Hey Everyone!
Hope you had a good reading week.
Ok, so we're starting a new blogging project and I think it is going to be interesting. Last week, I figured out what I wanted to discuss on here. I was watching t.v and one of those diet commercials came on, and I thought to myself - Why is it always women on these commercials?? So then I decided to research some diet websites to see if they were dominated by mostly female images and directed at a female audience, and, guess what... THEY ARE!!! Every website I went to had pictures of women trying to lose weight (most of them looked too small to begin with) and there were so many different categories for women. There were brides, new moms, seniors etc. but only one for men. Also, just from reading some of the success storeis it always seems that men try to lose weight for health reasons, whereas women lose weight to fit into a dress, or just "look good." So, I thought, what makes these types of websites directed at female audiences?? I believe it has to do with ideas of fantasy. Women see these adds, visit these websites and read these success stories and think "I could transform my life, I could look as good as that, I'm going to go on a diet." They imagine how their lives might change, how they may look and feel better, and, more importantly, how men may begin to notice them and may even want to date them *please note the sneering tone.* Anyways, it basically says that women want to be thin, and should strive to be thin, which convinces other women that they should want these same things.
Ok, enough rambling... I'm out.
Keekers
ps- here's a link to a website
http://jennycraig.com/programs/how_it_works/
The idea that women want/need to be thin in order to be desirable goes hand in hand with the concept of barbie. To quote from Barbie Nation, "Barbie is a vehicle for fantasy". Her tiny waist and perky breasts represent femininity, therefore women strive to fit into this narrow category of what constitutes beauty... and is most cases is a fantasy (the "real" measurements of barbie are not realistic)
ReplyDeleteDanger Powers
with being 'skinny'/'thin' i think it is definatly gendered. I find that it is more accepting in society for a bigger guy to be with a thin girl, than for a thin guy to be with a bigger girl..maybe this is why commercials are more geared towards women...in hopes of creating more 'perfect-acceptable' women.
ReplyDelete~beautiful bombshell~
I think this can all be related back to the media as an institution as we discussed in class. The media is a site where we learn about the world around us but which is also framed by the culture around us. Media is embedded within culture, and it seems to me that our culture values characteristics such as thin and skinny, particularly in women. Is this somehow related to the construction of femininity?? Is being petite also somehow to be feminine?? Why are women constantly concerned with having the perfect body??
ReplyDeleteIt is certainly connected to media images of the 'perfect woman', but again as we discussed in class, we are not unthinking dupes. I'm left wondering then, why being skinny is such an ideal for women? Diet sites like this seem to prey on the insecurities of women in terms of weight, but their use of skinny images of women and testimonies is certainly criticized by members of the female audience. I'd like to think that I'm not a passive dupe, and images like they use on the Jenny Craig site would not convince me to use their product/diet. But what do you guys think?
Aubrey B.
The diet craze baffles me because of how unfounded it is on actual health knowledge. Why are women encouraged to be "skinny" instead of be "healthy"? I think that the diet craze represents one of the elements of North American popular culture that is slowly extending into the rest of the world. In terms of global population, North Americans seem to have a greater fascination with being thin. In "French Women Don't Get Fat" Mireille Guiliano tells her own story of going on exchange from France to the USA and her excessive weight gain promoted by large portions of deep fried delicacies. When Guiliano returns to France, her mother sets her up with "Dr. Miracle" a man well versed in balance, pleasure, and lifestyle that characterize French health trends. The main point: being healthy is not about being thin, it is about a woman feeling "bien dans sa peau", or, good in her skin. This view on physicality requires no scales or measuring tapes. Maybe we should all tear a page out of stereotypical French culture (love for chocolate, use of butter, stairs over elevators, striving for pleasure from food and life) before our popular culture takes it over. http://frenchwomendontgetfat.com/
ReplyDeleteTVfree.
Hey Everyone...
ReplyDeleteYea this whole diet crazes really gets to me because i hate the idea of getting thin. Like TVfree said why not get healthy instead of skinny. Some girls are so skinny its gross (and why is that the male gaze, do men actually like skin and bone) Personally girls with curves are so much prettier they just look healthy with colour in their faces.
when it comes to diet weebsites any 'nutrition plan' that makes you eat their food not everyday things you can buy at the grocery store doesnt seem like it would be healthy. Why do we have to eat their food?
I know this amazing lady that i work with and sshes heavier but shes gorgeous and shes got the greatest personality EVER. So all these images portrayed to us on such websites it seems as if girls like her struggle to be something they arnt. Love who you are no matter what.
There is a line when it gets unhealthy to be so heavy but you dont have to be skin and bone either.
anyways thats me vent
-Kate Bauer
As our prof said in class, "We can't blame the media"....BUT I always blame the media! It would only make sense that these diet commercials are geared towards women, only women internalize the belief of wanting to always be thinner, or in the best shape of their life to atract men. The type of diets that are geared towards men are not diets, but usually products to make men "beef up" and look more manly with all those muscles! =O
ReplyDeleteYou guys should definitely contrast the two focused diets geared towards each gender, because in my opinion (IMO) they are both very sad. Not everyone is meant to be a size 2. I think females need to get past that notion, because some women are starting to look sickly! I understand diets geared towards brides, because (as a whole other topic) women want to look their best on the day day of HER wedding.
