Presentation: Child Beaty Pageants.

Our assigned readings and the images scrutinized in Women and Media has brought to our attention the troubling messages perpetuated about women in society. These messages are being targeted at and are indoctrinating a younger and younger audience now, and sexuality is being pushed onto young girls inappropriately. This undercuts oppourtunities for building healthy self-esteem and body image from such an impressionable age that as adults they may be powerless to resist or even ciritcally identify the warped, shallow representations of femininity media provides to us. This erodes girls’ and womens’ self worth and teaches them that all of their value is tied to a physical appearance and submission to patriarchal dictation of gender ideals. By analyzing this phenomenon and fostering a class discussion, our group hopes to increase awareness about it and encourage substance based accomplishment for girls.

To download presentation

http://www.2shared.com/file/rPJZafZp/child_beauty_pageants.html

Desire, Sex & Power in Music Video. Presentation.

Desire, Sex & Power in Music Video
SUT JHALL

Puerto Rican day pride parade in New York City, the public space of central park turned into a literal war zone for scores of women who were doused, sexually assaulted, and stripped of their clothes by groups of men who felt they had anentitlement to act their desires on any female body. This footage, used by thepolice to identify and prosecute the assailants shocked and outraged the country when it was broadcast. When virtually identical images have been played out
over and over again on our television screens with virtually no comment, why should we be shocked? In fact, what was most striking about these images was how familiar they were.

While there are chilling similarities between the popular culture
images and the real life attacks in Central Park, there is a major difference. The women in the real world were not enjoying it. They weren’t smiling. This wasn’t their dream world. It was someone else’s, which had turned into their nightmare.
While disembodied and fragmented images of women cannot directly cause
sexual and violent assault they do rob women of their humanity and create an environment where a tax against them is not treated seriously. They cultivate attitudes and values that legitimate and justify the assaults as self deserving and provoked by the victims. If your understanding of female sexuality is mediated by the stories of music video then these are precisely the types of attitudes that one would expect that dream world to cultivate in it’s male watchers. Further, all behavior is based upon certain assumptions, attitudes and values. These stories of the pornographic imagination, then, do not directly cause sexual assault but they create understandings in a cultural environment that might encourage certain violent behaviors, influenced by many other things, of course, by some men towards women. Fantasies are fun but sometimes the line between fantasy and reality is blurred and the images of the dream world in that respect are not innocent, they are not just images. The stories they tell are firmly implicated in the gender and power relations in our society.




Central Park: Water Fight, Flight and Tears
Central Park , N.Y.C., Sunday June,11th, 2000 (11:30 a.m. -6:30 p.m.)

From the five boroughs of N.Y.C., sixty soulless monsters came, not knowing each other, they all found each other all in agreement: water all the women with ICE and bring them to tears. Disarmed, each woman, fifty and counting, and countless others - is disrobed, robbed, sexually pawed and clawed. Concentric circles form around a sole woman; a first circle of raging participants; a second circle of cheering and jeering spectators; and a third circle of indifferent police; 4500 police on duty; 900 in the park; eight calls to 911.
www.newnation.org/Archives/NNN-centralpark.htm

NIGHTMARISH LIBERALISM THE PUERTO RICAN DAY PARADE

The news reports we have gotten the past week have not been this graphic. The media has downplayed the rapes. Even the police, afraid to react during the attacks because of fear of being branded racists, have downplayed the crimes committed. However, we have a Socialist press to believe or Joe, a guy in New York who heard the first reports.

Five New York police officers face discipline as harsh as dismissal for not stopping or reporting the sexual abuse of women in Central Park last month after a parade, the police chief said Tuesday.

