We are living in a culture of increasing emptiness, despite the fact that it is full of tremendous achievements in technology, science and health. But, no matter how we disguise it, it is still a culture of materialism, superficiality, vanity and violence, poverty and pollution. Our culture is definitely sick, and advertising, to a great extent, perpetuates this.
A good example is the widespread sexual exploitation of the female body in advertising. It is poisoning our culture, and the unfortunate thing is we seem to have developed a taste for it. Through the ages, women have been forced to accept their bodies as objects. The consistent sexual exploitation of the female form in advertising remains unabated, despite feminist movements and sexual revolution.
In Hong Kong, female models are everywhere, in sexually exploitative and compromising positions, looking sexually submissive, and very often with suggestive looks and poses. Sexist adverts are on the MTR, buses, trams, billboards, TV, in magazines and newspapers. The advertising media continues to flaunt these one-dimensional women as the ultimate role models, promoting extreme thinness, large hips and breasts as the definitions of sexual attractiveness and even career achievement.
So why are women still portrayed in these roles? One of the problems has to do with men, who hold positions of authority in the workplace. They make most of the decisions about how women should be seen in the public eye.
And it is done without much thought that constantly exposing women to these adverts might have a long-term negative impact on their self-esteem and motivation. While women have to work and are still expected to be fully responsible for domestic duties, the inequality gap will never disappear.
These adverts distort the roles of women, as well as limiting the development of their potential. They are designed to reinforce beliefs that it is men who call the shots, making it difficult for women to fight the system.