Susan Bordo
Susan Bordo is the author of "Hunger as an Ideology" which talked about advertisements and how they present men and women differently towards food. Whether it is eating it, cooking it, and body shape and size. Bordo's ideology was that advertisers take advantage of women's insecurities by showing women eating alone and eating less while men are eating in great amounts, hearty foods. The real question here is, does Bordo's Ideology hold up against any advertisement?
Behind a mirage of various ads promising "Lose weight" and "control," advertisers have hidden meanings to lure the female customer. Keeping this in mind I found an ad that goes along with exactly Bordo's perspective, which is the idea that women are expected to pass up second helpings, eat small portion, and not be tempted to binge. The ad is a young woman holding a chocolate bar that is supposed to be a meal-replacement energy bar, with a small bite taken from the side.
This picture of a woman eating a chocolate bar, something many women have a passion for, shows her eating in a delicate manner...
However, Kilbourne’s statement surprised me when she claimed, “dieting doesn’t work.” Although Kilbourne’s intention with this statement was to encourage young women to accept their bodies, it creates leeway for laziness and obesity. Advertisements at times can be used as inspiration or motivation for those who try to sculpt their own body through fitness and healthy dieting. Dieting in today’s society is often associated with depriving oneself from the food they love. However, dieting is simply eating food in moderation and not splurging excessively. Furthermore, advertisements displaying women who are overly skinny from an eating disorder such as Anorexia, is not helping the current and future generations of women. In fact, companies should advertise women that have dedicated their lives to a healthy diet along with a vigorous routine of fitness and have achieved a healthy and achievable body.
a) Childhood and background (family life, friends) Susan Leigh Vaughan Smith, born on September 26th 1971, was an American woman who was sent to serve life in prison for the murder of her two sons: one 3 year old, Michael Daniel Smith, and one 14-month old, Alexander Tyler Smith. At first, Susan was seen as a selfish killer who had killed her children for the sole purpose of unrequited love, but an insight into her personal life revealed much emotional trauma and signs of depression throughout her childhood. Susan did not have the best life growing up at her home in Union, S.C., as the only daughter of three kids. Her biological father divorced her mother when she was only seven years old. A little over a month after the divorce, Susan's father committed suicide.
Advertisements are everywhere. Rosewarne reveals that “In both a workplace and a public space setting audiences are held captive to such images; and both sets of images work to masculinise space in a way that makes women feel excluded” (Rosewarne 314). Take beer advertisements as an example of this. Beer advertisements have been utilizing the female body to draw the interest of males for centuries. This materialization of women has been verified to not only have a discouraging effect on women, but an unfavorable effect on civilization. The purpose of these posters is to allure the male 's eyes to the model’s body and therefore to the beer planted in the background. These ads strive to make you subconsciously affiliate a charming woman with a bottle of beer. In theory, these posters should make a guy imagine that if he purchases a bottle of their beer, that one way or another there would be a model to go with it. This is unreasonable of course because a pretty woman does not emerge out of nowhere every time someone has a beer. In my opinion, advertisements like these portray women as sex symbols. The advertisers attempts to link their product with the female body, does not encourage women, but rather has an accidental effect of lower self esteem and confidence in women. Rosewarne summarizes the her stand on sexual harassment in public ads by
In Bordo’s essay “Hunger As Ideology”, she has her students bring in different examples (advertisements) that are shown to violate traditional gender-dualities and the ideological messages carried in them. By doing this task with her students she she hopes to boost her points about the negative portrayal and subliminal messages about gender identification and see if any progress has been made.
“The lighter way to enjoy chocolate,” to me this phrase is referring to the fact that African American women are often nicknamed as “Chocolate” due to their darker skin, and that’s why this African American woman is being compared to Hershey’s Cholate syrup. Therefore, this advertisement implies that Hersey’s chocolate syrup is the lighter way to enjoy chocolate, rather than a larger African American woman. This ad is may be detrimental to the self esteem and confidence of many women. “Despite a small degree of tokenism, black women are rarely represented in mainstream iconography.” (Pg. 248) [4] This advertisement resonated with me on a more personal side as I relate to being an African American women dealing with the pressures of societal expectations. African American women have many stereotypes that follow them in life. They are known to be big, loud, sassy, and obnoxious women. So, when it comes to playing a role in advertisements, we are immediately placed in roles that fit our description. Advertisements such as these just reinforce the negative stereotypes placed on
Susan Cooper has been writing for over 30 years. In this time she has written numerous newspaper articles, books for children and adults, screenplays for TV, the cinema and a Broadway play. As a writer she is hard to classify, what is universally accepted is that she is a writer with extraordinary gifts.
