SEX AND ADVERTISING

There has been a clear increase in the number of cases including sexual harassment and rape. About one half of all female college students have experienced some form of sexual harassment in a given year. Such statistics suggest that sexual violence against women, rather than being the product of few deviant individuals, is committed by large number of men. 

 

In a study carried out by Malamuth and Briere from University of California, Los Angeles, they came to a strong conclusion (based on facts, proof and experimentation) that there does exist a direct relationship between the sexual assaults carried out against women and sexual violence in advertisements.  

 

There are two conclusions that can be drawn:

• Male act against female targets in the vast majority of the depictions

• Sexual aggression, from advertisements has been increasing rapidly in the past 15 years. 

 

Till a large extent, their hypothesis was proved right about the media (advertisements in particular) suggesting that sexual assault conducted on women are pleasing for them and that they actually enjoy it, which justifies the act of “rape” and “sexual violence” to these ad viewers. 

 

An experiment conducted helped conclude that men tend to retain more of ads which include sexually aggressive actions and that these advertisements affect their thought process regarding sexual harassment against women. 

 

Some examples of advertisements suggesting sexual violence/rape: 

Calvin Klein 

• Sexual assault suggesting pleasure

• Gang rape