I am taking an eye-opening class this semester called “Gender and the Criminal Justice System”. As we’re still in the beginning phase of the course, the professor has focused mainly on how gender is viewed in our society. It’s fascinating…seriously. She basically shows slide after slide of mainstream advertising, stuff like this:
Is this chick about to get gang raped? Maybe. Does she look happy? Powerful? No. The advertisers have managed to make her powerlessness seem erotic. Get it? They’re making it seem attractive to be submissive and vulnerable. Here’s another one:
Where do you even start with an ad like this?? A point my professor made that I love is that advertisers are making women physically smaller and smaller so that they literally take up less space. What better way to make us seem less imposing and therefore less powerful? If you have any doubts about what we as women should worry about, advertising spells it out for us. We need only worry about how we look. If something about our bodies doesn’t fit in the social norm of beauty, just change it!
So, am I angry? Yes. Doesn’t it make you a little angry? Not only at advertisers, but at ourselves for buying into it all. I’m angry and I’m exhausted. Not only do I worry about school and grades, mothering my children and being a partner to my husband, but I also get to worry about the size of my bust and the fat on my thighs. Our bodies are being constantly picked apart and scrutinized, by ourselves and by others. In a way I feel like I have no right to be angry because I will probably always buy into this idea to some extent. I’ve lived this way for 25 years. I’ve spent thousands of dollars on my body and I still struggle to feel attractive after two kids. *By the way, 1 in 4 American girls have an eating disorder. However, if we look at women with disordered eating that doesn’t fall neatly into one disorder, it’s more like 4 out of 5.
We all buy into it to some degree, yet the ones writing the scripts of our roles are DUDES!!
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a man-hater. I love my husband and I love my boys, and I realize that men also face a different kind of pressure from our society. However, I think it’s unfortunate that men and women are put in their respective boxes and expected to stay within the lines.
We aren’t born masculine or feminine. It is not genetic. It is instilled in us, but is not actually a part of our makeup. We are trained to behave a certain way, and for the most part we stick to our roles. So the question I want you to ponder is, who writes the roles?
thankfully i DON’T buy into that crap. i’m perfectly happy with my jiggly FUPA, my earth shaking thighs, my socks with tube sand in the bottom boobs, my ghetto bootie and my rooster neck. i love everything about me. no way would i want to change it. ever. ever ever ever…
I took a couple of very similar classes in college and it does leave one with a slightly helpless feeling. I am watching my daughter move from childhood into adolescence. I am constantly on watch for ideas she is picking up. I can only take up the battle on one front and that is in my own house with my own family. At least we have some power here.
After having both a girl and boys I do actually think kids come with masculine or feminine tendencies. But that doesn’t mean they should buy into what media tells them those tendencies are.
What the? I need to go to college to get more knowlege. All I see in those advetisments are pretty people I wish I could look like. I am going to start my egg and water diet right now, wait, after I eat the warm batch of chocolate chip cookies I just made.
Summer, we all know what happens to girls on the egg diet…it’s not pretty on either end.
First of all, Jessica does NOT have a FUPA!!!!! She must of been confusing herself with ME.
Secondly, all I have to say is, “you can have 2 moms or 2 dads, it’s not important as long as they love you”, quote from Ian tonight at the dinner table.
Okay, but serioulsy, we all have things we don’t like about our bodies, but that is who we are, it is what our gentics are. You have alot of deep thought. Your a powerful chic!!!! Rock on!
So… wait til you are getting past 40… or 50!!! Frightening. Getting old is also an issue, if you look at advertising. No one is old. So how can we expect to age gracefully when we aren’t even allowed to age?? I think older women are beautiful… but it is scary to think about getting there.