What The Media Does To Us

Multiple things in this ad strike me as incredibly uncalled for and have nothing to do with a woman's perfume scent. When I look at this picture many thoughts run through my head; Where is the product that is being advertised? Is the product even ever mentioned? And most importantly, why does it look like porn? The woman looks to be an object that the men are grabbing and dominating, and the expression on her face just further supports my statement. She doesn't look happy, the way she is laid out and the way she is being held down is showing that she is the weaker one. She has no control in the situation. I know it's all simulated in a photo shoot but if we can glorify it on ads what stops people from thinking women are inferior in real life? I don't know if while the picture was being taken she was told to portray weakness or it just came out that way. But it does not strike me as an ad made towards women. For a woman's perfume ad there seems to be not a lot of women or female power. The men outnumber her four to one and all seem to be surrounding her in a predatory sort of way. I'm not saying that this is what the advertisers meant to put across but what I am seeing resembles a non-consensual way of touching, or another name for it is rape. The way that unhealthy images are shoved at us is one of the factors that feed into rape culture. We think this picture is somehow normal and that it's just a way of trying to sell the product. But what people don't get is that what we see on a daily basis is what we shape our lives with. A little girl or boy seeing images like this every day will begin to romanticize it and think that is what really happens. Pictures like this are not only incredibly sexist towards women but they also are shaping what the next generations will think is right and wrong.  Am I supposed to infer that the woman is wearing the perfume? Is that why the men are all on top of her? They are portraying that if you buy the perfume and wear it you will be more desired by men, which is crazy in itself. If they wanted to sell the actual product and not the allusion of it giving you some sort of superpower they would have put the perfume name on there. The way things are advertised are done so to make us feel a certain way. They are made to have us buy things that we don't need to fuel our need for acceptance and normality. This assignment has really made me think about all the ways that marketing shapes us into who we are and how we think about certain things.

Being Socially Accepted

After watching the documentary, The Mask We Live in, I began to think about the way I was raised and the way I was taught to think about what was for girls and what was for boys. I had always wanted to play with dolls and what we as a society consider “girly” toys. So I never really had the issue of wanting to play with something that wasn’t acceptable for me. But I'm sure if I wanted to play with Nerf Guns or some other male toy I would have been able to. My parents never really pushed me to do girly things or be more feminine, they bought me whatever toy I wanted no matter what they thought I should like. They knew that if I was constricted to just what was socially acceptable I wouldn't be able to reach my full potential as a person. The idea of what are girl toys and what are boy toys were made up by society and followed so strictly that young children feel from a young age they cannot really be themselves. Some parents try so hard to make sure their son and daughter is raised to the standard that society accepts, but when doing so they don't let them reach their full potential and feel comfortable in their own skin. This is what leads to men feeling like they always have to be emotionless and the protectors and women feeling like they have to be quiet and can't live alone without a man. It really does more harm than good when children are taught what is socially acceptable for them based on their gender. Just a couple of weeks ago I witnessed my nephew get taught the hard lesson of how to be manly at the young age of three. He was over visiting and we don't have him over a lot therefore we didn't have many toys for him to play with. He was beginning to get on everyone's nerves because he was bored so I improvised and filled a latex glove with water and drew a face on it. He immediately cuddled it close and was carrying it around like a baby, he wanted to be able to be like his mommy who he watched take care of his younger brother. All day he carried this thing around with him being very careful not to pop it, and he absolutely adored it. And when four o’clock came around and his father came to pick him up he was so excited to show him the new “toy” he was given. The second his dad walked in he ripped the glove out of his hands and threw it out. This of course made my nephew cry and he was told to stop being a baby, and that he isn't allowed to play with dolls because he was a boy. I was yelled at for giving him the doll which confused me because it was a sack filled with water I don't really constitute that to be a doll. But I apologized because I know it isn't my place to tell them how to raise their son especially because I’m only a seventeen-year-old with no children. But can you imagine the long term effects that is going to have on that child. He isn't going to be able to express himself for fear of being too girly, and in the long run will end up raising his children this way. I know it's too late to convince others that what is girly can also be for boys and what is more masculine can be for girls because it's so ingrained into society. But if you think back, who decided what was for girls and what was for boys? When did the color blue become only associated with boys? And when did people start to make sure their children were what society wanted to see? If everyone were a little looser in how they raised their children as a society, we wouldn't just have manly men and helpless girls. We would have all different people from all over the spectrum who can contribute more and keep bettering the way society thinks.

"A Dog's Purpose"

A book that has had an impact on my life and made me see the world differently was A Dog’s Purpose, by New York Times Bestselling Author, W. Bruce Cameron. This book is about a dog's search for why he was put on this earth. He makes his way through many different life cycles, a police dog, a stray, and a boy's best friend. Each time he is born again as a puppy and wonders why he is back? It's not until the end that he realizes that he kept being reborn because he had a purpose to fulfill on this earth. I think I got this book as a present for my birthday or maybe Christmas one year, and looking back I probably wasn't thrilled I got this instead of whatever the new “thing” was that year. But I smiled and said thank you and set it on my bookshelf never to be touched again. Last year I must have done something to piss my mother off because she took my phone away for a whole week and I wasn't allowed to leave the house. This forced me to actually communicate with my family and find other ways to entertain myself. I had always liked reading when I was younger but when I went to high school I don't think I touched a book that didn't have to do with school for two whole years. At one point that week I was so bored and I thought “Hey, why don't I just read one of the fifty books sitting in my room?” Little did I know that the one I chose was going to leave such a lasting effect on me. I chose this book because it had a cute puppy on the front and I thought it was going to be an easy and lighthearted read. When I opened it up that whole statement couldn't have been more wrong. This book has made me question if animals were actually capable of thinking like they do in the book. Many people say that they know their animals love them because they show it all the time (I am one of these people.) If we are able to accept that then why can't be believe that they have some higher purpose and are able to comprehend what it is? I know that no proof could ever be found to support the claims that animals are actually able to think and know why they were put on this earth, but it is fun to think about. I also made me wonder if I was going to be reborn again? I also wondered if there was no heaven until you've completed your purpose on this earth? I mean none of us could really know what happens after someone dies. It was just such an interesting book to read and really got me thinking. I would totally recommend that others try it out, especially if you love animals as much as I do.