Please discuss your responses to Susan Bordo's assertions about women and food advertising. Can you think of any contemporary examples? If you can't, try a Google Images search of "people eating" and compare the men and women. Is her argument dated?
Susan Bordo makes an interesting point about how women are looked at in relationship to food, and I think her argument is not dated. In my everyday life I see examples still where women are looked at differently for their appetite than men. One example would be the sitcoms where there is a fat man married to a beautiful petite woman. I have always found this odd. From what I see in real life, people of a similar build with similar appetites seem to be the ones that get together and have a relationship. I think Bordo over exaggerates the effect that advertisements do have on how people actually eat. Eating disorders are based on more than how people are depicted in advertisements. I find it hard to believe that people need to be reminded of “how dangerous food actually is for women”… This statement fits well with the recent scare tactics of many persuasive writers and politicians, but lacks much factual basis. I found her reference to Victorian ideals as a nice way to demonstrate that this is not a new idea and it has been developing for a while.
Today’s article by Susan Bordo stepped outside of the meat-eaters and vegetarian arguments which we usually read about. Bordo suggest that today’s advertisements and diet fads encourage women to starve themselves. She thinks that most women strive to be like the perfect models and movie stars we see in the magazine. She even goes so far as to say, “Today, all that we experience as meaningful are appearances” (103). I think she is completely incorrect. Some people do obsess to look like movie stars, but not all women want to be like that. We always hear about the people who do this, but we have no reason to talk about nothing changing in the millions of other content women in the world. She is taking things entirely too far. Advertising companies do not strive to make women starve, because what would that accomplish? Nothing. I think that Bordo is paranoid about society being sexist. What is in commercials is only what the advertisers choose to put on their plates, not what society “expects”. When I Google-Searched “people eating” I found that women were eating both light salads and huge steak dinners evenly. I found that men mostly were eating some form of meat, but I think that is truly what most men prefer, not a sexist internet advertising plot.
The most interesting advertisement dealing with women was a Got Milk? ad with Hayden Panettiere. It combined sexuality with facts about how milk can slim down the body in a healthy way. But the most significant part about the ad is how sexual it really is, complete with milk mustache. Google images "Panettiere Got Milk" and you will understand. But something else I found interesting about the reading is it claimed every woman walking the earth eats slim meals and feels compelled to look like a stick. I found this claim to be silly and completely generalizing all women. I don’t know many girls who restrict their eating, if any at all. Yes, they have dieted, but it isn’t a lifelong continual fast, excluding everything that could potentially add an extra pound. Most girls I know are down with sinking their teeth into Penn Station or a McDouble when they are hungry. Everyone knows fast food is unhealthy, but that doesn’t stop them from enjoying it. Unfortunately, all advertisements true to show slender woman or sickly thin ones, but that body type is still possible with unhealthy foods. And not all women want to show their ribs either. If you talk to most college aged guys, you’ll find ribs and too-skinny legs are less appealing than a healthy, “well-fed” girl as well. I enjoy Dove commercials because they are pushing their “True Beauty” campaign. I don’t know if it is affecting their sales, but it does show beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. Hopefully, women and men see that, and I believe these articles give less credit to the American population than it should. We realize when skinny has gone too far when we hear of celebrity diets which will drop 20 lbs in 3 days. Sure, models may be fun to look at, but up close I guarantee people would give a second, disapproving glance.
In this excerpt, Susan Bordo talks about the desire of women to be skinny and the role that advertisements play on it. Bordo points out that this desire dates back to the Victorian era, when “a frail frame and lack of appetite signified not only spiritual transcendence of the desires of the flesh but social transcendence of the laboring, striving, ‘economic’ body” (113). The article is broken down into three subparts, each dealing with a different aspect of the perception of food on women. In the first part, Bordo discusses the casual relationship with food that women once had, when voluptuous figures were the norm, as being an artifact of the past. The advertisements feature slender women eating desserts, such as Sugar-Free Jello pudding. I agree with Bordo’s statement that, as Americans, we have come to expect this type of contemporary advertisement. Media and marketing play games with female’s minds. When is the last time you saw a male figure in a commercial for 60-calorie pudding? Or speaking for a Weightwatchers or Jenny Craig diet plan? Marketing has played a major part in American’s desire to be skinny, where a woman who doesn’t eat much is considered ideal.
