Blog Post 3
Advertising has a strong impact on the way the female gender views itself based on the images used to sell certain products and the underlying messages they convey. In terms of Victoria’s Secret lingerie, it is marketed to women which advertisements use women to sell this product through sexuality. The images that are used are thin and beautiful women who are wearing the lingerie, and therefore, the marketing strategies utilized are to express to women that by buying this product, they can be just as sexy as the Victoria’s Secret models. Although, these images give the female gender messages that influence their sense of self regarding how they must exist in the world. This product is marketed and sold on the basis of gender in terms of the notion that women have sex appeal. The gendered marketing of Victoria’s Secret lingerie illustrates how our culture is infatuated with sex, giving women and girls the idea that they must look a certain way to be accepted which can be detrimental to their health.
From the images, it is evident to see how Victoria’s Secret lingerie is marketed on the basis of gender regarding the tactic of female sexuality to sell this product. Each of the women is seductive, in a sexy position, thin, and gorgeous which reflects how our culture places a strong emphasis on sex appeal to reach out to consumers. In “Image-Based Culture: Advertising and Popular Culture,” Sut Jhally states, “The end result is that the commodity is part of an increasingly eroticized world—that we live in a culture that is more and more defined erotically through commodities” (253). It is apparent through the Victoria’s Secret lingerie advertisements that this product is gendered marketed based on women’s eroticism being used, confirming how our world is defined by sex. This company as well as the rest of our culture prides itself on utilizing sex to sell a product, which the goal of the advertisements is to make women believe that they will feel sexy by buying the lingerie. Yet, it is because of this gendered marketing strategy that young women are unhappy with who they are, since they are surrounded by images and messages that convey how they must look like the women shown in the ads.
The way Victoria’s Secret lingerie advertisements emphasize beauty and thinness causes young women looking at the images used to sell this product to view their bodies from the wrong perspective and therefore detrimental effects come about. In “‘The More You Subtract, the More You Add’: Cutting Girls Down to Size,” Jean Kilbourne states, “This tendency to view one’s body from the outside in—regarding physical attractiveness, sex appeal, … and weight as more central to one’s physical identity than health, … —has many harmful effects, including … the development of eating disorders….” (260). Since this product is marketed and sold based on the female gender, women are influenced by the underlying messages that the sexy model images express which are to be sexy is to be thin and flawless. Young women are lead to only consider their physical appearance as most important rather than what is on the inside due to the stress placed on women’s bodies and sexuality. By constantly being surrounded by advertisements such as those marketing Victoria’s Secret lingerie, which never utilize any other images except women who are thin and attractive, it impacts the female gender’s sense of self, causing women to take drastic and harmful measures to alter their bodies according to our culture’s ideals as well as obsessions.
Works Cited
Jhally, Sut. “Image-Based Culture: Advertising and Popular Culture.” Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-Reader. 2nd ed. Ed. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2003. 249-57.
Kilbourne, Jean. “‘The More You Subtract, the More You Add’: Cutting Girls Down to Size.” Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-Reader. 2nd ed. Ed. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2003. 258-67.
Victoria’s Secret Advanced Bra. Advertisement. 18 May 2010
<http://blog.lib.umn.edu/raim0007/gwss1001/2007/04/>.
Victoria’s Secret Bombshell. Advertisement. 18 May 2010
<http://www.victoriassecret.com/>.
Victoria’s Secret Catalogue Cover: Free Gift. Advertisement. 18 May 2010
Victoria’s Secret Catalogue Cover: Holiday. Advertisement. 18 May 2010
Victoria’s Secret Catalogue Cover: Pink and Black Bra. Advertisement. 18 May 2010 <http://img443.imageshack.us/i/vsfallpreview2003cover0xy.jpg/>.
Victoria’s Secret Catalogue Cover: Resort. Advertisement. 18 May 2010
Victoria’s Secret Christmas Catalogue Cover. Advertisement. 18 May 2010
Victoria’s Secret Diamond Bra. Advertisement. 18 May 2010
Victoria’s Secret Panties. Advertisement. 18 May 2010
Victoria’s Secret Push-Up Bra. Advertisement. 18 May 2010
<http://stereogum.com/archives/commercial-appeal/joanna-newsom-victorias-secret_063052.html>.
Excelled:
ReplyDeleteOne area that I think you excelled in was the way you described an image-based culture. From talking about Victoria Secret models as selling sex you were able to show how our culture is obsessed with an idea that this lingerie will make them feel erotic and sexy. A quote that would have also worked well is from the same article talking about how we only have the pleasure of the image and are not left satisfied with the goods.
The second area that I thought you did very well with was your choice of quotes from the Jean Killbourne article. I felt that the quote described perfectly what you were trying to convey from your collage. This idea that to be pretty you must be skinny is represented by the fact that all of the Victoria Secrets advertisements show these skinny “perfect” models. These models are generally what young girls aspire to look like.
Improvement:
One area that I think could use some improvement is the quote from Jhally. In that paragraph you talk about eroticism and selling sex but I think the quote could have been more specific. Also, you could have used a different quote from Jhally talking about how women are not satisfied with the product sometimes after they receive it because they are given the impression that they will be sexy like the advertisements.
The next area that I feel you could have expanded on is your paragraph from Jhally. The examples and evidence that you use to back up the quote goes better with talking about how today we are extremely image based. It is true that these ads are selling the idea of eroticism but I don’t really feel that the women are left feeling unhappy because the lingerie does not make them feel erotic. I feel that they are unhappy because they do not look like the models pictured.
Overall I really enjoyed reading your piece and how you analyzed the Victoria Secret product line. I really liked how you stuck to one brand compared to various forms of lingerie!
Alysse-
ReplyDeleteOverall, nice work on the assigment. The collage and write-up are nicely cohesive; however, the one issue that sticks out is the level of ambition of your argument. Logically ambitious theses are the goal for these assignments. I think you chose an argument that is almost too ambitious to be possible to prove with two paragraphs and a collage :o)
Just remember that the scope of your argument should reflect the scope of the assignment. Everything else is quite clear (that you wrote and conveyed in the images!
:0)
Jessie