Editing Sexism (section)

=== In advertising ===

[[File:Two girls examining a bulletin board posted on a fence. An advertisement painted above them asks "Are You a Woman?".jpg|thumb|right|alt=Two girls examining a bulletin board posted on a fence. An advertisement painted above them asks "Are You a Woman?".|Women examining a bulletin board posted on a fence. An advertisement painted above them asks "Are You a Woman?"]]<!-- WP:Caption "Not every image ..." -->

While advertising used to portray women and men in obviously stereotypical roles (e.g., as a housewife, breadwinner), in modern advertisements, they are no longer solely confined to their traditional roles. However, advertising today still stereotypes men and women, albeit in more subtle ways, including by sexually objectifying them.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zimmerman |first1=Amanda |last2=Dahlberg |first2=John |year=2008 |title=The sexual objectification of women in advertising: A contemporary cultural perspective |url=https://semanticscholar.org/paper/4682b9942712c00d48f819e9039023c9bae4ede6 |journal=[[Journal of Advertising Research]] |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=71–79 |doi=10.2501/s0021849908080094 |s2cid=30977582}}</ref> Women are most often targets of sexism in advertising.{{Citation needed|reason=Source needed|date=April 2018}} When in advertisements with men they are often shorter and put in the background of images, shown in more "feminine" poses, and generally present a higher degree of "body display".<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zotos |first1=Yorgos |last2=Tsichla |first2=Eirini |date=October 2014 |title=Snapshots of Men and Women in Interaction: An Investigation of Stereotypes in Print Advertisement Relationship Portrayals |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267842958 |journal=Journal of Euromarketing |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=35–58 |via=ResearchGate |doi=10.9768/0023.03.035 |doi-broken-date=November 1, 2024}}</ref>

Today, some countries (for example [[Norway]] and [[Denmark]]) have laws against [[Sex in advertising|sexual objectification in advertising]].<ref name="Holmes 2008">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7365722.stm |work=BBC News |title=Scandinavian split on sexist ads |date=April 25, 2008 |access-date=April 6, 2010 |first=Stephanie |last=Holmes}}</ref> Nudity is not banned, and nude people can be used to advertise a product if they are relevant to the product advertised. Sol Olving, head of Norway's Kreativt Forum (an association of the country's top advertising agencies) explained, "You could have a naked person advertising shower gel or a cream, but not a woman in a bikini draped across a car".<ref name="Holmes 2008"/>

Other countries continue to ban nudity (on traditional obscenity grounds), but also make explicit reference to sexual objectification, such as [[Israel]]'s ban of [[billboard]]s that "depicts sexual humiliation or abasement, or presents a human being as an object available for sexual use".<ref>{{cite book |title=Israeli Penal Law 5737–1977: Obscene publication and display |publisher=OECD |pages=70–71 |edition=6th |ref=Article 214 |url=http://www.oecd.org/investment/anti-bribery/anti-briberyconvention/43289694.pdf |access-date=February 26, 2015}} (English translation)</ref>