Sunday, January 26, 2014
Stand Together
In the United States history, social equality has come a far way, however for not far enough for women. Women for decades fought for social rights, yes we can now vote and own property; but we are still not viewed as equals. Society still views women as second hand citizens in a male dominated world. Much of these views on women have to do with media in America today. Media portrays women the way a man wants her to be, which in turn makes women believe the only way I will ever find a man is to be this ideal specimen. With women like Susie Orbach, Carrie Packwood Freeman and Debra Merskin we become more educated through their writing on how media plays a large role on the way women see themselves, whether it’s the way they look, eat or act.
Susie Orbach is the author of “Fat Is a Feminist Issue”; in her writing she addresses the issues women in the world have to face with obesity. Orbach believes that media has to high of an impacted on how women relate to their bodies and the way they eat. I agree with Orbach, because the media I constantly advertising different ways for women to diet and showing thin women in the idea that, that is what we should look like. Orbach talks about how media throughout the years have changed the way women should look. “In the early 1960’s, the only way to feel acceptable was to be skinny and flat chested with long straight hair”, to become this perfect women, you would have to particular starve yourself, bind your breast and flat iron your hair. Furthermore, in the 70’s the idea of the perfect girl changed again and so did the way women saw themselves, more of a full body and crazy carefree hair. Though Orbach wrote “Fat Is a Feminist Issue” in 1978, this idea that women should be thin but still sexy at the same time has not changed, if anything I believe that women are under more pressure today to fit the stereotypical women.
Carrie Packwood Freeman and Debra Merskin are the authors of “Having it His Way: The Construction of Masculinity in Fast-Food TV Advertising”. Within these articles, the two women explain how in today society meat is a Man’s food and if you want to be seen as a macho man you need to eat red mean. In reverse roles, women if they eat too much meat will look to manly, making them less attractive to their male counterparts. Freeman and Merskin continue with the fact that fast-food companies in America are the “chief financial supporter of the meat industry”. Fast-food companies continue to advertise to male sex only. Using dominantly male cast and male voices, only time a women appear (if they appear at all) in fast-food commercials is when the leading male cast member is subjectivity the women to an sex object of referring to them as a piece of meat that he can have his way.
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I completely agree with your blog Laura. Actually until I read the readings from Susan Orbach, Carrie Packwood Freeman, and Debra Merskin I didn't look at women's equality rights and what they go through as a very serious matter. However my thoughts on this subject have completely switched viewpoints. To me it seems like no matter what you look like or do as a women you are constantly scrutinized by your friends, enemies, media and people you come across. A fat male in todays society is way more acceptable than a fat female, which is totally wrong. It doesn't help that almost every time you turn on the tv you see an image of what a "perfect" women is suppose to be. Susie Orbach says in "Fat is a Feminist Issue" "Since women are taught to se themselves from the outside as candidates for men, they become prey to the huge fashion and diet industries that first set up the ideal images and then exhort women to meet them." (451). I believe this sets up a constant struggle and fight for women especially for younger women that make them look down on themselves because they feel like they aren't pretty enough when they see these images of the "perfect" girl.
ReplyDeleteIn “Having It His Way: The Construction of Masculinity in Fast-Food TV Advertising,” authors Carrie Packwood Freeman and Debra Merskin believe that eating healthy portions of meat and including plant-based foods is a beneficial way for males to relate to their bodies or food. The media is portraying a harmful way for males to relate to their bodies or food by producing commercials advertising incredibly large and unhealthy portions of meat foods. I believe this because men are going to want to appear as manly as possible by consuming as much meat as possible as stated “advertisers trust we believe that a traditional American male does not eat organic, plant-based proteins – he primarily eats meat” on page 455 and as seen on numerous fast food commercials advertising thick and hearty burgers with more meat than the leading competitors.
ReplyDeleteIn “Fat is a Feminist Issue” by Susie Orbach, the author believes that being “fat” (or anything more than the celebrities and models that we see on television daily) is a beneficial way for females to relate to their bodies or food. Living up to the stereotypes created for women by men is a harmful way for females to relate to their bodies or food by focusing on going to the gym and working out every day to be thinner and more appealing to a man’s eye, shaving any hair that is unwanted by a man, spending money on expensive perfumes and shower gels to please a man’s nose, and spending money on the hottest outfits available on the market to dress nice for a man. These are a few of the things that make it clear that “a woman’s body is not her own.” Women are expected to look “appealing, earthly, sensual, sexual, virginal, innocent, reliable, daring, mysterious, coquettish, and thin” as stated on page 451. I agree with the author because too much is expected from women nowadays.