The second part talks about how marketing is able to psych out the female consumer. Marketer’s play to women’s fears of not being in control. Bordo points out that in these type of food advertisements, you never see a depressed women depicted. By this, advertisers are saying that hunger will never make you feel bad because there are ways to curb it (such as through sugar-free Jello). I don’t agree with Bordo’s statement that advertisers are trying to obscure the fact that food is actually dangerous for women. What I think is dangerous is the way women binge in secret, when no one can judge them for overindulging. The examples of advertisements that Bordo uses asserts that food advertising plays a role in gender identity. The woman are depicted eating scarcely anything, while a man is depicted as being able to survive anything, much like the Deep Chocolate ice cream from Haagen-Dazs.
Food advertising often depicts food as a metaphor for a female’s sexual appetite. “Women are permitted such gratification from food only in measured doses”. If food conjures a sexual appetite, then food intake must be restricted. I don’t agree with this statement. Although eating small meals is part of the female gender identity, I don’t believe that the media is punishing female sexuality by promoting it as something evil. Looking at the pictures retrieved from the Google search “people eating”, an equal number of pictures of women eating salads and women diving into a hot dog are displayed. The pictures of men eating all seem to have meat or large portions in them. While the gender identity of women as petite eaters has been announced, it is not fully supported in today’s world.
Thankfully we have a new idea in our topic of food. No longer is it omnivore or vegetarian; it is now women with “unhealthy” figures. It is funny how when a “thick” woman and a “thin” girl are standing next to each other, most men I know would go for the “thicker” one. That is the exact opposite of what is being pushed by almost any add you have ever seen. I would like to know or see a commercial that had someone not supermodel skinny pretending. When I say pretending, I am saying not falsifying what is being advertised. A shampoo commercial showing a completely appealing woman with the intent of you having the same perfect hair she has using that product. IT WON’T WORK. What is being shown is the best example that would be found. An average person without perfect circumstances cannot have that hair. Another perfect example is a bathing suit commercials showing how their bathing suit will look on you. Once again, yea right. Women eat whatever they want from what I have seen. They may not pick out like men do but good for them. Maybe clogged arteries aren’t their forte. What is wrong is our rich culture pressures skinny onto everyone. Not everyone was made to be skinny. Skinny is just not in their genes. I say go eat whatever makes you happy. If we are all meant to be twigs then we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Pig out!!
I really enjoyed Susan Bordo’s depiction of the situation of women versus food today. Some of her discourse brought up examples that were so obvious but usually unspoken. First of all, it’s only acceptable for certain women these days to be overweight, and they’re expected to be confident. Those that grow up in a strong ethnic household where the focus is eating heartily rather than healthily is normal for them. I’m not one to advocate obesity, but it’s wrong to have a societal norm like that; we should be promoting healthier choices for everyone. Bordo’s argument definitely is not dated because so many of her references have carried on from the past few decades. I definitely like to see the current ad campaigns out there by Dove for True Beauty and even Cover Girl has promotions regarding body image for women. I dislike when advertisers focus on subtle sexual innuendos because coming from a girl, it definitely only makes us more self-conscious, regardless of how we view ourselves. Continuing on her article, Bordo talks about a man’s role in the fight of a healthy body image. I strongly dislike the masculine themes that many food commercials portray, mostly because they subtly put down women and segregate them in the promotion. It is true, as Bordo states, that women are sometimes expected to only eat a little and it better be healthy. I come from a large family and we eat a lot. No one in my family has ever been afraid to hold back about what they put on their plates…we don’t overeat or gorge on unhealthy foods, but we get our fill and move on for the day. I am comfortable sitting down with a full rack of ribs right next to the guy that has the same thing. But not many women really are. They may say so, but their choice of a house salad or a sandwich without cheese is really their way of telling you they are looking out. We as women should not have to face that unspoken glare from other people judging our eating habits.
