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can't believe you tried to post a photo in your email, man.

This post definitely inspires one's imagination. :)

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What is the advertisement for? Because that's definitely going to affect my opinion of this.

Nice juxtaposition, it's interesting how prevalent rape culture is, and like you said casual.

Damn Icelandic girls sure are hot!

Doesn't Iceland have the smallest wage gap between men and women? Not that that matters when it comes to looking sexy, I guess.

Doesn't Iceland have a lesbian prime minister? I think she is pushing these kinds of images to indoctrinate girls into lesbianism so she has more girls to play with. Sneaky but very smart.

This is stupid.

Like really stupid. there is nothing that can be derived from this that isn't easy enough to derive from other sources. The juxtaposition of an elderly couple teaches us nothing except that the elderly aren't sexually attractive. Maybe you should comment on the fact that despite the generation gap, which you would expect to create some sort of dichotomy between traditionalism and modern progressiveness and exploitation of women, the more visible woman in the elderly couple is wearing high heeled shoes, a symbol of feminine sexuality.

They only contrast starkly in the fact that the elderly are not physically attractive and not meant to sell anything, while the models are physically attractive and the photographs are meant to sell something. The elderly woman in this example is following and reinforcing an accepted cultural and societal standard, despite not being able to match up to the models in photography.

The Ageism is most apparent, though, in the assumption that the elderly woman is NOT attractive, an opinion generally held by those younger than these women. Plenty of elderly men may look at the image and see two hot chicks walking down the street, in front of a bunch of ridiculous adverts, rather than some sort of contrast between pretty and ugly.

Honestly, the scope of this post is narrower than the minds of those you're attempting to educate.

"They only contrast starkly in the fact that the elderly are not physically attractive"

'Are not'? You mention later in your post that such things are subjective, so I wonder why you choose to use the phrase 'are not' rather than 'are culturally portrayed as', or some other qualifier.

This would have indicated the real contrast; these women are classed by our culture as 'elderly' and so are not always portrayed as sex objects or used as sexual vehicles to sell a product, service or concept. The contrast is one of dominant culture; it constrasts objectification through desexualisation and objectification through forcible, omnipresent and hyper-sexualisation, the dominant culture's control over perceptions of sexuality in others and (as you point out with reference to the woman in high heels) ourselves in light of this cultural attitude.

Our culture tells us old women never have sex. It tells us the women on the billboards never stop wanting or having sex, even to sleep, eat or drink, unless they are being used to sell beds, food or drink.

And thus, the contrast is not intended to be - as you seem to imagine - a 'real', 'eternal' contrast between young/naked and old, it is between different aspects of the same culture: Patriarchy 1.0, and Patriarchy 2.0.

I think there's danger of overthinking this.

You're right. Female sexuality is shameful and should be hidden from view. Or at least have faces that look like they just ate a lemon.

Female sexuality=/=women dressed up and dolled up in a manner which is meant to please the current male gaze.

Oh it's terrible that women are exploited for their beauty... I say that with the utmost sarcasm.

Ladette, post-feminist culture which takes on male values in females (well....I think women have still objectified men for many years too...), objectifies men in the same way yet I don't hear misandropists (men haters rather than true equalitist feminists) speak out about how men are also objectified. Admittedly it's rarer to find men objectified in this way, just as it's rarer to find women 'objectified' for, say, their engineering ability or financial prowess however this is changing.

After all, aren't all of us that work ultimately objectified rather than humanised, we're valued not for ourselves. If people can make good money being objectified for their bodies rather than their minds then good luck to them.

Where did all the trolls come from
Long time passing
When will we ever learn
When will they ever learn

How else are they supposed to show off lingerie anyways?

some context: these images are actually the outside display of a sex-shop in downtown reykjavík (i think i recognize this area). so they are not a "common" marketing strategy of icelandic shops (of course this doesn't make the images less unpleasant to look at). the sign "sale" underneath the image of the women is possibly also from a completely other store as downtown real estate is really scarce.

The Market East Concorse in Philadelphia currently has ads almost exactly like this hanging up now. I feel weird walking with my 3 year old there because:

1. the images are not even in the window of a shop - it's just plastered on poles in the train station - so, very strange context

2. they are freaking 10 feet tall

3. my kid asks questions and wants dresses that show off her boobs -- great, just great :(

The sexism we see around is a reflection of the sexism that we see in society as a whole