It’s Thursday night at Gloria’s Restaurant on Greenville Avenue and Luz Espinoza is at the bar waiting for drinks. Once they are ready the bartender puts them on a tray and she begins to walk around the club. She is dressed in a short denim skirt with a black muscle shirt and stiletto heels. As she gets close to a group of men they start to compliment her. She greets them and asks if they would like complementary drinks. They agree with smiles on their faces. Espinoza has done her job.
“Obviously they put you in that provocative clothes to get men’s attention,” said Espinoza, an SMU student and a promotional model who works at local nightclubs and restaurants promoting liquor.
Studies show that the increasing number of sexualized images of young women in advertising is harmful to a woman’s self-image and healthy development. A report in 2007 by the American Psychological Association indicates that women more often than men are depicted in a sexual way and are objectified in advertising.
Advertisements portray 85 percent of women in a sexualized way. The average American is exposed to 3,000 advertisements a day. The report also shows that an unrealistic standard of physical beauty is greatly emphasized and that these are the models presented for young women to study and imitate.
“It causes women to think that they don’t measure up,” said Camille Kraeplin, assistant professor of journalism at SMU, whose research interests include the portrayal of women and minorities in the mass media.
Kraeplin says that the thin ideal is easy to buy into for young women. Society shows through its advertising that good things happen to women if they are slim. Thin women are seen as being happier – they get the men, they are successful and they have more friends.
Espinoza, a senior advertising and Spanish major, says the thin ideal makes it hard for her since that means she has to have a certain body in order to keep her job. She explains how advertising is a business, and in order for a corporation to make money it needs to have the most attractive models with less clothing.
Alan Perez, an SMU undergraduate majoring in political science and Spanish, says that models wearing provocative clothing works for only older men.
“I drive to the liquor store for the alcohol, not for the girls,” said Perez.
The American Psychological Association notes that societal messages that contribute to the sexualization of women also come from interpersonal relationships.
Some parents contribute to sexualization by conveying the message that maintaining an attractive physical appearance is the most important objective for women.
“I think the ideal body image is a joke because everyone is made differently,” said Lilly Curtis, an SMU sophomore psychology and Spanish major.
She says that everyone’s genetic makeup is different and that everyone should be portrayed in advertising. She believes just because a woman is fuller, that doesn’t make her less of a women.
Curtis says that advertisements expose only an extreme and never show reality. She admits she would like to be slimmer but that she doesn’t want to look like a stick figure. She wants to be healthy and believes that’s what should be portrayed in advertising.
According to Love Your Body’s Web site, a Web page from the National Organization for Women, the ideal body type shown in advertising is possessed naturally by less than five percent of females.
The Web site states that every year the U.S. spends more than $33 billion on weight-reduction programs, diet foods and beverages. It also states that about 10 million women suffer from anorexia or bulimia in the U.S., and women who have anorexia are 12 times more likely to die than other women their age.
Carrie La Ferle, associate professor of the Temerlin Advertising Institute at SMU, says that advertisements are linked to sell products and not to release messages that convey to others what’s the standard in society.
“Advertisements can’t stray from the truth or else they can’t connect with people,” said La Ferle.
She says that advertisements are allowed to use persuasion as long as the product’s information is true.
La Ferle says that advertisements do not cause women to have eating disorders. Instead, most parents are not teaching children the intent of advertising and people don’t start to learn about advertisements until they get to college.
According to the American Psychological Association, the sexualization of young women negatively affects women across a variety of health areas. There are cognitive and emotional effects that weaken a person’s confidence in their own body and lead to emotional and self-image problems.
The report links sexualization with the three most common mental healthproblems diagnosed in women: eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression.
According to Love Your Body’s Web site, more than 80 percent of fourth grade females have been on a diet, and most children under the age of six don’t understand that the purpose of advertisements is to sell a product.
According to the American Psychological Association, schools can teach media literacy. Media literacy can make children understand that advertisements do not show reality and that they do not have to conform to them.
The report also states that parents can teach their children about advertisements. Parents can help their daughters understand sexualization in ways that can prevent harm.
According to the report, women should be encouraged to be active and speak out so they can develop their own options.
Examples of this include feminist magazines, books and Web sites that provide a medium to teach young women to critically examine sexualized images that are presented by society and corporations.
According to the American Psychological Association, researchers want to replace sexualized images of women in advertising with positive representations.
“I don’t think the image of women is going to go away,” said La Ferle.
She says that advertisements have improved by showing women who are more active and stronger, but women will continue to be objectified, depending on which group the advertisements are targeting.
