Body Image

Everyone please go check out this blog:
http://avantgardebodies.blogspot.com/

The author of this blog is in the same class as me, and her topic is body image. She is asking people to submit photos of their favorite body part(s), to show that everyone is different and beauty is great in variation!
Feel free to leave her comments (as long as they are kind in nature, not hurtful towards the people in the pictures!), or submit your pictures! Mine are on there!

Condoms and Sexual Awareness Ads

I am going to put on here a few advertisements for condoms, anti-rape, STD testing, etc.
Please take the poll at the end of each section, so I know what people think of these types of advertisements!
STD Testing:





Should it make a difference how STD prevention awareness is spread? Would it be more realistic to people if it were presented by 'real' people? Or would people want to be more active in prevention and testing if commercials portrayed "beautiful" people getting tested and/or talking about it (such as actors, actresses, models, porn stars)? Does it matter if they are presented through commercials, magazine/photograph advertisements, songs?

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Here are a few condom advertisements. It was REALLY hard for me to pick such a small amount of them-there are SO many amazing condom ads out there!







(For the two images above-obviously they should not be run somewhere children are likely to see them. They would be ads more aimed at teenagers and young adults-or even older adults!)



(That last one I actually saw on television the other day!)
The most popular approach to condom advertisement seems to be humor-humor relaxes people, puts them at ease with the subject being discussed. Perhaps parents can take this into account when talking to their children about sex?
So if the US were to run any of these advertisements, which one do you think they should do? (please feel free to select multiple answers, if you liked more than one,but not all, of the ads!)

[More Coming Soon!]
If our country can constantly run sexually oriented advertisements, movies, television shows and music, why can't we also run safe sex advertisements? And while movies may not all be sexually oriented, think about it-how many times have you watched a movie where at the beginning of that steamy sex scene one of the partners pulls out a condom? Or how about those rap songs? Have you ever heard one of those songs mention using a condom? Or some other type of birth control? Certainly not very often.
I sincerely believe that what we expose our children to while they are growing up affects the decisions they make later in life. If as a young teenager, they are allowed to watch movies, shows and listen to songs like these, they will not take sexual activity as serious as they should. When you are constantly being told that something is fun and that it is okay to do it whenever you want, with whoever you want, you will start to believe it. This is especially true with children whose parents are afraid to talk to them about sex. Safe sex awareness is something that is seriously lacking in a society as sexualized as ours.

What about subtle sexuality?

Not all sexually oriented advertisements are obvious. Some of them are more subtle, open to your personal interpretation. Take this picture for example:

Somebody just glancing at this ad sees an advertisement for grease guns. Take a deeper second look, however, and you will notice the way she is leaning over and showing a considerable amount of cleavage, while the headline on the ad reads "She wants you to have this pair in your car!" Subliminal advertising at its best!
And this picture, which would most likely be interpreted differently by women and men.

A woman, more inclined to see the romance in things, may see this as her meeting her soul mate when she typed hello.
A male, with their larger sex drive and biological drive to reproduce, would most likely see this as an advertisement for cyber sex.
Another not quite so subliminal advertisement is this one (for a 'pig in a blanket')

The phallic resemblence here is very obvious.
Here are a few more subliminal sexual advertisements. Can you see what is sexual about them?

(Yes, this one is circled-it is a screen shot from the Disney childrens movie, The Little Mermaid)

If you can't picture it with her head and glass covered, visit this link: Click Here

(Hint: what does his nose resemble?)

(This one is a little harder to see-focus on the ice in the glass)

(Ignoring the overt sexuality in this photo, notice where the rocket on the computer screen is pointing)

(Hint: look at the peanuts and pouring chocolate near the bottom; ejaculatory image?)

(Does this image represent a blow job? A woman's mouth lowering towards a phallic shaped item?)

(Ejaculatory image, for a clothing company in a magazine aimed at gay men)

Arguments can be made that subliminal sexuality can be found in almost ALL images and advertisements these days (as well as in music and movies), and perhaps that is because its true! The honest truth is that sex sells. Plain and simple. Humans have a drive to reproduce, a drive to have sex;it is one of our strongest (second to the drive to survive). Multiple media categories know this and take advantage of our innate sexuality to sell their products.

Should we be running more safe sex advertisements?

Please take a few seconds of your time and take this poll for me:


The United States rarely runs condom advertisements, but we commonly run advertisements for "male enhancement" products and lubricants. Take these commercials for example:


(and a non-KY commercial)

What do you think of them?

I have here a link to a website that has 12 condom commercials, from 12 countries. There is ONE on there from the United States, and that commercial has been banned from CBS and Fox, and I personally have only seen it on tv two, maybe three times.
http://www.oobject.com/category/12-countries-12-condom-commercials-videos/
Take a look at some of them, they are pretty funny! There is one from India that is a song and is 7 minutes long!

With commercials like this one:

running on US television, shouldn't we also run commercials like this one?


We marvel at the rate of teen pregnancy, high school girls having one or more kids before they graduate, and yet we still are afraid to talk to them about safe sex, or sex in general. We embarrass our children when it comes to the topic of sexual activity and make them think that it is a bad thing, while they are constantly being bombarded with sexual advertisements on the television and on radio.
We gladly let them watch television commercials using sex and humor to sell their products, and let them buy these products with the idea that it will get them laid. And yet, we won't talk to them about condoms. Our media won't advertise condoms, or any safe sex advertisements for that matter. Here is a commercial for Planned Parenthood, from Canada.