Midterm Meetings Monday 4/2 and Wednesday 4/4

Midterm Meetings on HN515

Monday 4/2

12:00 Jason

12:10 Theresa

12:20 Pablo

12:30

12:40

12:50

1:00 Xin Wen

1:10

1:20

1:30

1:40

1:50

2:00 Krystle

2:10 Diana

2:20

2:30 Shavon

2:40 Alex G

2:50 Sofia

3:00

3:10 Judy

3:20 Genae

_____________________

Wednesday 4/4

12:00 Maria

12:10 Jenna

12:20

12:30 Tess

12:40 Shira

12:50

1:00

1:10 Daniele

1:20

1:30 Laurie

1:40

Adam

1:50 Ian

2:00 Eva

2:10

2:20

2:30 Ayami

2:40

2:50

3:00

3:10

3:30 Louis

4:00 Sora

8:10 Queenie

8:20 Randy

**Saturday 3/31
Grayson
Yulissa
Hila

Miss Representation

I was doing a bit of research for the final project and I stumbled on this video:

More information on the movie can be found on http://www.missrepresentation.org

The trailer alone seems to touch on many topics we have already discussed in class, focusing on the underrepresentation and misrepresentation of women in the media. There are several screenings going on now in the city, would be interesting to check it out. At the least, it is bringing awareness to the many issues that surface with the current presentation of women in the media, proving that media literacy is an important first step.

The Daily Show

Hey guys,

I mentioned in class a video from The Daily Show where they did a parody of a conference about issues concerning women but the women were not allowed to speak.  Here's the link.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-february-20-2012/jon-stewart-s-eye-on-the-ladies?xrs=share_copy

Rewriting Self Help for teens: what I wish I had gotten before I joined the beastly world!

Although Susan Douglas attempts to make a case against a linear progression from “false consciousness” or preconsciousness to feminism in her introduction to "Where the Boys Are" thanks to the constant consumption and subsequent reaction/rebellion against media, my own life experience points to a “false road” that I invested a lot of emotional energy in following until I fell on my ass enough times to get off the hamster wheel and reflect. I'm 34, as I mentioned in my last blog post, and although I feel kind of crummy harping on it like it's such a big deal to me(It isn't), it does feel like a relevant detail as I try to articulate my feelings on gendered expectations. I'm at the age now where nearly everything I was taught to care about as a teenager ---being desirable---is dismissed as trivial and infantile, even as the pressure to look youthful and sexy (and “polished”, of course; let us not forget the fact that in New York sexual attraction seems inextricable from looking like you have disposable income) is more intense than ever. I don't read women's magazines anymore, but on the super rare occasions when I do fall for some “best treatments of 2011!!” copy, I treat it like a greasy porno, hiding it in my bag and never buying it alone without some respectable buffer to convince the cashier that I'm simply a student of popular culture. I would never tell you I was reading one if you asked me, and you would never catch me, either, as I would die before I got caught reading one on the subway. As an official member of the “grown ass woman” club, reading a fashion magazine and the attending avalanche of ad copy seems like an admission of defeat, telling the world that you are still aspiring, not having arrived. It's an acknowledgment of inappropriate attachment to what Douglas calls a “narcissistic paradise”, long past the point where narcissism is sanctioned as the default female mindset.

This shame is new to me, as it represents a hard turn in an opposite direction, a token attempt at repudiation for past mistakes. Growing up, I devoured women's magazines. I read all of them---Allure, Cosmo, Glamour, Elle, Vogue, British Vogue,the now-defunct Mademoiselle---from about the age of 12 all the way to 23 or 24. I lifted money from the secret places my parents stashed cash in order to buy cosmetics. A well meaning teacher in high school pulled me to the side once and asked me if I was having “problems at home” because my look was getting more and more erratic and he thought it was a cry for help. What? You're telling me it's not normal to go to school in a poorly fitted blonde wig with shaved eyebrows redrawn in the Most Comically Inept Disney Villain Arch Ever?? It took me many years to understand the difference between an editorial look and what was appropriate for the street. I was such a naïve kid, and so taken with the glamour of it all, that I tried to copy what I saw on the pages literally. I was made fun of a lot, often taken for promiscuous when the reality was that I knew less than nothing about sex. Older men tended to look at me in a way that made me uneasy, while the boys my age couldn't have been more repelled if I had garlic strung around my neck. It's funny now, and I laugh, but I wasn't laughing back then. When people ask me why I am only getting my undergraduate degree now, I tell them that I dropped out of school because I needed to work full time and couldn't find a waitressing gig.. I don't tell them that I dropped out because I couldn't take being a dirtbag in a hoodie drinking Boone's wine and budgeting for groceries. I wanted a glamorous secretarial gig and cute dresses so a guy would finally fall for me . It was a *total* buy in to an illusion—I had no immediately pressing emotional problems (emphasis on “immediately pressing”!) and was doing well and loved school. It just wasn't sexy to be an undergrad, and I wanted sexy.