After reading comments made by Susan Bordo in a chapter from “Hunger as Ideology,” it is clear that she links the media to women’s poor self image. Bordo says that it is due to commercials showing thin, beautiful women who seem to have missed a meal, girls are learning at a young age the “look” society wants them to have. I would agree that most makeup, perfume, and style commercials all show average to thin models with the “ideal” body type. Like the French commercial Bordo references, these images of stick skinny models are putting harmful thoughts into girls’ minds. Too many young girls and boys are getting the wrong idea about how they should look and it has caused serious issues with eating disorders and over the top diets. For the most part, I think this mentality is still very prevalent in today’s society. From the slender models to the numerous diet commercials, it is clear that our society promotes a thin image. This is exactly the problem; people have developed thin ideas of a beautiful body. On the other hand, I do agree with Chip that it is becoming more prevalent to see average or larger sized women on television. America’s Next Top Model had its first plus size model win a year ago. While the winner was not nearly “plus” size, she was still larger than the previous rails who won before her. And as mentioned before, the Dove commercials are doing a great job at showing gorgeous, natural, real women who love their bodies for what they are. It is this image that is comforting and must be shown more. Our society must learn to embrace natural beauty as it is now embracing natural foods. Fast-food places are going natural so why shouldn’t television?
The essay entitled “Hungry as Ideology seemed to be a lot different than the other pieces we have read so far. It did seem to be directed toward any educated audience, as it was somewhat difficult to understand in some parts. Other than that, however, it seemed to be pretty broad with respect to the audience that it was trying to reach out to. The point of it seemed interesting to me, if in fact I was grasping what the author was trying to say. The first couple pages seem like they could be interpreted differently. It almost seems like the author is trying to say that Americans have so much food that we have to come up with all kinds of fancy ways in which to stay healthy and slim, whereas Europeans can simply decide not to eat much like the issue is no big deal. This seems like a weird idea to us since so many different kinds of food are available to us. As I read on I thought back to a topic I learned about in psychology this year. In early cultures, bigger women were considered beautiful, and being big was almost the way to be. As time went on, the ideal women kept getting smaller and smaller, until now, when we look at the ideal woman as having a 0.7 stomach to hip ratio. It seems crazy that we actually have a number that defines how good we perceive a person to look. The fact that we as humans look at how physically attractive a person is in order to judge them and form an opinion of them seems sad, but it is the way we work. This causes women to think that they are never good enough, and need all kinds of surgery in order to look acceptable to men. The article entitled “The effects of food and gender on interpersonal perceptions seemed to tie in to the same subject matter. It seemed to be targeted towards adults that are interested in their health and well being, so I would say a pretty wide range of people. I thought it was interesting that more mens magazines are now putting more articles regarding weight loss, and more womens magazines are cutting down on these articles. We normally think of women as being the ones that are concerned with what they eat and how they look, which really was the socially accepted way to go. However, now it seems like more men are starting to care about this, which makes sense because we all should care about this equally. Its not like eating really affects the genders differently. We all need to care about this, as it is a big factor that determines the kind of life we will live, male or female. The pamphlet just seemed to be very harsh to me. By this I mean that it showed many pictures of abused animals that we getting ready to be slaughtered. This shows that the pamphlet is geared more towards vegans than anything, because being a meat eater, I really don’t want to see pictures of sickly looking animals that will become my food. It does say that meat eaters can help with this issue of killing animals by eating half as much meat, but that is easier said than done. People that eat meat just aren’t thinking of it like that. When we eat a steak we aren’t wondering how that cow was killed, or how its living conditions were when it died. By eating the meat we just seem to be accepting it.
I thought this piece was rather interesting. I also don't think it is dated. There are many examples of the same sorts of ads out now, as well. One example of men dominating food would be in watching eating contests. There's usually a 9 to 1 male to female ratio or something close to that (if there even is one female). And I don't think that's because women don't eat a lot or can't eat more than a man; I think it's just because society doesn't really approve of women doing that.
One thing I found very interesting was the comparison of the types of food men and women "dive into." A man dives into ice cream and a woman dives into Weight Watchers linguini. Forget that... I want some ice cream.
