Growing up Female/Male in America in the past 10 years has been anything but easy, for young adolescents it has been a long road of conformity, and if you did not conform then you were left out. Growing up in the American media has also shaped how teenagers and young adults view their counterparts in places other than at school or the home setting, it has also greatly affected how women are perceived in the work place.
Average Working Woman
In this ad to the side we see a woman who is labeled as a "Career Climber", she is dressed in loose clothing and apparently trying to attract the attention of all males and use that attention to move up in the work place. And just looking at the Ad you get the feeling that if the attention is not enough, she probably has other means of moving up. Ad's such as this in magazines like Maxim have created a idea that women who are successful in the work place use sex to get to the position they are at, and if that is the idea that we choose to believe then it is also the idea that will come to pass in our culture.
This ad does more than just give males and females the idea that women have to use sex to get anywhere in the work place, but it also incites the idea that females should always be trying to look as sexy and inviting as possible, or else they might not be paid any attention to. The image in this ad is what young adult males expect women their age to look and act like, and this expectation has caused conformity in the females of our generation who are just entering the work place.
The best example I can give in a more real-life scenario and not in a magazine would be in the office my mom works at. My mom is a CEO of the New York State Psych. Association, and is living proof that you do not have to be the ideal female image to get somewhere in the work place(i.e. a sex object). At my moms office there are always new interns, my moms office is almost all female workers, and all of these new interns resemble the image in this ad to a startling degree. They all seem to feel like if they dress in a more conservative way then they will lose any chance they have at success.
So if the ideal female image in the work place for young adults is a sexy and inviting woman, with an ideal body; then what is the image for men? If women are the devious seductresses that they are portrayed to be in this ad, then that must mean the men are the ones with power, the ones who are seduced and expect women to act this way.
Males
Average Authorative Man
This ad is not to terribly secretive with its message. The man is in a higher position than the woman, and is completely ignoring her while smoking the advertised cigar. The text in this ad also suggest male dominance, and themes that women should adhere by when with men; "It doesn't argue./ It won't talk back./ And it has no opinion." These are all the qualities of a perfect companion according to this ad, and this idea has spread to more than just this one ad.
This theme of women being submissive partners has become very dominant in our society, and the best example is of the above ad and its suggestive tone. This ad has the man much higher up than the woman, suggesting that he has all of the power in the relationship - also notice her suitcase beside her as if she has just been thrown out. It was the mans house, and the mans rules and when the woman became to assertive he kicked her out for "the perfect companion."
This image of male power has become almost traditional in our society, everywhere you look men are being portrayed as the figure heads of our society. This traditional look of men, and their desire for women to act in a way that is depicted in this ad has had a very obvious effect on women and men in our society today. In the work place, women dress very suggestively for their male co-workers in order to try and get places that they feel they would not normally be able to achieve if they dressed normally. Men have also come to expect this from their female counterparts in the workplace.
In the picture to the right we see that if women are successful they are regarded as being masculine. They have the suit and the look of dominance that we are so use to seeing on males. Even the words "ObeyMeMoto" give off the suggestive theme of a male in power. It is a surprise that some women even try and succeed in our society with such powerful messages such as these being so predominant in our societies media.
Despite these hardships some women do actually try and succeed in our society, and to try and get places and positions that are usually dominated by men. My mom for example has achieved this very hard task, and become a CEO of The New York Psych Association. My mom is a huge feminist and works hard to counter these popular ideas and images by inspiring her employee's (who are mostly all female). But even she is subject to obvious classification by others. While there are also people who flock to her achievements and hail her for her success there are also people who would sneer at her, and the most surprising part of this is that it is mostly other women doing the sneering.
The media has provoked such an image of female submissiveness that anyone who breaks from the cultural norm. is looked upon as wrong, even if the breaking helps benefit people in the long run.
Growing Up Female/Male in America in 2010 Female
Growing up Female/Male in America in the past 10 years has been anything but easy, for young adolescents it has been a long road of conformity, and if you did not conform then you were left out. Growing up in the American media has also shaped how teenagers and young adults view their counterparts in places other than at school or the home setting, it has also greatly affected how women are perceived in the work place.
In this ad to the side we see a woman who is labeled as a "Career Climber", she is dressed in loose clothing and apparently trying to attract the attention of all males and use that attention to move up in the work place. And just looking at the Ad you get the feeling that if the attention is not enough, she probably has other means of moving up. Ad's such as this in magazines like Maxim have created a idea that women who are successful in the work place use sex to get to the position they are at, and if that is the idea that we choose to believe then it is also the idea that will come to pass in our culture.
This ad does more than just give males and females the idea that women have to use sex to get anywhere in the work place, but it also incites the idea that females should always be trying to look as sexy and inviting as possible, or else they might not be paid any attention to. The image in this ad is what young adult males expect women their age to look and act like, and this expectation has caused conformity in the females of our generation who are just entering the work place.
The best example I can give in a more real-life scenario and not in a magazine would be in the office my mom works at. My mom is a CEO of the New York State Psych. Association, and is living proof that you do not have to be the ideal female image to get somewhere in the work place(i.e. a sex object). At my moms office there are always new interns, my moms office is almost all female workers, and all of these new interns resemble the image in this ad to a startling degree. They all seem to feel like if they dress in a more conservative way then they will lose any chance they have at success.
So if the ideal female image in the work place for young adults is a sexy and inviting woman, with an ideal body; then what is the image for men? If women are the devious seductresses that they are portrayed to be in this ad, then that must mean the men are the ones with power, the ones who are seduced and expect women to act this way.
Males
This theme of women being submissive partners has become very dominant in our society, and the best example is of the above ad and its suggestive tone. This ad has the man much higher up than the woman, suggesting that he has all of the power in the relationship - also notice her suitcase beside her as if she has just been thrown out. It was the mans house, and the mans rules and when the woman became to assertive he kicked her out for "the perfect companion."
This image of male power has become almost traditional in our society, everywhere you look men are being portrayed as the figure heads of our society. This traditional look of men, and their desire for women to act in a way
In the picture to the right we see that if women are successful they are regarded as being masculine. They have the suit and the look of dominance that we are so use to seeing on males. Even the words "ObeyMeMoto" give off the suggestive theme of a male in power. It is a surprise that some women even try and succeed in our society with such powerful messages such as these being so predominant in our societies media.
Despite these hardships some women do actually try and succeed in our society, and to try and get places and positions that are usually dominated by men. My mom for example has achieved this very hard task, and become a CEO of The New York Psych Association. My mom is a huge feminist and works hard to counter these popular ideas and images by inspiring her employee's (who are mostly all female). But even she is subject to obvious classification by others. While there are also people who flock to her achievements and hail her for her success there are also people who would sneer at her, and the most surprising part of this is that it is mostly other women doing the sneering.
The media has provoked such an image of female submissiveness that anyone who breaks from the cultural norm. is looked upon as wrong, even if the breaking helps benefit people in the long run.
For more on this topic please check out: http://social.jrank.org/pages/272/Gender-Role-Development.html