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Arlenn Galvan
Professor Beadle
English 115
2 November 2016
Dolce & Gabbana Ad
What's your reaction to a shirtless male or sexy female on an ad? Do you ever catch yourself
left without words while watching an ad? An ads job is to grab the audience attention through
appealing to the people's likings. Beginning with the articles by Judith Lorber and Ruth Hubbard
as they express social construction of gender construction. Women are portrayed as a
materialistic figure in society through their physical appearance with clothing, body features and
etc., so men can be attracted. But often times women receive negative treatment due to what
their role is in ads but most commonly their appearance in music videos. In this ad you can see
that there is 4 shirtless guys all around the picture with on male aggressively holding onto the
female who is in intimate clothing.
To begin with as society plays a major role in how women are portrayed in the real world
through ads or any source of social media. Through the traditional beliefs of how women should
act or become like continues to take place even today where negative treatment of women
continues to grow even if it happened some time ago. Women are easily used to become a sexual
object for the male population when trying to sell a product. For example, women are to model
for advertisements including selling tires, cars or anything those male individuals are willing to
buy. When women themselves see these ads all over their city, they automatically begin to say
that the models are sluts, shes asking for it or etc., due to their physical appearance with

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Galvan 270% of their body uncovered wearing just intimate clothing. In society people dont
come to realize the little things shown on ads but also media either online or in the music
industry, women are seen as an object that can be aggressively attacked or seen in harm. In this
ad you can see that as the shirtless men are in the background but one man is aggressively
holding onto the sexy female in the ad. The men are not looked upon what is done to female.
Women begin to become publically shamed as the way Kim Kardashian did when she began to
become famous all because of the sex tape which was leaked onto social media back in 2007
with former singer boyfriend Ray J. In social media Kim expresses herself as she says, I will
not live my life dictated by the issues you have with my sexuality. You be you and let me be
me (Kardashian 1). Kims past until this day continues to haunt her forever despite what she has
achieved in life financially and personally. She has proven that despite what happened she is a
very successful business women and such a loving and caring mother to her 2 kids but there will
always be someone who is to bring up the past and try to ruin your career.
With social media and the music industry evolving throughout the years music lyrics itself
is seen as women hooking up with many different guys, showing 70% of their bodies to the
world to see and basically seen as asexual decoration to the videos. The lyrics begin to continue
on being mention in many different ways. In old school music artist were viewed badly if they
were to mention anything that related to women simply as just saying they woke up from bed to
go to the kitchen was seen by the audience as a big issue. As you fast forward to the late 90s
male artist began to mention women in every single one of their song releases; through lyrics and
music videos where women were categorize as sexual objects. In the article, Equal Opportunity
Objectification? The Sexualization of Men and Women on the Cover of Rolling Stone talk about how

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women are made to be seen differently than men, Yet our most striking finding is the change in

how womenbut not men are sexualized. Women are increasingly likely to be
hypersexualized, while men are not ( Hatton 257). Women would dress in sexy appeal, having
a seductive tone and sexually dancing where shows that women are the ones who are making the
situation a sexual way because of how they look. This picture shows a female who is with 5
other males, with no shirts and aggressively holding on the female. In Hubbards article
Rethinking Womens Biology she gives the example of the common idea about women,
offered that characterize women as weak, or overemotional... (Hubbard 46). This quote shows
that woman are seen as weak links in society, compared to the way men are viewed by the
traditional values and all this is reflected and shown upon these ads and music videos that have
women appealing to their body just to make a hit new single.
Lastly, one would say that both the female and males in this ads are seen in a way the same.
Both the female and males are shown as sexual objects in this ad but also in many other ads. The
company is appealing to both genders so women and men are to go buy their clothes through this
advertisement one is portraying. Many would argue that there is no difference between the ways
both genders are seen in society. In this ad men are simply going to look at the very attractive
female and not the males, while women will be looking at the shirtless, hot guys tend not to
pay any attention to the female in the ad and vice versa. Men can simply take their shirt off and
its categorized as, sexy and breathe taking. Men are seen as tough, masculine and are considered
superior then women due to the old traditional roles between women and men. In the article,
Imaging the Male Body: Ads, Aesthetics and Representations of Imagined Masculinities
Williams talks about how both genders are seen as object of gazing, Conversely, both males and

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females can be depicted as those who do the looking and the consuming. Both females and males
can be depicted at one and the same time as both object of the gaze, and the gazing subject. Men
look at women, and men also look at other men. Women look at other women, and women
certainly look at men (Williams 35). Williamss looks about the meaning of gazing were both
genders follow this same process in everyday life, where no matter if youre male or female you
tend to appeal towards the opposite gender in the same ways.
In conclusion, both women and men are portrayed as a sexual objects and object of gaze in
society through their physical appearance. Men and women have similar likings for the opposite
sex through these ads and this will continue to be an ongoing cycle. If nothing is to change
younger generations will grow up watching these music videos and think what is being shown is
an okay thing. Children will no longer have a traditional childhood as the rest of us have.

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Work Cited

Williams, Amber. "Imaging the Male Body: Ads, Aesthetics and Representations of Imagined
Masculinities." Student Thesis, edited by Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, 2000,
pg. 10-40. http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape2/PQDD_0008/MQ60067.pdf
Hatton, Erin. Equal Opportunity Objectification? The Sexualization of Men and Women on the
Cover of Rolling Stone Sexuality & Culture, Volume 4 Volume 20, Springer US, pp 256 http://
link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12119-011-9093-2
Hubbard, Ruth, Rethinking Womens Biology Composing Gende, edited by John E. Sullivan
III, A Bedford Spotlight Reader, pg 46-52