Sexism sells. Advertisements, particularly commercials, are just seeping with sexism. Some advertisements, such as those for hygiene products, are much more outlandishly degrading and offensive than others.
Almost every high school student, both men and women, wear deodorant. But there’s a clear difference between the products made for men and those made for women. No, I’m not talking about the ingredients. Just look at the product names.
Deodorants sold to men have names like Axe and Old Spice. These names are rough and tough, just like a man, right? And women’s deodorants? They are called things like “Secret” as if having to wear it is embarrassing, because obviously women aren’t supposed to smell like body odor. They’re supposed to smell fluttery and soft, like “Dove.”
But the names just make up a fraction of the blatant sexism simple things like deodorant portray. We’ve all seen the Dove commercials that seem to assert that women can only feel comfortable with themselves when they’ve got deodorant on and the Axe advertisements that spread the message “if you wear axe, you will attract hot girls.”
Axe’s advertising includes an entire video on www.thefixters.com, an Axe advertising website, that details all the hook-ups men might want to wash away with body wash, like “the lazy-eye” and the “girl with the hairy armpits.” According to an ad that appeared in the April 29, 2010 issue of Rolling Stone, the slogan of this specific kind of body wash is “scrub away the skank.” It’s not even as if they attempt to use sexism ‘cleverly’ for their ads. It’s just downright disgusting.
These commercials will try to tell you that men who use the right body wash, or drink the right beer, or eat the right food, or buy the right car, will have women waiting in line for them. It’s not only disgusting, it’s offensive, and not just toward women. Men in most sexist advertisements are attacked and degraded just as much. They are shown as being stupid, women-obsessed jerks.
Who could forget that Taco Bell ad that showed a woman attracting men in a bar by putting a bacon chalupa in her purse? It’s a ridiculous commercial, and it’s not funny. It says: all men love is bacon and girls!
Let’s assume that these commercials sell products because they make people laugh. But why? I don’t understand why extreme stereotypes are funny. Instead of laughing, we should ask ourselves what’s wrong with these ads. The fact of the matter is these commercials are targeted towards us, teenagers and young people in general. We are supposed to be a more “accepting” generation, but the products we buy do not reflect that. I’m not asking anyone to boycott the products mentioned above, but instead to think about how any particular company chooses to represent themselves.
It might take a while for anything to change when it comes to this issue. Our society hasn’t even advanced enough for television to admit that, I know it’s shocking, men clean too. I will relish the day when I see a commercial for a cleaning product that features a man vacuuming or doing laundry. But the only way that’s going to happen is for everyone to be aware just how much this hurts. The furthering of negative stereotypes in what we sell says a lot about who we are. If we can laugh at categorizing men and women into pointless groups that are not even true, how on earth are we ever going to see people as being truly equal?
