Excerpts from my paper about female image in commercials
Women in contemporary society face many challenges. Women are challenged with certain images that they are expected to attain and uphold. There are also labels that stifle the development of this generation and the generations to follow.
Society, with help from the media, imparts images that women are expected to fulfill. The most important quality appears to be beauty, beauty at all costs. Never should a woman seem her age: young women must look older and seductive while older women must look younger and seductive. Sex sells and it is only effective when the woman meets certain qualifications.
Today's women are expected to always be well-kept and beautiful. The women that are in television commercials are out-going and young. Even the denture and adult diaper ads show older women looking younger than their actual biological ages.
These young, vibrant women take care of their homes, husbands, and children. They work out, keep in shape, hold a job, have perfect skin, never have PMS, always get a good night's sleep, never have headaches or colds. The ideal female is a wonder woman. Besides being almost unhuman, she is expected to be heterosexual without any feminine itching or odors.
Never are the women in ads wearing clothes that don't match, have bad hair days, or fussy children. Their worlds are perfect in ways no woman could ever aspire to. It is a wonder that women have not given up altogether.
When women are young girls and get into trouble they are reprimanded with, "Act like a lady." When girls play with boys too much and come home dirty they are told, "That isn't very lady-like." It appears that when a woman tries to be her own person, regardless of what society wants, she is not a lady. Women are to be "little ladies", not get into trouble, not to play with little boys, or be anything other than a passive, mute doll.
Bitches are women who challenge what society expects of them. These are women who do not necessarily have children or husbands. Women who are lesbians are very threatening because they do not appear to be dependent like ladies are expected to be. A woman who speaks her mind can easily be labeled "bitch."