Haden Baker Professor Randal Cooper Composition 1 19 September 2013 Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body In todays society

you cannot turn on the television, walk down the street, or drive down the road without seeing at least one billboard with an ad in it. These ads are primly designed for two purposes, either entertainment or consumer marketing. In this particular essay the philosopher Susan Bordo focuses on the ads of consumer marketing, concentrating on the male model. Throughout the essay, Bordo emphasizes the idea of the gaze. She starts off the essay with a personal experience that she had in the spring of 1995. She was reading through The New York Times Magazine when she comes to a Calvin Klein underwear ad. In the picture there was a well-shaped young man dressed only in the Calvin Klein underwear. She has a flashback to when she was a young girl and she realized that boys were cute and that they gave her feelings of complete erotic pleasure. Society later taught her that women were supposed to be on display for men and not the other way around. When she came back to reality, she noticed how feminine the male model was. Most ads the male model looked aggressive and challenging, but there was something different about this ad. He was seductive and nonaggressive, something you would see a women being, not a man. This ad was a new way of

representing the male body. Usually a real man was considered gay or a sissy if he was dependent on the gaze of another for his self-assurance. This new idea of men being females sex objects in marketing was unheard of. For a heterosexual male to offer himself up to sexual gaze was a huge step in male marketing. This ad was a symbol of male vulnerability and exposure, something that women have been dealing with for centuries. Culture also plays a part in how these new ads are being perceived. The nudeness of women has gone overlooked for years, and now that men have finally started undressing in front of the camera, society doesnt know how we feel about it. Mens bodies are presented as muscular, not seductive and playful. The new tool of dual marketing has been the way that companies have appealed to both real men and homosexuals. It is very clear that the male form is becoming widely available for womens sexual desires. Bordos writing approach is very different than other authors that I have read in the past. She is very passionate and confidant in what she is saying and is not afraid of whom she offends. Her uses of examples throughout the essay compliment her message extremely well. Her tone through the essay is very blunt and one-sided. She speaks and writes in a way that either you totally agree with what she is saying, or you absolutely hate her. Her use of images gives the reader a visual image of what she is trying to get across to them. She appeals to the pathos form of writing. She is emotional in the essay and does a good job of making the reader emotional about the topic too. When it comes to my opinion about this essay, I have to say I disagree with Bordos message. Ive never thought about this topic before, but as I was reading it I felt myself

conflicting with what her message said. Women have always been on display and theyve never seemed to have a problem with it. Now that men are stepping up to the podium, women are taken back by it. I feel like men have always been judged by women is some form or another. As a man, I have always been taught to be athletic and masculine, and if I wasnt I had failed in being a man. Society has told me that to get a respectable woman, you have to be aggressive and confident. The majority of women do not like feminine males; they want an athletic, muscular, fit, and assertive man. One of the things that bewilders me is when Bordo says I never dreamed that equality would move in the direction of men worrying more about their looks rather than women worrying less. That really took me for a loop , because women care a lot more about their appearance than men do. Most men do not take two hours getting ready in the morning, putting on makeup and making sure their hair is perfect. Men do the minimum to make themselves look at least acceptable. I think that Bordo is happy with men being more feminine just because that is her sexual preference in a male, but in most cases women want a man who is the head of the household and in charge on his life (is independent). The women in my life (past girlfriends or female friends/family members) have always said that they want a real man, not a stay at home dad or a sissy who is dependent on others. I personally think that it is in a womens makeup to want a man to take care of them; they want a strong man who will be their solid rock to lean on (a leader). This means that the Greek muscular man that Bordo bashes throughout the essay is still very prominent in todays culture, and as far as I can see society is still behind it. Like I stated before, Bordo does a good job in getting the reader to think in different ways than they are used to. Personally, she achieved in the aspect of getting me to think about

the message she was discussing, but for me she failed when she started bashing masculine men. I think that this essay is more for women or homosexuals rather than the everyday man. Her whole argument was aimed for gullible individuals who are unsure who they are and what they think. She is an excellent manipulator of the mind, but as for her tools of persuasion for me to agree with her opinion, she failed. For a culture obsessed with youth and fitness as Bordo states, I think that we are doing pretty well. I agree with Bordo on the fact that we sometimes think of our bodies as things that can be tampered with, but that is human nature. Bordo says women are not used to men offering themselves up to them, but that is not the mans fault. She (Bordo) can sit on her high pedestal and say that masculine men are a turn off to todays women, but that is simply not accurate.