Objectification in Advertising

This advertisement is obviously for Heineken beer and is clearly objectifying this woman. Only part of her body is being shown here, she has no face, no voice, no opinion, no head. She is thin and appears to be air brushed, she has no stretch marks, no freckles, no hair. Kilbourne's perspective would point out that she is the object because she is being acted upon, does not appear to be in control, only a single feature of her body is important, and these people show problematic body language. I don't generally see males hugging one leg of their partner; they're in a strange pose specifically to show her butt... and his face. Also, there's not even a bottle of beer in this ad to sell the product. She is the product, she has become the bottle of Heineken.


I don't even know what this ad is selling but it's absurd. Just as above, the woman has no face in this photo. She's completely naked and from Kilbourne's perspective, this is very objectifying. In this ad, This woman is being acted upon, not in control, only a part of her body is shown and she's powerless. She has become the piece of cake. She stopped being a person and became what this ad is trying to sell.  

Duke University Porn Star

Belle Knox is a student at Duke University that does porn videos to help fund her tuition.

The Young Turks focuses on the fact that a lot of her personal information is shared online such as her Facebook, her e-mail and her whereabouts so people know where they can go to harass her. The news anchors state that they understand not agreeing with her decisions to do porn, but posting information like that is crossing the line. They also point out that people are bullying her and for no real reason. Calling her a whore or slut is just going out of your way to put someone down when it doesn't effect you. Why are the bullying her? Watch it and be done with it. Guys are bitter that they didn't have sex with her and girls were jealous. People were being unreasonably cruel. It's also said that if she wanted to keep it a secret, she simply shouldn't have been in the videos. I think they focus on these points because people so often feel the need to comment on what other people are doing. With constant access to the internet, there's no privacy anymore. And she knew this when she made the films, but with that people also have the constant access to post their opinions.

The people of The View focus on many different aspects of the situation. Isn't there other ways you can make money? What changed after highschool to make you do porn? How bad has the bullying gotten? "My heart breaks for you." They seem to be concerned for her safety and well-being. Then Knox herself says that it's freeing and liberating to make choices and decisions about sex and her body. I think they bring up these points to show all consequences, good or bad, of her choices. She may feel liberated and empowered, but not all of her peers are supporting her.

These arguments show that we have very strong opinions about sex and pornography. The comments that were posted about her calling her horrible names and showing no empathy for the bullying she's receiving shows just harsh people can be. It is very much frowned upon to be paid for sex, obviously. But if she's doing what she wants, what she loves, what makes her feel good, why not let her without putting your two cents in? Clearly we all have our opinions but we don't need to voice them at someone else's expense. Porn and sex are seen as dirty, impure and trashy. Like making a sex tape says more about you than just the fact that you made a tape.