Pretty terrifying, no? This wasn't the 1970's! This was 1997! So...although I never suffered from anorexia or bulimia, thank goodness, I do relate to a lot of the charges against advertising that our readings have articulated, simply because I was such a perfect foil for so long. I have experienced the self hatred that demands constant purchases to stay sated, and I still lose to that demon on a regular basis. I have fallen victim to what Douglas Kellner calls “ a value system congruent with the imperatives of consumer capitalism”, or what Kilbourne says is “the American belief of transformation...no longer via hard work but via the purchase of the right products” (132). And, most importantly, at 34, when the desired archetype switches from Lolita and ingénue to Superwoman, I now mourn the brain power inefficiently allocated in my youth, the energy wasted, the opportunities passed over while I was glassy eyed over the latest Madonna video. What advertising does to young women has the potential to seriously hurt them, on a large spectrum of damage that correlates to other factors such as race, class, and social support, but even in the most resilient kids there is still the danger of dissipation. What are women missing out on while we are obsessing about the way we look, and who does it serve to sentence us to constantly chasing a carrot on a stick---you can do anything you set your mind to, girls, but before that, your hair had better be on point? Douglas says that the media promotes a “white, upper-middle-class, male view of the world that urges the rest of us to sit passively on our sofas and fantasize”, and I think she is absolutely right. To that end, I wanted to use this blog entry to “fantasize” about what I wish Cosmo had taught me at 13.

1. Feeling beautiful is a dead end goal. You'll never catch it if you are looking for it, and people will smell the chase on you like sharks in a bloody chum pile. They will exploit your need to be desired in all kinds of ways, some of them quite cruel. Strive to feel comfortable instead---keep playing and art directing until you hear the “click” of alignment, where your clothes and face feel like they belong with your soul. It's just as tough as finding beauty, if not tougher, but nothing beats finally feeling like you aren't straining and failing.

It's not a costume if you can pull it off...

2. Focusing on others is the only thing that has ever helped cure narcissism. Every single person I know who gives ends up getting far more in return. Extend yourself at every opportunity. Particularly when you dont want to.

3. Relationships take skill, but being a “good girlfriend” is sometimes the default obsession of the lazy and terrified. When you are going after someone you desire, ask yourself if you are substituting the “success” of seduction for a personal success that demands more sacrifice and work. Kilbourne related anorexia and bulimia to a false sense of control (132); I would argue that the search for a boyfriend can also offer a sense of success that seems too elusive for young women by any other means. Seduction is a blast, but check yourself. If the lover is a trophy (and deep down we all know when they are), consider the possibility that you are avoiding something you know you have to do.

Maybe we can include some real role models in every once in a while...

4. Spend time thinking about the differences between girls and women, and recognize infantilism when you see it. When you can name which taboo women are aping when we play “innocent”, you are armored against any number of manipulations and demonizations of your sexual drive and are ahead of the game by ten years. “Beauty and the Beast of advertising” points to “the disparagement of maturity” in advertising and “the implication that little girls are seductive” (124), and its concurrent damaging effects to women. The sooner you see a 14 year old pouting half naked in a magazine that isn't free to run ads for condoms and visualize creepy old guys plotting this nonsense hypocrisy out for their own gratification, the better off you'll be.

Cute, but not so much when you think of ten old white men licking their lips....

