S/R #9

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Synthesis: The media promotes powerful, specific ideas of masculinity and femininity, particularly through images of the body. Furthermore, particularly in advertising, the promotion of these ideals generally exist in order to make a profit.

Response: From the first week of this class, we discussed the false binary of gender in our society. We have focused on different factors of what constructs this binary, how it affects our lives, and what makes it false. This week's focus on advertising was incredibly revealing of one the biggest contributors to the gender binary, particularly contributing to what that binary is defined to be: advertising and the media in the general paint a specific picture of femininity and masculinity which society looks to for an indication of the proper way to look and behave. This was clearly evident a couple of weeks ago discussing Femininities and the Body, and how the emaciated images of women in the media, and how quickly this ever present image leads to eating disorders and low self esteem.
The media, especially advertising, use their power not only to promote a physical ideal, but also to promote a myriad of other societal values, especially gendered roles. As Jean Kilbourne states in her article and in her documentary, "[Ads] sell values, images, and concepts of success and worth, love and sexuality, popularity and normalcy. They tell us who we are and who we should be." Kilbourne also goes on to discuss women's roles in advertising as one of two categories: the housewife or the sex object. Both roles degrade women as concerned with just her home, her cleaning products, and in my opinion, the 'upkeep' of her nuclear family. The sex object is in Kilbourne's words "a shell" whose only care is how she looks. This is advertising depiction of "feminine": there is no representation of the vast variety of women and men who provide alternative pictures of femininity. By creating such a narrow, impossible, and damaging picture of what it is to be feminine, the media leads women to feel not good enough, no matter what they do. Yet this is exactly the point! By trying to attain an impossible ideal, people will continue to buy the products being advertised in order to obtain the immaculate house and 'perfect family' of that housewife in a Clorox ad, because the media has told women that is what they need to be the perfect women/wife. Furthermore, women will continue to dish out billions of dollars on beauty products in order to get the perfect complexion and hair of the woman in the Revlon commercial (who is actually airbrushed and wearing a wig... or whose hair's beautiful bounce and shine was created by a computer).
Pictures of what masculinity is supposed to be are also very present in our society. "Beer Commercials: A Manual on Masculinity" showed how just within the context of beer ads, a detailed picture of what it is to be masculine is painted from what men should do, what they should feel, what they should look like, how should interact with other men, and how they should interact with women. And of course, drinking the beer being advertised is always an important part of becoming the masculine ideal being advertised: the profit is the underlying motive.
When it comes to changing ideas in advertising, Gloria Steinem's article revealed how incredibly hesitant advertisers are. Advertisers would refuse to provide ads for cars or electronics in a woman's magazine despite the overwhelming evidence that women are making many of these purchases. I was shocked when Steinem stated that the president of Estee Lauder refused to advertise in Ms. because he insisted Estee Lauder was selling a "kept women mentality" despite over 60% of his customers were salaried because the customers "would like to be 'kept' women". It is a vicious circle when advertising itself believes its own lies and doesn't see a reason to change.