This was originally written mostly on Tuesday so keep in mind that when I am talking about my classes, they were on Tuesday. DISCLAIMER: this post is kind of sad (not about me, but about my classes). I'm sorry about that!
Wow, so today (written on Tuesday) in my first two classes we had some majorly....um... intense? topics. In my honors seminar class, our first paper is to be about the use of sex as a symbol. Well, we watched a movie called Killing Us Softly (4) and it showed me some things about advertisements that you wouldn't believe. For instance, you know when you see an ad with an impossibly beautiful, thin girl with perfect hair and perfect eyes and a perfect smile and a perfect nose?? Yeah, she's not real. They literally take pictures of 4 different girls and use whomever's body they like the most (let's say girl #1) and blur out her face, take eyes from girl #2 and put them on girl #1's face, take the nose from girl #3 and put it on girl #1's face, and take the smile from girl #4 and put it on girl #1's face. This girl literally does not exist.
Another thing you wouldn't believe... you know how in ads all of a sudden a woman who normally isn't very busty, or one who has a few little wrinkles, or one who has got a little tummy on her is all of a sudden perfectly proportional and flawless looking? Yeah, it's fake.
Sex has become the ultimate marketing material. They make women's bodies into objects to appeal to men- why do you think men are degrading women more and more?! In ads with a man and a woman, the woman is always being hovered over or controlled while the man looks big and strong and powerful. Men are being encouraged to inflict violence and power on women. They have shirts for little boys that say "Daddy's little bruiser". Women are being dressed (and made to look) like little girls, vulnerable and innocent, but put in unnaturally sexy and racy positions...little girls are wearing make up and 2 year olds have high heels and skinny jeans and thong bikinis and bra padding... IT IS MESSED UP. 1/3 of all women murdered are murdered by their male partner/husband. Yeah. Girls who see advertisements where women are being degraded and look unnaturally beautiful before the age of 13 are 114% more likely to have severe depression or an eating disorder. Americans see 3,000+ advertisements EVERY DAY. It's incredible how deceitful and tricky the people who make these advertisements really are.
After this class I went right to Modern Slavery where we watched a documentary on sugar mill slavery in Brazil. Literally almost every single native of Brazil is enslaved working at the sugar mills. They get paid pretty much nothing (about $4.50 for every ton of sugar crop cut-but here's the thing... it never gets weighed. "The Boss" decides if you get paid or not and how much). In the winter the employees are paid with vouchers to the sugar mill owner's market to buy food- and no, they don't get any change.
It's amazing how different every area of the world is...but how in the end it's all just corrupted and messed up. I am just so thankful that the world of "fashion" hasn't made me lose sight of who I am (we are clearly know that I eat plenty and I am a happy person!)... it just makes me so sad that there are so many women out there who think they are failures because they don't have a certain genetic body type or they don't look like the FAKE people in magazines. Oh, and yeah, the super emaciated models.... guess why they have to be so skinny? When the clothing manufacturers send the clothes for a shoot or a fashion show, they are almost always size 00... and if you don't fit in it you're fired and they'll get someone else who can fit in it. It's so completely insane. I just can't believe it.
So yeah, that's my little schpeel about all of that.
It has been really hot here in CoMo, and without AC it's miserable. But it looks like I may be able to crash in a friends room tonight who has AC! Thank goodness for that! Then I get to come home (YAY!)! Ready to start the weekend and see everyone!
Much love.... Sorry if this blog was depressing!
LJ
It's very strange that advertisers are still using sexuality heavily, when research has long proved that sex DOESN'T sell- men pay much more attention to ads with men in them, and the same for women. But maybe the ads are still made like this because seeing degrading and idealized female images responds well with female consumers- that's the scarier idea.
ReplyDeleteIt's so great that your Comp class is making an effect on you, though! Have fun and good luck on your journey this semester!
-rudi
(PS- I write the Stephens blog, www.stephens.edu/rudi It's nice to see another blogger on campus!)
Rudi-
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. It is very scary to think that advertising companies are taking advantage of our own insecurities to sell us things.
And yes, I have read your blog :) I read it all the time last year (as a senior in HS)!