Essay 4 Proposal

For essay four I will be expanding on the first essay that we did about gender roles in advertisement. I chose this essay because I feel like I did not mentioned enough examples on my first essay and I also feel like it will be easier to expand my ideas on this essay. I will be analysing another commercial on "Weight Watchers" and one on a Victoria Secret commercial.  I will be explaining how the idea of Steve Craig's "women's women" is expressed on these two commercials.

Key Terms:
1- gender roles in advertisement
2- feminism on television
3- Victoria's Secret commercial
4- weight watchers commercial
5- male vs female commercials

Racism

After reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, I did more research on racism. It was sad to find out that back in the years, racism was very popular in many parts around the world. Whites and blacks were divided into two different groups since it was said that blacks were of a lower social class. They were even threated as slaves and did not have any rights at all. This went on for years and it seemed like it was something very popular. Blacks weren't even allowed to live in the same place as whites did. They had mo education as well, and were forced to work hard for others. As years have gone by, blacks started protesting and had rights. They were no longer allowed to be slaves of others. Now on days, slavery is no longer allowed in many states. No one can be forced to be slaves now. Although blacks were not the only ones who were threated bad and had no rights, they were sure one of the biggest groups who suffered from racism.

Myspace or Facebook

In Danah Boyd reading, they explain how before many would have Myspace because that was popular bavk then, but then all of a sudden everyone changed to Facebook. There are many factors that affect in that like friends, or just other people. In the reading it also mentions that Myspace was then seen as "ghetto". Peiple want to feel popular as others so that is why they follow what others do. In my opinion this is very accurate because as explained in the reading, people just feel like following what othwrs do. They just want to be doing the same thing as others.

Ian Daly's "Virtual Popularity Isn't Cool-It's Pathetic"

In Ian Daly's "Virtual Popularity Isn't Cool-It's Pathetic", he describes how social network sites attract people by making "friending" easy. In other words, people create online accounts, like facebook, to look for friends. He also says that people prefer to be on their social media intead of "doing their work" (480). Ian Daly sees facebook as a bad habit for people,  specially older men. He mentions that "Facebook has leaked out of the college dormitory like some rare tropical disease and has begun infecting grown men in disturbingly vast numbers" (480).

I personally agree with him, because I've seen many older people really obsessed with facebook. Many people spend hours and hours surfing on their accounts,  looking to find new friends. Facebook, like many other social networks, have become an addiction to many.

Steve Craig's Women's Women

In Steve Craig's Women's Women, he describes a commercial of Weight Watchers. In the commercial, a thin woman is shown in a red bathing suit. She mentions how she does not like to be on diets but says that she has lost weight with Weight Watchers. She is then shown at a pizza restaurant with a man and two children. The woman then mentions that she "hates starving" but adds that with a new food plan she can eat with family and friends and still "have fun". She mentions at the end that she hates "not joining Weight Watchers sooner". Steve Craig then mentions that Coward wrote that "feelings about self-image get mixed up with feelings about security and comfort".  Steve Craig also says that women try to attain and maintain their physical attractiveness and they feel in the need of getting approved by their family, to maintain them united and secured.

After reading this, I was not surprised at all of how women are seen and how the woman in the commercial expressed herself. It is sad to know that many women care too much about their physical appearence. They look for the approval of others and feel like being in shape is the secret to maintaining their family united. Maybe the way they feel has a lot to due with the way women are shown in commercials like the one of Weight Watchers. This commercial makes it seem like it is very easy to loose weight without even having to eat healthy, but the reality is that in order to loose weight, one must eat healthy as well and exercise. It is important to maintain a nice body, but having a great physical appearence is not everything a women needs to be happy.