This was a great read, and I was happy to find this type of writing actually presented in a class. This discussion of gender roles in regards to food was brilliant, such creativity and original thought was put into the writing. An examination of gender roles in society is nothing new, but the unconscious stereotyping and subjugation of women in food advertising is intriguing to say the least. Her points were grand; all were logically connected and made plenty of sense. Not only did she simply present the arguments, but supported her claims with the actual advertisements themselves. Often times an ad analysis will leave the reader without the actual ad, focusing more on a description, which is hardly objective. Susan Bordo‘s argument is not even close to being dated, you could almost substitute new advertisements from the same companies and never change a word in the essay. While this was obviously a woman oriented position, I feel the same argument could be applied to men as well. I am reminded of a Wendy’s advertising campaign that has been mysteriously cut very short. The campaign focused on “meatatraians”, an apparent, albeit comical, portion of the population that only ate meat and no vegetables. In the advertisement, a man is eating a three meat burger and a lady offers him a salad. He refuses and claims he is a “meatatraian”. This use of the lady eating a salad and the man eating meat is clearly done on purpose. I feel Susan Bordo‘s essay was spot on, and enjoyed every moment reading her writing.
In the article, “The effects of food and gender on interpersonal perceptions,” Susan Bordo wrote on a topic that the class has not touched upon when debating on food. So far, the question has been to eat meat, or to not eat meat. She touches upon the past and current craze on how our society today encourages woman to be a thin as possible. She generalizes women as a whole when she refers to the fact that all women want to have the same body type as every other famous woman out there. She continues to generalize to make it seem that all woman today care about is what size we are and how we look. The problem with classifying all women with the same intentions could leave some readers offended, and have a poor view of the author. There are many women out there that remain constantly stressed on their appearance and spend all their time trying to make themselves look “better” to the standards of society, but there are also many women out there who feel the exact opposite. There are so many diet ads’ out there and new work out systems, and yes, many of them focus on women because many women are neurotic to the way they look. Although she does bring a somewhat valid point to the fact that there is some sexism when referring to advertisements associating with food, she does not seem to realize that it does not affect that many women on a daily basis. After reading her article, I remain to believe that women and men are going to eat and exercise the way they want to because it is a personal decision. These advertisements can sometime’s come off as offensive, but if anyone is really getting that offended over something you really can’t control, maybe they are just too sensitive.
Susan Bordo makes an interesting point about how women are looked at in relationship to food, and I think her argument is not dated. In my everyday life I see examples still where women are looked at differently for their appetite than men. One example would be the sitcoms where there is a fat man married to a beautiful petite woman. I have always found this odd. From what I see in real life, people of a similar build with similar appetites seem to be the ones that get together and have a relationship. I think Bordo over exaggerates the effect that advertisements do have on how people actually eat. Eating disorders are based
ReplyDeleteon more than how people are depicted in advertisements. I find it hard to believe that people need to be reminded of “how dangerous food actually is for women”… This statement fits well with the recent scare tactics of many persuasive writers and politicians, but lacks much factual basis. I found her reference to Victorian ideals as a nice way to demonstrate that this is not a new idea and it has been developing for a while.
Today’s article by Susan Bordo stepped outside of the meat-eaters and vegetarian arguments which we usually read about. Bordo suggest that today’s advertisements and diet fads encourage women to starve themselves. She thinks that most women strive to be like the perfect models and movie stars we see in the magazine. She even goes so far as to say, “Today, all that we experience as meaningful are appearances” (103). I think she is completely incorrect. Some people do obsess to look like movie stars, but not all women want to be like that. We always hear about the people who do this, but we have no reason to talk about nothing changing in the millions of other content women in the world. She is taking things entirely too far. Advertising companies do not strive to make women starve, because what would that accomplish? Nothing. I think that Bordo is paranoid about society being sexist. What is in commercials is only what the advertisers choose to put on their plates, not what society “expects”. When I Google-Searched “people eating” I found that women were eating both light salads and huge steak dinners evenly. I found that men mostly were eating some form of meat, but I think that is truly what most men prefer, not a sexist internet advertising plot.
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting advertisement dealing with women was a Got Milk? ad with Hayden Panettiere. It combined sexuality with facts about how milk can slim down the body in a healthy way. But the most significant part about the ad is how sexual it really is, complete with milk mustache. Google images "Panettiere Got Milk" and you will understand.
