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Recommended: Ageism theory
Ageism in Playboy
Definitions:
1) Content analysis is the process of picking apart and closely observing a subject matter.
2) Ageism is the discrimination of people based on their age.
Hypothesis: That I will find no women over the age 30 pictured in an issue of Playboy Magazine.
In this paper I plan to prove that the hypothesis stated above is true because in society youth is considered a both beautiful and desirable quality to posses. Because Playboy Magazine is a popular magazine aimed at male readers, and because this magazine uses both youth and beauty to sell itself, it could be concluded that men desire female images that manifest beauty in youth. I chose to look at Playboy because Playboy’s interest is to sell magazines that satisfy the desires of males. Why does Playboy satisfy the desires of males? It is because in their magazines women between the ages of 18 and 29 are featured nude displaying the youth that their bodies posses. I chose to test this hypothesis by looking at Playboy’s 1997 January issue and reading the descriptions of the models such as their height, weight, bust, hips, and most importantly age. This particular issue happened to have all models in the running for Playmate of the Year so I had 12 subjects to observe. If this hypothesis holds true, then the real underlying question will surface: What makes youth beautiful?
My hypothesis was proven true to a certain point. As I thumbed through the twelve models in the running for Playmate of the year, as I suspected, none of the models were over the age of 30. The oldest of the 12 models was age 26. However, my hypothesis stated that I would not find any women in an entire issue of Playboy, not just the models. On page 51 of the 1997 January issue was and interview featuring Whoopi Goldberg. There was not one, not two, but three photographs of the 41-year-old actress. In this entire issue of Playboy, there was a woman over the age of 30; thus my hypothesis was proven wrong. However, I still conclude that ageism still existed in this issue of Playboy Magazine. Why? The answer is because no models over the age of 30 had been chosen to appear nude in this issue. I believe it is because Playboy wants to portray youth as beautiful to its selected reader. The firm bodies and youthful smiles of women under the age of thirty is what Playboy’s editors consider beautiful.
Female beauty ideals are an overwhelming force in teen media. Approximately 37% of articles in leading magazines for teen girls emphasize a focus on physical appearance. This is none to surprising considering two of the top contenders in this media genre are Seventeen and Teen Vogue. CosmoGIRL and Elle Girl were among the ranks of popular teen magazines, but in recent years have become exclusively online publications. Add in a dash of publications Tiger Beat and Bop, and it becomes glaringly obvious that girls are charged with the prime directive of looking good to get the guy. The story becomes more disturbing when the actual audience, which includes girls at least as young as eleven years old, is considered. In a stage when girls are trying for the first time to establish their identities, top selling publications are telling them that their exteriors should be their primary concern of focus. Of course, this trend doesn’t stop with magazines. A study conducted in 1996 found a direct correlation between the “amount of time an adolescent watches soaps, movies and music videos” a...
This is a stereotype, which has been engraved into heads of men, women, and children. By plastering the world with models who seem to have it the genetic jackpot, Dove set out to discredit this cultural cast created by our society. Body image, to some people, is the first part of a person they notice. A study conducted by Janowsky and Pruis compared body image between younger and older women. They found that although older women “may not feel the same societal pressure as younger women to be thin and beautiful…some feel that they need to make themselves look as young as possible” (225). Since women are being faced with pressure to conform in ways that seem almost impossible, Jeffers came to the conclusion “they should create advertising that challenges conventional stereotypes of beauty” (34) after conducting various interviews with feminist scholars. The stance of Figure 1’s model screams confident. She is a voluptuous, curvy and beautiful women standing nearly butt-naked in an ad, plastered on billboards across the globe. Ultimately, she is telling women and girls everywhere that if I can be confident in my body, so can you. Jessica Hopper reveals, “some feel that the ads still rely too heavily on using sex to sell” (1). However, I feel as if these are just criticisms from others who are bitter. With the model’s hands placed assertively placed on her hips, her smile lights up the whole ad. She completely breaks the stereotype that in order to
Within Death of a Salesman, there are many themes, motifs and symbolism shown to help readers and audiences alike understand the writing. Arthur Miller implemented these developmental characteristics through showing the theme of success and failure, features of a tragic hero and the germination within characters. Through Millers writing, it is shown that the American Dream does not always end in a happy
Firminger examines the ways these magazines represent young males and females. She reveals that these magazines talks about the physical appearance of young girls but also their sexuality, emotions, and love life. The author informs how the advice given by the magazines is negative. The author also argues that these magazines focus more on their social life than how their academic performance
Our media continues to flood the marketplace with advertisements portraying our young teens much older than their age. Woman’s body images have been the focus of advertising for generations. However, now the focus is more directed to the younger teenage girls instead of woman. Young girls are often displayed provocatively while eating messy triple decker hamburgers, or sipping a diet sodas on an oversized motorcycles. As a result, young teens are dressing older than their age, trying to compete with this ideal media image.
