Sexism and Racism in Advertising

I began collecting advertising images as a way to raise awareness among students in my Anthropology of Sex and Gender class at Reed College about the pervasive sexism and racism of public culture in the U.S. Images included in the archive are largely taken from mainstream print materials or websites, that is, the kind of media you might see linked to a major web portal, in a doctor's office, or on someone's coffee table.

The collection grew as students brought in more images to show the class. Now there are over 500 images in the collection and it continues to grow. I have grouped them according to categories of sexist and racist messages they seem to best exemplify (some images of course appear in several such categories). Images can be used directly from the Web, or downloaded for use in Powerpoint presentations or handouts.

Taken individually, some may seem innocuous or fun, others disconcerting or disturbing. But viewed as a group, the images immediately convey the pervasiveness of damaging stereotypes of subordinate categories of people in the U.S.  

One of the fundamental points I make to my students is that the social causes and effects of media images are extremely complex and multilateral. Any consideration of their "meanings" must take into account not only our own personal investments in them and the lifestyles they depict, but also the political economic milieu of which they are an inextricable part.

The kinds of images presented here could be put to a wide variety of uses within different political economic contexts, especially with the proliferation of web-based visual communication, including cyberporn, child "modeling" sites and pro-anorexia support groups. I have therefore passworded the exhibits for users outside of Reed campus. Please contact me to obtain the username and password. My hope is that the images will be presented for educational use only. Please be responsible with these images and do not freely give out the password or reproduce them in non-educational settings.