Got Milk?

In a world where digital technology such as TV, movies, and music surround us, print media is becoming less and less relevant in today's society.  Nevertheless, magazines are still a very prominent part of our culture that many children and adolescents still enjoy and take part in.  Because of this continuous desire to consume magazines, it is important to study the material that magazines present to adolescents when it comes to topics regarding sex, whether it is present in the articles or in the advertisements.  In one particular magazine advertisement, it is pretty clear what sort of messages are being relayed to America's youth and it is definitely not a positive one.

As you can see, this advertisement is an extremely offensive portait of a woman getting splashed with milk in her eye.  The connotation attatched to it is of a woman performing a sexual act on a man and the subsequent result of being covered on her face by presumably male ejaculate.  The words on top, "GET HER USED TO IT" is implying that woman should be used performing sexual acts for men and accepting their semen wherever the man chooses.  The themes of sexual objectifaction of women, male domination, and female subservience riddle this advertisement.

When female youth see this advertisement in magazines, the message they are receiving is definitely not a good one.  Brown et. al's study on prediciting adolescent sexual behavior based on media consumption (including magazines) indubitbaly relates to this advertisement.  When a female is subject to this type of marketing, they are primed to believe that they too are supposed to act like this.  They too are supposed to be sexually subervient to men.  Especially with a message of "GET HER USED TO IT", female adolescents may believe that his her only type of sexual future.  Brown et. al's study determined that more exposure to media such as this positvely correlates to earlier sexual behavior and activity among female adolescents.  I can not speak for them since I am male, but I can safely assume that, in their footsteps, advertisements like these would prompt me to be more involved in sexual activity at a younger age.  This ad in particular is even more damaging than the sexual media Brown mentions becuase this message is a specifically sexist and discriminatory one to the gender identity and roles of women.  The responses and behaviors by young girls will definitely fluxuate based on the their characteristcs as either disinterested, intrigued, or resistant (Brown et. al, pg. 179).  Those that are intrigued will be most prone to these messages becuase they are fairly interested in what they are consuming.  Resistors make their own decision on what they see and girl that are disinterested rather avoid this media.  Brown was concerned that the media girls consume can become natural to them (pg. 177).  Hopefully magazines and other media sources can be more careful in what they are producing and portraying to America's youth becuase of this cultivation effect.  It can undoubtedly have lasting effects.

Brown, J. D., L'Engle, K. L., Pardun, C. J., Guo, G., Kenneavy, K., & Jackson, C. (2006). Sexy media matter: Exposure to sexual content in music, movies, television, and magazines predicts Black and White adolescents' sexual behavior. Pediatrics, 117(4), 1018-1027. doi: 10.1542/peds.2005-1406

Brown, J. D., White, A. B., & Nikopoulou, L. (1993). Disinterest, intrigue, resistance: Early adolescent girls' use of sexual media content. In B. S. Greenberg, J. D. Brown & N. Buerkel-Rothfuss (Eds.), Media, sex and the adolescent (pp. 177-195). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press