Mouth Shut, Legs Open-- The Ideal Female in Society

The media and advertising has a strange way of controlling our minds using subliminal messaging to make us think a certain way.  This could be from a make-up commercial that makes us think we MUST purchase their product to be beautiful, a diet supplement to make us lose those extra 15 pounds, or even the vodka commercial that reminds us that men are in charge and that us women simply serve as sex objects and nothing more.  No matter what message the marketer wants to get across, they will ignore any morals they might have once (possibly) had to fight tooth and nail for their product to sell.  

Just as Cortese states in “Constructed Bodies, “corporations, industries, and government agencies sometimes use advertising as bureaucratic propaganda, just as national governments use psychological warfare or religious cults use proselytization.”  This propaganda is a way to lure us (the naive audience) into believing the nonsense that gets put into television ads, magazine ads, movies, music videos, and so on.  These corporations want us to idolize the “ideal women” or the “ideal man” in hopes of us to go out and purchase every product to help us achieve our goal.  Not every female is a size zero with a flawless complexion and perfectly smooth hair and not every man has a six pack with beautiful hair and huge muscular arms.  The media seems to forget to show us “normal folk” in their advertisements.  

There’s always that one favorite topic that everybody loves to talk about.  For me, it is sex.  Sex is enjoyable, fun, and makes you over-all a happier person.  However, the media has a funny way of showing that.  For instance, check out this Belvedere add.  The women in the ad, Alicyn Packard, actually sued Belvedere for using her picture without her permission.  But regardless of that, it is still mind-blowing that a company would even get this “okay’d” to be publicized.  This picture implies rape and myriad other sexual indications.  As a female, are we supposed to be mortified or are we supposed to laugh it off and say “oh, it’s just an advertisement.”  That is the dilemma we face as women because we do not want to be the “sensitive” female who gets over-dramatic about the slightest thing, but we also do not want to let men ruin the reputation we as women have worked so hard to earn over the past hundreds of years.  

Females are depicted as mere sex objects way too often in advertising and the media, which leaves a strong imprint in everyone’s minds.  As Wolf quotes in his “Culture, A Beauty Myth, “women are mere “beauties” in men’s culture so that culture can be kept male.  When women in culture show character, they are not desirable, as apposed to the desirable, artless, ingenue.”  This is basically saying that a women is ONLY attractive when she keeps her mouth shut, does not voice any opinion of any sort, and just makes sure to look as appealing to the eye as possible.  To [most] men, that is the ideal women.  Men feel challenged when a women feels strongly about issues and has no problem voicing her opinion.  Men see it as a threat; they have no idea how to handle these strong women.  As this is what a women is supposed to consist of in “male culture,” what is a man supposed to be like in women’s culture?  A hard working man who supports his woman and takes care of his responsibilities while remaining attractive is always a plus, but I am not certain that is what fulfills all of the requirements to be the “ideal male” in women’s culture.  

The reading that really captured my attention was “Cutting Down Girls.”  From this reading, it says that “ teenage girls spend over $4 billion annually on cosmetics alone (Kilbourne).”  We should be promoting young girls to save their money towards their college fund, a car, or maybe to even invest! Instead, we blow our money on mindless garbage that we cake onto our already beautiful skin.  Little do these girls know that once you start wearing boatloads of make-up, your skin starts to worsen.  After awhile, make-up becomes a necessity instead of just a hobby.  It’s all a big trap.  Once you start, you will not be able to stop.  You’ll have to spend hundreds or even thousands on skin rejuvenating skin to reverse all of the damage the make-up caused to your skin.  Now ask yourself, is it worth it?  Do you ever hear about THIS on the commercials or in the magazines?  No.  They only show models with airbrushed faces (giving a false illusion of what the make-up’s end result looks like) and poisons the minds of all these young females around the world.  WE'RE HUMANS--NOT PLASTIC!!!!! Barbies should be made in different shapes, sizes, and even more ethnicities. WHO LOOKS LIKE THAT NATURALLY?  The ideas of barbies and other dolls manufactured for young girls give them the idea that this is how they must look-- regardless of their ethnicity.  White, blonde, blue eyes, tiny waste, and big boobs.  

The media needs to begin to create advertisements that promote women empowerment as apposed to setting us back a couple of decades as a whole.  Times have changed and women are not mainly stationed in the kitchen to cook, iron, and clean all day. Women are dominating in the work field in major corporations and even taking many men’s spots.  We need to steer away from the “sex sells” ideology and think of new ways to stimulate the minds of men and women around the world.  Success can often be sweeter than sex, so we must influence major companies to incorporate that into their advertisements to save our society from becoming completely brainwashed.