It’s a well known phenomenon, that in marketing, sex tends to sell. Or at least demands attention, resulting in businesses that abuse this principle, using the algorithm as an excuse for creating a culture of sexism, and objectification. This method of commercialism has proven to steer in directions that normalize pedophilia, abuse, and promoting sexualized images of young girls to older men.
Major corporations appear to have miscalculated several business factors, assuming first, that their prime audience is men, using heteronormative sex as a tool to lure in customers. And then deciding that demeaning women is a foolproof way to business. BMW launched an advertisement several years ago, promoting used cars, featuring a suggestive photo of a girl who looked to be about sixteen and the caption; You know you’re not the first, implying the girls virginity in comparison to the vehicle [image shown above].
Gluttonous companies have historically had no problem with comparing women to inanimate objects, or holding their value at the same level as a vehicle, creating the stigma that like used cars, non-virgins are damaged goods. Roger David, A men’s clothing company, has a pattern of using under aged models to promote their brand, contorting them into provocative poses, with the knowledge that their store is geared towards older men. Although it may appear to be indirect, this should be categorized as pedophilia, not to mention, blatantly disturbing for exploiting young girls.
The ongoing use of misogyny in marketing has blurred the lines of what is acceptable and what is not, to the point where people are unable to recognize pedophiliac behavior that surrounds them on the regular, labeling it as merely a marketing tool instead of a crime. It also projects the idea that girl’s sexualities don’t belong to themselves, rather than the people leering after them. It minimizes the opportunity of female empowerment, instead promoting girls’ virginities, and bodies, and experiences as catered to the male gaze, rather than their own.
Pedophilia has been bordering on becoming mainstream for a while now. Even typically classy magazines are guilty of taking advantage of “fresh faces”, and turning them into sexual objects before they’ve hit puberty. Of course, the problem is not the girls’ themselves, the problem is the audience and corporations that take advantage of their positions, imprinting the idea that this behavior is acceptable, and disguising the existence of the criminals that exist and digest pieces of media that feed into their culture.
It is humanities duty to protect the children in this world, and secure them from being raised into a world that accepts endangering their existence. Be aware of the subtle pedophilia that is attempting to fit into societal norms.
