The Objectification of Women

Exercise 1

1. Look through popular fashion magazines and find images that dismember women, that focus on only one body part.
2. Create a woman made of the different body parts you’ve found.
3. Look at the collage of images you have just created.
• How do you feel when you look at it?
• Were you able to create a sense of the woman’s subjectivity, her humanity? Why or why not?
• What are your thoughts on dismembering women in advertising?

Exercise 2

1. Look through magazines and cut out all the images that you feel portray women without voices. Look for images with women with their hands over their mouths, with their heads in bubbles, paper bags, or removed. Pay attention, too, to copy that suggests that women shouldn’t talk, such as, "Let your fingers do the talking," "Barely there," and "Just Smiling the Bothers Away."
2. Create a collage of the images that you cut out.
3. Can you imagine a man appearing in an ad in a similar position? Why? Why not? What does this tell you about how gender is constructed and viewed in our culture?