ReplyDeleteBut something else I found interesting about the reading is it claimed every woman walking the earth eats slim meals and feels compelled to look like a stick. I found this claim to be silly and completely generalizing all women. I don’t know many girls who restrict their eating, if any at all. Yes, they have dieted, but it isn’t a lifelong continual fast, excluding everything that could potentially add an extra pound. Most girls I know are down with sinking their teeth into Penn Station or a McDouble when they are hungry. Everyone knows fast food is unhealthy, but that doesn’t stop them from enjoying it. Unfortunately, all advertisements true to show slender woman or sickly thin ones, but that body type is still possible with unhealthy foods. And not all women want to show their ribs either. If you talk to most college aged guys, you’ll find ribs and too-skinny legs are less appealing than a healthy, “well-fed” girl as well. I enjoy Dove commercials because they are pushing their “True Beauty” campaign. I don’t know if it is affecting their sales, but it does show beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. Hopefully, women and men see that, and I believe these articles give less credit to the American population than it should. We realize when skinny has gone too far when we hear of celebrity diets which will drop 20 lbs in 3 days. Sure, models may be fun to look at, but up close I guarantee people would give a second, disapproving glance.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn this excerpt, Susan Bordo talks about the desire of women to be skinny and the role that advertisements play on it. Bordo points out that this desire dates back to the Victorian era, when “a frail frame and lack of appetite signified not only spiritual transcendence of the desires of the flesh but social transcendence of the laboring, striving, ‘economic’ body” (113). The article is broken down into three subparts, each dealing with a different aspect of the perception of food on women. In the first part, Bordo discusses the casual relationship with food that women once had, when voluptuous figures were the norm, as being an artifact of the past. The advertisements feature slender women eating desserts, such as Sugar-Free Jello pudding. I agree with Bordo’s statement that, as Americans, we have come to expect this type of contemporary advertisement. Media and marketing play games with female’s minds. When is the last time you saw a male figure in a commercial for 60-calorie pudding? Or speaking for a Weightwatchers or Jenny Craig diet plan? Marketing has played a major part in American’s desire to be skinny, where a woman who doesn’t eat much is considered ideal.
ReplyDeleteThe second part talks about how marketing is able to psych out the female consumer. Marketer’s play to women’s fears of not being in control. Bordo points out that in these type of food advertisements, you never see a depressed women depicted. By this, advertisers are saying that hunger will never make you feel bad because there are ways to curb it (such as through sugar-free Jello). I don’t agree with Bordo’s statement that advertisers are trying to obscure the fact that food is actually dangerous for women. What I think is dangerous is the way women binge in secret, when no one can judge them for overindulging. The examples of advertisements that Bordo uses asserts that food advertising plays a role in gender identity. The woman are depicted eating scarcely anything, while a man is depicted as being able to survive anything, much like the Deep Chocolate ice cream from Haagen-Dazs.
Food advertising often depicts food as a metaphor for a female’s sexual appetite. “Women are permitted such gratification from food only in measured doses”. If food conjures a sexual appetite, then food intake must be restricted. I don’t agree with this statement. Although eating small meals is part of the female gender identity, I don’t believe that the media is punishing female sexuality by promoting it as something evil. Looking at the pictures retrieved from the Google search “people eating”, an equal number of pictures of women eating salads and women diving into a hot dog are displayed. The pictures of men eating all seem to have meat or large portions in them. While the gender identity of women as petite eaters has been announced, it is not fully supported in today’s world.
