Champion Ad

I chose to make an ad bust of a Champion ad, which depicts a young woman in sports clothes. This woman is flirtaciously grinning at the camera, inviting viewers to look at her slender body. Although this advertisement is not as overtly sexual as other ones found in the magazine, it still proves two points. The heterosexual male gaze defines what is "beautiful" and "sexy" in many advertisements and depicts women as flirtatcious and sexual beings. 

I came across this ad, when I bought a Women's Health magazine this past week. Around the woman are different headlines found throughout the magazine cover and pages. The slogans are the following: "Lose your Belly!" "Drop 10 Pounds." "Flat Abs, Firm Butt, Lean Thighs, Look Your Best." "Eat This, Not That." "Slimmer." "Melt Fat" "Weight Loss!"

Many women who read this magazine are bombarded by ways to "transform" their bodies into ones that heterosexual males would find more attractive and enticing. Headlines that focus on telling women to lose weight, warp their sense of reality. Women look to these advertisements as guides on how to shape and mold their bodies, which can lower their self-esteem and bring about poor perception of body image. It is again, the male heterosexual lens that many women compare their bodies to.

Besides defining what a woman's body should look like, media advertisements also depict women as overtly sexual beings, looking to please men at any given time. The woman in this Champion clothing article is inviting viewers to look at her, while she is thrusting her chest forward and smiling flirtatiously into the camera. Underneath the actual Champion headline, is tagged with the line, "How You Play." This line could be translated into two different meanings: in a physical (athletic) meaning, or a sexual one. This woman clearly wants men to view her as a sexual object. Even though she is selling women's work out clothes, her hair is tousled and down and her midriff is exposed, which helps male gazers look over her exposed body. 

My ad-bust was an attempt to provide many advertisement's attempts to define what is beautiful and how women are depicted. The Champion advertisement is only an example of the thousands of ads that companies put out, using the male heterosexual gaze as its focal point for an ad. Sadly, many media companies believe that this is the only way to make money and to draw in potential buyers.