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Alexis Velasquez
Professor Noh
English 114A
7 December 2015
Media Creates Gender Inequality
In recent years the media had been able to reach the public
much easier than in previous generations. Photography and social
media has made our generation vulnerable to advertisement. Media is
what defines a generation and shapes a culture through its power of
influence. Brands exaggerate their advertisements to grab the
consumers attention, in doing so they depict gender roles in ways that
are offensive. Advertisements within the Hollywood space depict
sexuality and gender roles in a way that creates inequality and strip
male and females of their dignity.
Every space has its own unique style and personality to it,
Hollywood has a very high fashion feel to it. Hollywood is known to be
a wealthy neighborhood because of the actors and actress that live in
the area whom have multimillion salaries and the film industry, which
generates billions in revenue. Just west of Hollywood, is Beverly Hills,
and even westward from there is Bell-Air, both cities known for its
multi-million dollar estates.
This creates the perfect environment for a fashion capital and
competiveness of brands. Brands make advertisement that stretch

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morals, and depict sex and gender roles in a negative way for example
Carls Jr. advertisement for the new bacon avocado jalapeno burger. In
the advertisement the company portrays a young female adult eating
a large burger. The model is in a bikini at the beach. She is extremely
skinny and has a naturally small frame. She has her eyes closed as she
takes a bite with a look of pleasure on her face making her look very
seductively as she eats this burger. This kind of advertisements
objectifies women and directs it towards males. By doing so Carls jr. is
reaching out to the male population to come eat their burger, indirectly
stating that if males find her attractive they will eat this burger. The
advertisement uses female and dignity to sell their product, which
creates inequality for women in society.
These kinds of ads can work both ways for men as well, men are
objectified in Calvin Klein advertisements. Calvin Klein uses the male
body being seduced by a woman to sell underwear. In the
advertisement I saw on Hollywood boulevard, there is a male laying
back wearing Calvin Klein and there is a women on top of him. She is
being dominant in the photograph; she is looking down at him while he
is looking up at her. Gender roles were switched because men are
dominant and women are portrayed as small and vulnerable in the
majority of advertisement that are released. Although the gender roles
were switched, women are still being objectified, in the advertisement,
because she is there only for his pleasure and enjoyment. She is not

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there to advertise Calvin Klein because she is not wearing anything
with the label Calvin Klein and he is.
The next couple of advertisements were very similar; one was for Blood And Oil,
which airs on ABC7 and another for Limitless on CBS. Hollywood being known for its
film industry has lot of advertisements for films and television shows. Producers know
ratings means success in Hollywood, and one good ad can get a viewer hooked on a show
for its entirety. Actors and actresses put an emphasis on aesthesis. On television and on
the big screen, we see men with great bodies and women with small frames. After seeing
this people on television, it puts this mindset in our heads that we have to look a certain
way or we are not attractive. The influences surrounding us push society to create a
picture of what is not attractive and what is not. This is unhealthy because people are
unhappy with themselves for not looking a certain way and can even make them
unhealthy physically, trying to look a certain way.
Gender inequality is created through objectification and depictions of
advertisements that portray gender roles in ways that do not represent dignity, strength
and respect. Advertisement is killing us slowly and is dangerously altering our morals.
This is how misrepresentation of gender roles are creating inequality between the genders
and are being accepted into out culture, made part of our daily life, which is a legitimate
issue.