It would be nice to think that the objectification and degradation of women are no longer problems in our culture here in 2011. But they are problems, and the continuing exploitation of women in advertising perpetuates those problems.
For example, a local house party featuring all-you-can-drink beer was recently marketed using a poster featuring a naked woman. Images like this promote issues of inequality; every day, women experience discrimination based on the cultural ideals that images like this reinforce.
Some people defend event posters like this, saying they are art. But, clearly, the naked-woman image and what it represents is different from a lot of classical artwork.
Objectifying the female body to sell tickets to an all-you-can-drink event is not art. But this doesn’t mean that the naked female body should be hidden from the world. The female body has been repressed for far too long.
An important difference exists between classical artworks that celebrate the female body, such as the Greek statue Venus de Milo, and a completely naked woman in a suggestive but powerless pose, a woman who has been Photoshopped to the point where there could be no possible perception of a culturally defined imperfection.
In order to support positive change in the world, it’s essential for us to adopt strong policies of supporting basic human rights.
The objectification of women degrades human rights and promotes issues of inequality and violence, the latter of which is made especially worse by excessive alcohol consumption.