“Body Practices”
Today I went to my mailbox and received a Victoria’s Secret
catalog. In my opinion, Victoria’s Secret is the perfect “subject” when
discussing “body practice” because the catalog shows beautiful women in a very
seductive and sensual light. Companies like Victoria’s Secret have so much
power in the media because the “subjects” in their catalog affect both men and
women. Men want to be with women that look like that and women think that they
have to look perfect in order to get men to notice them. The particular picture that I picked out
shows a woman in “professional” attire but obviously Victoria’s Secret is
trying to get an underlying message across to their audience because the woman
is still in a seductive pose. Instead of just focusing on how put-together and
professional the woman looks, Victoria’s Secret always seems to take it one
step further to make sure that their message that their products will make
women irresistible, confident, and sexy. Going off of what we discussed in
class, I can see how the idea of a ”pursuit without a terminus” is a never-ending
cycle because of “subjects” like the ones in Victoria’s Secret. Women are
constantly questioning if what they look like is good enough to attract men and
men start to expect women to look this was because those images are constantly
being put out there in different media sources (like this catalog). As long as
subjects like the ones in Victoria’s Secret keep showing up in the media, women
will constantly be striving to have the perfect body and men will look for a
woman who has everything that they see in these images.
Beauty standards are always changing. Therefore, in todays media we see "skinny" women, whom other women presive to be beautiful. Thus, other women try to look like them, which is a fruitless effort. This shows that these women are taking external problem and internalizing it. You should live your life the way you want not the way you percieve other people want you to live it.
ReplyDeleteI really like this post because I really never thought about how this magazine and their models affect men and women. I mean, I understand men would enjoy looking at this magazine as women enjoy it too. But this brings a good point that they are affecting both genders. For example, J-Jill doesn't even appeal to men hardly at all, but only women. Where as many stores appeal to men and women. I have never really thought of this at all, which is why this is mind boggling to me. I receive the magazine in mail and I never thought that these adds affect both sides. I'm still boggled.
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