Why doesn't the US run advertisements like this?

As a side note, why don't we hear more songs like this one?

(Here is a link to the lyrics: http://www.lyriczz.com/lyrics/kaye-styles/44203-safe-sex/
While it may not be of the greatest lyrical value, the message that it is delivering is one that children, teenagers, and adults do not hear often enough in our society.

Do 'Pretty Packages' Make It Okay?

Often our media is packaged in a way that makes them seem not as sexual and inappropriate as they really are. Take this song for example. If you just listen to the music and don't pay much attention to the lyrics, the song could be classified as a love song, something anyone can listen to. But once you take a second look, listen a little harder, pay a little more attention, you understand why this song should be classified as raunchy.

Music Video:Touching (by David Banner)

Music Video Code by KOvideo.net

And here is a link to the lyrics-please take a look at these, they are astonishing:
http://artists.letssingit.com/david-banner-lyrics-touchin-69gn2p7

What about sex wrapped in a humorous package? This next song is called
"Jizz In My Pants" by The Lonely Island. While it is not one you'll hear on the radio, it is an internet sensation. Any child with access to a computer, especially those with unsupervised access, can easily come across this video. It is one of the most popular videos on Youtube right now, with over 40 million views. The video features supermodel Molly Sims and music artist Justin Timberlake.

(I would like to make a positive comment about this video-near the end of it, they do say "I wear a rubber at all times its a necessity" )

So does wrapping a sexual message in humor make it okay for our children to see? Young teenagers are seeing advertisements in magazines that are extremely sexual. Perfume ads showing nude bodies, and clothing advertisements that show a whole lot of skin and about an inch of the clothing it is advertising. Take these pictures for example:
This one, I believe, is advertising the jeans:

This picture is an advertisement for Abercrombie’s brand of cologne:

What does that picture have to do with cologne?
This picture is advertising a brand of alcohol, and the one next to it is advertising a fragrance:

Here's another one for the same brand:

And this one is advertising a clothing company:

The allusion here, for those who don't understand the many levels this is wrong on, is of a gang rape. One man is holding a woman to the ground by her wrists while other men look on.

The idea behind these advertisements is beauty. This product will make you pretty, that one will make you sexy. If you use our brand of soap, girls will jump into bed with you. Take this commercial for example:

Even at the end of the commercial, they flat out say that their body spray was designed just for that kind of thing. Come on, do people really believe that if they use a product then hot chicks/dudes will show up at their door and approach them sexually?

While children of young ages might not have the ability to recognize what these adverts are saying, seeing them over and over again will cause imprinting on the mind. When they get old enough they will understand what they are saying. Would you like your children raised in an environment constantly bombarding them with sex? If they are consistently being shown ads that promote sex, as well as bad body images, shouldn't they also be shown advertisements promoting safe sex and good body images? One of my favorite advertisements right now is for Playtex bras. In this commercial they show women with real bodies, no airbrushing and no examples of unrealistic body expectations. They show bigger, older, younger, and smaller women. Here is one of many videos they have:


So what does everyone else think? Does pretty packaging make it okay for our children and teenagers to constantly be exposed to sexual innuendos and sexual situations in every aspect of their life?

Sex To Sell A Kids Meal?

My name is Angela White, I am a education major at ACC. This website is for a psychology course I am taking. It is designed to highlight the extremely sexual nature of the media in our country today. I am attempting to show how our media is wrong in not advertising condoms and other types of sexual awareness advertisements. Please feel free to leave your comments, and take any polls I have on the page. Thanks!


Sex is a very common part of the media in our country, but it not always used in an appropriate manner. We use sex to advertise everything from food to clothes to perfume. But what our media does not contain is the "good" sexual advertisements that should go hand in hand with such a sexual environment.

The saying "sex sells" is obviously very true, and companies take advantage of that fact, often combining sex and humor to sell their products. Take this video for example (also, listen to the song I have posted(the second video)-it is the inspiration for the song in the commercial):

(And yes, this commercial is currently airing on television)

While the commercial is humorous, from some aspects, is it really something that our children should associate food with? While the argument can be made that children the age that this commercial is directed at won't understand the subtext behind it, what about the older kids who see this commercial? Or how about this commercial, one that IS directed at teenagers and adults:

(Along with how sexual it is overall, what about the Arby's logo representing the formation of an erection?)
A kid the age of twelve or thirteen will see this commercial and completely understand what it is about. Our children are growing up with advertisements such as this, constantly being bombarded with sex, as well as music that objectifies women and promotes sexual violence in general. Like this song, which shows not only violence towards women, but also the victim's retaliation towards the man:

Then there are more commonly heard songs such as "Lollipop" by Lil' Wayne, which displays women as sexual objects:


And here is a link to the lyrics, for closer inspection: http://www.metrolyrics.com/lollipop-lyrics-lil-wayne.html

Music videos have an ability to imprint an image upon our minds, so every time we hear those lyrics we flash back to that image. Any other type of advertisement is the same way.
With the Burger King commercial above, anytime we not only see a Burger King, a kids meal, but even the cartoon Sponge Bob Squarepants, we will automatically think of that commercial, about 'square butts', with very sexual undertones.