SAPAC: Sexual Assualt and Awareess Prevention Center*

University of Michigan

Why is advertising a problem?

Because it…

   >Objectifies women in a way that reduces them to body parts, implying that women solely exist to physically satisfy men.

   >Creates a limited standard of beauty-young, white, thin, and airbrushed-that is impossible for most women to attain.

     When women of other backgrounds are used, their differences are often eroticized or ridiculed by the ad.

   >Uses sex-role stereotypes to portray women as submissive and subordinate and men as controlling and dominant, or displaying violence   

     against women and children. Advertisements that use slogans and pictures that depict women being physically attacked glorify the violence

     that occurs against women every day.

   >Promotes gender-based violence by portraying women as lifeless and doll-like, with incredibly pale skin and emotionless faces.

      This condones violence against women by implying that women are dolls to be played with or that women are sexy when dead.