If you have ever watched the Super Bowl, you have probably seen girls mud wrestling over a Bud Light. Perhaps you have even seen Kate Upton washing a Mercedes. If you missed those, you definitely saw the naked girl who covered herself in Doritos. These types of Super Bowl ads are the ones that go viral, get remixed to the beat of popular songs and get edited into slow motion. However, these are also the ads that get the most heat for objectifying women. Critics argue that these ads portray women as sexual objects. They argue that these ads cross the line of sexy and venture into the offensive zone. While these critics raise valid points, they often overlook an integral part of the problem.
These advertisements reduce men just as much as they objectify women. Sexy advertisements are created under the assumption that men are only motivated by sex appeal. These ads assume that a single organ controls all aspects of a man’s life. Sure, there are many instances where men are easily driven by sex appeal. If you have ever worn a low cut top, then you know just how powerful sex appeal can be. However, these ads take this idea and twist it. These ads portray men as being powerless to their desires. The commercials that are played over and over again depict the same story: a woman does something sexy and a man cannot handle himself. He no longer has control over his mind or his body.
There is a problem in saying that men are only motivated by sex appeal. It ignores all other aspects of who they are as people. It demeans their accomplishments and aspirations by reducing them down to one stereotype. And by seeing this message played over and over again, I worry that young boys might start to believe that this is how they are supposed to be when they grow up. I worry that women will watch these ads and believe that this is the way that all men are. If these fears become realities, we are setting future generations up for failure. We are telling future generations that it is ok to buy into these ideas about men and women. We are telling them that it is ok to stereotype.
What I am arguing for really does not have to do with men or women; it has to do with people as a whole. These ads simplify women into sexual objects and simplify men into sexual beasts. By boiling people down to these simple characteristics, it makes it incredibly easy to pass judgments about people. Saying “she is a slut” or “he is a pig” are ways that we perpetuate these stereotypes every day. It is so easy to make assumptions based on gender, but these assumptions can often be misleading.
This conversation raises the question of how we stop stereotyping and sexism in the media. The Representation Project is off to a great start with their #NotBuyingIt Campaign. The goal of the project is for people to tweet #NotBuyingIt at a company after seeing a sexist ad. The project has picked up a ton of momentum and even convinced the company, GoDaddy, to change their notorious Super Bowl commercials. However, I would love to see this mission taken one step further. Right now, the campaign is only about sexism against women in the media. However, what we really need is to apply the #NotBuyingIt campaign against gender stereotyping as a whole.
P.S. The greatest ad ever made:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQB7QRyF4p4
#BuyingIt