... This is inferred because the articles are about current celebrities and their lives. These would interest those women more than it would a fifty year old man. One can also say that the reader will not see an article about fishing in People magazine because that is not relevant to the target audience. Magazines also have advertisements that would appeal to that target audience. People has advertisements for items such as makeup and face wash which would appeal to young adult women and not an older woman who is in her sixties or seventies. Just like with the articles, one can say that the reader will not find an advertisement for Viagra or for Copenhagen chewing tobacco. It is not relevant to the target audience. This is how a magazine becomes successful and sells a lot of issues. It would not sell as much if it did not stay focused on a particular target audience.
Women and men are similarly not the same in the media advertisement. Therefore, in real life, ageing women seem to be getting the negative impacts with their looks when it comes to aging, whereas, in real life, aging is inevitable and is something that everyone will experience at some point in their lifetime. Another example of double standard ageing, is a society that labels women who have never married as old maids or prudish. Others suggest that women, habitually between the ages of 50-60, experience a "midlife astonishment" that is marked by a sudden awareness of the quickening of aging and a feeling of amazement and despair at perceived changes in physical and sexual attractiveness and other losses (Pearlman, 1993). Therefore, it seems, that once women have passed their reproductive prime or "when they outlive their ovaries" they are attributed to a number of superficially useless and unfounded pathologies and syndromes such as the "empty-nest syndrome" or labeled as "reproductive has-beens" (Coney, 1994).
The play, Death of a Salesman, was written by Arthur Miller who was " ... in all probability, one of the greatest playwrights of contemporary history He is also one of the greatest critics of contemporary American society, as his works often tend to portray American middlemen as heroes, bitterly and futilely fighting against the entire system of what 'Americanism ' is, with all its hues and negative aspects." (Kambli) All stories have hidden meanings, whether it be through the characters or the objects around them. A symbol is a physical object that represents an abstract idea or concept. While not all objects are meant to be symbols, the audience may interpret some things in a way that the author may not have intended. This happens often, but despite the personally interpreted symbols there are also the main symbols. While reading the play Death of a Salesman there are several
In modern society there is more and more digital editing without the knowledge of consumers. Currently there are various reasons for why women develop negative body image, low-self-esteem and eating disorders. According to Naomi Wolf in her novel “Beauty Myth”, one of the many reasons women obtain concerns with their bodies is due to the universal images of young female bodies presented through advertisements in fashion magazines. Advertisements in magazines are altering and shaping the desires of men and women. Magazines sell viewers images of beautiful, skinny, flawless confident young women. When people are constantly antagonized with the magazine industry’s ideal of “perfect beauty” the viewer’s then, subconsciously believe these images to be true and begin to form biases about what they themselves should look like and what other people must also look like. People who view magazines get mislead by advertisers because they are unaware that all the images displayed are digitally altered through Photoshop and airbrushing. Today’s magazines are formed completely on false ideals of flawless beauty and unattainable body images, to prevent women and men from falling victim to the magazine’s deceitful images we as a society need to become aware and educate ourselves.
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Many symbols are incorporated into the play "Death of a Sales man" and they in
Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman is wrought with symbolism from the opening scene. Many symbols illustrate the themes of success and failure. They include the apartment buildings, the rubber hose, Willy’s brother Ben, the tape recorder, and the seeds for the garden. These symbols represent Willy’s attempts to be successful and his impending failure.
HBO's Sex and the City has become a cultural icon in its 6 seasons of running. Based on Candace Bushnell's racy book Sex and the City, the show exhibits an unprecedented example of the sexual prowess of women over the age of 35. The result is an immense viewing audience and an evolving view on the "old maid" stigma that a woman's chances of finding love are significantly reduced after thirty-five. In this paper, we will closely analyze the characters and themes of Sex and the City to explain the significance of what the show represents in American culture.
Sanburn, Josh. "Brief History: Playboy." Time. Time Inc., 24 Jan. 2011. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
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