While articulating her claim that women have not been able to transcend the sexual meanings associated with their bodies, Entwistle does not provide us with significant insights or reasons behind this claim; John Berger's notion of the “surveyor” in Ways of Seeing helps us fill in this gap by providing us insights into the basic female psyche. In Bodies that Matter, Berger argues that there is a difference in what constitutes the social presence of a man versus that of a woman. The notion of a man's presence, he articulates, is always "external," and his power lies in "what he is capable of doing to you or for you." On the contrary, a female's social presence is rather internal, consisting of "what can and cannot be done to her." He further …show more content…
So significant are the implications of this “surveying” done by men that women have come to internalize a double conscious: that of the "surveyor" and that of the "surveyed." Hence, all of her actions are made keeping the surveyor—or the male gaze—in mind. As Berger eloquently articulates, "how she [the female] appears to others, and ultimately how she appears to men, is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the success of her life." In other words, her self of being is significantly impacted by how she appears to men. Thus, it follows that when dressing their bodies, women construct their bodies keeping in mind that they are on display, and are constantly being surveyed. This surveying is done not only by men, but also by the perpetual “surveyor” within them. With this knowledge of the constantly being surveyed in mind, women construct their bodies to appease the surveyor in a way that enforces conventional heterosexual gender roles. As O’Barr articulates in his study of advertisements, traditional gender roles place physical appearance and beauty central to the notion of …show more content…
Welcome to being a woman in America," concluded Jon Stewart as he ended his segment on Jenner during his Late Night Show in June 2015. While intended as non-serious concluding remarks, Stewart’s comments have profound meaning and implications upon our understanding of Jenner’s identity, and femininity, at large. In the revelation of Jenner’s new identity on the cover of Vanity Fair, Leibovitz presents Jenner and her body as sexual objects. Even at such an age, Jenner must pose as a youthful, sensual model—her body being a sexual object—in order for her to be considered a female. Jenner’s case exhibits what Entwistle has coined the perennial nature of "the sexual baggage" affiliated with a woman's body. It reflects the importance of physical beauty in the understanding and expression of femininity. Not only does an analysis of Jenner's identity through Entwistle’s ideas enable us to see how Jenner is just performing the role of a “traditional” female, but perhaps most importantly, the instantaneous reading of Jenner's identity and Entwistle lead us to draw implications upon paramount role of the appearance of the female in the being of the female, and see the somewhat stagnant perception of femininity in modern
In our society today a business is not a business without an advertisement. These advertisements advertise what American’s want and desire in their lives. According to Jack Solomon in his essay, “Master’s of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising,” Jack Solomon claims: “Because ours is a highly diverse, pluralistic society, various advertisements may say different things depending on their intended audiences, but in every case they say something about America, about the status of our hopes, fears, desires, and beliefs”(Solomon). Advertisers continue to promote the American dream of what a women’s body should look like. They advertise their products in hopes for consumers to buy them, so they can look like the models pictures in the ads. Behind these ads, advertisers tend to picture flawless unrealistic woman with the help of Photoshop. In our society today to look like a model is an American dream and can be the reasons why we fantasizes and buy these products being advertised. “America’s consumer economy runs on desire, and advertising stokes the engines by transforming common objects;signs of all things that Americans covet most”(Solomon).
Berger’s first claim which sets up the premise behind Chapter 3 is that socially, a woman’s existence is different from that of a man’s. A man’s presecence is tied to how much or how little power he possesses and how he executes this onto the world at large. He is the doer, the achiever, the generator. In contrast, a woman’s existence is manifested by how she communicates that existence to herself, which then becomes interpreted to the rest of the world. She adjusts herself (voice, gestures, etc.) so as to adapt to a viewer. She lacks autonomy and therefore becomes an object, or rather a sight.
