparison to advertisements in East Asian societies. Their cross-cultural content
analysis comprised of women’s fashion and beauty magazines from Singapore, Taiwan
and the U.S. They analyzed beauty type as indicated by Englis, Solomon and Ashmore’s
(1994) content categories, as well by the race of models and type of product. The findings
showed that the U.S. advertisements featured “Sexual” and “Sex Kitten” content
categories more often than in Singapore and Taiwanese ads, illustrating the sexualization
of women in American culture. Similarly, they found that cross-culturally, Caucasian
models were more likely to be portrayed as a “sensual” or “sexy” type. The lack of
portrayal of non-Caucasion models in U.S. advertisements illustrates that “whiteness” is
still considered a factor in beauty ideals. In regards to product type, they found a

significant difference in the products advertised in each culture with “beauty products
occupying the greatest proportion in Singapore (40%) and Taiwan (49%), while clothing
occupied the largest proportion of ads in the U.S (54%)” (Frith et al., 2005, p. 9). The
researchers explain that the U.S. emphasis on clothing is related to body because
“clothing is designed to call attention to women’s bodies and ‘to make them attractive to
viewers’” (p.11). In American culture, the type of body a woman has is directly related to
her beauty while Asian beauty ideals are more related to facial features. Reichert and
Ramirez (2000) also found that the ads were considered “sexy” predominantly due to the
physical features of models such as clothing, physique and attractiveness. They drew the
same conclusion as Frith et al. (2005), that American culture places a large emphasis on
physical appearance (p. 271). They found men were more likely to define sexiness based
on physical features, with 71% of men and 58% of women indicating it as a defining
characteristic (Reichert & Ramirez, 2000). These findings illustrate that the U.S. is more
liberal with advertising and believes that “sex sells,” typically depicting females and their
bodies in advertising to allure consumers.
It is not news that women are the preferred gender for sex content in the
advertising industry. Reichert and Lambiase (2003) say, “women are the primary content
of sexual information in ads” (p.122). In 1999 more than 40% of women in mainstream
magazine advertising had been shown to be “provocatively dressed” (Reichert &
Lambiase, 2003). Research conducted at Wesleyan University in 2008 found that half of
the advertisements in fifty popular American magazines portrayed women as sex objects.
“Sex object” was defined by posture, facial expression, makeup, activity, camera angle
and amount of skin shown (De Melker, 2013). This exemplifies the “hypersexualization

of women” in the media, which is “when a person’s value comes only from his or her
sexual appeal or behavior to the exclusion of other characteristics,” as defined by the
American Psychological Association. Sarah Murnen, a social psychologist studying the
hypersexualization of women, says that, “We’ve seen three trends associated with these
images. It’s now common to see more parts of the body exposed. There is more emphasis
on the size of women’s breasts. And easy access to all these images has made it all more
acceptable to us” (De Melker, 2013, para.3). The breasts are a well-known source of male
sexual attraction. The amount of cleavage or skin showing around the chest will often
attract male arousal. In addition, a small waist is a sign of vulnerability that “appeals to
males self-identification...as a protector” and “an exaggerated leg length appears to be
more adult, and therefore, more sexual.” Hair grooming “is also an important component
of attraction and gender display. A smile symbolizes approval or attraction. Unconscious
blushing is considered to be very sexual. Blushing starts in the cheeks and spreads to the
rest of the face and often to other parts of the head and body. Males are attracted to
female blushing because it signifies innocence. Makeup mimics a blush, with an
emphasis on red cheeks” (Cortese, p. 34).
As shown from Soley and Kurzbard (1986), Soley and Reid (1988) and Reichert
et al (1999), magazine ads most often used women’s lack of dress as visual sex appeal.
Nudity and underwear ads are typical portrayals of sexual dress in advertising, especially
in the United States according to Paek and Nelson (2007). Female nudity was examined
across the countries of Brazil, China, South Korea, Thailand and the U.S. in television
and magazine media. It was concluded that Thailand and the United States have the
highest degree of female nudity media (Paek and Nelson, 2007). The authors attribute the

high degree of nudity as partially due to a lack of United States media censorship.
Furthermore, magazine ads were found to present higher degrees of nudity compared to
television ads across all five countries.
The findings from Paek and Nelson (2007) illustrates the sexualization of the
female body in American culture. Researchers Hatton and Trautner (2011) studied the
sexualization of women through nudity, text and body position on the covers of Rolling
Stone from 1967 to 2009. Building off Goffman’s (1979) frame analysis, they created a
unique evaluation of the magazine covers; finding that women are “hypersexualized”
compared to men. With the aforementioned variables of nudity, text and body position,
they confirmed that there was a small increase in the sexualization of men but a very
large increase in the sexualization of women over the four decades. In the 1960s, 11% of
men and 44% of women on the covers of Rolling Stone were sexualized compared to the
2000s, where 17% of men were sexualized and 83% of women were sexualized (Hatton
& Trautner, 2011). In the 2000’s, 83% of men fell in the nonsexualized category while
74% of images of women are more likely to be “hypersexualized,” exhibiting many sex
signals. Hatton and Trautner (2011) say that “often women in these images were shown
naked (or nearly so); they were shown with their legs spread wide open or lying down on
a bed—in both cases sexually accessible; they were shown pushing up their breasts or
pulling down their pants; they were described as having ‘dirty minds’ or giving ‘nasty
thrills’; and, in some cases, they were even shown to be simulating fellatio or other sex
acts” (Hatton & Trautner, 2011, p.274). The researchers of the study concluded that the
increase in hypersexualization has defined the socially acceptable ways to exhibit
femininity. The concept of “sexy” has been homogenized in ads, with few other

perspectives about sexiness to challenge it. These ads educate America on the way a
woman should look and pose to be “sexy” for male onlookers.
CHAPTER 8
THE USE OF SEXUAL APPEALS
Advertising itself “exhorts us to be in a never-ending state of excitement, never to
tolerate boredom or disappointment, to focus on ourselves, never to delay gratification, to
believe that passionate sex is more important than anything else in life, and always to
trade in old things for new” (Nordin, 2000, para.4). Americans practice individualism in
the sense that there is a strong focus on the self, and advertisers use this to their
advantage. If there is something that will enhance one’s appearance, status, popularity,
leisure or pleasure—American’s want it and they want it immediately. Sex, intimacy,
partnership and pleasure are all things individuals of our culture desire, and these are all
displayed in ad imagery in order to spark interest and sell a product. Nordin (2000)
discusses Kilbourne’s psychological theory that advertisers utilize four basic human
desires strategically and those are vitality, empowerment, knowledge for self and others,
and connection. They use the desire for sexual connection and beauty as ways to attract
consumers to their product or brand on a deeper instinctual level. This desire for beauty,
excitement and sexual connection provide the basic foundation for the use of sexual
appeals in advertising.
Stephen Heller (2000) makes an important distinction in advertising’s trajectory,
pointing out that sex appeals were not originally only male-oriented. Fashion magazines
are filled with images of beautiful women in order to send the message that the product
can make female audiences more attractive. In Katherine Frith’s Undressing the Ad:

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