Kirsti Clapsadle WGS 101 Megan Burke Fridays 1:00 pm-1:50 pm Ad Bust New Balance has recently jumped

on the bandwagon to get into shape without working out too vigorously. Their Truebalance Toning Collection is designed to tone your legs, glutes and core while burning calories with every step (found on advertisement attached), so all you have to do is walk to get into shape. The focal point of the ad reads: Tone your body without toning down your style. Fashion and fitness are not terribly easy things to obtain, but this ad insists these shoes make it possible. Next to the text is a (white) woman wearing shorts that extend no more than an inch past her derrire (or lack thereof), a teal sweatshirt, and gray Truebalance shoes with pink accents (pink of course, perceived to be a feminine, stylish color). I wouldnt say the woman portrayed in the ad is not in need of toning her body any more than it already is, and the fact that these shoes are for walking rather than running or other types of physical activity says she is obviously not doing it for the aspect of enjoying the workout, so why the need to be so in shape? Because in shape is beautiful if you listen to media. We do, of course, have to take into account the possibility that the ad is claiming she has this body because of their shoes. If this is the case, however, what makes this womans body something to strive for over the one you already have? Media often portrays the perfect woman as an athletic build with muscular toned legs and abs. Then there is the sought-after supermodels body which is usually a woman over six feet tall and less than 120 pounds, however many men I know prefer more voluptuous women with larger breasts and behinds. So what does the ideal body look like? Is it one of these three

looks, or something different? In The More You Subtract, The More You Add: Cutting Girls Down To Size, Jean Kilbourne notes how "girls try to make sense of the contradictory expectations of themselves in a culture dominated by advertising (Kilbourne 232). Of course it is unlikely that these media portrayals of women are purposefully confusing women by giving them different standards, but they do push an unattainable look on women of all ages and that is no mistake. This New Balance advertisement attempts to make their take on beautiful a healthy one by putting an athletic spin on it and I would say it works to a point. It is still pushing the unreal perfection on women, but it isnt pushing for a ridiculously underweight world of women. Some may argue that the ideal body is pushed on men also, and this is completely true. Men are often faced with unrealistically sculpted Calvin Klein, Hollister, and a myriad of other companies models. However, while New Balance is sold for men and women, this particular shoe is only sold for women. I would with no doubt attribute this to the common gender roles that are pushed upon us. Men should not be toned, they should be buff, and because this shoe is only for women, this gender norm is reinforced. My bust of the ad would not be feminist if it were a real ad, but if you know that it is supposed to be showing the absurdity of the original ad, then it is quite feminist. In my bust of the ad I basically just made the statements from the original ad more blunt. Because it is so similar to the original in its message, I wont go into full detail of the effects it would have on women if it were a real ad. My bust highlights the main message of the original ad, saying While youre working for that perfect body, make sure you have an excellent sense in fashion too Because everyone should look good while theyre trying to look even better. When I first wrote this, I thought it very clever, but a day or two after making it I realized it could be a quote from a real

advertisement. Media tries to put this image of a perfect person in the eyes of the public but it just doesnt exist and I was trying to prove how ridiculous the original ad sounds by changing the wording to be more to-the-point. This, I realize, did not work well because media is already using quite direct language. Think of the words media often uses to describe their perfect person. Words like chiseled and airbrushed are often used, even though the people described this way are obviously fantasyits in the words! Airbrushed means edited to be flawless, and when you think chiseled, usually the image of a sculpture comes to mind, like chipping into a rock. I dont know about you, but I have never seen an actually flawless or chiseled-looking person in real life. Celebrities even try to attain this look and still they fail due to the impossibility of it. In The Body Politic, Abra Fortune Chernik delves into the matter: Famous women give interviews insulting their bodies and bragging about bicycling twenty-four miles the day they gave birth (Fortune Chernik 602). Even while these famous women are self-conscious and working hard for the perfect body, they are depicted as ideal women. A section of Womens Lives, Media Representations and the Creation of Knowledge, agrees, saying Women on television, for example, are still mainly shown in the context of entertainment, sports, home, and personal relationships (Kirk 61). Gender roles are parts played every day both in the real world and on television and if we continue to work to change this, we will continue to make a difference.

Works Cited Fortune Chernik, Abra. "The Body Politic." 1995. Women's Lives. Fifth ed. New York: McGrawHill, 2010. 599-603. Print. Kilbourne, Jean. "The More You Subtract, The More You Add: Cutting Girls Down to Size"" 1999. Women's Lives. Fifth ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 231-38. Print. Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women's Lives. Fifth ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.