http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-siebel-newsom/challenging-sexism-and-vi_b_2602775.html?utm_hp_ref=media
"Challenging Sexism and Violence in Super Bowl Commercials"
This
week there has been a lot of talk about the big game, Super Bowl Sunday is
finally here. I chose an article talking about the game that was also directly
linked to what we’ve been talking about in class. The article explains how over
100 million people will get together on Sunday February 3rd to watch
the Super Bowl and about half will be women. But yet a ton of the commercials
and advertising we will see will be sexist and degrading to women. Not only
that, but the entire concept is encouraging violence. The article says, “what's
being broadcast is that men are only men when they are big and strong, and that
to be a valued as a woman you must be sexy and on the sidelines.” This quote caught
my attention immediately because it’s true, we are promoting such negative
things to such a huge group of people. We blame the system to say that people
are sexist and women are fighting to find equality yet our social media and the
most viewed thing on television all year is still promoting degrading things.
It’s
rationalized every year because it’s “tradition” and football is a huge
American pastime. When people are used to something, they tend to be
comfortable with it. The Super Bowl is known for its good commercials,
advertisers pay millions of dollars to get an ad in during the game. So as long
as these commercials continue to bring in revenue and get people buzzing, they
will continue to make them. I think it’s sad that America is okay with the way
things are and I feel bad for the kids that are going to be exposed to it all
today. We need to do a better job with our youth because they are the future of
our country.
Companies
benefit from these commercials because it makes people talk and generates
revenue for their business. The viewers are the people that lose from these
advertisements because they are a bad influence. I feel like I am old enough
now to neither benefit nor lose from these ads because I have my own values and
opinions already formed so I know right from wrong and where I stand in the
bigger picture. Little kids on the other hand, that don’t know better yet, won’t
have that advantage. Sadly, I am contributing to the problem because I will be
watching the game and I won’t be able to change the channel every time one of
the ads plays to make that company lose a viewer. But if enough people catch on
to the problem, maybe eventually we can branch off from the negative side
effects linked to watching the Super Bowl.
Commercials are bad enough as it is. They are only a handful of seconds and suddenly they have given you all the views on sexism that you will ever want to see and you don't have a chance to digest it because it was only on for a few seconds. Then there are the Superbowl commercials. If they are not overtly sexist (beer commercials, alcohol commercials, food) then they are retro sexist (they make you think that they are teasing about being sexist but really they aren't). Oh media, you piss me off like no other. It is just another reason for me to swear off sporting events. There is nothing more sexist than a football game. Then add the commercials and you are done for. Ecck. It is going to take much more than you not watching a commercial to make things happen though. Tons of letters need to be written to these companies, the government, the media, the TV stations, and anything you can think of. Just think, we all could make a difference if we try but it takes the ability to pull through.
ReplyDelete-Rachael Belcher