"Why do most ads not look strange to us?" said Goffman . I find this statement to be extremely true, I find that most ads appear very normal until one really takes a good look at them. Why should a pack of shirtless guys holding a football represent a pair of jeans? Especially mens jeans... what does that really say?
"Advertising doesn't always mirror how people are acting, but how they're dreaming...in a sense, what we're doing is wrapping up your emotions and selling them back to you" (Nelson).
I couldn't agree more with this statement, selling a product is becoming more and more like selling an emotion because of how they package their product. Along with the product comes branding which is what is trying to provoke a certain image/emotion. An example would be smoking cigarettes along with smoking comes a sense of being cool and a little rebellious why?...because that is how it was presented to us. Sut Jhally comes out and says in the article that they design commercials that create pleasurable emotions that will be triggered when the product is viewed in the marketplace. I feel like the corporations are just toying with us.
Within advertising the article states that there are four basic representations of women in media and goes on to list:
symbols for an object, thus, as exchangeable with it
as a fragmented object made up of seperate component parts that are not bound together in any coherrent way to create a personality.
as an object to be viewed
as an object to be used
All four of these representations could easily be argued for male representations as well and that is where I find it hard to stop at the misrepresentations of women. There is a larger photograph that we are not seeing. Yes I believe the list is correct, but its universal.
The article makes a fundamental point, that we all objectify men and women in some way at sometime, that it can fufill a socially positive function.
Objectification is present in most compliments when speaking to another person. It usually makes that person feel quite pleasant about themselves. I would be shocked to recieve a bad reaction from one of these compliments...if I were to tell a girl that she had beautiful eyes I wouldnt expect her complain about her smile..I hope she would think...damn i do have beautiful eyes.
I agree that there is nothing wrong with a little of objectification because I believe it is only natural to seek out what we like. It is only natural that we have to make babies..and it is usually a plus to have it be with someone you find atleast a little attractive. I think one could even argue that what people consider to be good qualities can be objectification when found in an individual. So where do we draw the line?
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