Reyes

1
Alexis Reyes
Professor Corri Ditch
English 113A
2 November 2015
Unrealistic
In todays world many advertisement use women and mens bodys in very provocative
way to sell their products. In other words, sex sells. Not only is that a problem but the bigger
issue is how they display women in such feminist ways. From the very beginning they set
expectations for women and the gender roles that they should be performing. Not only have they
set expectations for both men and women but it begins the process of molding the minds
of young adolescent children to act and perform in specific gender roles to be a part of society.
Advertisement is socially constructing the lives of our next generations to be insecure and to
conform into certain genders to be normal.
Carls Jr.Charlotte McKinney All Natural Too hot for TV commercial (extended cut).
In this commercial it shows a perfect example of how companies use sex and unrealistic body
images of women. It begins with her walking out naked but with object that she walking around
covering her private areas. Just in that scene alone it shows how tall, slim, lean, fit, and tan her
body is. Already its promoting women with perfect bodies. It then shows how men begin to
stare and drool all over themselves and cant keep their eyes off of her. The bizarre thing
is, in the beginning of the commercial you have no clue on what the commercial is even about.
But my using a women naked in a commercial seems to get ones attention very quickly. Towards
the end of the commercial you seem to finally get what the commercial is actually about rather
than just seeing a naked girl walking through the neighborhood. Even the males in this

Reyes
2
commercial are shown to be very tall, strong and good looking . From the very beginning the
beauty norms are taken place. The use of fortunate men and women are used to advertise because
beauty is what everybody wants to be. The more they advertise people like this the more people
set a goal to be just like them.
In Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender by Judith Lorber talks about
the routine of gender, and how we do gender. Just like in the Carls Jr. commercial we are
doing gender. We are doing gender by identifying her as a girl because of her long hair, the
makeup shes wearing and by the areas objects are covering her body. Not only do we gender
without knowing but we also learn to do these things. Growing children often find out what part
they belong to and then they begin to act upon it. As Lorber states in her article A sex category
becomes a gender status through naming, dress, and the use of other gender markers (Lorber
20). The way you dress is a big factor of identifying ones gender. For example Boys are
typically dressed in dark or primary colors, such as red and blue. Girls are typically dressed in
pastels, especially pink and yellow (Renzetti and Curran 77). This shows you how boys or men
and girls or women should dress. And in the commercial although shes nude towards the end
shes revealed to have a light pink pastel color bikini with daisy duke light pink shorts. Just from
that it shows young children both male and female that that is what women are suppose to look
like and wear. Renzetti and Curran also state that Clothing then plays a significant part in
socialization (Renzetti and Curran 77). They made a clear point with saying that the way we
dress identifies which gender we are performing. This is all followed by gender norms. From the
Carls Jr. commercial we identify the person as a women because of gender norms. Women are
suppose to have breasts, long hair, wear makeup, and be beautiful. Those are our gender norms
through media and society in itself. Each gender has different expectations, and just from this

Reyes
3
commercial alone you have an idea of what they are. The commercial shows the unrealistic
image of what a women should be.
This then brings me to the point of unrealistic expectations for men and women. In this
commercial both men and women have to live up to certain expectations to belong or become a
member of society. When growing up children are like sponges, they pick up everything and
learn very quickly. With that being said children then follow everything that their parents do or
anybody of a higher authority, mainly somebody thats older then them, maybe even a brother or
sister. As soon as they can talk, they start to refer to themselves as members of their
gender(Lorber 20). With that being said children keep learning what things fit where with their
gender. With watching these adds and commercials of older people who are the same ages as
people like their parents of higher authority they begin to follow. You begin to see these young
children following and conforming into these gender norms. It shows young adolescents how
they should act and perform.
Sexy and beautiful is in, which is why many adds use these factors to sell their products.
Seductive images of models in ads, music, and videos showing girls with no clothes or hardly
any clothes at all is considered a cultural norm in todays twenty-first century lifestyle (EL
Sanders, 2009). Its now so normal to see these things on television, but its also so normal to see
young children following what they see. As Lorber states in her article Gender is such a familiar
part of daily life that it usually takes a deliberate disruption of our expectations of how women
and men are supposed to act to pay attention to how it is produced (Lorber 20). Gender is
something every does and knows something about. It the way you perform and really pay
attention to what someone is doing. Thats how you seem to find out ones gender.

