What I previously posted in the Hussein C thread:
Sexism comes in all forms, some are more obvious than others. I will try to explain what I meant and to make myself as brief and clear as possible.
Let's take for example ads of Seven UP, the soda drink. Do people buy it because they noticed the ad with the girl half dressed? Not directly. The argument you made, on people noticing this collection had little to do with the naked girl, is in my opinion false, because it did contribute. In my opinion, the woman's body was used for publicity purposes. Instead of using the word "woman's body" throughout my analysis, I will mostly use the term "publicity". In modern societies, we see on average more than 2000 publicities (all formats included in this number) per day.
Publicity is not used to sell products only; it is also (and mainly) used to promote certain ways of thinking and ideals, values, the worst cliches, social norms, social domination logic including sexism. It uses STRONG symbolics (like in the case of Hussein's collection, slowly unveiling a woman's body at the end of his show) like women's bodies. Of course, they will palliate our frustration by bathing us in ignorance: the truth lays elsewhere. For example in the popular media and through child stories, studies show that most of time (in terms of percentage) women are pictured as creatures that stay at home taking care of their children's education, the woman is white skinned, pretty, while daddy takes care of the garden and all "manly" tasks. In publicity, they use woman who are relatively pretty, that date men, men don't seem to suffer from hair loss, the woman is happily cooking for the family, the old people have nice looking wrinkles.
Through this image created by capitalist societies, thanks to publicities and media, poor people, men who suffer from hair loss, teens who don't relate to the image of the oh so pretty surreal looking women in the ads, old wrinkled persons, uncool people, unpretty people (by the publicities' standard, and in the Hussein C' naked woman case, the model, image of a pure woman, with perfect curves, perfectly shaved toned and airbrushed body, hair and face) all suffer. Publicity ACCENTUATES the exclusion of differences.
Sexist norms are imposed at a very young age, through school, family, hobbies, religion, and above all, the consumption and profit obsessed society, which sees the human body (a merchandise) as a colossal source of profit.
Surreal looking women (in our case, the model at the Hussein C show) are used to reinforce those sexist norms; women need to be obsessed with their own body. Women are put in competition, men serving as judges and directly keeping their positions of dominants. "Beauty" is a market that generates a lot of money (perfumes, clothes, makeup, bronzer, beauty centres...). Living under these beauty norms is a form of violence to women and its most tragic consequences are bulimia, anorexia and suicide.
Publicity contributes so much more than we think to human intelligence decays.
It is part of human nature to be captivated by sex. People behind marketing ploys have long understood that. In publicity, the tendency is to present woman (much more often than men) in an erotic way. In most fashion ads, woman are pictured as sexual creatures, mere sexual objects to be looked at, they like to be dominated, or in modern way of thinking, "more power to the woman", the woman is seen dominating the male. And as a matter of fact, rarely equal to men; they are either dominants or dominated.
Sexism comes in all forms, it is not only physical oppressions and violences that women all around the world have to battle every day. There are also social violences, economical violences, humiliations, and sexist STEREOTYPE propaganda. And most often, like in the Hussein C show, that kind of violence tends to be pushed to seem acceptable (like what many tFS members seem to defend) even to women.
I am not against sex or nudity, but I am more precisely for the acceptation of our own bodies and desires independently of our sex and sexual orientations. It is important to free ourselves from these norms to appreciate our own body. It is not a question of refusing beauty, art or fashion, but to refuse unrealistic beauty standards imposed by publicity.
I pity those who see this naked woman body as a natural form of art or a fashion. I pity those who think that fashion shows are not a form of publicity. I pity those who think that Hussein C' does not want to make money.
Sex sells, period.
Sexism comes in all forms, some are more obvious than others. I will try to explain what I meant and to make myself as brief and clear as possible.
Let's take for example ads of Seven UP, the soda drink. Do people buy it because they noticed the ad with the girl half dressed? Not directly. The argument you made, on people noticing this collection had little to do with the naked girl, is in my opinion false, because it did contribute. In my opinion, the woman's body was used for publicity purposes. Instead of using the word "woman's body" throughout my analysis, I will mostly use the term "publicity". In modern societies, we see on average more than 2000 publicities (all formats included in this number) per day.
Publicity is not used to sell products only; it is also (and mainly) used to promote certain ways of thinking and ideals, values, the worst cliches, social norms, social domination logic including sexism. It uses STRONG symbolics (like in the case of Hussein's collection, slowly unveiling a woman's body at the end of his show) like women's bodies. Of course, they will palliate our frustration by bathing us in ignorance: the truth lays elsewhere. For example in the popular media and through child stories, studies show that most of time (in terms of percentage) women are pictured as creatures that stay at home taking care of their children's education, the woman is white skinned, pretty, while daddy takes care of the garden and all "manly" tasks. In publicity, they use woman who are relatively pretty, that date men, men don't seem to suffer from hair loss, the woman is happily cooking for the family, the old people have nice looking wrinkles.
Through this image created by capitalist societies, thanks to publicities and media, poor people, men who suffer from hair loss, teens who don't relate to the image of the oh so pretty surreal looking women in the ads, old wrinkled persons, uncool people, unpretty people (by the publicities' standard, and in the Hussein C' naked woman case, the model, image of a pure woman, with perfect curves, perfectly shaved toned and airbrushed body, hair and face) all suffer. Publicity ACCENTUATES the exclusion of differences.
Sexist norms are imposed at a very young age, through school, family, hobbies, religion, and above all, the consumption and profit obsessed society, which sees the human body (a merchandise) as a colossal source of profit.
Surreal looking women (in our case, the model at the Hussein C show) are used to reinforce those sexist norms; women need to be obsessed with their own body. Women are put in competition, men serving as judges and directly keeping their positions of dominants. "Beauty" is a market that generates a lot of money (perfumes, clothes, makeup, bronzer, beauty centres...). Living under these beauty norms is a form of violence to women and its most tragic consequences are bulimia, anorexia and suicide.
Publicity contributes so much more than we think to human intelligence decays.
It is part of human nature to be captivated by sex. People behind marketing ploys have long understood that. In publicity, the tendency is to present woman (much more often than men) in an erotic way. In most fashion ads, woman are pictured as sexual creatures, mere sexual objects to be looked at, they like to be dominated, or in modern way of thinking, "more power to the woman", the woman is seen dominating the male. And as a matter of fact, rarely equal to men; they are either dominants or dominated.
Sexism comes in all forms, it is not only physical oppressions and violences that women all around the world have to battle every day. There are also social violences, economical violences, humiliations, and sexist STEREOTYPE propaganda. And most often, like in the Hussein C show, that kind of violence tends to be pushed to seem acceptable (like what many tFS members seem to defend) even to women.
I am not against sex or nudity, but I am more precisely for the acceptation of our own bodies and desires independently of our sex and sexual orientations. It is important to free ourselves from these norms to appreciate our own body. It is not a question of refusing beauty, art or fashion, but to refuse unrealistic beauty standards imposed by publicity.
I pity those who see this naked woman body as a natural form of art or a fashion. I pity those who think that fashion shows are not a form of publicity. I pity those who think that Hussein C' does not want to make money.
Sex sells, period.
The notion that sexually charged/sexist advertisments negatively effect female self-image is quite widely accepted. And you've explained the mechanics of how advertising works very clearly in what you wrote above. 