Anyone see the commercial by a men's suit company (sorry cannot remember the name for the life of me)? Where it says (directed to the man) while everyone is looking at her, she will be looking at you, so get your suit from "Moore's" so you can look half as good as her. Very sad, because when some females see these type of diets geared towards them they begin to question themselves. Am I really womanly if I don't fit into the largest size at Bebe? Also, we should not generalize, because everyone has their own opinion, but I can honestly say 95% of my female friends are wanting to go on a diet or are on a diet right now (attending gyms also, looking great), but still want to lose more weight because they do not fit the "perfect" image--We never will! No such thing as perfect!
Great topic! I can discuss this for hours! hahaa
Aaliyah Jasmine
Agreed, there seems to be no anwser in finding the perfect image within ourselves. I also agree with the fact that there is a certain boundary where being too overweight to the point where you become obese is unhealthy but also becoming too skinny is also unhealthy. Why can't some people understand that being healthy is the most important thing we can do for our bodies? Well i suppose like mentioned earlier that a lot of the time the ideas are portrayed through the media, we are constantly reminded of what the "perfect image" is supposed to look like, and like the post above is so true "there is no sucj thing as perfect".
ReplyDeleteVitamin C
Anyone see those stupid "simple rules to get rid of belly fat" ads on facebook? The ad magically transforms from a normal looking person to a slender, "perfect body." The difference? About 8 hours of airbrushing!
ReplyDeleteI have seen some of my beautiful, curvy friends waste away in the gym searching for a "healthy" lifestyle. What made me the most sick was the praise they got for dropping 30 pounds that hey didn't need to lose. I've literally begged my big beautiful friends to keep the weight and be proud of themselves! But a doctor has told them that they are "unhealthy" and need to "lose a few" to have a "healthy body."
I worry about ideas of the "healthy body." Where do we draw the line, and with whom?
Macho Muffin
This is why I avoid watching TV, but unfortunately it's all over internet ads as well. It's ridiculous so see all of these beautiful people thinking that they're horrendously overweight just because you can't see their ribs. Most of the time, I prefer the before picture to the after! I've always wondered where this ideal body type came from; who started it? Where did it come from? Why these certain characteristics?
ReplyDeleteAs said above, it is definitely more socially acceptable for a bigger male to be dating a smaller female, but not vice versa. I am a curvy woman, and I am proud of it, but it gets to be very difficult to keep up my self-esteem after being bombarded with all of these ads basically telling me that no one will love me if I don't lose weight. Yes, I enjoy eating healthy, but I also love to have a big fat poutine once in a while; so take me or leave me.
It's really sad to think about how many people are out there with perfectly fine and healthy bodies busting it in the gym or developing eating disorders just because of the stupid images we see. Most of them aren't even real; airbrushing and Photoshop are the media's best friends.
I'm not giving up my poutine to look like someone who's not even real.
- Trout Heart Replica
I agree. It is quite difficult to be a curvier woman and still keep your self esteem high. Even knowing that this is just a stupid social construction of beauty, it is still difficult to get past. Since September i have been living in a place with a television but no cable. And honestly i do not miss it one bit mainly because i actually worry less about how i look, i believe because i am not bombarded with commercials as much. Actually i just realised that reading this blog.
ReplyDeleteAlso i wanted to bring up the point that it is not good enough to be a size 0 or 00 anymore because there are now negative sizes. That's right ladies you must be so small, your waist literally has to be non existent.
-Cat Woman
A while ago there was that commerial that was shown a lot on differnet stations. It is with the teenage girl who is measuring her height and width in her belly on the wall with a pencil if it smaller and you see the marks on the wall getting smaller and smaller. The ad points out not very sucide note has to be a note.
ReplyDeleteAnd with these diet campaigns on telvision they are showing these girls that they have to look a certain way. They are trying so hard to achieve this 'look' that they are basically killing themselves... by turning to certian diets or having a eating disorder.
So I thought that this was a interseting way to look at diet influence within the media and how it affects youth as well as adults.
RDS.
A couple years ago I went to see Jackson Katz (creator of doc "Tough Guise" and Anti sexist activist) speak about gender. This post reminded me of something that he said. He said that men are taught and strive to be bigger and take up more room vs. women who are taught to be smaller and strive to take up less room. He said that it can be seen everywhere. On the bus a woman sits with her legs crossed and physically makes herself "smaller" vs. men that spread their legs and make themselves "bigger" and take up more room. Same goes with food, a commonly cited example, larger portion to men smaller for women.
ReplyDeleteWeight loss is almost contradictory to what men are taught. They don't want to be fat, but they also don't want to be thin. When you do see weight loss things that are geared towards men it is not "lose weight and be thin" its "turn that fat into muscle!" This could be why you had trouble finding weight loss schemes aimed at men.
Very Interesting!
Shadows Dreaming
I think that these websites are gendered towards women because society has made it so women aim to be skinny and men aim to be strong. No one cares what size a guy is as long as he can "protect his woman". Having weight loss sites be gendered is obvious, women are constantly feeling the pressure to be skinny and to be perfect so the weight loss market fits perfectly into the ideal form of woman that has already been constructed.
ReplyDelete-princess consuela banana hammock