Thankfully we have a new idea in our topic of food. No longer is it omnivore or vegetarian; it is now women with “unhealthy” figures. It is funny how when a “thick” woman and a “thin” girl are standing next to each other, most men I know would go for the “thicker” one. That is the exact opposite of what is being pushed by almost any add you have ever seen. I would like to know or see a commercial that had someone not supermodel skinny pretending. When I say pretending, I am saying not falsifying what is being advertised. A shampoo commercial showing a completely appealing woman with the intent of you having the same perfect hair she has using that product. IT WON’T WORK. What is being shown is the best example that would be found. An average person without perfect circumstances cannot have that hair. Another perfect example is a bathing suit commercials showing how their bathing suit will look on you. Once again, yea right. Women eat whatever they want from what I have seen. They may not pick out like men do but good for them. Maybe clogged arteries aren’t their forte. What is wrong is our rich culture pressures skinny onto everyone. Not everyone was made to be skinny. Skinny is just not in their genes. I say go eat whatever makes you happy. If we are all meant to be twigs then we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Pig out!!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed Susan Bordo’s depiction of the situation of women versus food today. Some of her discourse brought up examples that were so obvious but usually unspoken. First of all, it’s only acceptable for certain women these days to be overweight, and they’re expected to be confident. Those that grow up in a strong ethnic household where the focus is eating heartily rather than healthily is normal for them. I’m not one to advocate obesity, but it’s wrong to have a societal norm like that; we should be promoting healthier choices for everyone. Bordo’s argument definitely is not dated because so many of her references have carried on from the past few decades. I definitely like to see the current ad campaigns out there by Dove for True Beauty and even Cover Girl has promotions regarding body image for women. I dislike when advertisers focus on subtle sexual innuendos because coming from a girl, it definitely only makes us more self-conscious, regardless of how we view ourselves. Continuing on her article, Bordo talks about a man’s role in the fight of a healthy body image. I strongly dislike the masculine themes that many food commercials portray, mostly because they subtly put down women and segregate them in the promotion. It is true, as Bordo states, that women are sometimes expected to only eat a little and it better be healthy. I come from a large family and we eat a lot. No one in my family has ever been afraid to hold back about what they put on their plates…we don’t overeat or gorge on unhealthy foods, but we get our fill and move on for the day. I am comfortable sitting down with a full rack of ribs right next to the guy that has the same thing. But not many women really are. They may say so, but their choice of a house salad or a sandwich without cheese is really their way of telling you they are looking out. We as women should not have to face that unspoken glare from other people judging our eating habits.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading comments made by Susan Bordo in a chapter from “Hunger as Ideology,” it is clear that she links the media to women’s poor self image. Bordo says that it is due to commercials showing thin, beautiful women who seem to have missed a meal, girls are learning at a young age the “look” society wants them to have. I would agree that most makeup, perfume, and style commercials all show average to thin models with the “ideal” body type. Like the French commercial Bordo references, these images of stick skinny models are putting harmful thoughts into girls’ minds. Too many young girls and boys are getting the wrong idea about how they should look and it has caused serious issues with eating disorders and over the top diets.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, I think this mentality is still very prevalent in today’s society. From the slender models to the numerous diet commercials, it is clear that our society promotes a thin image. This is exactly the problem; people have developed thin ideas of a beautiful body. On the other hand, I do agree with Chip that it is becoming more prevalent to see average or larger sized women on television. America’s Next Top Model had its first plus size model win a year ago. While the winner was not nearly “plus” size, she was still larger than the previous rails who won before her. And as mentioned before, the Dove commercials are doing a great job at showing gorgeous, natural, real women who love their bodies for what they are. It is this image that is comforting and must be shown more. Our society must learn to embrace natural beauty as it is now embracing natural foods. Fast-food places are going natural so why shouldn’t television?
The essay entitled “Hungry as Ideology seemed to be a lot different than the other pieces we have read so far. It did seem to be directed toward any educated audience, as it was somewhat difficult to understand in some parts. Other than that, however, it seemed to be pretty broad with respect to the audience that it was trying to reach out to. The point of it seemed interesting to me, if in fact I was grasping what the author was trying to say. The first couple pages seem like they could be interpreted differently. It almost seems like the author is trying to say that Americans have so much food that we have to come up with all kinds of fancy ways in which to stay healthy and slim, whereas Europeans can simply decide not to eat much like the issue is no big deal. This seems like a weird idea to us since so many different kinds of food are available to us. As I read on I thought back to a topic I learned about in psychology this year. In early cultures, bigger women were considered beautiful, and being big was almost the way to be. As time went on, the ideal women kept getting smaller and smaller, until now, when we look at the ideal woman as having a 0.7 stomach to hip ratio. It seems crazy that we actually have a number that defines how good we perceive a person to look. The fact that we as humans look at how physically attractive a person is in order to judge them and form an opinion of them seems sad, but it is the way we work. This causes women to think that they are never good enough, and need all kinds of surgery in order to look acceptable to men.
