Seeing Gender

I was laying out by the Casa Monica pool the other day reading the newest issue of Glamour magazine when I came across an ad that literally made my jaw drop. I have seen a lot of sexist ads before particularly in the fashion mags I read but this one was just so blatant. I wish I had come across it during our advertisement presentations earlier in the semester. It was an ad for the new Vitamin Water which is only 20 calories. The ad said in the center "Because the little black dress is little." Implying that the black dress is only for those who are "little" and if you are not "little" than obviously you should cut back your calories so that you can appropriately where it. The ad gave the assumed idea of a women projected on us that you have to be a certain size etc. to be considered beautiful or feminine. I did however find another ad in the magazine that gave perhaps a more empowering message. It was for a diamond ring company targeting single professional women making the diamond ring for the "right hand" as opposed to just for when you get a husband and he gives one for your left. The slogan was "raise your right hand" showing a well dressed woman raising her hand showing off her diamond she bought for herself.

I typically don't let advertisements and the media affect my own view of what it means to be a woman but its hard to ignore the many different and at times contradicting ideas that come at me every day. It seems the most prominent roles a women can play are the Madonna or the whore, without leaving much in between.