Emilia J. sent in a Fiat ad that illustrates the conflation of women with products. In the commercial, a man sees an attractive woman bending over on the street. She yells at him for staring at her, but the encounter quickly becomes sexualized, with ejaculation imagery as a bonus:
https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/10/24/objectifying-women-sexualizing-cars/
As Emilia points out, the woman is “portrayed as a foreign beauty…exotic and coveted.” An Italian car literally becomes a sexualized, sexually aggressive Italian woman, available for “our own advancement in our ethnosexual adventures.”
We see this depiction of women as things to be consumed, or things as sexy women, often. For other examples, see our posts on sexualizing food, women as the product, an “up-skirt” soap dispenser, products shaped like women’s bodies, women as useful accessories, and lots of stuff shaped like boobs.
Gwen Sharp is an associate professor of sociology at Nevada State College. You can follow her on Twitter at @gwensharpnv.
Comments 9
Velociraptor — October 24, 2012
A related site is http://saljgrejmedtjej.se/
It's in Swedish, but mostly pictures. It's ads with products sold using women. The title, Sälj grej med tjej, literally means "Sell thing with/using woman".
LeilaM12 — October 24, 2012
I'm pretty sure you have posted this exact ad before, Socimages. ;)
Mae Spires — October 25, 2012
Oh, for cripes sake. Very subtle imagery there, Fiat.
Lishide — October 26, 2012
And another take on this commercial was just posted over at The Sociological Cinema (http://www.thesociologicalcinema.com/1/post/2012/10/sexual-objectification-what-is-it.html)
Gunnar — October 27, 2012
Yep, it's been linked before: http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/03/02/hegemonic-masculinity-in-super-bowl-commercials/#disqus_thread
It has some good comments, too
olsonam — October 28, 2012
Here's an image I came across today:
66 Must-Have Sensual Classics on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/66-Must-Have-Sensual-Classics/dp/B005FSPZDY?SubscriptionId=AKIAI76CYWFQO7YHAC2Q&tag=lightdrops-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B005FSPZDY
If it's ever taken down, it's a woman's body being used as a violin.
Meme — January 14, 2013
Oh, ok, so you'd prefer an ad where a hunky guy is looked at and objectified by a pathetic looking woman. I can think of plenty of ads with hunky men in them (usually with their clothes off but I hear nobody complaining about that!) - things like the diet coke ads and hundreds of others. But there's never a pathetic looking woman in it that GETS SLAPPED BY THE MAN!
Would you like that for a change?
Go figure you bunch of double standard hypocrytes!
Gaylord Fokker — June 3, 2020
Trump is the greatest President of all time.