“Advertisers must convince young women that they are in need of constant improvement—largely to get and keep boys’ attention—without threatening young women’s views of themselves as intelligent, self-directed, and equal. Buzz words like “empowerment,” “self-determination,” and “independence” are sprinkled liberally across their pages. But this seemingly progressive rhetoric is used to sell products and ideas that keep girls doing gender in appropriately feminine ways, leading them to reproduce, rather than challenge, gender hierarchies. An ad for a depilatory cream, for instance, tells girls that they are “unique, determined, and unstoppable,” so they should not “settle… for sandpaper skin.” Feminist demands for political and economic equality—and the refusal to settle for low-wages, violence, and second-class citizenship—morph into a refusal to settle for less than silky skin. Pseudo-feminist language allows young women to believe that they can “empower” themselves at the checkout counter by buying the accoutrements of traditional femininity.”
2 comments
August 13, 2015 at 2:57 pm
thnkfryrslf
A really intelligent analysis.
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September 8, 2015 at 11:18 am
E.A. Stephens
Or, in the satirical words of Stephen Colbert, (roughly remembered), “But if we teach girls to believe in themselves and be confident in their bodies, how will we sell them stuff they don’t need??”
I know waaaaay too many girls who think their beauty depends on what they put on their faces. Way too many girls who think if they don’t look powerful, they aren’t powerful. So much of what society thinks is beautiful is just a sales pitch.
It needs to stop. :(
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