Blog 5: Body Advertising and Representations

Many of us stumble upon the toy aisle at age 5 anxious to whoared all things bright and colorful. However, what we do not realize is the toys we choose as boys or girls are predestined. We notice from this current Toys R’ Us ad for the 2009 Halloween season, boys and girls are already destined to be a super hero and a princess, respectively.


It is disheartening to read Susan Jane Gilman’s aversion to the Barbie doll. I feel terrible for a grown woman to have such a vivid memory of her turning point into the angry reality of dissatisfaction. What is quite surprising is today we not only have toys like Barbies, Transformers, GI Joes, or Bratz Dolls but we too have current pop culture figures resembling figures in the toy market who themselves make a large impact on the young generation.
We see females like Paris Hilton and Sharpay from High School Musical dressed in the style of Barbie (tall, blonde, and fashionable), and we see boys learn from the action figures to be strong, violent, and dominant.

Most of the time we do not pay close attention to such issues as gender when we purchase toys for our kids, nieces and nephews, grandkids, or some child. Instead we notice the effects of such gender issues in the toy market and how the marketing influences the roles we take on as we develop. In the 1980’s Toys R Us ad one can already notice gender role and placement taking place as the home making and managing toy is for a little girl and her grandmother. The little girl in the commercial is learning the joys of cooking, cleaning, learning the particular areas of the home and how she perceives them.
Toy R' Us Commercial:


Tonka Commercial:



I find nothing wrong with having toy homes and games of that sort; however, it is possible to include male involvement and figures in these commercials which communicates to society it is important both the male and female roles in a home should share in the joys of maintaining the home. Interestingly enough we watch the commercial for a young boys Tonka Tools and it teaches the boys in the commercial how to be thrifty, tools oriented, and Mr. Fix-it. It is interesting to notice such a cultural and societal establishment of gender in items that are perceived as innocent. However, it is also true as society continues to creep its way into the intimate and private areas of the home and the mind we notice how social stigmas are now creeping into the current toy market with items such as “Tattoo Barbie”. I do not oppose tattooing, but I also do not agree that innocent children’s toys should be conditioning our children to instead, what parents should decide to expose their children to.




I remember as a child I did not tend to play with many toys but a few Barbies –my favorite of which was Puerto Rican Barbie—and my pretend chalkboard to teach my imaginary classroom. As a kid I liked to color and play with crafts and painting instead of the video game and toy revolution that surrounded the majority of my peers at that young age. I can remember I enjoyed showing my mother all the wonderful pictures and different trinkets I created for her. It was very fun to have my art work and craft work on exhibit in the kitchen, on my moms keychain, and in my parents offices.

Film Review: Mona Lisa Smile

Film Review: Mona Lisa Smile
The film Mona Lisa Smile is set in the 1950’s era of where phrases like, "I think it's time to wax the linoleum," confined women to the ultimate realm of domesticity—her home. Mona Lisa Smile’s main character, Julia Roberts also known as Katherine Ann Watson, begins her career at a northeastern liberal arts college for women known as Wellesley College. Unfortunately, Wellesley College is no way familiar to Ms. Watson liberal women’s rights California native roots. Throughout the film Ms. Watson encounters an enormous amount of backlash to her personal teaching methods of the Modern Arts. She teaches her conservative “housewife bred” students the importance of independence, free thought and action, and female rights by introducing their minds to the concepts and freedom in Modern Art. Unfortunately, Miss Betty Warren, the films main antagonist, brings the films story full circle: she, a young female trapped in her societal role and yet learning and desiring to express the joys of free thought. The film concludes with Ms. Watson leaving Wellesley College, but leaving young women who were changed for the better.

The film is centered on the 1950’s cultural dogma of women’s roles to be domesticated silent Queens. I use the word Queens to describe the role of women in the era because women were to be beautiful, educated, conservatively fashionable, and a supreme trophy wife—these qualities typifies characteristics of a Queen with no vocal power (definitely no Marie Antoinette). The readings from our text, The Beauty Myth, centered on themes of The Beauty Myth and Work; Naomi Wolf describes The Beauty Myth as: “… an obsession with physical perfection that traps the modern woman in an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society's impossible definition of "the flawless beauty." The myths presented throughout the book that seem prevalent in the film are disregard for the advancement of education and career and the societal roles of women. Wolf argumentatively describes the evolution of the beauty myth in her text:
“If the beauty myth is not based one evolution, sex, gender, aesthetics, or God, on what is it based? It claims to be about intimacy and sex and life, a celebration of women. It is actually composed of emotional distance, politics, finance, and sexual repression. The beauty myth is not about women at all. It is about men’s institutions and institutional power.” P. 13






Within the film one can observe how women are encouraged to pursue their MRS versus their BAS (Bachelors of Arts and Sciences) when the Wellesley girls hold a yearly celebration competing to see which girl will win—in which the prize is either marriage or pregnancy. I do not hold a very strong feminist point of view but I do believe scenes like the one described above encourage women to forget that they too are capable of every career progression and advancement like a man. One notices the hampering of dreams when Joan Brandwyn decides to reconsider her honorable acceptance into law school because she wants to get married. I am not disregarding some women’s decisions to choose to obtain a form of formal education; however, I do think it is worth the risk to try life on ones own in the work force to develop one’s individual assets, life lessons, and wits. I believe when one, especially a young woman, takes this time in life she too will be ready and a great asset to whatever romantic relationship she finds in life.

