N € Alvarez 1 Briana Alvarez t Professor Ditch English 113A MW. 12:30 27 October 2015 4 49 The beast is objectifying the Beauty because of the Gownflls of fedia Im Wester society, the influence of mass media dominates most of society’s attention and perception on gender performance. Most Western culture is involved in social media; they tend to follow the gender norms that social construction permits them. It focuses on how females should behave or look, It also objectifies females and makes them fall into stereotypes by having half-naked women on commercials, movies, magazines, etc. For an example, Cat!’s Jr. commercials constantly have women that star in their commercial be half-naked and act in a sexual manner while eating their food. Not only are females being looked upon and labeled as a ‘sex symbol; they are also portraying what's expected of them. Women are accepting the perception that they are sex symbols by dressing racy and living up to the standards. Women are, _ L hid / objectified in the media which creates harmful idealization of beauty. “/// 7 Hs Pow py peck & hy cendes ‘The well-known fast-food restaurant Carl’s Jr. is known for their food that théy sell to the 2"! Ov, Gig // Public. However, the company is also known for their racy commercials they broadcast on, // /p television. In most of their commercials they have half- naked women eating their food in a sexual manner and they choose celebrities that are known as sex symbols in the media. In one of their many commercials, celebrity Kim Kardashian comes out in lingerie eating one of Carl’s Jr.’ new salad while drinking a diet coke. The commercial directs most of the attention towards her mouth as the salad dressing is dripping from her lips on to her breast. Towards the end of the‘Commercial, she’s in the bath tub naked eating the salad, In the last two seconds of the Commercial the company just had the salad alone in a white background with the name of the salad. Correspondingly, Cars Jr. may use women in a sexual way to sell theit product to lure ‘men to buy their food, but that’s not the only thing they are selling, Carl’s Jr. is selling the impression that women are sex symbols and nothing more in society. Caroline Heldman said in Alvarez 2 Nx i A ’ her TED talk, The Sexy Lie, “Sex isnot selling; what i selling are these ideas of subjectivity and, {1 t | | y objectivity.” Heldman is making a connection that sex doesn’t sell, what only sells are the ideas} | We “Des i media is giving to the people. The company is doing that by choosing women like Kim C : Kardashian to star in the commercials. \V ‘The well-known fast-food restaurant Carl’s Jr. is known for their food that they sell tothe \. | public. However, the company is also known for their racy commercials they broadcast on i television. In most of their commercials they will have half naked women eating their food ina sexual way and they choose celebrities that are known as sex symbols in the media. In one of their many commercials, celebrity Kim Kardashian comes out in lingerie eating one of Carl’s | Jr.’s new salad while drinking a diet coke. The commercial directs most of the attention towards \- “her mouth as the salad dressing is dripping from her lips on to her breast. Towards the end of the ‘commercial, she’s in the bath tub naked eating the salad. In the last two seconds of the * commercial the company just had the salad alone in a white background with the name of the salad. Correspondingly, Carl’s Jr. may use women in a sexual way to sell their product to lure men to buy their food, but thats not the only thing they are selling. Carl’s Jr. is selling the 4 impression that women are sex symbols and nothing more in society. Caroline Heldman said in ' her TED talk, The Sexy Lie, “Sex is not selling; what is selling are these ideas of subjectivity and \ al IQAlvarez 3 Objectivity.” Heldman is making a connection that sex doesn’t sell, what only sells are the ideas media is giving to the people. The company does that by choosing women like Kim Kardashian to star in the commercials. In addition, the CEO of Carl’s Jr., Andy Puzder, says in an interview with Advertising Age in 2008, that he’s happy that sex sells. Puzder adds, since the company can only spend 80 \e " million dollars, they are lucky if their commercials air once or twice during a Laker game. y ‘Therefore they use sex for their commercials to have people remember them. Puzder does claim \ that people will get offended by some of their commercials. The company needs a factor in their \ * ‘commercial that is memorable; however they don’t need to disrespect women. The CEO is \ clearly validating this behavior by saying people will get offended and not change it. Car!’s Jr. yn ‘won't get customers if their commercials are offending the people. Their commercials are offensive to women, because they are being objectified. Women are constantly looked at as objects and men don’t respect women because advertisements like these belittle women and maf We validate this mentality. h Portraying women celebrities and women as sex symbols leaves an effect on females and l UN 4 especially adolescent girls who are going to start or are going through puberty. Atavery young | age society teaches females how to behave ferninine, They are told that they are supposed to play < \X with dolls and to constantly change on how they look. By having the custom to reinforce girls to play with dolls that are thin, have beautiful long hair, and has on makeup and fashionable; leaves a negative effect on the girls because it gives them the fallacious idealization of beauty. Today, ‘more women are getting cosmetic survey done and girls are starting to wear make-up and racyAlvarez 4 clothing at a younger age. Girls are no longer seeing their dolls as role models but