Craig highlights the gender norms that are place on a woman’s body and how it connects to their value. This is what Shaffer would see as a norm that contains woman and holds them in a typical and unfair position. Craig shows how there are strong gender norms concerning a woman’s body in a Weight Watchers commercial. Craig says, “As in the Weight Watchers commercial, it is the woman’s body that is
Women are marked and judged by their outer appearance rather than their innermost. Tannen distinguished that “each of the women at the conference had to make decisions about hair, clothing, makeup and accessories, and each decision had a carried meaning” (411). Women
In Susan Bordo’s “Beauty (Re)discover The Male Body, she uses advertisement as a form of her argument on how
John Berger once stated, "men act; women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at." Berger describes this sort of duality of existence in a women wherein she is constantly conscious and concerned with mannerisms; basically, there is always a part of her that it outside of herself and watching with self-discriminating attitude. (1) A women is "the surveyor and the surveyed." (1)
The beauty standard is a culturally constructed notion of physical attractiveness that has become increasingly imperative for women and men. However, this standard has become extremely perilous to men and women’s self-image. Camille Paglia, a highly educated individual who earned her PhD at Yale University and became a highly acclaimed author, explicates this conception in her essay “The Pitfalls of Plastic Surgery”. Paglia suggests that the beauty standard idealizes women to look like “sex symbols with an unattainable grandeur” (776). She continues to claim that it forces her audience of higher class women to pay large sums of money in order to alter their features ultimately conforming to a very “parochial” definition of beauty (776). Although Paglia is a highly credible source, she illogically appeals to the reader’s fears in order to persuade them. Paglia fails to give any credible outside sources which affirms her preposterous beliefs. Contrary to her inconsistencies, Daniel Akst, a social journalist and graduate from New York University provides his audience with reputable sources in order to persuade his audience. Daniel Akst believes that there needs to be a “democratization of physical beauty” in which instead of attempting to alter the beauty standard, we must first change how we view ourselves. Akst provides credible sources to establish his credibility where he observes cases studies and cultural experiments from scientists and organizations including:
This transformation exhibits how society changed in its perspective on physical appearance. This marked the beginning of men’s desire for what women had been calling the “perfect” body. Before World War II, money was not lavishly spent on the perfection of the body (Luciano 11). After the return of the soldiers, men had more money as women retained their postwar jobs. With women making substantially larger paychecks, men had the ability to spend more time and money to make themselves look like the models displayed in the media. With the new advertisements by Calvin Klein, such as the Mark Wahlberg, also known as Marky Mark, steamy ads for men’s briefs, the appearance of male bodies has intensified (Luciano 112). More and more men, now with the monetary means of looking good, are trying to achieve perfection with their bodies. They want to have the same bodies as those shown in the advertisements and, at times, will not stop until they have reached that goal (Grogan 95).
Sexual subjectivity refers to the notion that a person’s sexual orientation, or rather, sexual desires dictate their identity and how they perform said identity. For the purposes of this essay, the focus will be on the recently dubbed “American hero” for her journey with transitioning from being a male to a female, Caitlyn Jenner. The famous news of Caitlyn Jenner’s transition had plagued the tabloids in 2015, where some probing questions about her sexuality have been answered and some left unanswered. Caitlyn Jenner has performed two distinct forms of gender on the family reality television series (Keeping up with the Kardashians) and her new reality television series, which will be the media discussed (I am Cait). These distinct forms of gender roles also accompanied a change in her sexuality—or at least the spark of a change. Although Caitlyn Jenner’s new identity has majorly evolved during the past few years, due to her lack of disclosure in regards to her sexual orientation, her identity as a whole remains to be under questioning. Certain aspects of Caitlyn Jenner’s transition tend to indicate that she will succumb to society’s ideals of heteronormativity and transform her sexuality as a result, by creating a new sexual identity for her new gender. It can also be argued that her sexuality is completely dependent on how she performs it, rather than what she as an individual actually wants and desires. This essay will use evidence through Caitlyn Jenner’s new reality
