Damn, that's a sexy wii

So what’s the difference between a playstation 3 and a wii? Well, according to the advertisers of wii, the wii is apparently “sexier”. In the commercial, you see two different women. The heavier set woman who is wearing glasses, a long sleve shirt with a sweater vest, and slacks represents the playstation 3. The skinner, blonde woman who wears only what looks like mini shorts (I forget what you call them) and a bra represents the wii. Throughout this commercial, the skinner blonde woman is acting very sexually. For instance, around 0:33 when she is referring to buttons on a wii, there is a close up on her breasts and she grabs them. Apparently a connection between wii buttons and her breasts are being made. The commercial works to make the wii seem as “sexy”, “fun”, and “attractive” as the young blonde woman. However, the completely dressed, heavier woman is made to seem “unattractive” and “boring”. Apparently if you get a wii, you get a blonde sexy woman.

This commercial really made me think of Levy’s discussion is chapter one. She goes in great detail about the raunch culture and what could be argued as the sexual objectification of women in today’s culture. She gives evidence of this through the Girls Gone Wild productions. We are all familiar with those Girls Gone Wild infomercials that appear late at night on television. You usually see college- aged girls in their bikinis and bras stripping in front of a camera. The production has become so widespread and popular that girls will even show their boobs if only for a GGW hat. As Levy quotes one of the producers of GGW, “It’s a cultural phenomenon. It’s like a rite of passage” (Levy, 8).

It’s a rite of passage? I don’t know about all that but I do agree that it has become a cultural phenomenon. It’s the phenomenon of sex. As the saying goes, “sex sells”. This is obvious in the fact that the sexuality of two different women is used to sell a gaming system. And who is the audience you ask? Men. This is no surprise in seeing that most of our media that showcase the sexuality of women is usually centered towards men. This commercial was aimed at appealing to men just as Girls Gone Wild videos are aimed to a generally male audience. It pretty clear: if you want to get males to buy something, create an ad that has a sexy, blonde woman in it with hardly nothing on and then compare her to perceived less attractive heavier woman.

In chapter two of her book, Levy discusses the impact of sexual liberation during the late 70s. Women’s sexuality had become a women’s movement as well as the political movement. There were women who believed that women sexual liberation meant women being able to display their bodies without shame or constraints. Still there were those who argued that sexual liberation for women was more about stopping the sexual display of women’s bodies as a means of pleasure and entertainment. While both sides came from opposite ends of the spectrum, they seem to have well founded arguments.
Personally, I believe that sexual liberation for women gives them the right to do what they want with their bodies, to display it in any way they want. Some of you may agree with this. It’s their (women) body and they can do with it what they please. The fact that this girl showed her body in a sexually explicit way to sell a wii is her right and her decision. I agree with you to some extent. I would say that is was her right and her decision. However, there are few things I would challenge about that decision.

First, why is a difference made between the weight and clothing of the two women in the commercial. The skinner woman is obviously made to appear as the sexier one, thus skinny=sexy. The skinner woman’s body is being sexual exploited while the heavier woman’s body is being devalued sexually. How is this sexual liberation for either? If you look around this type of comparison and contrast is all around us. Throughout the media women are being told that to be considered beautiful, you have to be skinny and in some cases blonde or damn near close to it. Being of a heavier weight is seen as “unattractive” and “unappealing”. What is even more fascinating is that this issue of issue not only affects women, but men as well. To be considered sexy, men have to have those six packs abs and that broad chest.

Secondly, women see these advertisements and assume that to be considered beautiful, you have to be that skinny, blonde girl you see everywhere. Think about what affect this is having on the young girls in our society. Barbie is already telling them basically that to get that Ken, you better be skinny and blonde. This ideology is being reinforced through out media in publications, entertainment, and television, such as this commercial here. All around the country, girls are starving themselves in order to gain that goal weight and bleaching their hair with every chemical under the sun to get that golden blonde.

Am I looking in this too much? Am I blowing things out of proportion? Maybe, maybe not. However, this is the hardcore truth, at least how I see it. This is what our society is being fed on a day to day basis. It is at the heart of Levy’s book-the raunch culture. The problem doesn’t lay in the fact that it expresses sexuality, but in the fact of how sexuality is expressed particularly of women. If you look at the comments posted under this video under youtube, you will see many comments, which seems to be from men, who are referring to the skinny blonde in a sexual way. One of the subscribers made the comment that he woke up with a wii next too him in bed, signifying that it represented the hot skinny girl in a sexual manner. Another one referred to the women as “fat” and “anorexic”. If you look at all the comments, you will notice that the comments constantly refer to the gaming consoles and the women usually making some type of comparison or making a sexual comment. Levy’s critique of the raunch culture, while considered extreme by some, is not so far from the truth.

Yes, sex sells. But we should ask ourselves: what is it really selling? Is it a product? Or is it more than a product? What are we really buying into?