Sexism in advertising
The incidence of sexism in advertising has gradually increased over the years amongst African women or non-white people. Previously, this had not been an uncommon feature in the West among the fairer white sex. Today, African female models are more frequently sexually depicted in brand advertisements than are males. There is a growing interest from foreign owned companies advertising their brands using black African models clad in suggestive attire. Female models are depicted as suggestively dressed while males are unlikely to be portrayed likewise. Women have increasingly become objects of display. The new enlightenment worldview is that women are totally defined by their bodies in a way they had not been in the past. In advertisements, body orientations of women as they sit or stand are sexualized. Their projections are suggestive and alluring. For example, they are made to pose in ways that seem strangely erotic and emphasizing the areas of their bodies (breasts, hips, thighs, legs) that they were culturally socialized to conceal, be afraid of and ashamed of. In Africa, certain body parts, whether female or male, are ordered by cultural norms to remain subdued and covered. The gendering of bodies is thus a social process. The importation and adoption of western values in our culture have created a natural experiment in social change. Of interest in this write up is not the changing nature of sexuality in advertising (another area of interest to researchers) but the apparent politics of gender stereotyping and sexual objectification of women in advertising media. The media reiterate the cultural image of women as ornamental objects who must attract men to be valuable. The media insinuate some of these messages into our consciousness at every turn. Not only do media induce us to think we should measure up to artificial standards, but they encourage us to see normal bodies and bodily functions as pathologies.
