Rhetorical Analysis: The Woman In His Arms By Barthes

Jean Kilbourne’s film, Killing Us Softly 4, depicts the way the females are shown in advertisements. She discusses how advertisement sell concepts of normalcy and what it means to be a “male” and a “female.” One of her main arguments focuses on how women aspire to achieve the physical perfection that is portrayed in advertisements but this perfection is actually artificially created through Photoshop and other editing tools. Women in advertisements are often objectified as weak, skinny, and beautiful while men are often portrayed as bigger and stronger. Advertisements utilize the setting, the position of the people in the advertisements, and the products to appeal to the unconscious aspect

The settings of the advertisement, which are a business building, a restaurant, and a street, clearly represent the three different classes of the upper- class, the middle-class and the lower-class. Additionally, women's different types of clothing also represent the different classes. The girl in the business office has worn a well-groomed suit, which suggests that she belongs to the upper-class. Women in the street have worn jeans, which suggests that they belong to the lower-class. The advertainment also sells some messages to the dominant elite with the product. The first message being communicated is that women are products that are meant to be consumed and when a product is bought, women come with the product. The main character in the advertisement has worn a jean and has opened its buttons, which suggests that he is a lower-class person. After he chews the Clorets gum, which is a high-end product, he is considered an upper- class person who attracts all the girls wherever he goes. Women are attracted to him just because of the fresh air created by the gum and before consumption, he could not attract women. Therefore, it is the gum that attracts women, not the guy. The second message of the dominant elite that is communicated to the audience is that women should sell their body to the men. All women in the commercial try different sexy poses in front of the man in the advertisement to attract him. The woman in the

Sexualizaton and objectification in the advertisements we see and the media we watch has become a very strong issue in our society. With the idea that “sex sells”, consumers don’t even realize that they’re not viewing the advertisements for what they are, but for the women (or men) that are being portrayed in a very erotic way, posed with whatever product they were hired to sell. Many articles have been written so far to challenge and assess this problem, but one written by Jean Kilbourne (1999), “”Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”: Advertising and Violence” holds an extensive amount of authority. Using her personal experience with the subject, as well as studies she has conducted herself on the topic of sexualization, she talks about how the amount of sexualization in advertising affects how society views the culture and products consumers buy. She also notes that because of the quantity and prevalence of these ads, the rate of all forms of sexual assault, specifically rape (mostly towards women of all age), increase, as well as other forms of assault. It is important to examine Kilbourne’s use of rhetorical devices, such as ethos, pathos, and logos, and how effective these devices make her article. This way, it can be examined for its validity and her understanding of her own research. Kilbourne’s article is very effective through her uses of pathos and ethos, but at the same time, it loses its effectiveness through her absence of a counter-argument, as well as a lack

Today’s world is dominated by the great influence of advertising media, which often depicts the objectification of women. The film Killing Us Softly 3, discusses how influential the negative portrayal and misrepresentation of women is throughout advertising media. The Versace advertisement I have chosen to analyze displays a slim, scantily clothed woman of color guarded by a shirtless, muscular man. Based on concepts from the film and the course’s text, it is clear that this advertisement sets a particular feminine beauty standard and, nonetheless, illustrates women as solely being sexual objects of men, having little to no power. This fashion ad influences the way women view their physical appearance, along with their position and function in society.

Calvin Klein understands the fact that men will buy a cologne that will, not only make them smell “hot”, but make them feel like it too. They employ a windowed effect with this poster, by providing the image of a future that can only be achieved by using this product. By utilizing this ad, men will automatically associate the experience of using this

For companies with enough money, the Superbowl is a way for them to display their commercials on a larger platform. On February 2010 during Super Bowl XL, Old Spice launched the commercial “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” with actor, Isaiah Mustafa, playing as the ideal man. In this commercial, Old Spice’s advertising company, Wiedent+Kennedy, establishes acceptable masculinity as a strong and hyper-sexualized male who is able to provide for a women. This brand that sells men’s hygiene products, rebranding their products to appeal to a younger male and female cliental. Implying that if a male does not fit into these gender role, then they are not a real man.

The advertisement hints at the female audience that their boyfriends or husbands are not men until they used Old Spice as the Old Spice Man stated, “But if he stopped using lady-scented body wash switched to Old Spice, he could smell like he’s me.” (“The Man”, 00:00:07-00:00:10). Basically, the Old Spice Man is saying Old Spice products are the best scent for a man. On the other hand, using logical fallacy of ad hominem, the Old Spice commercial shifts the audience attention from the argument to the Old Spice man. The Old Spice man indirectly attacks the female audience’s boyfriend or husband’s appearance such as “look at your Man.