5. Finally, remember that you are not a vagina with ears and a wallet. You are a head, a heart, a body. You can't neglect one for long without dragging the others down with you. So cultivate yourself during this important time with great care, and stay in balance. Realize that love and acceptance aren't finite resources, but opportunities are. Recognize that there are people who have an economic interest in holding you back, keeping you from the party of life because someone has to stay behind and purchase the T-shirts. You don't have to “compete”. You don't have to conform to anyone's idea of success. Hell, if you can afford it, you don't really have to do much more besides survive. But having no interest in joining is not the same thing as being held back. Walk into adulthood always asking what your choices are, and if you discover that you have such a luxury, take it. You have more power than people want you to have. Give them a decent scare.

I don't think that magazine articles like this are so revolutionary or uncommon, so perhaps my alternative isn't as far off as it should be. But repetition is what got us into this mess , and so repetition may be what moves us toward holistic development for girls instead of this singular, zero sum, winner take all race to be the most fuckable and the most chaste. If every magazine contained just one "how to" that didn't involve lip gloss, just one article on the structure of local government and how to be a decent citizen, a decent contributor, a decent friend, I think young women would see beauty or size as just one of several ways they can control their lives. For me, what's harmful about an obsession with beauty is all the amazing knowledge it displaces.

Real Women

We have all seen the pictures of anorexic or bulimic models on the cat-walk, praised for their bodies and for their achievement of the proper "beauty." Because proper beauty for as long as I can remember, and more and more as time goes on, is the beauty that is thin and young. Anything outside of this is not considered beautiful by the media and therefore not considered beautiful by the many vulnerable and impressionable women (and men) that look to the media for direction as to what beautiful is like. Taking it back a couple of steps, I think it is safe to assume that we all crave to be "beautiful." In fairy tales, all the princesses, despite being poor, haggard, or orphaned, had the one redeeming quality of beauty. It is this beauty that allowed for the redemption of Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and others. Beauty could certainly be considered a covetable quality to have and unlike brains or humor, we are taught that beauty is not something we are only necessarily born with, but something that we can achieve! For children that are not taught by their parents and other influences that their beautiful qualities are many and may be different from others', they can only look to the media for direction as to what "beautiful" is. And we honestly can't blame them. When lacking proper direction, children will succumb to the societal norm of instruction, which usually ends up being the television, magazines, and the internet. 

So we are from a young age susceptible to the instruction the media provides. And we all know what we see: thin, young, blonde, fashionable women who are desired by men. Wolf asks the question I often ask myself: “why do women react to the “ideal,” whatever form she takes at that moment, as if she were a non-negotiable commandment (wolf, 59)? For young women and girls, I would say that they take the "ideal" as a commandment because it is a source of instruction on a topic they are not being instructed on, but that is endlessly important to their social lives. Like I said before, women want to be beautiful: for themselves, for men, and for society. And when they need an image of what this beauty actually looks like, instead of looking to their mothers and sisters, they follow society's norms and look at this "ideal." But in doing so, the young woman is not fully aware that this is an "ideal" created by the mass media in order to sell her something, and that the "ideal" is inherently not something most women look like. Instead, she now has a goal to achieve and clear direction as to what she is to look like if she wants to be beautiful and desired by men. I like to think that this is not true for most grown women, because they should be educated and adequately literate as to what the media really does and the truth behind the images we are constantly being presented with. But the truth is that educated women are not always above succumbing to this "ideal" and may be even more susceptible to it in an attempt to fit in to society's expectations: whether in the professional world or as a home-maker.

