Gender Differences in Ads

Most media seems to present women in a rather unflattering light by highly sexualizing them, such as in this image:



Here, we see the woman dressed only in bra, panties, heels, and nylons, draped across a seemingly indifferent man fully dressed in a business suit.











This image, in contrast, is sexualizing the man. He is wearing no shirt to show off a well-toned body and is surrounded by women who are dressed fairly conservatively, as you might expect to see regular women dressed if you were walking through the Mall on a spring day.









Interestingly, the second ad is selling jeans (it is Guess, after all), but you really can't see the jeans in the add. And what the first ad is selling…I really couldn't say (if it wasn't a cut out, I might know better).

Another point, the ads probably sexualize the people shown based on the audience they are aiming it for. If the Guess ad is for men's jeans (which I presume it is as the man is the focal point of the picture), then they sexualize the man to say "If you wear Guess jeans then you, too, can have this amazing body and be surrounded by women!" The first ad could be aimed either at men or at women: to women, it could be saying that "You too can be this sexy if you buy product X!" but to men it could be saying "You too can have women in lingerie draping themselves over you if you buy product X!"

And if someone with more media understanding wants to give a better evaluation of the ads than I am capable of doing, do feel free. This, after all, is what we have comments for.

These images were taken from about-face.org.