Murcia 1

Miriam Murcia
Professor Ditch
English 113 A
8 December 2014
The Social Role of Women in Beer and Sex Advertisements
Women that post in sex advertising might not realize the social role they play when they
are portraying a much feminized thin, Barbie looking lady. Companies such as Budweiser sent a
public message that young ladies in western societies should have a certain figure, meaning to
have a thin waist. If companies keep portraying all girls to look skinny, women will have a belief
that they are supposed to have an established figure. These advertisements of women and beer
give men assumptions that beer is okay and that they might get a girl like in the beer
advertisements and live a joyous life. The way these women pose in these ads are very seductive,
making themselves look vulnerable to be grabbed like a man would grab a beer. In the text
Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender by Aaron Devour, the author
explains life experiences and differences that males and females have and how this affects both
genders socially to conform to biological concepts and subside women in society. Another
example of female demoralization is explained in a scholarly article Selling the self: Women
and the feminine seduction of advertising by Kristine Blair, in which she describes the roles
women carry out when they post in seductive advertisements and how women post to sell
products but are also selling themselves to the public. In a different article by Hillman, Betty
Luther, "The Clothes I Wear Help Me to Know My Own Power": The Politics of Gender
Presentation in the Era of Women's Liberation they explain how women feel empowered even

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in earlier times to dress how they please or have whatever haircut they want but this would create
conflict with the message that companies that use sex and beer advertisements. Women that
contribute to the beer and sex advertisements could lower other womens self-esteem, and give
into feminine stereotypes that lower themselves and their roles as woman in society.
Companies such as Budweiser dont really think about their true audience, the people in
the society they are targeting and the impacts these advertisements make in everyones life. The
women that model for the Budweiser advertisements have very beautiful figures, but we dont
know in depth what these women go through to have such fixed body figures. Moreover, these
women dont understand the impact they give posing in such ways as to look vulnerable to be
grabbed. For instance, the advertisement that the model poses in has a solid red background and
she stands out with the beer behind her. She is wearing a bathing suit that is exactly the same as
the beer brand. Her arm gestures are very open as if someone would take hold of her, but in one
hand, she is clearly grabbing a piece of her bathing suit. She also has her legs very open. By her
presenting herself in such ways these companies can have the perception that men will think
maybe if they drink this beer brand their perfect girl will come their way or they will have all
their dreams come true. But in reality all beer does is make you lose consciousness and the
control of the body and brain. All this beer company does is demoralize women by using them in
their ads to appear sexy or attractive enough to lure men to buying the beer or even to make
women around the adulthood age believe their bodies wont be affected by heavy drinking. This
just proves that western society lives under a feminine and masculine construction and makes
women seem weaker, and men in dominance of females. Personally, I believe these
advertisements demoralize women in society, giving men the thought that they are powerful and
making it okay in our society to think in a narrow minded way about the image of a woman.

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In the story, Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meaning of Gender by Aaron
Devor, he states that by birth we have social norms that we follow and different experiences that
undergo these norms and expectations. Boys and girls learn as they grow, and a part of their
learning process focuses directly to their childhood on developing their social role in society. For
example, As they develop concepts of themselves as individuals, they do so while observing
themselves as reflected in the eyes of others (Devor 37). This quote clearly reflects on Devors
thought about child development and the norms they obtain and how they obtain them. Kids have
growing minds and if they see images of women half naked in beer advertisements they may get
the impression that it is okay. Also that this is the role women have in society lowering
themselves as opposed to men. Another point Devor makes is the characterization of women and
men and the roles they play of masculinity and femininity and the hierarchical power that they
perceive in society. Popular conceptions of femininity and masculinity instead revolve around
hierarchical appraisals of the natural roles of males and females (Devor 39). Meaning that
men and women have a set mind about power control and division in western societies. Most
commonly because males take on more violent actions they portray a dominant role in society
and society tends to follow these so called natural roles. In addition, men also seem to feel they
are more dominant because the image of a half-naked woman can assert the man in his thoughts
that she is vulnerable for him. This is important because in these advertisements, these female
models may not realize that they are being used to induce men to buy beer or they may know
what they are being used for but act ignorant lowering themselves to a mans thought of being or
having more power towards women. If women dont start realizing the demoralization in these
advertisements we will always have inequality of power and respect.

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Furthermore, in the article Selling the self: Women and the feminine seduction of
advertising by Kristine Blair, she argues how the role of women is seen in society as an object
of seduction. In the context of advertising, the female viewer is continually forced to look at
herself through traditionally male eyes, to fit her personal history and her body into that moneymaking construct known as woman. This is important because women constantly think that
looking a certain way is expected, when in reality its a socially constructed norm fixed by these
sex advertisements that lure the thought of women to be skinny and sexy. This is because women
are believed to care more about their appearances than anything else, even though this is not true
for all women. Males on the other hand can care less about their appearance, but if they start
caring they are considered not masculine enough.
In relation to women on the move of empowerment and equality Hillman, Betty Luthers
article "The Clothes I Wear Help Me to Know My Own Power": The Politics of Gender
Presentation in the Era of Women's Liberation assert that some female activist even in the
earlier days as the 1960s and 1970s, when women felt that they didnt have equal rights,
wanted to be shown as people and not seductive objects that were placed on earth to please men.
But this Iowa City feminist illustrated how the selffashioning techniques of women's
liberationists were also, in some cases, part of the feminist quest to reject gender binaries that
strictly separated masculine and feminine roles. By failing to "look like" a traditional woman,
this activist challenged the notion that men and women were as different as socially constructed
roles of gender made them out to be. This woman felt that she didnt want to conform to the
gender role assigned to her, since she is a woman the appropriate look for her could be
described as her having long hair or even accepting feminine beauty culture but she clearly
opposed to not be so noticed as a female by anyone especially men. The article also explains how

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some feminist promoted the concept of free choice in dressing, but this might have also created
conflict, because of this some women take into account that wearing almost nothing is being
feminine and others may see it as degrading because biologically men and female have different
body parts. This relates to beer and sex advertisements because if women even in earlier times
were fighting for equality of gender, being feminine has come a long way of staying the same.
For some women more make-up and little to no clothing are empowering, but I strongly believe
its only empowering to themselves not every girl will feel the same exposing their natural parts
to the world. Men will probably get a pleasure and even feel empowered of watching women
exposed but most women might feel dehumanized to such acts especially in the media world of
western society.
Although some women may see sexual beer advertisements as empowering to express
themselves with images of their bodies half-exposed other women may not agree. These models
may feel empowered by their appearance but in reality this is only probably empowering to these
models. I dont think women get empowered by seeing another half-naked lady selling or
helping the sales of beer.
In conclusion, women in beer and sex advertisements dont contribute to the role of
women; it just demoralizes them by placing women below men as objects of seduction.
Companies such as Budweiser dont care about the influences and discouragements that women
acquire through these advertisements. All the company wants is to sell their product. Women in
the ads should notice how they are being used shouldnt contribute to this hierarchy of men.

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Work Cited
Blair, K. (1994). Selling the self: Women and the feminine seduction of advertising. Women and
Language, 17(1), 20. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/198807801?accountid=7285
Devor, Aaron H., Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender
from Gender Blending: Confronting the Limits of Duality by Holly Devor. Copyright
1989
Hillman, B. L. (2013). "The clothes I wear help me to know my own power": The politics of
gender presentation in the era of women's liberation. Frontiers, 34(2), 155-185,272.
Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1431924682?accountid=7285