Mona Lisa Smile was a very enjoyable movie. I did notice in my second time to watch the film how much societal norms of the era controlled the young women in the movie’s life. There were several gender, body image, beauty perceptions portrayed in the film that aroused a sense of shock and awe to how desensitized I had become to the content until I watched the film under a more critical eye. The issues of body image were most prevalent in Miss Connie Baker and desire for the attention and love of a man. Connie even says in the film” When your courses are set and a dreamboat you've met, have a real cigarette! Have a Camel!" I've got my courses; I've got my Camel cigarette. Where the hell is my dreamboat? “. Unfortunately, we see in the movie all the themes of gender in the roles the women and leadership of the town and school of Wellesley College.






We observe the female students of Wellesley constantly comparing their money, looks, and marital status as form of body image competition and beauty development. We see in the film that one of the strongest developed characters is Giselle Levy and that of Ms. Katherine Watson. These two women bond over the themes of independence, freedom of thought and voice, and not abiding by the cultural norms. These two women influence and bring about the encouragement and change that drastically affected the young women of Wellesley. I can support my claims by using a reference to the last scene in Mona Lisa Smile where Ms. Betty Warren decides to divorce her cheating husband and pursue a career in writing she then attributes and thanks Ms. Watson for her undying love and support for opening the young girls minds.

Blog 3: The Beauty Myth: The Importance of Appearance

It's crazy how society has indoctrinated man and woman to think about first impressions when dressing ourselves. We find in the readings how much our society influences opinions, actions, and even legal justification for discrimination on gender appearance. Case after case in the readings were situations where women were pinpointed in their work environments and culture because of their out of the norm appearance. However, who in society, who has the authority, and who creates the guidelines that have dictated the discrimination of women on a case to case basis. Unfortunately, we--man and woman--have allowed our media, society, and mass influences affect our opinions on appearance and those who take action on appearance.

Fortunately we do not have to agree with societies ever increasing image influences. We see in this Dove commercial how one particular company is choosing to encourage "individuals" to choose whether to stand above the influence:



I find it very interesting how the situations presented by Naomi Wolf were described by the male adjudicators in Barnes v. Costle "...if a woman's unique physical characteristics--red hair, say, or large breasts--were the reasons given by her employer for sexual harassment, then her personal appearance was the issue not her gender,in which case she could not expect protection under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act." Unfortunately, to whoever ruled in this case, in my opinion needs to look up the definition of gender. Gender is the state of being male or female (typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones). Biological in the definition refers to sex of male or female not gender of male or female. Gender as defined are characteristics that are attributed to the sex of males and females. So a man can be male yet carry-out a feminine gender role in a certain area of life, and a woman can be a "housewife" and yet love masculine hobbies like mountain climbing, motor cross sports, and golf.




It is very interesting to me to read on page 42 of the saying "business like and feminine," from this section I find that women cannot appear business like and feminine. The phrase is intriguing because a business suit male or female is a powerful symbol of: status, power, finances, and taste. However, a suit in all the characteristics can be business like and feminine without being subjected to an overly male influence. I, personally have an amazing business suit I purchased when coming to college. The suit is black, tailored, a skirt, blazer, and it is of the highest degree of professionalism without masking my personality and my respect for the interviewing process. I've noticed when females my age purchase a suit described in the text such as:

"'Business like yet feminine' is a favorite description of clothing sold in mail-order catalogs aimed at working women, and this elusive dualism is what triggered the strong response in the United States to a series of ads for lingerie manufacturer that showed business wear blowing open to reveal a lace-clad nakedness. But words 'businesslike' and 'feminine,' as we saw, area each used to manipulate the other as well as the woman caught in the middle."

These young women in my life that purchase this powerful article of clothing influenced by such guidelines seem more self conscious about their outfit instead of allowing the suit to empower their abilities to focus on the interview at hand.

The most shocking moment of the reading is on page 55 and 56 where women's bodies are used to describe their economic roles. I find the passages of these pages to be represented in a clip from Legally Blonde the first movie (the intended portion of the clip goes to 1:42 not the full 9 minute clip).



The social controls of appearance, culture, and societal influence all play on the female development whether good or bad. They can limit a woman and/or provide room for acceptance and improvement. Unfortunately, the discussions of female harassment, sex violation, and unjustified judgement still exist today and we still live a very male influenced society. However, women are stepping up to the plate and playing the game and not backing down as such in the most recent case of Erin Andrews, ESPN sideline reporter.