Beauty Myth

In Lynx bikini clad commercial, women are constructed as passive objects to be looked at by men for voyeuristic pleasure. The commercial shows a race between three types of women: the black haired, blond haired, and the Orientals. Crossing terrestrial boundaries, the women are shown in a sexy and aggressive competition amongst each other. Approaching the end, they are shown running toward a man alone on the shore, and he is spraying two bottles of Lynx deodorant confidently across his body.  The Beauty myth emphasizes that femininity itself is an aesthetic phenomena, that to be feminine is to possess the slim image of the bikini models. The commercial links women to sexual violence.  And it defines the power structured relationship of gender that men can exercise power and control over women.

The commercial presents a universal ideal body image of a real woman by showing women of different ethnicities. In “The Beauty Myth,” Naomi Wolf stats that “The beauty myth tells a story: The quality called “beauty” objectively and universally exists. Women must want to embody it and men must want to possess women who embody it” (9). The commercial depicts women with dark hair to encompass women of color such as Latinas, Africans, and Native Americans. Apparently the African Americans are under-represented because there is only one girl with an afro but even she is somewhat light skinned. They are shown to be running though the jungle because it relates to region of warmer climates. From the North, the team blonds are shown to be trotting through snowy mountains. It indicates that European beauty consists of blond hair and pale skin. Then, the Oriental women are swimming against the waves to reach the shore because they possess the exotic appeal. On a general scale, they all have slim bodies and big breasts and it creates the message that such body type is desirable.   

The physical appearance of the bikini models portrays femininity primarily as a visual identity. The commercial promotes the behavior of weight loss to look beautiful. In bikinis, the women are shown sprinting across the forest, hiking through mountains, and swimming against the currents. Their vigorous motions make their 100-110 pound bodies look so healthy. Female audience, who happens to stumble upon this commercial for men, will perceive the falsehood of an ideal body figure because they think that’s what men wants. And when women allow themselves to be passive they make themselves look beautiful. They are allowing and wanting others to look at them and be attracted to them.

Shown in a sexy and aggressive race against each other, the bikini girls are linked with the image of sexual violence. In the beginning, a woman looks an Amazon warrior with tanned skin and strong facial expression, and she appears to be hunting or searching for something. Then she stops for a bit and demonstrates a mammal sniff reaction to seek out her prey. Aggressively running, she looks back for a moment and finds a bunch of other women with dark hair are pursing the same path. As they draw close to the final destination, two girls collide and one shoves the other one out of the way. Maybe that is why there are almost no African women in the scenes. Portraying them as sexual predators would be extremely offensive if you know what is going on in Africa today. The bikini girls are hyper-sexualized and it gives the notions they crave it very much (as the result of the Lynx effect, the smell of the deodorant).

The song, " Karl Jenkins - Dies Irae," dramatizes the whole situation as one of those Roman battles and you’re surrounded by enemies. At the height of the intensity, dies irae are chanted repetitively. Though it sounds like they’re saying divas or penis, it actually translates to day of wrath in Latin. Naomi Wolf said that “The beauty myth is always actually prescribing behavior and not appearance. Competition between women has been made part of the myth so that women will be divided from one another.” Because generation, the standard of beauty is different, what the beauty myth is promoting are behaviors and it uses beauty imperatives to distract you from that fact. The way in which the girls are perceived, at first they are shown as sexy, aggressive in competition with each other, but when it is shown that they are running towards a man, it makes them look needy and dependent. In reality, don’t think the commercial is prescribing anything to women because, after all, this is just a fantasy of the locker room talk. And by all means, I think most women are more hell bent on withholding sex from you.

The man on the shore is shown to have power over women. Spectator can envisage himself in the same position if he were to possess the bottle of Lynx. In the commercial, the man is glorified under the sun. With a stupid smirk on his face, he sprays two bottles of deodorant all over his body. Power and sex are intimately related. The man has the power because he can obtain sex (LOTS of it) through the seduction of spreading Lynx deodorant on his body. This objectifies women because it relates women with a force (the smell of Lynx deodorant) that can be bought with money. Towards the end, the commercial zooms out to display the bikini girls in larger quantity and it displays a caption stating, “Spray more get more, the Axe effect.” The product tells the male consumers about the power of Axe effect, the power to induce sexual urges in women.

The fantasy in the commercial caters to the male audience and it suggests heterosexuality. Despite shown that women are the ones charging towards a target, the commercial indicates that they are not the initiators. The man is the active cast who makes the first advance by spraying the deodorant. The bikini girls are the sexual recipients who followed the scent. Paradoxically, they are portrayed as the aggressive predator but they’re actually the passive prey. The man is actually the one with the uncontrollable urge as seen with his motion of spraying TWO bottles and didn’t stop when thousands of women vigorously ran toward him. The girls are expected to satisfy and retrain that urge. 
A hilarious parody of the Axe effect: what if Axe were made for women.