Post 3 - Advertising - It All Comes Back to WSCP

This "accidentally racist" add from SONY shows you just how
insidious White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy is.

Most, if not all current advertising reinforces White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy. What is disturbing is how seemingly oblivious some people (including those that actually make the images) are to this very fact. We as a culture have been so shaped by this institution, and it's tactics have been so clever that unless we take the time to examine what's being thrown at us, the deep undercurrents of White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy may go unnoticed.

The purpose of these images is to sell you things that you don't need by making you think that obtaining them will make your life better. The cosmetics to make your skin look flawless (which is impossible), the clothes to make you look sophisticated and rich. But what they're also selling you is the belief that to be worth anything, you must subscribe to the beauty ideals and societal conventions that have been established by the WSCP. If you are a woman, you must be thin, fair skinned, have long hair (the lighter the better), wear makeup and know how to apply it well so that you are beautiful at all times. You must also always wear heels that "make your legs look hotter" and make sure you have the mini skirt to match, all in the effort to be sexually desirable to men.

This is all the while you're being bombarded with images of food telling you just how "sinful" and "delicious" something is. "Sin" is equated with the desire for nourishment and pleasure. And so, while Bradley Cooper can joyfully dig into a quarter pint of iced cream wearing nothing but a suit and a smile, you're forced to hid inside of the refrigerator (congratulations for being small enough to actually fit inside) and savor each of the three small scoops of iced cream that you painfully measure only to purge after the guilt has overcome you.

This is precisely why and how little girls develop unhealthy body image and self esteem after being exposed to advertisements showing them how women act around food, what they look like (impossible standards of beauty that has been augmented by makeup, tailoring and of course, photoshop) and how they dress. It makes girls and women feel less than, just by virtue of being themselves. So many fall into the trap and buy things to change aspects of themselves in a vain effort to become something unattainable to begin with. That's how capitalism wins. Degrade people and then offer them hope to sell them the products that you make. It's positively evil.

If we are going to counter this narrative we need to first call advertisers out on their transgressions and ask that women's bodies not be subject to the ridiculous manipulation that is afforded by photoshop. Makeup should also be minimal, if there is any at all. Diversity needs to be a priority, not only in terms of race but also ethnicity, body type and level of attractiveness. Being ugly is not a crime. Being average is does not make one mediocre. If we are to fight the manipulation of people through image, we need to place images of real human beings forth to show that the representations of models and movie stars that everyone is becoming used to simply do no exist in the natural world. And they sure as hell have no positive use in the world.

Works Cited:

Kilbourne, Jean, "The More You Subtract, the More You Add." Deadly Persuasion. Simon & Schuster, Inc, 1999. Kilbourne, Jean, "Beauty and the Beast of Advertising." Media & Values. Diana George & John Trimbur(Eds.), (1999) (pp. 178-184). Cortese, Anthony Joseph Paul, "Constructed Bodies, Deconstructing Ads," Provocateur: Images of Women & Minorities in Advertising. Rowman and Littlefield, 2008.