Monday, March 11, 2019
Cosmo Thinks I’M Fat: Images of Feminity in Women’s Magazines
world-wide magazine is the lifestylist for millions of fun fearless females who destiny to be the best they idler be in every sphere of their lives. The best-selling magazine in its category, Cosmopolitan has 58 international editions, is print in 34 languages and is distributed in over 100 countries. Despite its popularity, a number of leading researchers have elicited that the material presented in these magazines throne be damaging to the mental state of its readers in numerous ways.After examining the latest switch off of Cosmopolitan magazine, it appears that while there atomic number 18 several ex longs of degrading advertisements and features a majority of the ads argon neutral or supportive in touch and help define a much(prenominal) modern, feminist cleaning woman. The November 2010 issue of Cosmopolitan definitely displayed a number of advertisements that displayed overtly innerized human bodys of women. One ad for Skyy Vodka channelizeed a bottle of the vodka situated suggestively between the legs of a woman wearing rose-cheeked leather boots.An article about Kary Perry has her laying in bed with ample cleavage with a caption reading This cleavage is Cosmo-approved. Jean Kilbourne contends that publicize content can affect people in deep and perchance hurtful ways. Sex in advertisting is pornographic because it dehumanizes and objectifies people, oddly women. (Kilbourne) When people are constantly bombarded with images of objectified peoplewhether men or womenthey are conditi unitaryd to moot each other in dehumanizing ways.This means that the attitudes that can lead to sexual aggression are normalized. Kilbourne maintains that Ads dont directly cause violence, of course. entirely the violent images contribute to the state of terror. And objectification and disconnection create a mode in which there is widespread and increasing violence. Kilbourne shows concerns about deuce trends in fashion and advertising that she cites as cultural reactions to the womens movement. The first is the addition in images of violence against women.This is seen in an ad for Belvedere Vodka that depicts a woman blindfolded being led to a martini glass with a toothpick with two olives-a phallic representation. The second reaction Kilbourne notes is the increase of violent images depicting childrenespecially late girls. An ad for JC Penny showed two very youthful models dressed to kill(p) as young school girls ad looking vulnerable. These ads seem to suggest that the age of the objectification of women does still exist within the advertising world.Although some part of the magazine may have objectified women featured, there were actually more displaying positive female role models. Advertisements for Dove body mist and deodorant visualized women of different healthy weights, shapes and ethnicities- not for sexual gratification but to show confidence. Their contender, Secret, used the motto When youre strong, you spark le. However, the most positive image mogul have come from the Nike firebrand Yourself campaign. There were two ads from this campaign in the latest issue of Cosmo.The first read Make yourself- Strong and showed an image of Olympic Track and Field Medalist Allyson Felix. The second read Make Yourself Proud and featured professional dancer Sofia Boutella. This grouping provides a smorgasbord called for by Wolf If the word picture of the anorexic fashion model were one flat image out of a full spectrum in which young girls could find a thousand wild and tantalizing visions of possible futures, the icon would not have the power to hurt them. What this suggests is that even though there were some negative images, the range of role odels helps to allow women to find any(prenominal) they need to find themselves within the pages of the magazine. According to Kilbourne, our market-gardening defines femininity and masculinity in a way that narrows accepted gender roles. The popular cul ture usually trivializes relational skills in women, mocks men who have real intimacy with women and idealizes a template for relationships between men and women that is a recipe for disaster a template that views sex as more important than anything else, that ridicules men who are not in control of their women, and that disparages fidelity and commitment.These stereotypes of masculinity are order over and over throughout the magazine. A story about Alex Rodriquez reads proper now, theres no guy sexier than A-Rod. Baseball fans are preoccupy with him, and three of Hollywoods most gorgeous women have fall for him. Some other comments throughout the magazine bring to mind disturb images if they had been aimed at women rather than men. ? Brad Pitt Its hard to tell who has more testosterone Brad or his chisled Megamind character Metroman ? Chris Pine Hes star in this monthsaction packed flick Unstoppable Oh, did e nominate he takes his shirt off too? ? Fernando Verdasco Speaking o f shirtlessness, this top-ranked tennis swelling has been posting pec-tastic images of himself on Twitter ? Enrique Iglesias- We have mixed feelings about the particular that he used a fans camera during a concert to take a shot of his crotch. Rude But can we see it? In a context where the subjects were women these comments would be extremely unnerving. The deduction of these observations appears to show that while the objectification of women may be on the decline, it is on the peddle for men.The fight for equality is succeeding, to the detriment of the male gender. Unfortunately, even Kilbourne minimizes the effect that this can have on men. There is a world of difference between the objectification of men and that of women. The most important difference is that there is no riskiness for most men, whereas objectified women are always at risk. Sometimes risks are more than just physical. Also, the assumption that all men are larger and/or stronger than women seems just as narr ow as many other assumptions do in the past.
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