Lipstick

To the Editors of The Crimson:

The new Chanel advertisement for lipstick is a particularly blatant example of the publicity exploitative, sexist advertising practices that make profits by perpetuating sexually submissive images of women. Chanel, an international corporation, helps set standards for female perfection, nationally and internationally. The priority is global profit at the expense of an enlightened world attitude toward women. The public female ideal, which becomes internalized as private ideal as well, to be emulated is a sexually submissive one. The healthy development of women as individuals and the healthy development of society as a cooperative community of equals will continue to be stunted so long as these images of women, warped by sexual stereotypes, persist. Offensive ads like this one glamorize the subjugation. The Crimson article of Friday February twenty-third, by Steve Wolfe neglected to put this example in its proper context or to note the pernicious social ramifications of such advertisements.

Whereas many agree that the ad is offensive, overtly sexual, and in poor taste, it is not intuitively obvious to some why the ad is sexist. There are two reasons why it is sexist. First, women are objectified in order to sell products. Second, implicit in the Chanel ad is not only that women must use cosmetic products to be sexually appealing, but that they must also perform the appropriate acts. The lipstick perched between lip-sticked lips symbolically links the two ideas of sex appeal and of unequal sexual (and other) status. The cultural norm of female beauty allows women to be victimized by ads linking beauty with sexual service; ideals of male attractiveness are not ordinarily publicized as contingent upon sexual service.

Commercial industry, using such ads in prominent and therefore influential places, e.g., in magazines and in shops, endorses the implicit and explicit sexist message. Although we do not care what happens in the privacy of individual's homes, we object strongly to public display of women performing sexual services. This kind of public portrayal of women in necessarily demeaning (no equivalent depiction is ever seen of mennor should there be). While it may be legal to cloak pornography under the guise of advertising, it is morally irresponsible and in poor taste to do so. Society has the moral right to demand reasonable limits as to the public image of women. To establish a society based on equality and on mutual respect, the degradation of women in advertising, must stop. Alison Dundes '81   Alouette Kluge '81