Women's Bodily Insecurity

Why does it seem like commercials always focus on advertising to women? It has been proven that women account for a majority of sales so this could be part of the reason. On the other hand, some commercials seem to advertise bodily insecurities in women so that women buy products to “fix” these problems. Do you ever notice commercials that promote “fixing” manly bodily problems? You may have seen a few of these commercials advertised to men, but definitely not as many as there are for women. I feel that this is a huge problem with the advertising industry and it is negatively affecting they way women view their bodies everywhere.

An advertisement I see all the time that I particularly took note of was the Vagisil commercials. The Vagisil advertisements focus on the negative aspects of the female body and promote a various line of products to “fix” such issues as: itching, burning, odor, etc. Why is female anatomy promoted as something disgusting that women should be ashamed of? This is so wrong. Women should be proud of their bodies, not ashamed and afraid of what other people might think. Men could help this problem if they didn’t portray the female anatomy as something that needs constant care or the help of certain products. Men could make their girlfriends/partners feel much more comfortable in their own skin if they re-approached the way that they interacted with them. Men could complement their partners or even engage in things like oral sex and this may help women not feel so worried about the way their bodies are. I feel that men could help this problem first and then maybe the media would follow the example. Who knows maybe periods and feminine products will not be awkward topics of discussion in the future.