Does sexism sell?

Well, it must because these sexist ads keep on appearing. You know the kind–where women appear as sexual objects, there to look pretty and please men. Or where every 1950s notion of male and female roles are reprised (women cook, men work, women clean, men work, women simper, men work). Women’s magazines are filled with these images, plus they also tend to create the unattainable ideal of women courtesy of starving models and/or Photoshop. Why do these tendencies toward objectifying women continue in 2008, when for the first time in the United States a woman had a viable shot at being president of the country? Because its societal and because men are still in charge at most large U.S. advertising agencies. What can we do? Continue to disagree with this state of affairs, and be vocal about it. The University of Michigan houses the  Sexual Attack Prevention and Awareness Center, which is running a campaign to stop sexism in advertising. Read about it here.