What women are essentially taught is that beauty is extremely desirable, and to their luck, achievable  by anyone, if you are willing to put in the work necessary. Wolf adequately writes,

“Somehow, somewhere, someone must have figured out that [women] will buy more things if they are kept in the self-hating, ever-failing, hungry, and sexually insecure state of being aspiring “beauties” (Wolf, 66). And this is precisely what the media does on a daily basis. And whether we are the 8-year old 3rd grader or the 45-year old attorney, we all fall prey to this to some extent. One of our earlier readings talked about the schizophrenic feeling of being two people: one that hates what the media portrays and is fully aware of the distorted reality of it and the second, that still secretly wants to achieve this distorted reality. I would have to admit I am a schizophrenic myself; thanks to several courses I have taken, I have become aware of what media does and how it works. Yet, the beauty it portrays (over and over) is so pervasive that I find myself losing track of reality and getting sucked into this world where every woman weighs 110 pounds and is eternally young. In a room full of women, I can guarantee that a high percentage is currently on a diet or using an anti-wrinkle cream. I have been on several diets of my own and have thought about preventing wrinkles (I am 22) because I read an article telling me that "it is never too early" and "prevention is better than treatment." And of course, I heard that Britney Spears had botox at 21, so I must keep up to the "ideal."

Thinking of myself as an educated, informed woman, who still is still admittedly at times overtaken by the images I see in the media, I get restless and uneasy as to how it affects other women who are less informed and less aware. I don't want to see any more pictures of super-thin models or hear about the new celebrity that has admitted to having an eating disorder. It would be an impossible undertaking to completely shut myself off from media I find inaccurate and harmful. And I know that the "thin" and "youth" industries are much too lucrative to stop selling us products any time soon. What I would like to see is more of this:

Ironic how one of the largest campaigns for fashion for the average women is French.

Great, she's not a size 0. But even here, our model's arms are bound. We'll take what we can get..for now.

And we've all seen the dove commercials that aren't shown nearly enough. As women who have these bodies, I think we are ready to see them on display. I believe Kilbourne said on one of her videos that less than 5% of real women look like the 98% of women depicted in mass media. In an eagerness to belong and to achieve beauty, women fall victim to this discrepancy and endeavor to achieve bodies that for many, might not even be possible. I am a woman and know what my body looks like, and what that of my friends and relatives look like, and I don't see it anywhere in the media. Men too, know what women look like: from their mothers, girlfriends, wives, and friends, and they too are ready to see some real women depicted. I don't know where the taboo began of not showing size 6 and above women on television and magazines. Wykes writes, “The thin message is neither singular nor sudden. Nor is it merely a modern mass media construction. Rather, the mass media reinforce and reproduce thinness within a whole history of cultural constructions of femininity which make it acceptable to audiences and so sellable to advertisers” (Wykes, 207). Well I would like a new kind of historical construction of femininity, and not much has to be constructed. Simply show the truth. I am not an advocate for "real women have curves" because I know many thin women who are indisputably real women. Real women look like what you look like, or what your girlfriend looks like. I ask for nothing more than reality, or an approximation to it, to start. And I am certain that advertising DD bras will be as lucrative if not more so as advertising the B-cup Vistoria's Secret models that represent only part of the population. Advertise to real women, things that real women need, and real women will buy them; not in an attempt to achieve the unachievable, but as finally having found a satisfactory product for their needs. I don't want to see more pictures of models and actresses, I already know remarkably well what they look like.

Sources:

 Wolf, Naomi "The Beauty Myth" 

Wykes, Gunter "Conclusion: Body Messages and Body Meanings" 

Alternative to Sexist Advertising?

In the past women have been dominated by just about everything and everyone. At home they were taught to do the laundry, cook, clean, and feed the husband and children. When they were working they were forced to work in sweatshops and factories for low pay at long hours, with little time for themselves or what they looked like. Yet day by day, they were expected to maintain an impeccable image for society and their men. They were either given the title of "housewife" or "sex object" sometimes both.