celebrities. Correspondingly, to the advertisement, it also promotes that if women want to look great as Kim Kardashian they must eat a salad with aside of diet coke. With having social media being such a huge influence on people, it changes how today society views things. Psychologist Brickson’s\ ‘ and his stages of development, proves that during the ages 12-18. It’s such a critical period we ) self-identity. During in the stage, teenagers will want to belong to a group in society, so they develop their identity based on within their society. e their lives. The American Society also gives females a double standard on how they should Psychological Association says, “...findings have indicated that women more often than men are portrayed in a sexual manner (¢.g,, dressed in revealing clothing, with bodily postures or facial expressions that imply sexual readiness) and are objectified (e.g., used as a decorative object or as body parts rather than a whole person). (270).” The association makes it clear that women are being more objectified because it’s become common to see more woman than man as a sex symbol. Because of the influence of publicity people validate the sexual behavior that is performed from a celebrity like Kim Kardashian, Society wouldn't think twice about the sexual behavior because they are so immune to what they see on social media, it doesn’t surprise them. However, ifa female with no credibility to her name were to act like that in the real world, as in outside of it, she will get called nasty names and be treated with disrespect. Therefore this proves that social media idealization of beauty is incorrect and hypocrisy is used against women. ao Vv 9 bexf Av Alvarez 5 / However, one may argue that advertisements like these aren't objectifying females and ‘J " os ‘ V not affecting thir life in a negative way, But thatthe advertisements are sexually empowering ao W them and since they are all different, they perceive differently. “Nevertheless, even if all girls are\’ AY influenced directly or indirectly by sexualized media, the amount of ownership or control that’) t'\ Birls feel over their own sexuality inthe face of strong media messages may vary—both between! different girls and within the same girl over time and across relationships (Lamb,Peterson 708)” The authors argue that every girl is different and therefore the girls control on how it affects their life. Although every girl perceives differently, it does not change the influence that mass media Provides. “Because these messages are ‘everywhere, they take on an aura of such familiarity that we believe them to be our very own personal and individual ways of thinking (Dines 258).” Dines claims that females are constantly being so objectified so commonly; they effortlessly f . k . think to believe it is okay and act upon it. The influence may vary to each git! but since, today's + \ society is so deeply involved in media, it’s hard for them not be heavily impact by it. In addition, one may believe that Carl’s Jr. commercials and the media sexually empowers them and cause no harm. “Nevertheless, empowerment theory has much to offer beyond personal empowerment, including important guidance for adults who wish to support / young women’s sexual well-being (Bay-Cheng, 713).” Carl’s Jr. commercial could sexually empower females by accepting that they are also sexual human beings. “The biggest lie is that conforming to this hypersexualized image will give women real power in the world,... women envy( Dines 252).” On contrary, women are actually mentally and physically hurting themselves to feel like they are being sexually empowered, Women are not getting power they are losing power. They are developing eating disorders because they won't well to keep a good body uwAlvarez 6 figure. They are being diagnosed of depression because of their low-self-esteem. Unaware those women are hurting themselves to be “perfect”. ‘Women are being constantly objectified in the media and don’t see the harmful results \ that are being inflicted by themselves. They are endangering themselves because of advertisements like Carl’s Jr. give them the idealization of what's beauty. This is why objectifying females is such a big problem in a today’s society.PA una, Lfpow Ww oe 15 HA np 1%, ce S gr A ped fon? pow Aa soll aaguner Zz Je, De 2 har Y ps Pek (72 @ S WWD L fo f? 7 ‘ oe L 7 “ ghitah ere ender foe yon A ) fe SHE fat yack fer J. ; y / “EL _ Ke VIE yy?! ‘ oa joo pi! wer ‘vl a | Alvarez 7 Works Cited American Psychological Association, “Report of the Task Force on the Sexualization of Young Girls.” Composing Gender: A Bedford Spotlight Reader. Ed. Rachael Groner and John F. O'Hara. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014. 268-282. Print. Bay-Cheng, Laina. "Recovering Empowerment: De-Personalizing And Re-Politicizing Adolescent Female Sexuality." Sex Roles66.11/12 (2012): 713-717. Academic Search Premier, Web. 21 Oct. 2015. Dines,Gail. “Visible or Invisble: Growing Up Female in Porn Culture.” Composing Gender: A Bedford Spotlight Reader, Ed. Rachael Groner and John F. O*Hara. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014, 252-261. Print. "Brikson’s Stages of Development | Learning Theories.” Leaming Theories Eriksons Stages of Development Comments. N.p., 23 July 2014. Web. 19 Oct. 2015. Lamb, Sharon, and Zo Peterson. "Adolescent Girls’ Sexual Empowerment: Two Feminists Explore The Concept."Sex Roles 66.11/12 (2012): 703-712. Academic Search Premier. ‘Web. 29 Oct. 2015. "The Sexy Lie: Caroline Heldman at TEDxYouth@SanDiego." YouTube. YouTube, 20 Jan. 2013. Web. 15 Oct. 2015. York, Emily Bryson. "Carl's Jr. CEO Is More Than Happy That Sex Sells." Advertising Age News RSS. N.p., 24 July 2008. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.Ine arguments car Jest