Writing for the Huffington Post, Temimah Zucker presents her opinion on society’s expectation for women in America through different forms of communication and advertisement. Zucker’s article is based off of what you as a woman, think of yourself, versus what society thinks of you. Zucker believes that society’s opinions and beliefs will constantly change through the generations, but your thoughts about your own beauty will not become gray to you; “Beauty is molded by society -- by the advertising, fashion, and cosmetic industries. We live in a society of billboards and ads, Photoshop, and Botox. We are trained to believe that size two is perfect, while most healthy women in America fit into a size 12.” (1)
The use of sexualization also reinforces a pattern of gender roles that are currently circulating throughout advertisements. More often than not, women who are used as ploys in ads are seen doing household chores like vacuuming, changing the toilet paper, or making coffee. Females are rarely ever seen in a work place, and definitely not in a powerful position. In fact, the directors of most of these ads place women below or behind the man to show who has the power in actuality. Women are seen as skinny, fragile, and immobile in high heels, while men are strong and powerful. By setting up such a strong binary between the two different groups, it is obvious that the majority of the American society will not be able to fit into these roles, and it leaves a sense of rejection for the average person. This rejection, accepted by the viewers, manifests
The standards are created by society and portrayed in advertisements through media. Women are viewed as “objects” by men as they are meant to be “looked at” through the men’s gaze (Rice 392). The greatest power of women consists of the sexuality they portray, as the woman in the ad is presenting beauty as the ticket to success, encouraging body modification through the consumption to achieve the perfect look. Females looking at themselves through the mirror is one of the major themes in advertising, especially in this makeup ad because “beauty was believed to derive from inner qualities such as character, morality…” (393), pushing women towards the purchase of cosmetics. Since the early century to even now, white is more superior than dark which resulted in products such as skin whitening to become popular for black women. In the ad, the woman is white and has a perfect body figure correlating with sexiness, self-discipline and successful, whereas, fat is seen as unattractive and unhealthy (400). An unhealthy woman looking at this ad may feel insecure as she does not fit the expectations, resulting in dieting and unhealthy procedures to meet the desirable look. Furthermore, trying to change your body can lead to harmful conditions such as losing weight the incorrect way and putting bad substances inside your body. The ad
The extent to which women were presented as sex objects was calculated using a coding system. Every woman in each of the randomly selected 30 magazines was interpreted using a system that was similar to the method that Blaha used. Some of the categories that were coded were the percentage of face shown, gaze, product, expression, body pose, body part focus, degree of clothing, type of clothing, and whether or not the ad was seen as respectful
As you begin Beauty (Re) discovers the Male Body your read of author Susan Bordo spilling her morning coffee over a shockingly sexual advisement of a nude man. Initially, I rolled my eyes and settled in assuming, I was going to read about the tragedy of how men are now being objectified and exposed in adverting like women. As I flip through the pages looking at the scantily clad images I’m not really shocked; this essay was written fifteen years ago; I see these kinds of images going to the mall. What was shocking, however, was how Bordo a published, woman philosopher born in 1947 wrote about these images. I felt myself blush as I read “it seems slightly erect, or perhaps that’s his nonerect size, either way, there’s a substantial presence
Throughout the years the representation of women in advertising has evolved. In the 1940’s and 1950’s adverts mainly focused on portraying females as the helper, mother, wife, social being, and sex object. There was an assumption that a woman’s main desire was to make her husband happy; that while she was the buyer, he was really the main consumer, as the wife cooked, cleaned and looked after the children, which ultimately benefitted him. Even though these ads were targeting female consumers, they were often-and still are- created using the ‘male gaze’ theory. British film theorist Laura Mulvey states that the majority of Western visual culture follows the male gaze, where the gaze is not referring to a specific ‘look’ in the image, but rather to the viewer who is assumed to be a male (Mulvey, 1999). Mulvey says that even women look with a