Lately, I've been doing a lot of media literacy. This is basically just being more aware of what is around you such as song lyrics, clothing graphics, television shows, and, of course, advertisements. In doing some research for a project, I've gotten very interested in advertisement's portrayals of women (or anyone) and how this affects our society. With help from those who study advertisements, mainly writer Jean Kilbourne, here are the top 8 of ones I've found most shocking.

1. Lee

There are so many things wrong with this image. In her film, "Killing Us Softly 4," Kilbourne talks about the popularity of dressing adults up as kids. While this model is definitely over 18, she's portrayed as a child. Along with the objectification of her body, you'll see in the background a photographer, signifying child pornography. All to try and sell some denim.

2. Bon Bon

What are we selling here, her body or the perfume? The model's body seems to come second to the perfume sitting on her leg. Showcasing a model's thin body is doing what almost all models do, showing oftentimes unattainable beauty standards. It is taking the popular advertising method of selling sex, using the model's body as a sex object to try and sell perfume.

3. Armani Exchange

Kilbourne's film also talks about this idea of girls feeling they can't take up space. Activist Melissa A. Fabello mentioned in a podcast the fact that women and girls usually cross their legs, as if they need to shrink. This can also relate to Lily Myer's poem, "Shrinking Women," that our beauty ideals of women being so thin that they are almost disappearing, also an example of our patriarchal society. This advertisement is for clothes, so maybe the idea was referring to fashion, but I think it can relate to weight.

4. Czech jeans

Violence, especially between men and women is another popular theme in advertising. This was featured in a Czech version of Elle to sell the jeans the model is wearing. That's hard to believe considering we can hardly see them. It's interesting because it's not the somewhat popular portrayal of partner violence, but more of bullying and harassment.

5. Gender-Bender

In trying to get a diverse array of advertisements for a recent project, I wanted to find one that represented the queer community. This was found in the 1997 Sport Illustrated swimsuit edition as a three-page advertisement. Basically, from my understanding, the main page was the left side, shaved legs, and then it opened to the other two pages on the right, showing a man. As if that is not enough, the tagline is, "You either have it or you don't." This not only objectifies women down to just legs, but could also represent the trans community. While the tagline is probably talking about the alcohol they're attempting to sell, I think it could also refer to body parts.

6. Dannon

Within our society, diet culture is a big deal, especially for women. I really do think that advertisements and other media like social media and television play a big role in this. This advertisement is showing that many women are pear-shaped, but that eating Dannon Light will help them slim down. This narrows viewers minds to the ideal body shape, when really, all bodies are beautiful.

7. Accurist watch

This is a British advertisement, where this extremely thin model wears the watch on her arm. According to the book "Communicating Unreality: Modern Media and the Reconstruction of Reality," the weight was referring to the weight of the watch. The company was ridiculed for choosing a model who appears to be anorexic. The truth is though, this is the size some models aspire to be, and what some agencies might be looking for. Like I said, shrinking women.

8. Jeans

Of course, I had to add a guy in here. Selling sex and human objectification is nothing new. The difference for men, Kilbourne says in her book is that, "...there are no such consequences. Men's bodies are not roughly judged and invaded. Men are not likely to be raped, harassed, or beaten..." In other words, men are probably not as effected seeing this as women are to realizing they don't have the same body as a model in an advertisement.

I am passionate about topics like self-love and body positivity, but unfortunately society does not always help with the processes many women struggle with to work towards these traits. I think advertisements is a big one that affects people because they are everywhere. As you look at these, I hope you'll remember that they are extremely photoshopped to get this way and that it's best not to compare your own body to a computer generated one.