Project 3

"Por Amor A Las Tetas"- The sexualization and dehumanization of women and breast cancer

Introduction

"Por Amor A Las Tetas", aka "For The Love Of Boobs" is an advertisement put out in 2012 by a Chilean advertisement agency in support of raising breast cancer awareness. But this isn't just any normal charitable PSA, this advertisement is made specifically to target men, and they make it blatantly obvious. Jean Kilbourne does an amazing job in describing and explaining this type of sexualization and dehumanization of women within advertising in her article, "'Two Ways a Woman can Get Hurt': Advertising and Violence", where she breaks down how the inclusion of pornography and sexualization of women in advertisements contributes to the depersonalization of and violence towards women. Not only is this advertisement extremely dehumanizing towards women, but it also contributes to the well known notion of breast cancer being considered a "sexy disease", which is

Figure 1: A woman breastfeeding her child

Figure 2: A woman working out

Camera Angles

Perhaps the most obvious way in which this advertisement dehumanizes and sexualizes women within a subject that should not be sexualized, is the Camera angles and shots. Throughout the entire video, images of women's breasts can be seen in every single shot, despite this, not once in the entirety of the video does it show the woman's face. Not once. This is extremely dehumanizing and creates the notion that the aesthetic of breasts is more important and worth saving than the actual woman being affected by the disease. As Kilbourne states in her article, "Sex in advertising is pornographic because it dehumanizes and objectifies people, especially women, and because it fetishizes products, imbues them with an erotic charge-- which dooms us to disappoint since products never can fulfill our sexual desires or meet our emotional needs." The use of showing clips of only breasts throughout the entire ad (some even in a pornographic way) does exactly what Kilbourne described; it dehumanizes the women and fetishizes their breasts leading to the sexualization of not only the women, but also of the actual disease breast cancer, and could possibly motivate men to raise/donate towards breast cancer awareness to somehow fulfill some sort of sexual desire, which should obviously not be the main focus of awareness of the disease. As seen in Figure 1 and Figure 2, the women in the video can be seen doing normal every day things such as playing music, getting dressed, working out, cooking, working, and even carrying out their sole humanistic purpose, feeding a child; But, the way in which this ad chooses to use the camera angles, only showing the breasts and never once showing the woman's face, reduces these everyday human activities to something more sexual, and in turn dehumanizes the women completely.

The Use Of Pornography

Any person could see why the use of actual pornographic clips would be considered inappropriate to incorporate in an advertisement that's purpose is raising awareness for a very serious disease, but this ad does not shy away from such. Within the various clips of women's breasts, one particular clip among the many is an actual pornographic shot, in which a man is seen groping a woman's breasts during the act of sexual intercourse. Kilbourne states, "Sex in advertising is more about disconnection and distance than connection and closeness.... The main goal, as in pornography, is usually power over another, either by the physical dominance or preferred status of men or what is seen as the exploitative power of female beauty and female sexuality." This clip being included in the ad further aids in the dehumanization of the women, but also could be used as an appeal to male viewers as a sort of affirmation of power. This clip could possibly be seen as showing male dominance over the woman and/ or her breasts; the male is groping her breasts in a way as showing dominance and control over her and her breasts, as if men are dominant over women's bodies so they have some sort of "responsibility" to raise awareness for breast cancer because women's breasts are seen to them like ownership of an object. There is absolutely no reason this clip should be included in a PSA for breast cancer awareness, but the fact that it is is solid proof of the sexualization of not only women, but of the disease.

Figure 3: A man is shown groping a woman's breasts during sexual intercourse

The Sexualization Of Breast Cancer

As I mentioned previously, this advertisement seems to communicate to its audience that breasts, and the appeal and ideal surrounding breasts, is more worth saving than the actual women going through the disease. As this may seem shocking to some, this is one among MANY advertisements that communicate the exact same message. It has come to be a common and accepted theme within our society that breast cancer is seen as a "sexy disease". Although this idea that a disease can be "sexy" may seem ridiculous to most (it is), vast amount of people think this way, and hundreds upon hundreds of advertisement companies prey upon this ideal to raise awareness for the disease. The United Breast Cancer Foundation recently did an interview in which they asked participants, "What comes to mind when you hear breast cancer?" Majority of the participants responded with advertising gimmicks such as the I-LOVE-BOOBIES bracelets, revealing just how pervasive these campaigns for breast cancer awareness are. Giannino-Otis, breast cancer survivor and author of the blog "Stupid Dumb Breast Cancer", captures it perfectly in a quote in which she is referring to campaigns as such. She states, "It has nothing to do with saving my breasts and has everything to do with saving myself.... It really degrades what we're trying to do." Breast cancer has become seen as some sort of cute disease to be sexualized, and the video "Por Amor A Las Tetas" contributes to this idea by showing breasts in sexual ways and not showing the actual women behind the boobs to raise awareness.

Conclusion

This advertisement contributes enormously to the sexualization and dehumanization of women by reducing them to their bodies (in this case, breasts) and also in the sexualization of the disease breast cancer by choosing to only show women's breasts, and not the actual women, in an ad campaign designed to promote the awareness of breast cancer. This ad was absolutely unacceptable along with all other campaigns and ads that promote similar ideals.

Works Cited

Kilbourne, Jean. "Three Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt." Rereading America. Eds. Colombo, Cullen, Lisle. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's P. 2013.

"Por Amor A Las Tetas." 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X1-rD7wOsg. Accessed 24 Oct. 2020

“Possible Sexualization of Breast Cancer.” United Breast Cancer Foundation, 10 Apr. 2015, www.ubcf.org/possible-sexualization-breast-cancer/.

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