After reading the post on weight loss sites I thought about the male equivilent to them because men don't feel the pressure to get thin they feel the pressure to be buff. I found this website http://www.muscleandfitness.com/ This website shows men how they can sculpt and build their muscles to look jacked and super strong. This site in gendered in a way to appeal strictly to men, showing men who are extremely muscular being "checked out" but atractive girls. It gives men links to high protein supplements and tips on getting bigger muscles. This website also devalues women who are muscular treating them as "butch". These website are also what drives some men/boys to use steroids because the men on sites like these give an unrealistic vision to try to acheive. The gendering of these sites continues to show men that they need to be strong and cannot show weakness.
-princess consuela banana hammock
I like this. I think it goes back to stereotypes of gender (commonly found in fairytales) which tells us that men should be the strong, brave individuals , who can protect the frail and tiny women. Hence why nowadays men are getting buff, and women are losing weight, because it we have been told that since we were little children. It's embedded in our subconscious. How many times do you tell a little boy- "Act tough", "Show me your muscles" "Be a man" etc.
ReplyDeleteKeekers
This is true, I believe that since we have been constantly been hearing over and over again how men are supposed to be "strong, aggressive, and definitley not weak!" Women are supposed to be opposite these above things, it is problematic because "what about the girls who don't want to go into the weightroom because they are self concious about lifting weights in front of boys?" I workout and weightlift and it doesn't bother me to do it, but it does bother me when I see girls who do want to workout but the second they see that the weight room is filled with men/boys, they feel intimidated and leave which is quit unfortunate.
ReplyDeleteVitamin C
The marketing of this site is directed towards both men and women. The same products and ideas are being sold... they just switch up the picture from a male to a female (in the "her" section). For men its the bigger muscles the better (bigger chest in 4 weeks), for the women its beauty tips and bikini bod (bikini bod in 4 weeks). Both have nutritional tips, exercises of the week, transformation pictures, and most of all half naked pictures of people who have the "ideal" body type. Men and women both have particular physical ideals to follow, and the advertising/marketing methods are similar in many ways.
ReplyDeleteDanger Powers
Oh, I have been waiting for this comparison to "get skinny females' ads".....the contrast is absolutely amazing. The way human beings play into this "traditional body type" is crazy. Honestly, we cannot get past this notion if females are supposed to be weak, that means inevitably they would have to be thin. Men are supposed to be strong, so inevitably they would have to be bigger, and take up much more space. Now, I do not believe every female and male were supposed to fit into one category, they should be able to characterice from both categories, and because our society has such a set notion it is impossible to separate these two things.
ReplyDeleteAaliyah Jasmine