The Eyes of The Beholder

It is quite obvious the role women play in the world of advertising. In some adds they are used as eye candy to get the attention of the typical guy, or even to be admired by other envies women. This is not a problem at all considering that men are used in the same way except they don't bare as much skin. The problem is that women are continually seen as the care taker for men and the family itself. Their only duty is to make sure the family is running like a well oiled machine. While some organizations are fighting to stop the discrimination  in advertising, some cannot even agree to what line for discrimination is or is not. The idea of discrimination can be very debate able. The European Community (EEC) did have this to say, " states that advertise on television must not: A) injure the human dignity; B) be discriminative with respect to race, sex, religion or nationality. Still, no interpretations or definitions of the concept of discrimination have been developed along with the directive. The question therefore is left unanswered as to where the limits in such considerations actually can be drawn, and on what criteria. As a consequence, this lack of criteria may imply that the similarities to the principle of self-regulation are close (Glifjell, 266)." What this means is that what you think is discrimination can be totally different from what someone else things is discrimination. For instance, you may look at an ad and think how in the world can they advertise like that, but it maybe possible that in that country they do not find it discriminating to a woman at all. So whether an advertisement is discriminating a women or not, is not objective but subjective. With this in mind, lets take a look at an ad.

Lets first look at the perspective that this ad is totally discriminating against women. The ad is "putting the women in her place." That is as the person who has to clean, cook and take care of the house. It suggest that the mans job is to bring home the bacon and that women do not belong in the business environment. This is a total low blow to women, because obviously they can and have succeeded where men have not in being the head of the household. On the other hand, someone can look at this ad and believe it is good for women. In the ad you can see that the women is out performing the man in her daily tasks. The ad reads, "So the harder a wife works, the cuter she looks!"Some women may find it flattering for a man to tell them that they look cute while they work. So as you can see ads can be very shady and maybe discrimination, but to some it might just be good humor or flattering. Whatever the case maybe, it is important to realize that it is all in the eyes of the beholder.