Advertisements are powerful in the images they present, products they sell, and emotions they elicit from consumers. Especially during the holiday season, advertisers go out of their way to capture the audience’s attention, so that when people are holiday shopping, they can be reminded of the products marketed within the advertisements they view. The beauty industry is no exception to this practice. It is widely recognized that the beauty industry primarily targets women—including teenagers—to buy their products. This places the beauty industry in a unique position to advertise their products in such a way that encourages female empowerment. However, it is not uncommon for advertisements to instead portray women wearing little, if anything, but perhaps perfume, makeup, and hair spray. It is also not uncommon to see women in ads accompanied by a man—often older, well dressed, and in possession of fancy assets such as expensive cars and watches to insinuate the man’s extensive financial resources. What are the implications of these advertisements and the lifestyles they portray? Are they realistic? What cost does the advertised lifestyle come at? The answer may not always be clear, but nonetheless, is worth discussion. While a link between holiday advertisements and commercial sexual exploitation may not be obvious at first, there is, in reality, a strong, growing and concerning correlation between the two.
For instance, recently, we were surprised and disheartened when a reputable beauty lifestyle boutique, Violet Grey, posted an article on “the art” of taking a bath entitled, “Rules of Bathing,” because the first image featured in the article was a still from the infamous movie Pretty Woman, depicting Richard Gere and Julia Roberts taking a bath together. Undoubtedly this movie is considered a 1990s quintessential romantic-comedy. At the same time, however, there is a fundamental problem with this movie—the lack of respect for the reality of prostitution and survivor experiences.
More often than not, the life of a prostituted person is filled with violence and trauma. There is no glamour, no fairy tale “happily ever after” ending for most women living the “life.” In fact, in a thirty-year long study of nearly 2,000 prostituted women, the American Journal of Epidemiology reported that the “few of the women died of natural causes, as would be expected for persons whose average age at death was 34 years. Rather, based on proportional mortality, the leading causes of death were homicide (19 percent), drug ingestion (18 percent), accidents (12 percent), and alcohol-related causes (9 percent).” The study also reported that “the workplace homicide rate for prostitute[d people] (204 per 100,000) is many times higher than that for women and men in the standard occupations that had the highest workplace homicide rates in the United States during the 1980s (4 per 100,000 for female liquor store workers and 29 per 100,000 for male taxicab drivers).”
The Violet Grey advertisement is simply one example of how manufacturers and retailers in the beauty industry consistently overlook the unwarranted social implications of their messaging and the lifestyles they promote. Beauty companies frequently advertise their products in a misogynistic way. Just take a look at these ads for makeup by The Balm Cosmetics which implies “boys will be boys,” and “size matters.” The “boys will boys” attitude is not only sexist and insulting, but dangerous as well, because it condones inappropriate behavior on the notion that “boys” cannot—and should not–be expected to control themselves in any given situation. When the beauty industry includes such messages in its advertisements, it tangentially endorses the social sentiment that boys and men are entitled to sex. At their core, these advertising tactics show that the beauty industry has pledged to uphold bygone misogynistic standards of what women should do, how they should behave, and what they should wear, and further yet advocate for women to comply with subservient standards. An industry that should champion women’s empowerment instead elects to focus on pressuring women to modify their appearances for men to enjoy, promising of the ultimate reward: the (wealthy) male gaze.
How does this relate to commercial sexual exploitation? Well, the rampant nonchalant, sexualized advertising of non-sexual products (i.e. makeup, soap) is one indication that society generally accepts the oppression and discrimination of women. Like misogynistic advertising, commercial sexual exploitation is a related ramification of discriminatory ideologies. Furthermore, it is a form of gender-based violence. A man’s perceived entitlement to sex creates the demand for commercial sex. Traffickers recognize this cycle and capitalize on it.
Business Wire reported “the global cosmetic market was 460 billion USD in 2014 and is estimated to reach 675 billion USD by 2020, growing at a rate of 6.4%.” Its influence pervades homes all across the world. The CSE Institute implores marketing agencies and beauty executives that have unyielding power to reevaluate the messages they send in advertisements. Moreover, it is important these companies recognize their influence does not begin or end with only those who buy their products, but it also affects those who simply view their messages. Rather than promoting images of women becoming sex objects in service of men’s pleasure, the beauty industry should take advantage of its influence and convey a message of female empowerment—where beauty products exist to promote creativity and individuality—a message that does not even suggest that men are entitled to sex.
Fortunately, activists are already speaking out against the portrayal of women as objects for the pleasure of men. The #WomenNotObjects campaign began solely for the purpose of combating this industry-wide notion relying on women’s objectification. The movement created a platform for women to dialogue and speak up for themselves. Then, non-profit organization Made by Survivors adopted the #WomenNotObjects concept to highlight how the objectification of women relates to sexual exploitation. Their post dated March 14, 2016, summarized this issue well: these kinds of advertisements “contribute to a culture in which it feels acceptable to many men to purchase girls for sex at brothels, to use and abuse the girls’ bodies any way they want, because they see girls are objects for their entertainment.”
The CSE Institute believes that beauty brands and lifestyle editorials should exercise their influence in order to effectuate positive change in the way women see themselves and the way men see women. They have the power to highlight female empowerment, encourage creativity and individuality, and create a flawless foundation where women from all walks of life can radiate confidence without the fear of being exploited.