John Stossel's Mustache

Alcohol and cigarette advertisements are one of the first places to go if you want to see extreme gender stereotypes in our culture. Women are usually seen as a sex object of are in some sort of situation where they could be taken advantage of. If advertisements were a snapshot of our entire society it would show that alcohol and cigarettes were mostly sold to men by half naked women or reinforced that males need to be tough to be accepted by other people.

Cigarette advertisements have calmed down a lot since the big controversy in the 90s about selling cigarettes to kids and society’s general distaste in smoking. It is interesting to go look at cigarette advertisements before the 90s and try to figure out exactly what they were selling.

There are quite a few issues with this advertisement. Obviously they are using sex the sex appeal of this woman to sell cigarettes to men. If a hot woman with only jeans on is smoking a cigarette then it is the cool thing to do. This woman also gives men and women false hopes about the ideal woman should look like.

This advertisement helps reinforce male gender stereotypes. It shows men how they are supposed to act in out culture. The men in this advertisement are being tough and playing basketball while a case of beer sits in the background. Part of the text on the advertisement actually says, “Like talking to the ladies at the bar is less about opening and more about closing.” Basically implying that men should go to the bars just to get laid and if you don’t act that way then you aren’t acceptable in our society. I also find it very random that there is a picture of a woman’s leg in the top right hand corner. Its like this advertisement is selling the way a male should be and maybe Icehouse beer.

Are those men waiting in line to lick alcohol off of this woman? Does anyone else find this advertisement absolutely ridiculous?

Beer advertisement often include half naked women holding a beer and looking like they are going to have sex with the next thing they see. This advertisement falls right in with the rest but the most troubling thing about this advertisement is the text at the bottom - “Always worth it.” You are left wondering if they are implying that drinking the beer is always worth it or having sex with the girl is always worth it. This advertisement has dangerous stereotypes for both men and women because once again it features a half naked woman with big boobs and who is extremely skinny setting up the perfect body image of a woman which, for the most part, isn’t necessarily what a woman looks like.

This advertisement blows my mind. To make a woman not even a person but a glass of beer to consumed by a man whenever he wants is degrading women beyond belief. Understandable this particular advertisement was published in Maxim, where women are practically naked throughout the whole entire magazines but at least the women in the magazine get to use their real bodies to exploit themselves.

I feel like this advertisement is bad enough that I don’t need to take paragraphs explaining it. All I have to say is how is it controversial to imply that you can peel a woman like an orange? Isn’t that what we present in everyday society? That women are meant to be unpeeled by men for sexual pleasure? When it becomes controversial in mainstream society from a woman to be naked except covered in an orange peel I will throw a party because that means my work and the work of other feminists and media critics across the globe will finally have had some impact on main stream society.

This advertisement tries to flip gender stereotypes by having the man carrying the baby and the women skinny and holding a drink. I have always felt like was one of the ground breaking advertisements published but with a more critical eye there are still other various gender stereotypes in this advertisement. The man is still dressed in the clothing that his gender wears and the dog, better known as the man’s best friend, is still sitting at the man’s feet. The woman is wearing a slinky black dress and is holding a girly drink. I think it’s really cool that this advertisement tried to break gender stereotypes but there are still a few things that need to be worked on.