Images and Ideas of Femininity and Masculinity

Girls learn at a young age that being slim is beautiful and they start thinking about tricks on

Cosmopolitan is the queen of women’s magazines. Her royal court also consists of Glamour, Red Book, Vogue, and other smaller magazines. These magazines demonstrate these beauty standards. Naomi Wolf researched on body image and found a

Many fitness advertisements proclaim the idea of the "perfect" body. This is done in ads targeting both women and men. This constant display of the "perfect" body causes women and men to feel like they have to look like the featured models to be accepted, which can often lead to negative body images. One source of advertising where the idea of the "perfect" body can often be seen is in print advertisements featured magazines. These fitness advertisements are usually for athletic shoes/clothes or weight-loss products and often feature a model who is thin and toned. As mentioned by Chandler and Sabiston (2009) there are two types of fitness advertising; model-focused and product- focused (Chandler and Sabiston, 2009). With

Featherstone looks down on publications that emphasize most of their print on Fashion, relationships and celebrities and advocates for magazines that stimulate intellectual growth, promote a healthy body image and include diversity. As an active journalist, columnist and activist, Liza Featherstone makes a good point in her article all while using most abundantly three rhetorical tools: logos, ethos and pathos that she wove into a studied text organization and a simple writing style. It is through ethos that Featherstone does a great job at defending her viewpoint, because her argument lacks a lot

Being one of the top branded women’s magazines gives them an opening to larger audiences. The fact they are easily able to pull in celebrities makes can broaden its audience even further. Even if a woman hasn’t even heard of Cosmo on its own personally, if they hear a celebrity they adore is a part of it they are more likely to read it. By reading the magazine the female becomes more influenced by it. Younger women and teenagers have a possibility of being pulled in due to wanting to be like the people they idolize. We such a big following on its own though, this magazine has been shaping the way generations of women think and act. Some of this which is not all good. Cosmo puts high emphasis on appearance and pleasing men. This magazine convinces women that’s how it is. It would make it hard for these women to act more natural and not feel like they have to constantly be on alert. It gives an image to women in our society you have to be physically perfect to get and keep a man. That statement in itself just isn’t true. This message can take a toll and make young and older women think they are not good enough. On top of the fact that some of the advice given is just ridicoulous. I read through some articles and laughed a little. Some of the so called “tips” are just so unrealistic. It partially made me uncomfortable to read them. The “positions” certainly didn’t sound sexy

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).

According to Laing, “The sexualization of female athletes reduces their self-esteem and identity by dehumanizing and pressuring them into an unhealthy obsession with body image” (page: 3). This leads to the media making women self-conscious about their bodies. Athletes often hear people say of other athletes, “She is too big, she’s not muscular enough or she is too skinny about female athletes.” Because of the way in which the media portrays a particular set of females, all females tend to strive for this “perfect physique”. This can lead to serve cases like dissatisfaction with their appearance and eating disorders. Some may argue that women like the sexualized manner in which they media portrays them because it increases their self-esteem

Thesis Statement: The media portrays women as bizarre and masculine when it comes to female bodybuilding because males are stereotypically viewed on this topic in the media as muscular, heroic, and powerful. Female bodybuilding is a activity where women compete in bodybuilding competitions, or women that just get a kick out of lifting weights and having muscle definition. With the increase in women lifting weights and bodybuilding in media: TV film, posters, commercials, photographs on internet etc.. There is more positive and negative comments and opinions about the females that do these activities. Some media and most of society sees female bodybuilders in an adverse manner.

Accompanying unrealistic images of women, the media spends billions of dollars yearly to advertise the various techniques that eliminate body discontents such as dieting pills and exercising machines, and exploits female magazine reader’s insecurities. Whether magazine advertisements aid in the gradual depletion of body image or fail to impact it at all will be the purpose of this investigation, supplemented by a literature review and organized by a theoretical framework, to support a firm analysis.

The Ideal Men People often say that the youth of today are more exposed and affected by Medias such as televisions, ads, and internet. For example, magazines often portray flawless models wearing trendy clothing which causes the viewers to idealize how the society should look and behave. In the text X-Large Body written by Alissa Quart, the author reveals that many young men are influenced to take body building supplements and practice extreme work out routines in order to gain muscles and fit in the society. Analyzing and closely examining the text, Quart successfully emphasizes that young men are being introduced to the idea of having a masculine body in an early age due to the impacts of media advertisement.

Being large isn’t just a women’s issue furthermore, most ladies don’t ask to be heavy, yet it turns into an unconscious struggle that conflicts with society’s expectations of perfection in a woman’s body. In recent talks of fat being a feminist problem, a sketchy subject has been whether eating impulsively is a lady’s problem signifying it relates to her experience of being a female in society. From one perspective, some argue that a female’s body is the most important thing about her, that it’s an indication to the world about who she is. From this point of view, women are taught to occupy themselves apparently with a self-image that others will find satisfying and attractive rather than being classified as an overweight woman; shunned by what society considers a perfect body. On the other hand, however, others argue that it is thoroughly up to women to make themselves healthy and to avoid becoming overweight for which they ae shunned. In the words of Susie Orbach (2015), one of this view’s main advocates, “You are your body, you have to take care of it! You’re the individual, you’re responsible. It has nothing to do with what’s going on in the wider society.”

From the beginning men were known to be of larger build than female, but now that has come to a whole new extent. A perfect body with six pack abs, like the ones seen on Abercrombie and Fitch bags have become essential. Through the collage, it is shown how this physical appearance must be maintained by working out. Moreover, physical appearance also feeds into femininity. Modern to flamboyant is what the style has gone to throughout the

The publications I chose to analyze are Cosmopolitan and Men’s Health, both successful magazines targeted to the opposite sex. Cosmopolitan is famously known as “The Bible” to women, this is depicted in Legally Blonde when Elle Woods brings “necessities” to her client in jail. The racy magazine is known for the advice it gives to women, analyzing many aspects of a women’s life. Men’s Health is a popular magazine targeted (use synonym) towards men by giving sex, exercise, diet, and lifestyle

Globally, there is an increasing health problem related to weight and obesity. Research findings by the Better Health Channel (cited in Subway research contained in Appendix One) revealed that obesity is now a major societal issue with rates of obesity/overweight people rising from 52% of adult males in 1998 to 68% in 2000. The corresponding figures for females told a similar story with an increase from 36% to 53% for the same time frame. Inferences were made that fatty, unhealthy food was no longer acceptable and that competitors were beginning to move in on Subway’s territory.

Women in magazines are usually tall, extremely thin, and their faces are covered in makeup. Women can easily develop insecurities in the way they look and feel about themselves because of magazines. Women choose to read certain magazines according to their interests. However, their interests are usually congruent with those of the majority of women or they wouldn’t be reading that particular magazine and those magazines wouldn’t stay in business. On the flip side of the sex factor, influences from magazines such as “For Him” magazine and “Maxim” weigh heavily on many men’s self security. These magazines teach men not only how they should look but also how they should view things. An example of this is a macho, semi sexist, tough guy, bull headed, over confident attitude. These magazines define for men the writer’s essence of a real man. Men as a whole atone themselves to such lifestyles probably out of fear of not living by these structures. Although magazines have a strong influence on the masses they are by no means the most influential medium there is.