Business & Finance, Family & Education

A call against sexualised advertising

Posted on by Jubilee Centre Team
12
Jan

We affirm the innate beauty of the human body, of which only one part is derived from its sexuality.

However, the advertising industry has distorted the human image by casting women increasingly as objects of sexual gratification, and using that image to sell products and services.

Therefore, we 1) challenge businesses to publicly move away from using sexualised advertising and 2) encourage consumers to demand non-sexualised advertising and boycott organisations that blatantly objectify the human body for commercial gain.

4 comments

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  • Ralph Lee
    • 4 years ago
    Great idea. I'd like to see more flesh on your 'therefore'. We can challenge business, but they might not respond - it seems that we need a community wide education programme addressing the broad social problems associated with sexual images, and connected issues. It is interesting to me that many know the problems, but they are still responding to such images. The problem lies at the root problem of being fallen - what we need is a public message that moves people towards an understanding of sexualisation  as being part of brokenness. The consumer boycott idea is more likely to work, but would need to be quite sophisticated in the world of the online consumer. 
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  • Jennifer James Taylor
    • 4 years ago
    I would get rid of the second part of the first sentence: you cannot 'partition' sexuality.  As persons we are infused with and indeed 'derived' from sexuality!  Nonetheless this was the first thesis that caught my eye and I believe is incredibly important.  It would revolutionise capitalist societies, which use sex to sell everything, even degrading creativity, and becoming the very atmosphere we breathe.  In fact this is bigger than being just about women.
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    • Calum Samuelson
      • 4 years ago
      Good insight. I certainly take your point. This is a difficult issue because one end of the spectrum of discourse wants to assert sexuality to the near exclusion of everything else! I think because culture at large is so fixated on the pervasiveness of sexuality it is important to emphasize that there are other crucial aspects of what it means to be human. The author may have meant to partition a portion of beauty that is connected specifically to sexuality rather than partition sexuality itself. We can be fully 'infused' with sexuality without insisting that all of our beauty comes from sexuality.I really like your statement about how this degrades creativity! We are not wanting 'less' from marketing and advertising, but actually more! I was recently at a festival where my intriguing and interesting conversation with a craftsman affirmed my personhood and humanity. I ended up purchasing his product because it made me feel more fully human, not because of FOMO (fear of missing out)!
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  • Ralph Lee
    • 4 years ago
    Again another excellent thesis, aimed at the heart of the problem. This is a matter for action by consumers, not something that should be left to legislation. 
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