I think my biggest problem with the article sex lies and advertising is the idea that they assume that there are topics of a magazine, or products that are advertised that appeal to all women, and that the issue is in the advertising sector. I think the real issue is that they are creating magazines that are directed towards women and not towards interest. They are also expressing a clear distinction between ads that are directed towards women and ads that are directed towards men. In trying to
Overcome the issue of advertising towards one sex they are playing even more into the stereotype by saying "let's go out and get advertising for male interests".
I think that advertising has an even more potent effect when it is directed towards women. When reading the Body Projects reading, I couldn’t help but think about where these girls were getting the ideas for the “ideal body”. The answer is pretty simple, from fashion and advertisements that in these modern times are edited and falsified to portray a form of beauty that is impossible to achieve. The article really demonstrated the fact that girls want to create the body image that is popular at the time, such as big breasts during the times of Marilyn Monroe or slim thighs during the 1990s. This article really relates to the work that I do with the group Ophelia’s Girls. We mentor girls in middle school in high school in all aspects of their lives. One of the more recent meetings that we have had with these girls focused on body image. The statistic that we told these girls that always sticks out in my mind is that idea that the actual number on the scale does not determine whether or not someone thinks that your body is attractive, it all has to do with proportion and looking natural. The one example form the Body Project reading was Carol who “had an ample supply of close girlfriends, dates with boys, a good school record, and artistic talent, but her self esteem was surprisingly dependent on the numbers she saw on the bathroom scale.” It seems to me that the cases that we see in this reading are all about trying to look like the images we see in the media and pleasing other girls rather than ourselves and the real form of beauty.
I also thought their argument about trying to alter appearances on clothing was incredibly interesting. I know that as a girl, the idea of wearing a bra is something that is completely natural to me, but I know that it wasn't always this way. I remember when I got my first real bra it hurt at first to wear and felt weird. I feel as if we are socialized and forced to accept this as natural. I think that this author would benefit from updating their article to talk about the idea of the Spanx products which are tights that have control tops that girls wear under clothing. They are the modern version of what they speak about in the article. Women always talk about how much they love Spanx, but are they really comfortable? It seems to me that the only reason why they love spanx is because they love what they see in the mirror while wearing them.
One of the most thought-provoking points in the reading for Tuesday was the discussion in “Body Projects” of the shift from homemade to store brought clothing and the implications that this shift had on a the body image of American girls. When clothes were made at home, one might buy a pattern that had a general size such as S, M, or L, but ultimately, homemade clothes were made to fit a specific body size. Now, when we go shopping, our bodies must fit into a size mold, such as a 4 or 10. There is no room for adjustment for a girl that may have a petite frame but large breasts, or wide shoulders and small breasts. Brumberg states: “So long as clothing was made at home, the dimensions of the garment could be adjusted to the particular body intended to wear it. But with store-bought clothes, the body had to fit instantaneously into standard sizes that were constructed from a pattern representing a norm. When clothing failed to fit the body, particularly a part as intimate as the breasts, young women were apt to perceive that there was something wrong with their bodies” (110). This reason for a decline in girl’s self esteem about their bodies is one I had never thought about before, but one that I think has a lot of validity. I liked the Brumburg brought up jeans as the epitome of the clothing struggle that girls face when they go shopping. I think jeans exemplify the fact that bodies don’t always fit perfectly into pre-made sizes. Smaller size jeans like 0’s and 2’s usually have shorter inseams, skinnier thighs and smaller butt space than 8 and 10 jeans. The assumption is that skinnier girls tend to be of smaller stature, and taller girls tend to be of bigger stature. While this is sometimes the case, it makes it hard for a short girl who has a big butt, or a tall girl who is very skinny to find jeans that fit. So, it just goes to show that everyone has a unique body shape that doesn’t perfectly fit into a mannequin mold.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emma that once undergarments and clothes were sold at stores, this defined a "norm" for each size. Previously the only people buying clothing and undergarments at stores were those who were very wealthy. This move from class to mass shopping seems to me that it spread this "norm" body image like an epidemic to millions of girls.
ReplyDeleteHowever, one drawback to the article "Body Projects" I think is that it only focused on teenage girls. I think that this is a problem that is applicable to all women, not just teenage girls. I am 21, no longer a teenager and while I am not paranoid about my weight, I make a conscious effort to eat healthy and not "veg out" and to exercise. I think the article did a nice job pointing out that even highly educated girls at Smith College were worrying about their appearance, but really limited it to teenage girls, and I think it would have been a richer article had she expanded her scope. Another issue I found with the article was the piercing of genitals. She mentioned that this was a result of body focus. I think most girls in our class would raise their eyebrows and not consider piercing their genitals. I thought the piercing of genitals was a real stretch. To me, the only way that piercing genitals relates to appearances is that they both involve self control and the choice to pierce or not pierce.
One thing that I found interesting and ironic about this article is her discussion about girls trying to have large breasts, a flat stomach and thin thighs (essentially a barbie). Its ironic that girls strive for this pamela anderson look, which we know is mostly attained through plastic surgery, not naturally. Big breasts tend to come with bigger girls because when you lose weight you lose it all over, especially in your breasts. Even looking at a mannequin, the breasts on the mannequins are not unusually large. They seem to fit the build of that size woman. And this too is a concern not only of teenagers but of women of many ages.
I was struck by the discussion in The Body Project by the parallel of body obsession and the amount of choices one has in our modern society. Brumbert writes that “in the retail business, the common wisdom is that girls try on approximately fourteen pairs of jeans for every one they eventually purchase” (Brumberg 128). I watched an interesting Google Talk a few months ago called The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, which discussed the phenomenon of denim selection. It used to be that there was one type of jean sold at Gap, for example. To buy a pair of jeans, you selected the closest thing to your size. Now, we are faced with hundreds of different options and combinations of size, fit, length, flare, rise, brand, embellishment, wash, etc. When there was only one type, it was accepted that they wouldn’t fit perfectly, and that was fine. Now the burden is on the consumer to find the “perfect” pair of jeans, and when this perfect pair is not found they find themselves personally responsible for the jeans not fitting exactly flawlessly. Shopping becomes a “physical, as well as psychological struggle” (Brumberg 128) in which the consumer is ultimately left less satisfied compared to when they were presented with fewer options. Similarly, the modern woman is faced with a thousand different options for eating and dieting. There are thousands of different books written about diets and enough ideas on the internet for anyone to be overwhelmed. This creates a situation in which a woman who feels overweight or imperfect blames herself, because there are so many advertisements of “Watch the weight melt away!” “Lose 10 pounds in 10 days!”. When women fail at restrictive and unhealthy diet plans, they hold themselves personally responsible and beat themselves up even more for their “imperfect” bodies. Having the perfect body is portrayed as a certain chosen lifestyle – eating healthfully and exercising rigorously. In reality, body types are mostly a result of genetics.
ReplyDeleteIn regard to the article by Steinem, to give slight credit to makeup companies, I think L’Oreal has done a good job in recent times to avoid “creat[ing] black and Hispanic ads only for black and Hispanic media” (Steinem 5). They included both Beyonce Knowles and Eva Longoria in their mainstream ads. Granted, there is an argument that they significantly lightened Beyonce’s skin to make her look more “white”.
http://www.thumbplay.com/thumbsup/uploaded_images/0806_beyonce_side2side-754279.jpg
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/5954/doutzenkroesevalongoriarw3.jpg
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6127548813950043200#