The ad I chose was for a tailoring advertisement by Duncan Quinn who is a luxurious British tailor. This ad caused a major controversy in the media because of its provocative view on women. I felt that the image had no relation to the main subject of the advertisement, to me the image is disturbing.

I thought that this ad was very controversial, as it shows a lifeless woman in her underwear dragged across a bonnet of a car while the man holds a neck tie around her body. The image seems to call out male domination over women because of how both are dressed very differently and also how they are positioned, the man being above the woman shows power whereas the woman’s position is seen as being submissive. The man in the image is dressed in a full outfit with a smug smile to his face and in comparison to the woman she wears nothing but her bra and pants. This clearly shows how women are used as sex objects for men. As well as the man’s facial expression the image gives off a sinister feeling due to the whole image being black and white, the background being in pitched black suggests that this was taking place at night-time where it would have been quieter and fewer people around. The ad overall shows a misogynistic and sexist approach towards women in which pushes ethical boundaries.

Furthermore, I read a book which talks about gender and culture and under a section on ‘Women as Victims and Sex Objects/Men as Aggressors’ the beginning of the paragraph states that “in media’s representation of relationships is that women continue to be portrayed as sex objects for men’s pleasure. In this representation, the very qualities women are encouraged to develop (beauty, sexiness, passivity, and powerlessness) in order to meet cultural ideals of femininity contribute to objectifying and he dehumanizing them.” With the pressure of having the ideal beauty and body in society for women, it encourages them to change their appearance in order to look like the “perfect woman” as they feel they don’t look good enough and as a result women feel like they’re finally part of the “cultural ideals”. This then adds to the factor of men objectifying women to seeing them as perfect women. As well as advertising for men, the goal or image that is associated would be based around hyper masculinity and violence. Additionally, games and music video show portrayals of objectifying women on a high scale. Popular video games tend to use violence as a way to win at the end. An example, Grand Theft Auto V is known for its violence and high crime game plot, the women in this game play a part of being strippers in which they get money thrown at or being prostitutes to be picked up and get killed. As well as music videos especially in rap videos women are seen dancing provocatively and wearing less clothes. These are the kind of factors that insinuate men to think it’s okay to objectify women, to an extent where young teenagers may even be influenced.

Bibliography: 

[1] Wood, J.T., (2009) Gendered lives. Communication, Gender and Culture. Boston, Wadsworth.