Defend Your Back End: Gender, Blame, and the Objectification of Women

5/13/2014

Women are often held responsible when others objectify them.

Tags: biology, bodies, gender, marketing/brands, sex/sexuality, biological determinism, dress negotiation, gender blame, sexism, sexual objectification, 00 to 05 mins
Year: 2013
Length: 0:30
Access: YouTube

Summary: This commercial from Duluth Trading Company is an accurate example of the ways in which women are subtlety encouraged to participate in forms of security from men’s seemingly-natural demeanor. Indeed, through the purchase and use of a Duluth Trading Company "Longtail" t-shirt, women are promised the security from the "gawking gopher," a character that stares as the fictional female character bends to perform a task. The blame, in this case, is placed on women for not covering up, perhaps framed as a feminine task to help men sooth their "inherent" tendencies to be hypersexual. From this born-this-way perspective, men avoid responsibility for their objectification of women. This means that, among other things, men are also excluded as solutions to such an issue. Instead of discouraging men to “gawk” through a deconstruction of the relationship between masculinity and objectification, this commercial delicately—yet notably—places the male response to a women’s body as a natural reaction that can only be solved through the further policing of women’s bodies.

Submitted By: Peter Rydzewski

2 Comments

Bernda Vander Mey

6/13/2014 12:10:19 am

Duluth also has longtail tees for men so that they can avoid "Plumber's Butt." If we are drawing a bead on sexism in advertising one could raise concerns about the fact that the plumber is male rather than female. He also is a little fat. http://www.duluthtrading.com/store/mens/workwear/longtail-t-shirts/longer-shirts.aspx?feature=6-Longtail%20T%20Shirts

It should be noted that Duluth has an ad that shows women using tools and working hard - while wearing a Henley longtail tee. http://women.duluthtrading.com/store/womens/work-clothes/wm-longtail-t-shirts/longer-length-shirts.aspx?feature=mn-best-longtail-wm-cross

One slogan used by Duluth when promoting women's longtail Henley tees is that wearers can work all day and stay covered. When wearing the Henley longtail tee you can "bust your butt all day and keep it covered."

In point of fact, Duluth has numerous images of women engaging in physical work and being out in the great out of doors. The ads do not show women as weak, sex objects, subservient, coy, etc. They look like happy, hardworking, nature loving, practical people.

I think that the ad that has the gopher looking at the female’s butt crack shows a woman working with a shovel. She is doing hard physical work. The tee she is wearing, like so many tees, does not cover her backside when she is bent or crouched. It isn’t just men and gophers who notice when someone’s butt crack is on display, regardless of whether the butt crack showing belongs to a man or a woman. Duluth offers a solution to this with tees that are tailored for males and females. If you watch the Duluth ad, if blame is put anywhere it is put on the shorter tailed tees.

Are you saying that the gopher is male? Is the gopher objectifying women?

I am not at all sure how you can make the linkages that you have in your analysis of this ad. If anything, Duluth offers all customers a product that solves the problem of “plumber’s butt.”

Duluth caters to people who work and play in the out of doors, do-it-yourselfers, and just plain working folk. Duluth's ads for long-tailed tees focus on the problem of exposure of one's backside when wearing standard length tees. If you look at the ads and product explanations in the company's catalogs you probably will be hard pressed to sustain any charges of sexism, sexist objectification of women, and so forth. It is important that we understand that we sometimes might be framing things using our own preferred frame rather than taking time to understand the frame from which others are sending messages.

Tavona

6/7/2015 09:04:26 am

I agree with your comment. I was excited to see long tail tees because of the crap other women were giving me about my crack showing. I have a longer torso and finding tall clothing for women is a nightmare.

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Defend Your Back End: Gender, Blame, and the Objectification of Women

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