Prompt #1: My cultural artifact is an American Apparel Advertisement. These ads often time tend to push the boundaries on what is deemed appropriate. Often times in their ads, women are hardly wearing anything or in sexual submissive positions. It is important to know that when women are shown in these submissive position or hyper-sexualized, younger girls tend to grow up seeing these ads and feel that this is suppose to be their role in society once they are older. Attached are two ads from the clothing company showing sexualization and submissiveness.
Prompt #2: The first advertisement, for tights, also shows a women naked and with a facial expression in ecstasy. This ad shows a woman laying down therefore in a submissive state since the camera is placed above her. Her breasts are clearly shown enough off to show a big size and sexualized. Sexualizing women's breasts is why now mothers who breastfeed are told they are disgusting and are forced to breastfeed their children in bathrooms. The second, an ad for men's clothing oddly enough, shows a man holding two, what we can assume are female legs, forced open. This ad promotes masculinity in a toxic way by controlling another person and in a sexual manner. Because of its promotion of negative toxic masculinity, the advertisements help promote these traditional roles of the man and woman in our society.
Prompt #3: I think that before I started looking at media critically, I tended to perpetuate these representations of femininity in my everyday life. The way I wore my clothes was not for myself but for the male gaze. The way I acted, in a ditzy type of way, was to be more attractive for men. When I grew up I saw my father take on the role of cooking and such. My mother and him would joke about how bad my mom sucked at cooking. He put her down so much so she would act ditzy about home care skills. I saw this perpetuated at home and in media so I thought that was how I was supposed to act.
Prompt #4: The cultural objects are American Apparel advertisements for clothing, men and women. The social world for these ads were 2010 for the tights ad and 2015 for the mens clothing ad. The creators of this object is a clothing company where their main goal is to survive in our capitalist society. To make money and get people to give them their money. Because of this, they use the best selling tactic in our society, sex. The receivers of these objects are teenagers and young adults. While this tends to be the buyers of these clothes, I am sure the company would take anyone's money to stay afloat in the economy.
Prompt #2: The first advertisement, for tights, also shows a women naked and with a facial expression in ecstasy. This ad shows a woman laying down therefore in a submissive state since the camera is placed above her. Her breasts are clearly shown enough off to show a big size and sexualized. Sexualizing women's breasts is why now mothers who breastfeed are told they are disgusting and are forced to breastfeed their children in bathrooms. The second, an ad for men's clothing oddly enough, shows a man holding two, what we can assume are female legs, forced open. This ad promotes masculinity in a toxic way by controlling another person and in a sexual manner. Because of its promotion of negative toxic masculinity, the advertisements help promote these traditional roles of the man and woman in our society.
Prompt #3: I think that before I started looking at media critically, I tended to perpetuate these representations of femininity in my everyday life. The way I wore my clothes was not for myself but for the male gaze. The way I acted, in a ditzy type of way, was to be more attractive for men. When I grew up I saw my father take on the role of cooking and such. My mother and him would joke about how bad my mom sucked at cooking. He put her down so much so she would act ditzy about home care skills. I saw this perpetuated at home and in media so I thought that was how I was supposed to act.
Prompt #4: The cultural objects are American Apparel advertisements for clothing, men and women. The social world for these ads were 2010 for the tights ad and 2015 for the mens clothing ad. The creators of this object is a clothing company where their main goal is to survive in our capitalist society. To make money and get people to give them their money. Because of this, they use the best selling tactic in our society, sex. The receivers of these objects are teenagers and young adults. While this tends to be the buyers of these clothes, I am sure the company would take anyone's money to stay afloat in the economy.
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ReplyDeleteMarina, I stand alongside you on these ideals of whether advertising women and females in this way is socially acceptable or not. It amazes me, how we as young ladies are constantly being scrutinized. Primarily scrutinized by men and sometimes even women over the items of clothing we choose to wear or even the pictures we decide to post. Yet, those very same men, for lack of better words, literally crave and desire images, illustrations, advertisements and physically seeing women reveal themselves in this very seductive and provocative manner. It seems like this idea of how females should and should not be, act or shown is inevitably going to be an endless cycle of what is deemed appropriate for viewers and what is isn't.
DeleteHey Marina!
ReplyDeleteI like the cultural artifact you choose. It is a great example of advertisements promoting traditional gender roles. The second artifact in particular shows that the perceived male is the aggressor. He is shown as a slim man wearing a tie holding what appears to be a woman's legs. I very much agree with your analysis of how the gender roles are expressed in the advertisements by American Apparel. I also like how you wrote about your personal experience. It brings real insight about how advertisements like these presented effect young men and women. Overall, your analysis of the advertisement were insightful.
Hi Marina! I agreed with how you viewed the ads. I think that it is so sad how people can't even promote something so simple as clothes without sexualizing it for attention. The man holding the ladies legs makes it seem like he has the power. This unfortunately prompts the negative stereotypes that men are in power. It also makes me sad to see women accepting to be a part of these ads because the change begins with us. Your analysis was great and very well explained.
ReplyDeleteIt is crazy to me that clothing brands like this one make these types of decisions on what they want their advertisements to portray. It is completely demeaning to women and makes it nearly impossible for other girls to feel good about their own bodies. These images are often photoshopped and others will try and compare themselves to these falsified pictures, only making others feel worse. These advertisements need to change!
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