November 29th, 2012.
Irene Cruz
2100 D Delaware Ave
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Dear Irene:
I am aware you have just begun middle school, the very
beginning of the adolescent years, now going to school with older kids. By
being surrounded by these older kids you will eventually be coming face to face
with a variety of challenges or put downs. Some of these bumps on the road
could be insignificant and others may be crucial to your friendships, life and
school life but whether they have to do with a guy or girl keep in mind that
you have no lesser value than any of them. “What is he talking about?” you may
be wondering, it is for a fact that for many years woman have been looked down
upon in this nation by men until they had won the right to vote in 1920. Since
then society has progressively opened their eyes to see the value in women. By
being hard working, breaking through struggles and striving for their goals
they have moved forward to gain their stature on equal grounds with men. Even
so, after many years women continue to be looked down upon; by being
objectified, dehumanized and portrayed as objects through the media women have
a difficult time living and growing up in this society compared to men.
In the world of marketing advertisements are essential to showing off services or products out to the public eye, more importantly it is the way these ads are exposed to them. There are multiple techniques to advertising such as the use of celebrities, humor, or beauty. Beauty mainly applies to the majority of these advertisements because everyone is attracted to it. Beauty hooks their attention. We could all walk down the street and see billboards of beautiful women holding something in their hands or watch commercials on T.V, see posters showing off them wearing underwear and bras and we would know what exactly is being advertised. There are also other advertisements that, on a personal basis, takes a moment to realize what exactly it is that is being advertised unless that name of company or clothing line is well-known. These advertisements are ones that dehumanize, objectify and portray women as a lesser being or as mere objects. Phyllis B. Frank, from NOMAS (National Organization for Men Against Sexisms), remarks "[If] pictures never lie? Think about the hundreds or thousands pictures of Women that we see, every month and year, in magazines, on TV, in the movies, in advertising. How do these pictures compare with what we see when we look at the real women around us, every day?"
Jean Kilbourne, author of Can`t Buy My Love: How Advertisement
Changes the Way We Think and Feel and producer of an award winning documentary
about images of women in ads called Killing us Softy, Slim
Hopes, thoroughly speaks of the negative effects that objectification of
woman brings to our culture. Take from Kilbourne's "Two Ways a Woman
Can Get Hurt" she says "the ad that ran in Czech version of Elle
[portrays] three men attacking a woman seems ambiguous, the terrifying
image is being used to sell jeans to women."(583) This particular image
has a man with a firm grip on the woman's pants lifting her up, hanging by his
grip on her pants a second male is grasping to her leg and the third to her
arm. Other examples from Kilbourne includes a shadow boxer throwing a punch
into the midsection of a woman's shadow, a beautiful model with most of her breast
exposed having sign reading "Bitch" to her chest, a young boy lifting
up the dress of a woman, a woman pinned against a wall by good looking male
with a grasp of her hair and as Kilbourne exclaims "[m]en are also
encouraged to never take no for an answer. Ad after ad implies that girls and
women don`t really mean "no" when they say it, that women are only
teasing when they resist men's advances." (579) It is her belief that
these ads have a tie with the cultural abuse going on; it may not be directly
but the constant portrayal of women as objects, being pinned and dominated by
men triggers the thought of “since they show it on the media, maybe it is
alright to treat women that way.” Women face many dangers that men would most
likely ever experience throughout their lifetime, these advertisements add on
to what women face already.
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Take a look at a woman and a man. Both are the same on many
levels, yet very different at the same time. An incomparable difference between
the two is the way their surroundings affect them emotionally, physically and
mentally. In terms of safety and own personal status men do not get messed
around with. What do I mean by that? I am claiming that men do not get harassed
or get looked down upon from being objectified; there aren`t any consequences close
to the ones women face from that. It is easy to see that men do not have to
worry about being raped, harassed sexually or being mistreated by their
partners or strangers because it rarely happens. We don`t come across men on
the news being a victim or rape, domestic violence or telling of their fears
walking alone at night no matter how good looking they may be. Personally as a
man I tend to enjoy late night walks after dark, I could go alone or with a few
friends but every time I do go I rarely see a woman on her own. It is always
with a friend or two always being accompanied by someone, why? Because they are
most likely to face all of the dangers we men don`t worry about. With the
negative effects ads give off from women being objectified women face more of
these dangers. From being a child to a grown woman in these times of age, going
through varieties of abuse, physical and verbal which takes a toll on them and
their self-esteem and leads to addiction of drugs, food, alcohol, cigarettes
and self-harm. A close friend of mine gets bullied for being big, although she
is not and is fit this constant pestering of not being skinny enough, pretty
enough, lady-like enough has caused her to go into depression and constantly
diets and over exercises to meet these demands. Demands that make have a
connection to the media where the majority of actors and actresses in movies,
T.V shows and even commercials are beautiful fit people. From personal
experience I have not faced any of these things, or know of any male friend
that has come close to facing these problems. Of course though, men also have
their own set of bumps on the road they have to face and overcome, but nothing
like this.
Why are the majority of the women in ads beautiful? Is it
messaging that that`s how women should look like in this nation? Models are
dressed properly and others with little clothes, posed in a way that makes them
seem vulnerable with the act or facial expression of fear, being submissive,
temptation all that makes men think “she wants it.” All of these factors
exposed to the public eye diminish how seriously we men take women. Some women dress
in a way that make men take second looks, notice how attractive they are and
even arouse their desires to have a woman like that but still keep themselves controlled.
Others excuse themselves by saying “she dressed that way so she must have
wanted it”, “if she didn`t want it why was she staring at me like that?” “If
she didn`t want any attention like this why did she go out dressed like that?”
Others find it appropriate to calm them ruthless terms such as slut, whore,
bitch, and much more without knowing how much damage all of that causes.
Overall, with all of these difficult things women face as they
grow up they overcome it. Overcome all of the mistreatment, derogatory terms
and become successful. Women have become more independent, living life without
the need of a man like single mothers, my own mother, working hard to bring up
their kids like the many others out there. As women have progressively begun to
get their values noticed, most men have grown to respect them for who they are.
There are still those who have not and don`t do so unfortunately, but even so
coming across them makes a women stronger. So in the end, Irene, you and others
may face many of these struggles in life but stand strong and know you are if
not the same, better than men.
Sincerely your brother, Jorge.