In the late 1970's and early 80's, The Great Wall of Los Angeles was hardly a scar, but rather a vibrant rebirth of a poverished, low income neighborhood in the San Bernadino Valley. The community was united and transpired by the colorful creative collaborative work on this long mural that transended the Tujunga canal for almost a mile. Sewn from the creativity and passion for California history, muralist Judy Baca, along with other artist, and the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) began the "beautification efforts" of this otherwise run down poverished neighborhood.
Jessica Simpson’s weight watchers advertisement depicts a woman’s woman. By using a celebrity with many accomplishments, the ad shows that even incredible women can benefit from using this product. The ad starts out with Jessica Simpson mentioning that she has had two children and that she loves her body no matter what, but that even then she likes her body better now (after using weight watchers’ diet). Though most women cannot relate to her as a celebrity, many can relate to her as a mother, and even more can relate to wanting to feel thinner which in our society is equated to being attractive. Jessica Simpson says that she loves her body, but then says that she does like her slimmer shape, and sort of suggest to the viewer feel like their
Hamburgers are for men, salads are for women, at least that’s what society and advertising tells us. In snack advertisements men are seen bulking up on hot dogs, nachos and burritos, while women are searching for a healthier meal replacement by grabbing a low-calorie no-fat yogurt from the fridge. Nestle has already explained to their consumers that their Yorkie Bar, which explicitly states in big bold text upon the packaging that it is “not for girls”. These chocolate bars are instead to be scoffed back by big manly men with a large appetite and a bench press appointment. Cadbury has also informed many through their advertisements that a woman eating a Flake bar is quintessentially erotic. These chocolate bars often found being consumed by
Susan Smith could have been a normal woman. If you passed her on the streets you wouldn’t know that she would turn out to be a killer. Susan had a secret though, a deadly secret. Susan Smith was a cold, calculating killer, capable of murder in cold blood. I believe Susan had many factors contributing to the state of mind she had before the murder of her two sons, like her traumatizing childhood and the many dysfunctional relationships she had.
eight years old. Susan met her future spouse David Smith, at the age of nine-
Advertising sends gender messages to both men and women. Advertising tells women how they should look and act, and it tells men to expect women to look and act that particular
The documentary Killing Us Softly 4 discusses and examines the role of women in advertisements and the effects of the ads throughout history. The film begins by inspecting a variety of old ads. The speaker, Jean Kilbourne, then discusses and dissects each ad describing the messages of the advertisements and the subliminal meanings they evoke. The commercials from the past and now differ in some respects but they still suggest the same messages. These messages include but are not limited to the following: women are sexual objects, physical appearance is everything, and women are naturally inferior then men. Kilbourne discusses that because individuals are surrounded by media and advertisements everywhere they go, that these messages become real attitudes and mindsets in men and women. Women believe they must achieve a level of beauty similar to models they see in magazines and television commercials. On the other hand, men expect real women to have the same characteristics and look as beautiful as the women pictured in ads. However, even though women may diet and exercise, the reality...
To sum up, it is often said that advertising is shaping women gender identity, and some have been argued that the statement is true, because of the higher amount of sexual references of women that advertisement show and the damages that occur on women’s personality and the public negative opinions of those women. As well, the negative effects that those kinds of advertisements cause to young generations and make them feel like they should simulate such things and are proud of what they are doing because famous actors are posting their pictures that way. Others deem this case as a personal freedom and absolutely unrelated to shaping women gender identity. On the contrast, they believe that, those sorts of advertisements are seriously teaching women how to stay healthy and be attractive, so they might have self-satisfaction after all.
Advertising creates a mythical dream world where there are no problems, everyone is beautiful, and has money to spare. Advertisements depict the way in which people think women and men are “supposed to be” (Cortese 52). Women are shown all these images as role models, which are unattainable. Females are not able to be happy with their bodies because everyday in the media they are told that they are not beautiful. The average American woman is 5 feet tall and weighs 142 pounds. When is the last time you saw a women meeting these qualifications in any advertisement? The truth is most people don't have the genetic potential to be the idealized shape and size in our culture (“Every”). Women are doomed from the beginning.