Reyes
4
Sex Sells, companies have used sex to sell all kinds and every kind of product. I
understand the in todays society may be a little corrupt but at the same time they have to do what
they have to do to sell their products. But at the same time they dont realize the affect they have
on the upcoming generations.
There are so many things the the media makes you think is important and they dont
realize what they are teaching younger people and younger generations. This then bring me to
the assumption of why insecurity is a huge issue now a days, and its all do to the unrealistic
expectations that have been set for women and men. Not only that but that shows how much
media influences the people around it. We need to find other ways as human being to stop this
and find other ways for them to advertise things. Because of the social appearances they are
getting people think that this is how woman should look. This is what size they need to be and
this is how they need to dress because thats what perfection is.
Lorber states For human beings there is no essential femaleness or maleness, femininity
or masculinity, womanhood or manhood, but once gender is ascribed, the social order constructs
and holds individuals to strongly gendered norms and expectations (Lorber 25). Once one is
identifies in one particular gender you are now in that category. You are now expected to live up
to the expectation of that particular gender role.
The average size for a woman today is a size fourteen but in almost very commercial the
women that are modeling are a size zero or one. This is where the unrealistic expectations come
into play. Young children are looking at these adds and commercials and comparing themselves
to these perfect women. They believe that these women are perfect because they see women
like that in almost every add that you watch on television. Not only do they think they are perfect
but its also false advertisement. Its false advertisement because the use of photo shop. But many

Reyes
5
of these girls arent aware of all the false advertisement. They put it into their heads that they
want to be just like these certain girls but in reality its impossible because even the women in
these commercials have been edited to be flawless.
Media should be a lot more realistic with the type of women and men they use to
advertise their products because they are making society insecure about their own bodies and
how they look. It can cause identity crisis if they dont look like how they are suppose to look.
They might even believe that they were put in the wrong body, if they dont fit the expectations
of being a beautiful women then they probably fit the expectations a being a man.
Its ridiculous how much of an impact media media has on the lives of us people. Both
men and women. Back to the commercial both the men and women are seem to be perfect.
Young adolescents watch commercials like this and then begin to compare their bodys to the
unrealistic women and men. These children begin to become insecure of their own bodies. Many
of these children are only at the ages of eight, and it eventually get worse as they grow.
Insecurities also begin to interfere with these adolescent lives. In popular media they have
increasingly thinned out the womens bodies and have increased the size of mens muscles.
These socially constructing adds really do have an incredible impact on our daily lives and
upcoming generations. Individuals may vary on many of the components of gender and may
shift genders temporarily or permanently, but they must fit into the limited number of gender
statuses their society recognizes (Lorber 26). Unrealistic advertisement really does have an
enormous impact on our lives. Media and advertisement set really high expectations for both
men and women. They take advantage of it and use it as a way to sell their products. Sex is used
to sell their products even when they know how it could have a bad affect on the lives or
adolescents and the upcoming generations.

Reyes
6
Works Cites
Sanders, Erica Lauren. (2009). The influence of Media Marketing on Adolescent Girls. Journal
of UCR. The Masters College.Print.

Brown, Jane D. (2002). Mass media influences on sexuality.Journal of Sex Research. Retrieved
March 13, 2008.Print.

Lorber, Judith. Composing Gender Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender.
(2014).Print.

Claire Renzetti and Daniel Curran. Composing Gender From Women, Men, and Society
(2014).Print.