Using Women's Bodies to Sell - Pin-Up Girls, Objectification of Women, and Self-Objectification
We may laugh about how ridiculous it is, but we've been exposed to the use of women's bodies to sell products for so long that we don't give it much thought. (One terrific and bizarre example is from a 1953 calendar for a tools and parts manufacturer.) Many a famous pin-up girl got her start lending her beauty to glamorize otherwise unremarkable products; and the most successful women did more than sell products - they sold idealized images of themselves that exaggerated their best aspects and ignored or downplayed their worst.
In fact the Pin-up Files, a website devoted to pin-up art, explains that one very popular and successful painter of pin-up girls said he "felt the ideal pin-up was a fifteen-year-old face on a twenty-year-old body," and with a great deal of artistic license, he used his paintbrush to graft together these two wildly diverse females into one impossible image.
Does this matter? We've all grown up with this in our lives. So what's the harm?
The idea of the objectification of women - using women's bodies and turning them into objects - is nothing new. But it has led to an internalization of that objectification that a recent article in MS. magazine identifies as a dangerous trend:
A steady diet of exploitative, sexually provocative depictions of women feeds a poisonous trend in women's and girl's perceptions of their bodies, one that has recently been recognized by social scientists as self-objectification -- viewing one's body as a sex object to be consumed by the male gaze. Like W.E.B. DuBois' famous description of the experience of black Americans, self-objectification is a state of "double consciousness ... a sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others."Not every woman sees this as a threat. Tali Shapiro, a 25-year-old artist, writer, and creator of The Pinup Blog: Where Sex Object are the Object of Intellectual Conversation, likes to write about - and examine - the culture and history of sexy, scantily-clad women, and has even been dubbed "The Pin-Up Queen."Researchers have learned a lot about self-objectification since the term was coined in 1997 by University of Michigan psychology professor Barbara Fredrickson and Colorado College psychology professor Tomi-Ann Roberts. Numerous studies since then have shown that girls and women who self-objectify are more prone to depression and low self-esteem and have less faith in their own capabilities, which can lead to diminished success in life. They are more likely to engage in "habitual body monitoring" -- constantly thinking about how their bodies appear to the outside world -- which puts them at higher risk for eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia.
Yet there's a difference between the pin-up girls of the 30s, 40s, and 50s and the images we see today. Back then, artists edited what they saw, painting elongated legs, flatter stomachs, and more brilliant smiles. Today, we have PhotoShop to digitally alter photographs.
We can downplay paintings and recognize them as images created from the imagination, even if they're based on life. But when we see photograph after photograph of idealized, 'perfect' women, that burden is harder to bear. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then for many girls and women today, the words say, "You're not thin enough, not pretty enough, and not big-breasted enough."
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Comments
We can blame the media, the companies for exploiting the women, and the society’s appetite for sexualized images; but a great part of that is the women/girls themselves who essentially are selling themselves/their body for the irresistible $$$ and for fame.
These women failed to see or understand the concept that they are their own enemies/our enemies in this battle to gain respect as human beings — equal, smart, important, respectful, and beautiful in our own right.
Hey Linda,
You make extremely fair points. I know I grapple with these issues every day. There’s a strict dilemma for me, in my everyday dealing with pinups. On the one hand, I love images of beautiful women- they’ve memorized me ever since I can remember myself. On the other, every week I research a new article, looking into themes and general waves of thought in pinup art, and there’s a thin line between adoration and straight out porn, but it IS there.
I don’t know about exploitation or objectification- Titian drew nude women, was he a horny beast or an inspired artist?
I do agree, however, that it’s gotten out of hand. I just saw a snickers catalog (?!), yesterday, that all its model’s legs were digitally lengthened. It’s sick and disturbing to know that no image of a woman in the advertising industry is a real woman that’s actually in existence. Girls grow up with these images and always feel like they’re never enough, then get a boob-job when they’re 16(that’s irresponsible on the medical industry’s part).
In the end, though, I think it’s a personal weakness to go around blaming the media. We’re not in a vacuum and we’re all exposed to various feminist theories. We’re all responsible for ourselves to draw the line, between who we want to be and what society wants us to be. Vanity and self indulgence is a part of human nature, so is the misery of inadequacy. So yes, I’ll shave my legs (ridiculous practice), no, I won’t undergo plastic surgery. And I’ll teach my future daughter likewise, and hope she becomes one who thinks for herself (and doesn’t shave her legs).
Respectfully,
Tali
Author of The Pinup Blog
First you have to evaluate what it means to objectify something or in this case someone. It means to reduce something to nothing. To make someone worthless in the eyes of others. Now just because someone takes off their cloths for pictures doesn’t mean they think any less of them self. Or any one else for that matter. Ok, now lets look at this from another point of view. What about when you see a man half dressed. Hu, what do think of that. Objection is in the eye of the viewer. What you need to think about is what effect you are having by saying what you’re saying. You promote the idealistic thinking that is that people need to think the way you do when you see another woman naked. Or using HER BODY(I’d underline that if I could). You are the one objectifying your own sex.
Now don’t get me wrong I hate the living hell out of porn. Mostly because it promotes the idea that sex is meaning and that it isn’t something to be held dear. But, still it, is someones, own, decision. And you can’t change that. All you can do is you yourself act respectful to your self and not continue to blame others for your problem.
i find it interesting that in your very first paragraph you are in fact demoralizing women and falling into the exact socialization of the female gender which you claim to denounce. how dare you judge that a female would have no use for tools, plumming equipment, or automotive supplies. my dear lady you are sexist, and beyond that, jealous of the beauty of the female form. it is tragic that you are so jaded that you are blind to the fact that a woman should be proud of her body and if her beauty if so powerful that it can woo the masses. so be it.
Linda,
I absolutely agree with you. While women do have the power tochoose to be content with their bodies, it is not always easy to do. The unfortunate truth is that anything that sells will be sold. And sex sells.
You can talk about the meaning of objectification, and anyone can feel objectivied or empowered by these pictures depending on their point of view. However, very few women want to be reduced simply to the sexual part of their identity. Yes, some do, and it is their right to do so. But when some women choose to model scantily or have their pictures airbrushed all other women are affected, and not by choice. It is then a matter of personal responsibility to some degree, but women will always be pressured to sell sex as best they can, and companies will always be selling it unless there is a large enough change in how we want to see women portrayed. That is unlikely in a culture that self-perpetuates sex as something both unreal, because real bodies don’t cut it, and cheap.
I have been bitch’n about this for years!! It’s not okay what the media & marketing is doing… and we get slam bammed with this “female body part” junk to sell products as if men are the only individuals in the world who are watching these ads and we females have tremendous buying power and do most of the buying.