Feminine Sexuality

The media’s portrayal of femininity and its inherent link to the woman as being a sexual being is prevalent and found in most often advertisements, but not excluding role models and other such media artifacts outside print media and photography.

The first advertisement shown is a perfume advertisement for Calvin Klein’s Escape. Perfume in and of itself can be seen as a necessity higher than the basics of toothpaste and shampoo, but something that can be used as a tool for smelling good and feeling one’s best. In this case, the advertisement is showing perfume as having an erotic power, and the name of the perfume clearly ties into the notion that being a woman and wearing this scent will allow you to escape and go outside of your comfort zone and boundaries. The woman in the ad is seen as an aggressor, and an object that wants sex at all costs. She is driven to literally be on top of the man and to act accordingly.

The next picture shows the cast from the MTV show The Hills. Arguably, these four young women can be seen as MTV’s mold, creation and above all billboards for fashion brands and boosting MTV’s ratings and sales. On another level, these girls are role models for the younger generation. Teenage girls look to the cast of The Hills as being “who they want to be” and how they want to dress and appear. The other level here is that these girls exude a type of sexuality, that of the “consumer lifestyle” mentioned in the Markle text; that consumerism is sexuality and sexuality is consumerism. These girls are attractive in the way that they present themselves, and are presented in a rich and luxurious style that girls look up to them while at the same time, guys are attracted to them.

This Bebe advertisement is interesting in that it is “selling” their product by the means of a scantily-clad woman, seen as being feminine only by the means of showing her body, wearing a bikini, and being surrounded by purses. The bikini adds an element of sexuality where by no means necessary are women going to feel compelled to buy the product by the attractiveness of the girl, but they also might envision themselves as being attractive and catching the eye of men if only by the means of purchasing Bebe products and accessories.

America’s Next Top Model is an interesting specimen to behold in that the whole show is centered around 1. Tyra Banks and 2. Tyra Banks’ desire to make girls’ dreams come true: that they are attractive, and that they are womanly enough to be hired on as a “Top Model”. In the context of this picture, there are two models from one of the cycles of the show, seen wearing very little clothing, and performing what appears to be a menage a trois with the man on the floor and the two of the women facing each other. Both women exude “femininity” in that they are wearing girl clothing and accessories (of what little they do have), but given the context of the photograph including their body language and facial expressions, sexuality is also a huge focus of the picture.

This last advertisement for Versace seems to show a “his” and “hers” cologne. While there is a man pictured to display the “ideal” masculinity” The ideal “femininity” of the woman is clearly displayed in that you see more of her body than you do of the man’s. Her curves and relaxed body position allude being held by the man suggest sexual undertones, all the while perpetuating the ideal that a woman is feminine by 1. her body parts and 2. her inherent desire to seek out sex and be nude.