I'm sure you have all seen the new controversial Bloomingdale's ad. It features a man and a woman who are both dressed in holiday attire. The man is looking at the woman in a predatory nature with a caption between them that reads "spike your best friend's eggnog when they're not looking." This is a real ad that was published in their holiday catalog for 2015. Of course, social media sites have been blowing up about how could this have been approved, why were the models willing pose for this ad, and why was the words "best friend" put in all capital letters and in bold. What purpose does this have with selling clothes?
This is not the first time an advertisement has hinted, or in this case bluntly, referred to non-consensual sex. The saying in the advertisement world is that "sex sells," but much like the advertisements that are being published, this saying is shoved down our throats. We don't want to see Kim K almost do it with some guy for a Sketchers commercial. We don't want to see essentially gang rapes in clothing advertisements. We don't want to see naked bodies to sell clothes. There are sexualized ads for everything; perfume & cologne, cigarettes, ketchup, vodka, cars, candy, fast food, air fresheners, shoes, sunblock, department stores and many, many more.
What do you think happens to our society when even the littlest of things are treated like this? So many of these advertisements fail to address one thing in a positive light: consent. The world we live in depends on doing what we can to achieve what we want. The mindset that is drilled into us with these advertisements is that you can take what you want without working nor asking for it. Because these advertisements focus also on sexualization, what do you think it's telling us about sex? It's telling us that we can take it if we want it. We can get what we want even if there is something or someone that doesn't approve. It's telling us that rape is okay.
We, as a community, are starting to become desensitized to the horror around us. There are better resources out there, such as the It's on Us campaign and the RAINN organization, but they can only do so much. With one in every six college woman and one in every 16 college man reporting to be sexually assaulted by sometime in their college career, we need to do something to stop the media and ourselves from brushing this issue under the rug. Inform yourself on consent. Inform your school on consent. Inform your community, your family, your friends. It starts with you.