The commercial shown in figure 1 is for a perfume called ‘the one gentleman’ which Matthew Mcconaughey a well-known actor did for Dolce & Gabbana, a trade mark for designer products. The commercial tells us that this is a body spray to use when one wants to be seen as a gentleman. In reality a gentleman is not a man who just uses this body spray, but a man is seen as a gentleman by certain attributes society sees as being acceptable. Commercials like these can really have an impact because the viewer wants to look like the person with the body spray, and themselves be perceived as a gentleman. The unspoken

Everyday we expose ourselves to thousands of advertisements in a wide variety of environments where ever we go; yet, we fail to realize the influence of the implications being sold to us on these advertisements, particularly about women. Advertisements don’t just sell products; they sell this notion that women are less of humans and more of objects, particularly in the sexual sense. It is important to understand that the advertising worlds’ constant sexual objectification of women has led to a change in sexual pathology in our society, by creating a culture that strives to be the unobtainable image of beauty we see on the cover of magazines. Even more specifically it is important to study the multiple influences that advertisements have

In his essay The Rhetoric of The Image, Roland Barthes explores the relationship between image and meaning. He centres his discussion around the advertisement as advertising is a medium in which there is an intended message being sent to the viewer. Barthes puts forward that if an image contains signs, in advertising the signs are ‘full’, as these signs are formed with the viewer in mind so that the intended message is not missed.

A commercial is typically used to advertise and help sell products targeting a certain audience. As mentioned in the application on page 824, commercials have a certain target audience and are meant to appeal with the desire to win over that audience through ads, but, in this case, the artist paintings. Berger's article focuses on paintings that were designed to appeal to the "male gaze." Berger analyzes the way European art targets these males and has depicted the relationship between women and men. Berger reflects on the way various artists use their paintings to appeal to men. The article's premise is constructed around the way people view things is affected by our knowledge and judgements. Berger uses the European paintings of women to

In both the advertisements, there are two models, a man and a woman (Megan Fox). The models are both dressed up in formal attire with the man in a black tuxedo and the woman in a sexy black dress with a revealing back. Both of the ads include the models’ bodies facing each other at an intimate distance. This image displays a certain sex appeal which helps to connect the fragrance, “Armani Code,” to the idea of sexiness. The women’s fragrance ad shows the woman staring confidently at camera as a man is gazing towards her body touching her arm. This depicts the woman being desired. The men’s fragrance does the same with the man staring at the camera and the woman being entranced by the man. The two advertisements are marketed towards different sexes and use the main figure as the sexual object to be

Sex sells. Many advertisers and companies attempt to over sexualize their products, some in blunter ways than others. In many of the aggressively sexual ads, advertisers create women as sex objects and nothing else. These campaigns do not show women in their true states, but rather as parts of women or put into positions to symbolize objects. In the Natan jewelry advertisement, the company objectifies a woman by removing her identity and only including the image of her pristine legs. The picture is of a woman sitting in a chair with her legs together, then transitions to her open legs. The woman makes this transition due to the male model presenting an engagement ring. There is an interesting display of power in this image because the man depicted has obvious control over the woman, but the advertisers clearly show that the woman holds the man’s goal (sex). The ad uses this sexual innuendo in order to show the message of power exchange between men and women as, “… it suggests that this particular notion may be less about sex, less about actual human sexual behaviors, than it is about power” (Streeter). By forming the woman as a sexual object, the ad clarifies two myths being that women lack power compared to their counterparts, and that women are open to sexual activities based on material goods.

Kalman thoroughly uses a critical tone to indicate the faults of sexual objectification. By describing women as a chicken that has “Great Legs and Nice Breasts,” the author criticizes sexual objectification by using the fact that legs and breasts are the most favourable parts of both chicken and women. It also points out how a man can be aroused just by the woman’s body, as they are just treated as sexual objects. Furthermore, the slogan criticizes companies which have become accustomed to selling products and services with the help of sexually related preferences and elements of women. Moving on, by focusing on how a chicken is an ordinary object that we see everyday, the author criticizes how sexual objectification is regarded as a normal man behavior. This shows how the society has already accepted the fact that men consider women as an object that can be received from a unilateral decision, rather than treating them as a valuable human being through relational interplay. Although the general tone of the article is critical, a sense of sarcasm is created at times. By emphasizing how the society prefers “fresh” and “young” chicken, the author sarcastically criticizes the commercialization of sex, which has led to the result of society considering sexuality as a commodity. The author targets companies, especially of high fashion brands such as “Calvin Klein” which distribute provocative images of the bodies of “fresh” and “young” women for advertisement. Through this, Kalman emphasizes how the society has allowed sexual objectification to happen by creating tolerance for exploitation. These advertisements that contain of women naked just as raw “chickens” further create cultural stereotypes and perpetuates the association of women as sexual objects. Every element of the poster contains the author’s intention to deliver the message of the poster effectively. By

“Being envied is a solitary form of reassurance”(Berger 133). Publicity is designed to create the illusion of glamor. In some way, shape or form advertisements try to convince us that our lives are somehow incomplete without their product. In an attempt to appease Man’s most carnal desires advertisements have found themselves over-sexualizing women perpetuating the objectification and mistreatment of them. The Carl's Jr. advertisements exhibit John Berger's idea of women, as the “surveyor and the surveyed”(Berger 46) as seen in Ways Of Seeing.This idea is made prevalent in the Carl’s Jr ads. These advertisements use this dynamic to satisfy our insatiable yearning as a platform to make their product more appealing.