Hanadee Abu-Zayed

Melissa Dempsey

English 1200, sec 070

Project II

8 April 2013

                                                                     Girl Power (Rebuttal)

             Third wave feminism is a way “Females can be strong and powerful. They can be anything they want to be, and they can look hot doing it!” (Zimmerman, Dahlberg 72) Although part of the women population find the portrayal of women in commercials as sex objects highly offensive and degrading, others “view sex as power, embracing their sexuality. It separates women from men and sees women as the dominant sex by constantly being the main focus.” (Zimmerman, Dahlberg 72) The only reason why men have this need to represent women as sex objects or make arrogant comments such as, “Go make me a sandwich.” is because they are “desperately trying to regain power from the femme fatale who has controlled them throughout history.” (Zimmerman, Dahlberg 72) They do not want women to take the control that they once had when women had no rights. Instead of women being viewed as weak, sexual objects in commercials, they are actually seen as having the power to use their sexuality to get what they want and this is what Hollywood commercials attempt to show.

            Why should we play the victim when we can do what Naomi Wolf does? Naomi Wolf embraces “the girl power trend and encourages women to use their bodies as works of art.” (Zimmerman, Dahlberg 72) Women should be able to show off their beauty and glamour, as long as they are doing it for no one but their selves! Advertisements teach women to be confident in their own skin. You can look at advertising in many different ways such as looking at advertisements as a fantasy. Women do not recognize that advertisements do not reflect reality. If women understood this, they would not be so offended. “Advertisements are simply creative art attempting to make a sale, not depictions of real life.” (Zimmerman, Dahlberg 72)

Although, women are shown in a attractive way in ads, if you look at it in a bigger picture, you will notice that the women have the control in the commercial or ad most of the time and men are also sexualized in commercial ads, which makes it obvious that women are not the only ones being degraded as objects. That being said, being sexualized in an ad is a norm in our culture for both genders. Below are a few photos of men also being sexualized in media ads and show women having more power than men. Zimmerman and Dahlberg state that if females were to see an advertisement while flipping through a magazine of a woman used as a sexual object, chances are they would not have looked twice at it. “Respondents finding advertisements like this one culturally acceptable make a point that it does not matter whether the advertisement is ethical or morally right because they accept sex as part of their culture.” Hollywood commercials are a way of giving woman sexual power, embracing their feminine features, expressing your body as art, and showing the world that we can do anything and look great doing it!