Suggestive Adverts

I don't really know what the problem is. They're going to learn about it soon enough anyway, why not take this as a chance to explain that sex and nudity, and all that stuff that comes along with it is really just nature, and G-d, etc. whatever you want to call it, and there is nothing to be ashamed of about it, its natureal, and beautiful, etc. ?
I'm sure Im not the ONLY one who thinks this way?

dreaming_mouse wrote:I was watching TV a few months ago and there was something said about how people were now using sex to sell their products.

People were *now* using sex to sell their products?

As far as I know, people have been using sex appeal to sell stuff for decades.

But, I guess, if it sells...

Still, Sabradan, you don't especially want four-year-olds spewing out erectile dysfunction ads wherever they go.

Sab, the problem arises when unrealistic expectations are introduced by the media and then indoctrinated into society at large. This is a huge problem, especially for women, in the states. For example, my mother is a teacher and this year she found out about 6th grade girls who had a contest (last school year) to see who could lose the most weight. They all started at about 100 lbs. Each girl only ate breakfast--for an entire year. They 'encouraged' each other too: any one over a size 2 was 'fat'. Where does this unbelivably unrealistic standard come from? Largely from the objectification and idealization of women in the media. It is terribly confusing for young girls to be bombarded by sexualized images of their gender while they try to develop an identity of their own.

Acknowledgement of the Divine Feminine has long been ignored in the States. Women are not viewed as life and love givers, we are objects which men act upon. There is no longer a Great Mother to hold us and tend our wounds--wherever they be. There is the Father, cold, demanding our submission. The 'serpents' have been driven out, and it is the daughters who suffer the consiquences. It all comes back to the puritanistic devaluing of women. No one ever intended for us to have any power, and now that we do, there is a backlash in the way society behaves toward us. We are weakened. Not by a lack of power, or a lack of representation, but by a lack of self-confidence, a lack of self-love, a lack of free Maidens, a lack of full-figured Mothers, a lack of wise Crones, a lack of incredible living Goddesses to look to for support and strength.

Pay attention girls. Every commercial you see regarding 'beauty' will do two things. 1) Tell you how you are broken, 2) and tell you how their product can fix it. Every day from the moment we are born, girls are bombarded with message about their imperfection. How nothing with us is right and how we must pursue every possible course of action to correct ourselves. It sickens me! Women are so devalued that we are encouraged to mutilate ourselves! We are encouraged to cover up, hide, mask, cut up, destroy, squeeze into, dye, paste...whatever it takes to fit in to the narrow standard projected upon us by the media, and therefore by others. And as much as I try to love my Goddess-given femininity, I still find myself obsessing over my little belly, sucking in, looking at myself in the mirror and feeling disgusted. Some days I despise myself. Some days I want to cut all the fat out of me and be what out-there wants me to be. Some days I would do anything, anything to be that girl on the magazine. And its on those days when I hate advertisements the most. Its those days when I would do anything to bring back the Goddess-love and start womenkind all over again.

I totally agree. Media-wise, we're going back to the 'women are for sex only' attitude.

Galatea wrote:Sab, the problem arises when unrealistic expectations are introduced by the media and then indoctrinated into society at large. This is a huge problem, especially for women, in the states. For example, my mother is a teacher and this year she found out about 6th grade girls who had a contest (last school year) to see who could lose the most weight. They all started at about 100 lbs. Each girl only ate breakfast--for an entire year. They 'encouraged' each other too: any one over a size 2 was 'fat'. Where does this unbelivably unrealistic standard come from? Largely from the objectification and idealization of women in the media. It is terribly confusing for young girls to be bombarded by sexualized images of their gender while they try to develop an identity of their own.

Acknowledgement of the Divine Feminine has long been ignored in the States. Women are not viewed as life and love givers, we are objects which men act upon. There is no longer a Great Mother to hold us and tend our wounds--wherever they be. There is the Father, cold, demanding our submission. The 'serpents' have been driven out, and it is the daughters who suffer the consiquences. It all comes back to the puritanistic devaluing of women. No one ever intended for us to have any power, and now that we do, there is a backlash in the way society behaves toward us. We are weakened. Not by a lack of power, or a lack of representation, but by a lack of self-confidence, a lack of self-love, a lack of free Maidens, a lack of full-figured Mothers, a lack of wise Crones, a lack of incredible living Goddesses to look to for support and strength.

Pay attention girls. Every commercial you see regarding 'beauty' will do two things. 1) Tell you how you are broken, 2) and tell you how their product can fix it. Every day from the moment we are born, girls are bombarded with message about their imperfection. How nothing with us is right and how we must pursue every possible course of action to correct ourselves. It sickens me! Women are so devalued that we are encouraged to mutilate ourselves! We are encouraged to cover up, hide, mask, cut up, destroy, squeeze into, dye, paste...whatever it takes to fit in to the narrow standard projected upon us by the media, and therefore by others. And as much as I try to love my Goddess-given femininity, I still find myself obsessing over my little belly, sucking in, looking at myself in the mirror and feeling disgusted. Some days I despise myself. Some days I want to cut all the fat out of me and be what out-there wants me to be. Some days I would do anything, anything to be that girl on the magazine. And its on those days when I hate advertisements the most. Its those days when I would do anything to bring back the Goddess-love and start womenkind all over again.

But thats not the advertisements fault. That is because the society as a whole is not taking responsibility for the medias actions.

sabradan wrote:I don't really know what the problem is. They're going to learn about it soon enough anyway, why not take this as a chance to explain that sex and nudity, and all that stuff that comes along with it is really just nature, and G-d, etc. whatever you want to call it, and there is nothing to be ashamed of about it, its natureal, and beautiful, etc. ?
I'm sure Im not the ONLY one who thinks this way?

I actually do agree. Kids are going to learn about it someday, and if a 4 year old does keep saying something heard on a Vioxx ad, its the 4 year old's fault, not the company's. Why? Because 4 year olds are like that, and don't really know right from wrong. So I don't really know what we're arguing about. This whole thread was about company's using sex to sell, not about medicine warnings heard on TV.

It is inevitable that kids are going to learn about sex but it disgusts me when a ads for male enhancement drugs come on when me and my little 7-year-old sister are watching Spongebob! sex and nudity are natural but the way the media is portraying it is defiantly not what I call natural.

Correction sabradan: It's not JUST the advertisement's fault. They do share some of the blame.

What the media's portraying is:

Virginity is sooooo last season

and

You're a loser if your breasts aren't bigger than your head.

Sam wrote:What the media's portraying is:

Virginity is sooooo last season

and

You're a loser if your breasts aren't bigger than your head.

No, not really. Well, not any moreso than ever before. Remember "sex sells" has been the advertising mantra since the middle of the last century (20th)

I'm talking about the media in general, which trickles into ads. Not good.

But thats not the advertisements fault. That is because the society as a whole is not taking responsibility for the medias actions.

Who drives the market forces? Society at large. Who decides what is and is not acceptable advertising material? Specialists who research what society at large thinks it wants. So yes, in a sense it is not the advertisements fault. But they do create a background and a safe space for the kind of encouragement women need to mutilate themselves in the names of 'beauty'.