Comparing Women In Dolce And Gabbana Advertising
Yaury 1
Jessica Ovina Yaury
Bodies Revealed / Bradley Lane & Karen Stuhldreher
Essay #1
1/30/12
Today, advertisements use sex appeal to attract the audience’s eyes. As Berger writes in ‘Ways of Seeing’, “Publicity increasingly uses sexuality to sell any product or service” (Berger 144). Men and women are portrayed in provocative poses and shown to the world to sell clothes, shoes, jewelry, and any other kind of apparel. However, women are more exposed than men in a more demeaning way. By showing barely dressed, sylph-like women being objectified by men to satisfy their desire, these three ads I selected emphasize women’s role as sexual objects, conveying that sexual objectification is empowering.
The first Dolce & Gabbana advertisement depicts a scantily clad woman, wearing a tight black dress and a pair of stilettos. She is lying down under …show more content…
It conveys that the woman is empowered and in control. She seems to have some sort of authority over him as she leans forward, and he tilts back. But, if we look carefully, with her practically naked body, she curves her back and pushes her breast seductively into the man’s face. Even though he appears to be submissive, her extremely slender and nearly naked body is clearly shown as a sexualized object for him to enjoy. This ad supports John Berger’s theory, that “the ‘ideal’ spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him” (Berger 64). Men are always portrayed as the viewer of women, whose appearance give pleasure to him. We can see that this ad places the woman in a position of power, while at the same time sexually objectifying her body. It somehow implies that being a sexual object is a source of power. In order to attain female sexual empowerment, woman needs to be very thin, barely dressed, and objects for men to
Jessica Ovina Yaury
Bodies Revealed / Bradley Lane & Karen Stuhldreher
Essay #1
1/30/12
Today, advertisements use sex appeal to attract the audience’s eyes. As Berger writes in ‘Ways of Seeing’, “Publicity increasingly uses sexuality to sell any product or service” (Berger 144). Men and women are portrayed in provocative poses and shown to the world to sell clothes, shoes, jewelry, and any other kind of apparel. However, women are more exposed than men in a more demeaning way. By showing barely dressed, sylph-like women being objectified by men to satisfy their desire, these three ads I selected emphasize women’s role as sexual objects, conveying that sexual objectification is empowering.
The first Dolce & Gabbana advertisement depicts a scantily clad woman, wearing a tight black dress and a pair of stilettos. She is lying down under …show more content…
It conveys that the woman is empowered and in control. She seems to have some sort of authority over him as she leans forward, and he tilts back. But, if we look carefully, with her practically naked body, she curves her back and pushes her breast seductively into the man’s face. Even though he appears to be submissive, her extremely slender and nearly naked body is clearly shown as a sexualized object for him to enjoy. This ad supports John Berger’s theory, that “the ‘ideal’ spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him” (Berger 64). Men are always portrayed as the viewer of women, whose appearance give pleasure to him. We can see that this ad places the woman in a position of power, while at the same time sexually objectifying her body. It somehow implies that being a sexual object is a source of power. In order to attain female sexual empowerment, woman needs to be very thin, barely dressed, and objects for men to