Culture Jam Assignment 

This ad ran in 2015 as part of pen manufacturer Bic’s celebration of international Women’s Day. As this advertisement was run for a day meant to celebrate and recognize women, it is assumed that the intent of the ad was to empower women. However, the misogynistic message it conveys about what women are supposed to be works to promote the antiquated ideas of gender norms that limit and hurt women. The first line of the ad “look like a girl” signals the importance of appearances in a woman, with the comparison to a “girl” suggesting traits such as youthfulness, femininity and innocence make women attractive to men. The following line “act like a lady” continues this idea that a woman is supposed to act in line with the traditional view of a “lady”, implying demureness and manners are valuable in a woman. When the ad then highlights a quality associated with intelligence and analysis, in this case “thinking”, it switches to a male descriptor. The idea that a woman needs to “think like a man” reinforces the sexist notion that women are inherently less intelligent than men, and suggests that if women are to be successful, they must adopt male qualities. All these statements see women through a traditional, male-centric gaze that assumes all women must look, act and think a certain way if they are to be successful or “empowered” in male eyes. These are standards that should not be imposed on women and is what I will be addressing in my “culture jammed” ad.

Through my jamming of the ad, I have shown the absurdity and hypocrisy of imposing the same gender ideals that the original ad did to women on men. While the normalized misogyny we see in the world around us make statements like “look like a girl”, “act like a lady” and “think like a man” acceptable things to promote, certainly in the case of the Bic advertising department, reversing those statements to the male equivalent seem odd and out of place. The idea of acting like a gentleman may be an attractive quality society promotes in men but looking like a boy and thinking like a woman are certainly not prescriptions men typically receive. In a woman’s looks, the youthfulness and naivety attached to a word to describe a child, “girl”, is considered a positive, however implying those same traits to a man’s appearance is not something typically considered complimentary. Men are supposed to be the stronger, experienced and mature gender, and therefore comparing them to a boy seems strange. Likewise, as men are traditionally categorized as the more intelligent, analytic, and decision prone gender, saying they should think like a woman is very unusual. The statements advertised on my jammed ad are supposed to seem abnormal to the viewer, causing them to reflect on why they may consider telling a man to think like a woman as an ideal trait a strange concept. The same comments made about women on the original ad would never be made to a man, showing the hypocrisy of imposing those standards on women.