Blog Post #3- Kayleen Grant

After watching "Miss Representation" on my computer at home, I took a shower. As I washed my hair, I looked over to see my boyfriend's "Axe" body wash. On the back of the bottle was printed: "The cleaner you are, the dirtier you get." Underneath was a diagram. 





To the left was a man washing with the Axe gel. An arrow pointed to the right, showing a woman fawning over this same man, implying that because he used this Axe body wash, women will now automatically love him. Underneath the diagram was printed: "Unlimited female attention." I've looked at this same bottle countless times, but after watching "Miss Representation," I suddenly took offense to this image. It made me think, how are the young men in our culture affected by this type of provocative media? In the documentary, Jean Kilbourne says, "The ideal image of beauty is more extreme and impossible than ever before." Here, she is referring to the digitally altered "beauty" that many young woman today measure themselves against. Because of technology, the media is able to produce an image that is "absolutely inhumanly perfect" (Kilbourne). Subconsciously, viewers take these images and apply them to real life, although these images are actually not real whatsoever. Not only does she explore the effects of these images on young women, but their effect on young men as well. Young men take these images and as a result, tend to judge real women much more harshly. I totally agree with this statement. Advertisement and marketing strategies directed towards young men, like the "Axe" bottle in my shower, are becoming increasingly provocative. Another example of this is Carl's Jr. Their commercials feature itty bitty, nearly naked women eating massive juicy burgers. By placing these girls in their commercials, they are appealing to the male viewer, less than 1/2 the population. Carl's Jr. Is not just for men, burgers are eaten by women too, so why are they marketing for a male audience? By exposing today's young men to these images, the media is placing a false sense of beauty in their minds, leading them to expect more out of society's real women. Not only is this harmful to young men, but to girls as well. Young women are now placed under even more pressure to look, dress, and act a certain way; a way that will make boys like them. 

Another thing I found really interesting in the "Miss Representation" documentary was the enormous amount of criticism generated by the public towards powerful women. What surprised me even more was that most of this criticism is presented by women. I agree with this statement as well. Girls judge other girls almost as harshly as they judge themselves."Oh my god, what is she wearing?" "What is up with her hair?" "She's getting kinda fat." I hear these types of comments all day everyday, all of them coming from girls themselves. Television is filled with "cat" fights and female feuds. Shows like The Real Housewives, Desperate Housewives, and The Hills feature this dramatic woman vs. woman phenomenon. I think a lot of times, women need to let go of their jealousy and their judgmental tendencies and take powerful women, or any woman's success for that matter, as progress in parity for women.