Dr. Maria Cristina Santana opened the eyes of students and faculty Thursday to images and messages prevalent in today's popular culture and advertisements.
Santana, the director of women's studies at UCF, delivered an interactive presentation titled "Making Definitions of Gender: Popular Culture as a Magic System," in which she exposed discriminatory themes in print advertisements.
Santana said many advertisements predominately exclude diversity, limiting their images to thin, tall men and women who are often digitally edited to look superhuman.
"Current advertisements exclude real people -- people who look like you and me… I want to see a picture of me with my friends so I know what we'll really look like [using the advertised products]," Santana said.
Through the exclusive use of certain images and models, Santana said advertisements and media shape people's perception of how they should look and who they should be.
"But, we are the owner of our own journey," Santana said.
Santana taught attendees how to "ad bust," in which a reader uncovers the full message of an ad by analyzing three layers: the surface message, the intended message, and the cultural, ideological message.
"[Ad busting] is like learning to read…I won't look at ads the same way again," said Stephanie Reyes, junior at UCF.
In one example, Santana criticizes an ad for charbroiled turkey burgers featuring a nearly nude beauty queen -- Miss Turkey.
"It has nothing to do with burgers. It's ridiculous…people creating these ads do not have gender sensitivity," Santana said.
While most of the audience agreed that advertisers follow the idea "sex sells," Santana didn't think that was enough of a reason for advertisers to create this type of gender insensitive material.
"Why can't you just talk about the product if it's worth buying?" Santana asked.
Santana said another example, an advertisement for dandruff shampoo, implied that women aren't intelligent enough to go to a store and purchase a proper shampoo, and that they would sooner use household items like a high-heel shoe to scratch and assuage the itch.
Santana hoped her audience would take what they learned and apply it to their future purchases, putting money in the hands of socially responsible businesses rather than those who create offensive material that benefits a few but hurts most.
"We have a responsibility to put our dollar where we should," Santana said.
The presentation, which was held in room 223 of the main campus library and was videotaped and broadcast via Adobe Connect to all of UCF's regional campuses, was produced as part of the DiversiTea series run by the UCF Office of Diversity Initiatives.
"We asked Santana to speak because I wanted to increase awareness…I wanted them to reflect on the images that we're bombarded with and how the media defines our roles," said Barbara Thompson, assistant director of diversity education and faculty engagement for the Office of Diversity Initiatives.
The Office of Diversity Initiatives' efforts weren't lost on Santana's audience.
"I hadn't even thought about gender and ads like that, but I really liked the activity --it opened my eyes," said Calen Crate, a senior.
DiversiTea events happen twice annually, once in fall and again in spring, with the goal of creating a more inclusive and diverse UCF.
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