This was the type of "stereotypical" image advertisers gave women in their ads no matter what the product they were trying to sell. In Jean Kilbourne's reading Beauty and the Beast of Advertising, she states that women in ads are for the most part are "thin, generally tall and long-legged, and above all ... young. All 'beautiful' women in advertisements (including minority women), regardless of product or audience, conform to this norm." For example, in this ad for Listerine, a white, thin, tall woman is being shown looking in a mirror at her teeth yet she's in nothing but her bra and undergarment. Above the woman's head reads the caption "get yourself a sleek new girdle with what you save!" Really!? If they didn't have a picture of a tube of Listerine at the very top, would anyone have even suspected that this was an advertisement for a mouth product. The main focus should be on her teeth and in the ad most of her face is covered in darkness.

 

Comparing Listerine ads from then to now, what does someone see? 

"You know under these clothes I'm naked."

"Here I am. What were your other two wishes!"

Both ads show the man and woman as somewhat of a "sex-object" yet only the woman is showing any skin dressed in a skimpy top while the man is fully clothed. Even the man shown in this image, although doesn't look like the typical "ladies man," exudes a more successful presence than the female. He is seen in his business suit who looks like he works for an office in lower Manhattan while the woman looks like she's from the south, somewhat "hillbilly" like. I feel as if many advertisers today are oblivious to the fact that women are now "bringing home the bacon and cooking it." Meaning women are just as powerful as men are in the workforce as well as the household. And as these so called advertisers put it, ever so nicely in their ads, women are the extravagant spenders. New alternatives must be met to see that woman are no longer starving away their bodies to look like the impossible. 

Once upon a time smoking was considered a sign of power, dominance, and strength. Something only men did during their time in the break room or in their lazy boys reading the morning paper. It was also a sign of considerable wealth. According to Douglas Kellner's, Reading Images Critically: Toward a Postmodern Pedagogy, ads are becoming more and more of a cultural symbol in our everyday life and not just as a means to sell a product. Over 102 billion dollars is being spent on ads alone which is more money spent than on education. Ads create meaning and help to prolong the existence of stereotypes. "Images not only attempt to sell the product by associating it with certain socially desirable qualities, but they sell as well a worldwide view, a lifestyle, and value system congruent with the imperatives of consumer capitalism." (Kellner, 127). In the Marlboro ads the cultural symbol was the image of a rugged cowboy, holding a Marlboro cigarette, portraying what the advertisers called a "real man." He looked very healthy, hardworking, and strong. "Corporations like the tobacco industry undertake campaigns to associate their product with positive and desirable images and gender models." (Kellner, 127). 

 

 I feel like the Virginia Slim, a tobacco company geared towards making "female cigarettes," advertisements are a somewhat light attempt to change the way women should be portrayed in advertisements. Although they still give a passive sexist remark, "...remember how long a woman had to wait for a man to light her cigarette," the woman being photographed is unlike any other women one would identify with as being a "sex-object," or I should put it, a sex-object that's showing any skin. She shows a since of wealth, class, and power. She's holding a Virginia Slim in one hand while the other is leaning onto her hip, while she's standing up tall and looking very alluring in her pride. Yes this ad is passively sexist but it also gives a lot of new advertisers in the field the knowledge that there is more to a woman than just what she is wearing, or not wearing. They need to know that because advertising is becoming more and more of a cultural symbol "to worldview, and lifestyle," (Kellner) little girls need to grow up believing that people will value them for what they have rather than what they don't.

Lucky Strike - tobacco company - with the help of Edward Bernays paved the way for woman and smoking during the 1929 Easter Day Parade.

  

Traget of the Terrible Weapon

Women are the center of the world. They are the messengers of the nature. They nurture the human beings and allow their reproduction. They give life to the hearts of their man, children, and make the shelter of peacefulness. They are precious.

But, wait a second, what present the World?! The world, in these days especially, presents everything that challenges women’s’ limits of existence. Yes, they are the center, but a center of mans’ vision and the main substance for the capitalism prospering. So, realistically it is better to use a word target .A target of everybody’s desire. In addition, this position of women is worse when we acknowledge that she is her own target as well.

