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...
It’s clear that those advertisements try to make an impact on our buying decisions. We can even say they manipulate viewers by targeting specific group of people or categorizing them so they could have a feeling this product is intended for them or what he or she represents. For instance, they use gender stereotypes. Advertises make use of men and woman appearance or behavior for the sake of making the message memorable. Therefore, most effective and common method is to represent a woman as a sexual object. They are linked with home environment where being a housewife or a mother is a perfect job for the. In other hand men are used more as work done representations. They are associated with power, leadership and efficiency. Those stereotypes make the consumer categorize themselves and reveals the mainstream idea of social status each gender needs to be to fit in and what products they are necessary to have to be part of that
Zak, L. (2009, 04). Not all's fair in love of chocolate. Food Magazine, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/198287549?accountid=12964
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
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.
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
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...
North America is seeing a rise in death due to obesity in recent years. In America alone, 300 000 individuals die of obesity per year and is the second leading cause of preventable death. A large number of health issues arise from being overweight and obese such as heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Health risks are not the only reason for people to strive to lose weight, the idea of having a lean, muscular, and fit body considered attractive by the media have also driven fat people to take active steps towards weight loss. When people see advertisements like "lose 10 pounds in 10 days" or "25 pounds in only two weeks" makes their hearts skip a beat at the possibility of dropping pounds without any pain or bother. These advertisements target
While some companies in the food bar industry are more a focus on women, they are able to differentiate by the type of women they market to base on the segment each company focuses on (i.e. sports, energy, and weight loss). Women in each category have specific needs that need to be met. For example, an energy bar would appeal to a woman who is a busy executive on the go and has limited time to stop for a meal. Whereas a woman who is concern about maintaining her shape would be the focus of weight loss bars.
In regard to Susan Bordo’s, “Never Just Pictures”, I agree with the points she makes in her essay about what is being projected through advertisements and fashion modeling and the negative effects that these have on developing a healthy self-esteem and body image. Everyone, without gender as a factor, should openly embrace the good points of their body, flaws included. But still, we are surrounded by everything from commercials about diet pills, to articles on celebrities who are doing anything to become thinner and thinner, and the bizarre concept that a plus-size model is as small as a size 6 or 8. The saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words” rings very true to the emphasis put on what is seen when someone looks at an advertisement for something because it acknowledges something much deeper than the image that is seen. Besides the company selling the product that is shown, they are in some ways, sending subliminal messages of what a person who would buy or wear the product should look and act like. Even though advertisers and the media would be quick to deny that their work has anything to do with young women turning to eating disorders to look like what they see all around them, it is evident that this obsession with self-image and being as thin as humanly possible is clearly a result from none other than what is depicted in those very ads.
Although this commercial is refreshing to see women of different nationalities and body types, it’s still putting women in competition with other women. When they made “This Body” a hashtag, it was supposed to empower women with curves but they neglect the women without curves. This separation is heavily influenced by the media. In today’s society, we encourage advertisements and commercials that promote the “ideal” body type which we perceive as “real beauty”. Fashion designers and advertisers look for models with a slim figure that wear between a size zero and four. As we get used to seeing this type of body image and value it, it becomes the norm. This stereotype controls the way women think of themselves and make them believe that they all need to look that way. This can result in women going on extreme diets, taking pills, or even altering their body. The people that benefit from these women are fashion designers and advertisers because they have fallen into their traps. These companies will continue to target distinct audiences of young ladies and capitalize off of their vulnerability because they believe that being slim is in. Plastic surgeons and fitness centers also benefit from young adults with low self-esteem. They believe that they are able to enhance their overall appearance and provide them with healthier lifestyles. In addition, men also play a huge roll in how ladies of all ages perceive themselves. In most cases, women are altering their bodies to either find a spouse or for their
Curry and Clarke’s article believe in a strategy called “visual literacy” which develops women and men’s roles in advertisements (1983: 365). Advertisements are considered a part of mass media and communications, which influence an audience and impact society as a whole. Audiences quickly begin to rely on messages sent through advertisements and can create ideologies of women and men. These messages not only are extremely persuasive, but they additionally are effective in product consumption in the media (Curry and Clarke 1983:
This advertisement makes Diet Coke popular because it focuses on why the consumers drink the product; it 's refreshing and does not cause weight gain. This is proved in the advertisement because the women portrayed are happy and having a good time while sharing a Diet Coke, which leads the consumers to believe that they should buy a Diet Coke as well. This association increases sales and helps improve the overall market
This advertisement has also globalised in other countries that being slim is considered beautiful and that other body type is unacceptable. A research conducted by YouGov UK found out that “55% of the British female population felt that this advertisement is offensive and that it made them self-aware about their body, while 55% of male agrees that the company is making money by helping people losing weight.” (Dahlgreen,
In short, the weight loss advertising has definitely caused several adverse effects that most women are already misled by the advertisements that being thin is equal to beauty. In order to redeem this undesirable situation, Government must take the initiative in educating people about the useful means of losing weight and what is real beauty. Furthermore, they should try to regulate the message that the weight loss advertisements try to convey to the citizens. They should avoid any consciousness of discrimination against fat people appeared in the advertisements. Only if the above measures are being taken, can the atmosphere of losing weight stops eventually and less women will fall victim to the weight loss advertisements.
The media favors one women's body type; the tall blonde with perfect, tan skin and long, beautiful hair. Because the images of women in advertisements are unattainable, it keeps them purchasing new products in their quest to be like the models they see (Moore). The actual women in these advertisements can't even match up to the