Media and advertising are often unkind to women, but you get the best sense of how unkind when someone compiles several demeaning ads in one place.
The documentary "MissRepresentation" accomplished that in 2011, bringing media's objectification of women into stark relief through the sheer volume of images and footage it collected.
Now Sarah Zelinski, Kayla Hatzel and Dylan Lambi-Raine, students at the University of Saskatchewan, have continued that work. They posted a video on YouTube that not only calls out ads that "would make even Pete Campbell blush," Julie Gerstein of The Frisky noted, but also asks, "How would ads look... if gender roles were reversed?" and restages the ads accordingly (watch above).
For Gerstein, the project's effect is limited. "When you attempt to replace female bodies with male bodies you don’t really objectify men in the same way," she wrote. "...the tropes of female body-as-prop are so well-worn, such a part of our cultural landscape, that simply changing up the bodies in the images isn’t enough ... Take a look at some of the video’s gender reversals. ... They’re funny. Because that’s how we culturally interpret a man in a 'woman’s role.' It’s comedy."
What do you think? Does the second half of the video make an impact, or is the idea of men in these positions so "ridiculous," as the video puts it, that the switch doesn't really say anything?
[h/t The Frisky]
Related
Before You Go