First of all, feministic revolution did give a space to a woman to live active life .It provide her an opportunity to learn the same thing as man do. They successfully fought for the jobs which will make them financially secure and thus allow them to make unconsciously independent decisions and choices for their way of living.That is great ,but the problem is that on this Earth it is not just about the natural circle of life,where people live ,love and learn about themselves and about the other secrets of nature. The big role in this life play the Media ,Money and Materialistic worlds . However ,mans leadership and power and the money were in a great balance because woman were silent chain among them.They were satisfying their man at home and at the same time allow capitalism culminate because its workers were rested ,clean ,not hungry and finally woman have been the best consumers of the production.

Finally woman did understand how oppressed she is ,and she became awakened and close to the third party on the Earth.

Of course that disturbed the mass production and males’ security. Thus industries find a new plan how to attract woman attention. In the “Woman Myth” Wolf said:” The Feminine Mystique evaporated, all that was left was the body”. So, the industry with a weapon of media starts to attack woman valet and heart by introducing to them the unbelievable beauty that their man dream the most. Even though they don’t want to be disturbed and they try to ignore it, after while they start to feel the same way as man about that electronic beauty. That constant appearances in any way ,transit ,TV, commercials ,movies becomes a Norm. As in the article “ The Media and Body Image ‘ is stated” Repeated exposure to media stereotypes can create illusions that representations are truth simply through familiarity”.For instance ,famous British actress Joan Collins was one of those women who became trapped in a media life and that way a negative example to other women. She was criticized because her appearance in the movies was always portrayed in extraordinary way ,in every situation.To be more specific ,in the scenes where she would wake up ,her face was always covered with a make up.That unrealistic expressing many women find disturbing because it make ordinary women look less beautiful and normal.In addition,as Naomi Wolf said " To airbrush age off a woman's face is to erase women's identity ,power and history".So they became the victims in the real and imaginary life. In that manner women lives become so exposed that they feel constant threats on their roads. Every woman wants to be better than another so she can keep her man, thus her happiness, avoiding the loneliness and that is why also keeping her thinness. That is a very smart step of Media; for sure their consumers will not disappear this time. They used the strategy to separate woman, to make the enemy feelings among them so they can feel safe next to their only friend, magazines or media, since this conversation can only be secret!

All this, even though woman grow as a person, she is again on the similar position, actually worse. She cook, she work, she clean ,she study ,she tend to look sexy ,charming and finally happy but her inner life completely destroyed. Yes, woman became once again a silent center of the new Age ,this time Technology!

Advocacy Advertising

Traditional advertising is mainly based on gender stereotypes that consumers are use to (Cortese 52).  I believe an alternative to the traditional mainstream sexist, racist and manipulated forms of advertising can be described in what Cortese calls Advocacy advertising,

Advocacy advertising attempts to influence public opinion on important social, political, or environment issues of concern to the sponsoring organization.  It often challenges conventional wisdom and presents alternative interpretations of social problems and political issues.  Advocacy advertising essentially enhances participatory democracy (45).

An example of this form of advertising can be found on http://adcouncil.org .  While there are several advocacy ads on this site, the ad most effective for me is the Unplanned Pregnancy Prevention ad http://bcove.me/mj7bwg76.  This video is entertaining and it attempts to include "minority" races as well as both women and men, and most importantly, it is informative.

The Center for Consumer Freedom is also an amazing form of alternative advertising.  They promote ads that give the consumers the freedom of accurate choice.

Taking on the F Train by my mobile device.

On their site, http://consumerfreedom.com , "Promoting Personal Responsibility and Protecting Consumer Choice", you can find a ton of print, radio and TV ads that promote advocacy advertisements.  

The problem with all mainstream ads, is the creation of non-realistic and unattainable images.  Cortese quotes Jean Kilbourne in 1989 in describing the illusion mainstream ads create, "It creates a mythical and WASP- oriented world in which no one is ever ugly, overweight, poor, toiling or physically or mentally disabled" (52).

Ideally, the best alternative ads would include attainable goals, real life facts and choice.  Both the AdCouncil and Consumer Freedom do a fair job informing and influencing the public on issues that matter.