ReplyDeleteThe article entitled “The effects of food and gender on interpersonal perceptions seemed to tie in to the same subject matter. It seemed to be targeted towards adults that are interested in their health and well being, so I would say a pretty wide range of people. I thought it was interesting that more mens magazines are now putting more articles regarding weight loss, and more womens magazines are cutting down on these articles. We normally think of women as being the ones that are concerned with what they eat and how they look, which really was the socially accepted way to go. However, now it seems like more men are starting to care about this, which makes sense because we all should care about this equally. Its not like eating really affects the genders differently. We all need to care about this, as it is a big factor that determines the kind of life we will live, male or female.
The pamphlet just seemed to be very harsh to me. By this I mean that it showed many pictures of abused animals that we getting ready to be slaughtered. This shows that the pamphlet is geared more towards vegans than anything, because being a meat eater, I really don’t want to see pictures of sickly looking animals that will become my food. It does say that meat eaters can help with this issue of killing animals by eating half as much meat, but that is easier said than done. People that eat meat just aren’t thinking of it like that. When we eat a steak we aren’t wondering how that cow was killed, or how its living conditions were when it died. By eating the meat we just seem to be accepting it.
I thought this piece was rather interesting. I also don't think it is dated. There are many examples of the same sorts of ads out now, as well. One example of men dominating food would be in watching eating contests. There's usually a 9 to 1 male to female ratio or something close to that (if there even is one female). And I don't think that's because women don't eat a lot or can't eat more than a man; I think it's just because society doesn't really approve of women doing that.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I found very interesting was the comparison of the types of food men and women "dive into." A man dives into ice cream and a woman dives into Weight Watchers linguini. Forget that... I want some ice cream.
This was a great read, and I was happy to find this type of writing actually presented in a class. This discussion of gender roles in regards to food was brilliant, such creativity and original thought was put into the writing. An examination of gender roles in society is nothing new, but the unconscious stereotyping and subjugation of women in food advertising is intriguing to say the least. Her points were grand; all were logically connected and made plenty of sense. Not only did she simply present the arguments, but supported her claims with the actual advertisements themselves. Often times an ad analysis will leave the reader without the actual ad, focusing more on a description, which is hardly objective. Susan Bordo‘s argument is not even close to being dated, you could almost substitute new advertisements from the same companies and never change a word in the essay. While this was obviously a woman oriented position, I feel the same argument could be applied to men as well. I am reminded of a Wendy’s advertising campaign that has been mysteriously cut very short. The campaign focused on “meatatraians”, an apparent, albeit comical, portion of the population that only ate meat and no vegetables. In the advertisement, a man is eating a three meat burger and a lady offers him a salad. He refuses and claims he is a “meatatraian”. This use of the lady eating a salad and the man eating meat is clearly done on purpose. I feel Susan Bordo‘s essay was spot on, and enjoyed every moment reading her writing.
ReplyDeleteIn the article, “The effects of food and gender on interpersonal perceptions,” Susan Bordo wrote on a topic that the class has not touched upon when debating on food. So far, the question has been to eat meat, or to not eat meat. She touches upon the past and current craze on how our society today encourages woman to be a thin as possible. She generalizes women as a whole when she refers to the fact that all women want to have the same body type as every other famous woman out there. She continues to generalize to make it seem that all woman today care about is what size we are and how we look. The problem with classifying all women with the same intentions could leave some readers offended, and have a poor view of the author. There are many women out there that remain constantly stressed on their appearance and spend all their time trying to make themselves look “better” to the standards of society, but there are also many women out there who feel the exact opposite. There are so many diet ads’ out there and new work out systems, and yes, many of them focus on women because many women are neurotic to the way they look. Although she does bring a somewhat valid point to the fact that there is some sexism when referring to advertisements associating with food, she does not seem to realize that it does not affect that many women on a daily basis. After reading her article, I remain to believe that women and men are going to eat and exercise the way they want to because it is a personal decision. These advertisements can sometime’s come off as offensive, but if anyone is really getting that offended over something you really can’t control, maybe they are just too sensitive.
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