Response to 10/21 Readings

Brumber's article on body projects was extremely interesting and appealing to me.  It is crazy to see how quickly 'fashions' change and its scary how obsessed/involved women get to fit the image of the time.  I looked up a quick timeline of pictures to really SEE the changes:

1900s:

1920s:


1930s:


1940s:

1950s:


1960s:

1970s:

1980s:

1990s:



These ideal women's bodies are what girls are constantly modeling themselves after.  The shape continues to change; one day bigger boobs, one day smaller boobs, bigger butt.  One day lots of makeup.  One day nude colored lips.  The ideal image is always shifting in order to give industries and corporations a constant influx of money from the female population.  By keeping women dissatisfied, they will keep buying products and changing their clothing etc.

From my own personal experience, this is very obvious and prevalent.  My opinion of clothing and what I want to wear changes almost each month.  One week I love a certain shirt.  The next week I hate it.  Thinking consciously about why I do that could be a subconscious reaction to what I see in magazines or what I see my friends wearing.  My friends do the same thing.  I constantly hear girls saying "I have nothing to wear!" when I know for a fact their closet is full of clothes.  In reality, what's in their closet isn't what they think is fashionable and desirable to wear.  It's expensive to keep up appearances.  Thus, the corporations win by policing female body image. 

Reading about bras and the rise of bras is another example.  One day, girls were making their own bras or not wearing them at all.  Now, its a massive industry.  Victoria's Secret is a store that mainly sells bras and is extremely lucrative.  All of my friends have bras ranging in color, material, shape etc.  One bra is no longer enough.  Bras are no longer just about support and shape.  They're about sexuality and desire. 

Linking Steinem in, the ads are what give us these ideas or keep women unsatisfied.  Women are subject to certain ads in a certain way in order to keep them under 'control.'  It's also crazy how certain companies won't publish ads in a women's magazine unless certain conditions are met.  But that's a whole other argument/story.