While reading a magazine recently I happened across an ad for Chanel perfume. In the ad Keira Knightley is sitting completely naked, having only a white piece of cloth across her lap, diamonds along her throat and a man's hat covering her chest. In the photograph she looks completely sexy, skinny and seductive.
In today's society it seems necessary for everyone to take advantage of women's sexuality. Every type of media uses some sort of stereotypical woman to sell whatever it is they are selling. This ad further illustrates the point that women are completely over-sexualized in our culture. No one can seem to sell anything to anyone, including women, without making women a sexual object that someone is either lusting after or wishing they were. In the ad Keira Knightley is obviously the woman every female wants to be and every male wants to sleep with. She is essentially selling her body to get Chanel more money. Couldn't they have had her wearing clothes? Doesn't a woman wearing beautiful things also sell, especially when it's something like perfume? Or are they hoping for the shock and awe factor? If someone sees a naked woman selling perfume, they might be curious or desperate enough to buy it.
Some people may not think a naked woman in a magazine is such a bad thing, but that isn't really the point. What does a naked woman have to do with perfume? Is our culture so obsessed with objectifying women that they will sell pictures of a naked woman and pass it off as an ad? I suppose so. But why do they feel the need to make a woman an object, to essentially sell the woman as the product, instead of just selling whatever it is they are selling without objectifying anyone in the process?
I agree that women, and perhaps both genders, are constantly objectified.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm not sure perfume is the best example of objectification without a good connection.
Something like perfume has always been a sexualized product. Who buys perfume to go to run errands and clean out their garage?
The nature of perfume itself is problematic: it's a scent. How do you make a selling image of a scent? Do you want to smell like baby rabbits? A fancy bottle? Or this extremely beautiful and glamorous movie star?
(I personally would go for the baby rabbits, but I'm fairly sure the general population wouldn't)
I think they are hoping for the shock value.
A clothed beautiful woman is still a sexualized object, but a naked one is a sexualized object that really turns heads. As they say, there is no such thing as bad publicity.