Supplemental Post #1 - Objectifying Women in Media

I want to rewind time to approximately two weeks ago when the SAG Awards was taking place at the Shrine. I remember I was scrolling through my newsfeed and saw E! Red Carpet posts on Facebook. One post caught my eye and it was a post about Ariel Winter (who plays the nerdy Alexandria Dunphy from Modern Family) and her cleavage. Yes, I know she’s a busty, beautiful girl (and she’s flaunting it on the red carpet) but seriously, she’s only in her teens. Is it necessary to have a whole article dedicated to her “sexy look”?

Women/female characters are objectified in the camera, as we pointed out in class. The camera’s point of view is in the men’s perspective. No matter if it is in an actual formal setting (i.e. red carpets) or in fictional television/film setting, women are always, in a sense, sexualized. And honestly, it has all to do with marketing and box office sales. In my advertisement and promotion business class, our class discussed about sexuality in media and that “sex sells”—and statistically, it is true, it does sell. The female body has been the primary source of spectacle since the beginnings of film.

 Like what Dyer suggested in his Stars book, the predominantly female type in media is the pin-up. She’s basically a model of bodily perfection—a photogenic goddess, more or less. And with fashion, make-up, and hair styling, women can achieve that same pin-up look. One well-known pin-up is Marilyn Monroe, and we can say that she was always been (and still is) the spectacle of the media. With her curly blonde hair, arched eyebrows, and red plump lips, she exudes seduction and passion and becomes a fantasy for men. And this classic look has been re-created again and again to exploit that same sexuality. Look at Scarlett Johansson’s Dolce & Gabbana ad:

The resemblance with Marilyn Monroe is uncanny.
And going back to Ariel’s example, I googled her SAG awards’ look again today, and the article titles still bothers me: “Ariel Winter’s Cleavage Proves She’s All Grown-Up,” “Ariel Winter, 16, Models Her Bombshell Curves”, “Ariel Winter’s Cleavage Yet Again the Talk of the Red Carpet,” etc.