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Contorted
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 <Background:
Women are also objectified in advertising in numerous respects in
which their bodies are contorted. As is common to forms of
objectification, the control of the woman’s body is complete. Directors of
advertising shoots decide how bodies will be presented on the ads, and in
some cases, the result is a pose that is uncomfortable. Clearly, one might
argue that the use of contortion is to achieve visual interest. The viewer
is more likely to look at ads like the ones portrayed below if they
contain visually arresting poses and situations. But the more important
question always is: what is the effect of
the overall visual complex created by gendered advertising?
For example, if ads like these, or others like those of women portrayed in
visually subordinate ways, come to dominate some part of our gendered
reality (whether they did do by direct or indirect means), how does the
"real world" (the non-advertising world in which we live) respond? When
our visual association of women as contorted beings overlaps with our
social and political perceptions of women that is one of the greatest
concerns. The Ads:
Consider any of the following ads (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) and ask if the
way in which the women's bodies are positioned seems comfortable? Resources:
Goffman's classic Gender Advertisements has some of the most useful
information related to the specific poses of women in ads (1979). Discussion Questions:
(1) As you look over each of the ads below, do you believe that any of
them symbolically represent women in the "real world?" Why or why not? (2)
How do you respond to arguments that contorted images of women are
justifiable because they are meant to be visually stimulating to sell a
product? (3) Do the visual depictions of women affect our social, sexual,
political or other relations in the world? Please discuss some examples.
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<presented by Scott A.
Lukas, Ph.D.>
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