Article 19 – Women and Corsets

 

          Throughout history women are constantly trying to fit a certain image of beauty.  The chinese women bound their feet to make them smaller, and starting in Europe many women started to wear corsets.  As we can see in the top image, it does give women a great hour glass shape that every women strives to have.  When we look to the picture underneath the side effect of wearing a corset over a long period of time actually causes seriously harmful effects on the female body.  The ribs become crushed in and all of the internal organs become scrunched up, but the woman has achieved that hour glass shape that she was always hoping for.

          “Our culture also feeds our self-concept” (Gambles, 46).  When young girls constantly see the celebrities with these great bodies and hour glass shapes they look for ways and methods in which to obtain what they once thought was unobtainable.  It is still socially accepted to wear a corset around, and many consider it to be a fashion statement that is coming back in style.  Personally I have never worn one, nor do I ever plan on wearing one.  I love my body a lot more than that to start squishing the organs around on the inside.

 

Michael W, Teri Kwal, Gamble (2003). The Gender Communication Connection. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Article 17 – Dolce and Gabbana Advertisment

 

          This is a magazine ad for clothes from Dolce and Gabbana.  It is definitely an overly sexualized ad campaign for the clothing choices, but it grabs the attention of many.  It goes with the idea that men are masculine and strong.  Each of these guys have washboard abs and are very chiseled.  The ad goes out to guys saying with these clothes you will be hot and look good.  Girls will look at this ad and they will want their boyfriends to wear these clothes because they like the models inside of the clothes and feel that their boys will look better if they wear outfits just like this.  “We live in a society in which social images of gender pervade our lives and influence our definitions of who we think we are, and who we think we should be” (Gambles, 27).  Men think that this is how they should be in order to get women, and women want their men to be like this because it looks like they will be better protectors.