Beauty and the Bloke by Cosmo Landesman and Breaking Free of Oldfashioned Stereotypes
"Beauty and the bloke" by Cosmo Landesman is an argumentative article
trying to put across the message that men and women are breaking free
of old fashioned stereotypes, he is trying to convey the message that
it's the nineties, men no longer have to be macho and hairy! They are
no longer afraid or ashamed to care for their appearances, even if it
means cosmetic surgery! Women to are also making a stand, no longer
will they stand silent being made to look good by men, women are now
"prepared to give the men they love a shove in the direction of the
cosmetic surgeon" Landesman throughout the article, puts across the
message that women are to blame for men's insecurities in their
appearances. They are also to blame for the rise in men undergoing
cosmetic surgery, for starting the male trend of waxing and wearing
perfume. It is quite a controversial article and at first it gives us
the impression that Landesman feels negatively towards the "£240
million beauty industry for men" saying "is nothing sacred any more"
but throughout the article Landesman warms up to the idea of "the
nineties man and beauty". Towards the end of the article Landesman
even gets quite personal, and to the surprise of the reader states
"for the love of my wife I'd even get my legs waxed!"
The writer uses surprise endings to keep the writer interested e.g.,
"perfume, waxing, cosmetic surgery….nineties man…his body image" when
perfume and waxing are mentioned the reader automatically thinks of
women, but gets quite a shock to discover that the writer is talking
about men!
...
... middle of paper ...
...he
cosmetic surgery.
Irony is use din this piece, creating humour and slight sarcasm e.g.
"took it like a man…snivelling…etc". "Speaking personally I don't feel
that I've suddenly became neurotic about my looks…I've been that way
since I was a teenager…"
Humorous exaggeration is also used by Landesman to create humour in
the article e.g. "just look inside any men's magazine and you'll see
how to achieve the ultimate shave". "Cosmetic surgery at work to wreck
men's self esteem…"
This piece of writing although full of humour also holds some very
interesting facts and shows that times are changing, today it's
acceptable for men to wear perfume and have face-lifts. So in
conclusion I think Landesman has made one small step for journalism
but one giant leap for all those beauty conscious men out there!
Masculinity in "Men Should Weep" by Ena Lamont Stewart and "Perfect Days" by Liz Lochead
In “Youthful Indiscretions: Should Colleges Protect Social Network Users from Themselves and Others?” Dana Fleming presents an essay concerning the safety of social networking sites and how Universities can deal and prevent problems. This article is targeted towards school administrators, faculty, and a social networking user audience who will either agree or disagree with her statement. I believe Fleming presents an excellent, substantial case for why she reasons the way she does. Fleming gives a sound, logical argument according to Toulmin’s Schema. This essay has an evident enthymeme, which has a claim and reasons why she believes in that way. Toulmin refers to this as “grounds."
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The Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal. According to the United States Census Bureau in 2012, women earned approximately 77 cents for every dollar that a man made (Bassett 2013). Since its independence, all of America’s leaders have been male. What do all of these statements have in common? Male superiority. Since its foundation, the United States of America has been a male dominated society. Masculinity and male superiority have been demonstrated in various aspects of this nation’s culture. Such areas include literature and history. Male dominance can be exemplified in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, and Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire.
In life, there are many decisions that everyone must make. And with decision-making comes consequences, some that we are ready for , and some that we may not be ready for. The author of ' The Man Who Was Almost a Man,' Richard Wright, portrays a young man who wants to be a man, but shows that he is clearly unprepared for manhood and the consequences that come with that responsibility. Through decision making based on self interest, wanting to gain respect from his family, and wanting to prove his dignity, Richard Wright brings forth the main character, Dave, a seventeen year old boy, whose actions show that he is only 'almost a man.'
Common sense seems to dictate that commercials just advertise products. But in reality, advertising is a multi-headed beast that targets specific genders, races, ages, etc. In “Men’s Men & Women’s Women”, author Steve Craig focuses on one head of the beast: gender. Craig suggests that, “Advertisers . . . portray different images to men and women in order to exploit the different deep seated motivations and anxieties connected to gender identity.” In other words, advertisers manipulate consumers’ fantasies to sell their product. In this essay, I will be analyzing four different commercials that focuses on appealing to specific genders.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower has been on the New York Times Bestseller list for over a year and is published in 31 languages written by Stephen Chbosky. The story is narrated by a socially awkward teenager named Charlie. He shares many different points of his life through letters to a stranger he’s heard of but never met to soften the fear and anxiety of starting a high school alone, since he’s coping with the suicide of his friend, Michael.
Having education in our lives are very important, it does not matter on how much one person spent on learning, Money, location, age, even, timing of the year, month, and day does not matter. Having the time to better you craft makes it beneficial to your life. The reading of Genius : The Modern View by David Brooks and Learning to read by Malcom use various similar but different examples to indicates the value of time.
Today in society there is a very strong perception on how women should be, how they should dress, act and the “jobs” they are required to do. Whether we believe things have changed or not since the 1900s, women are still seen as a minority in our society but why? Why do we allow people to see women as “weak” and believe that there is a certain way women should look and dress? Many of the short stories, songs and poems we have read relate to this topic, “Adam and Eve” by Ani Difranco and “Job History” by Annie Proulx specifically. Eve and Lori are two characters that are the complete opposites of each other. They help support the topic of why women are the way they are and what influences the choices and decisions
In my book the Perks of Being a Wallflower, there are four main characters. Charlie, Sam, Patrick, and Mary Elizabeth. The way that the Author describes charlie is kind of like a sensitive young man who is trying to figure out what to do with his life. He doesn’t really have any friends because last year, his best friend died and his Aunt died in a car crash. Sam seems like a really energetic young woman who loves hanging out with her friends and listening to classic rock. I think that the Author made her character perfectly because every word she says, seems like she is happy on the outside but a little lost in the inside. Patrick is a jokester who is depressed sometimes because he is gay and his boyfriend has to pretend that he doesn’t love him. He is Sam’s step brother and they seem to be great friends. He loves music as well. Mary Elizabeth is a mix between a buddhist, and a punk. She shaved half of her head and on the weekends she has a show called “punk rocky” which is supposed to be a re-make of this show called the rocky horror picture show. She dates Charlie for a while but is controlling, and Charlie doesn’t really like her because he likes sam, a lot.
In the views of Micheal Kimmel “hegemonic masculinity” is a socially constructed process where men are pressured by social norms of masculine ideals to perform behaviors of a “true man” and its influence on young male’s growth. It is the ideology that being a man with power and expressing control over women is a dominant factor of being a biological male. The structure of masculinity was developed within the 18th to 19th century, as men who owned property and provided for his family with strength related work environments was the perfect example of being a generic “American man.” Kimmel introduces Marketplace Manhood and its relation to American men. He states, “Marketplace Masculinity describes the normative definition of American masculinity.
I find that society definitely takes things to the extreme when it comes to trying to be beautiful. While not everyone may do it, a large amount of both men and women take things too far while trying to become “fit” or “pretty”. “Men desperately want to look like adonis, because they constantly see the “ideal,” steroid-boosted bodies of actors and models.” (Cloud, 49). In 1999, American men spent more than four billion dollars on home exercise equipment and gym memberships, and in 1996, men in total had around 700,000 cosmetic procedures done (Cloud, 49). These numbers show that a large amount of men are unsatisfied with their bodies, and go to drastic lengths to achieve what the media is showing. Plastic surgery is not a decision to take lightly because it