Advertising has become drastically sexualised and Merskin presents an examination of advertisements in fashion magazines and how the power of women is reduced. Also mentioning that advertising of this extent presents women as objects of the desires and sexual fantasy of men. Therefore indicative of the ideology of males as having power and desire over women. In this context, pornography is described as, 'material that depicts men and women as sexual beings with a purpose of arousing mostly male desire in a way that reflects and helps to maintain the subordination of women.' (Merskin 2006, p 202.) Pornographic advertising aiming to sell the lifestyle attached to the product itself, uses the technique of gazing to include those viewing and persuade them and entice them over. The male gaze is used to describe this notion of responding to media texts of this style implicating the variety of gazes that take place.
The article also demonstrates that pornographic or sexualised images to sell products are a norm in the media and these images are rather high art and a part of pop culture. The author also states that these sorts of images affect us in mysterious ways normalising women as sexual, girls as sexually stimulating and the act of violence as exciting. (Merskin 2006, p 215)
Bibliography:
Merskin, D., 2006, ‘Where Are the Clothes? The Pornographic Gaze in Mainstream American Fashion Advertising’ in Sex in Consumer Culture: The Erotic Content of Media and Marketing, ed. Reichert, T. & Lambiase, J., Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers, Mahwah, pp. 199-217.
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