Art Essay Research Paper MARKETING AND THE

Art Essay, Research Paper

MARKETING AND THE BODY

We all speak and act from our bodies, but what we actually consider as “our” or other people.s body is very much open to debate. The images shift and change threw the times and culture changes, and so does the perception of the “ideal” or “politically correct” body. In the world we live in, the body has become a commodity, a fetish. The appropriate or “politically correct” image of the body results in its veneration as an ideal and promotes a whole set of values behind the image. Therefore, it is interesting to look at the ways in which the body is promoted and advertised.

One of the popular images of the body today is the image of the naked female body in reviews such as Playboy. Of course, this imagery has wider meanings both within the culture where it is produced and reproduced and within the context of something like the “American way of life.” Playboy has increasingly become globalized, with the regional editions sporting regional beauties. Several issues in Brazil had to be reprinted due to a high demand. The imagery from this magazine is interesting because it seems to display the female body usually girls in their late teens or early 20s, in a culturally acceptable way. Somewhat surprisingly, it has been found that many of American females do not object to Playboy the fact that this magazine also has some excellent stories and interviews helps, although they would not exactly put the centerfolds on the walls of their rooms. They normally do object to more “serious” magazines of the same type, like the Penthouse, or Hustler. Since, I find that the basic imagery is the same, the question that seems to be worth asking here is: how is this different imagery mediated. What is it within the specific culture that makes some representations of the human, in this case, female body more or less “acceptable”.

The answer to this question depends to a large extent on the prevailing cultural and social norms within each culture or society. While there is no universal criterion regarding greater or lesser “acceptability” of particular types of imagery, the fact is that many industries, from clothing to cosmetics, rely heavily on certain types of images that enable them to sell their products.. The body, especially if it conforms to current cultural and social aesthetic ideals “norms” becomes something that can be bartered, exchanged, or sold.

Looking at naked women of color in National Geographic constitutes the first pornographic experience for a lot of American boys. I think that the main point is that “the women of color” in National Geographic or textbooks are not really considered as sexual objects because they are not entirely considered as human . unlike the prevailing images of ,mostly white, women in the reviews like the Playboy.

Advertised and idealized bodies are, of course, only ideals. Ordinary heterosexual males, to take just one possible example, do not really expect to meet someone who looks like Courtny Cox, Cameron Diaz or other glamorous actresses/models. The image itself is somewhat reminiscent of a fairy-tale plot: most.if, not all, of us like to dream, or daydream, of the princess on the white horse, or in the white Lamborghini, for example. Although not omnipotent in “reality,” we dream of the day of our omnipotence, when everything wished for can materialize. The fact that we are well aware that these are only dreams does not prevent us from dreaming about this. The image that is projected in and through advertising is able to offer for a fleeting second “girls, buy this, and you can look just like me/ guys, get this after-shave and you can be with someone just as beautiful as me” and the like the sensation that is more than real in the words from a U2 song: “even better than the real thing”, the feeling that crosses right into fantasy.

The answer to the question of what constitutes the “ideal” body is part of the coding of what is “admissible” and what is “inadmissible” in contemporary culture. The cult of the body, at least as far as the late-Victorian era promotes and markets a specific kind and shape of body: the firm, slender body, especially with regard to a female one becomes an ideal. “Working out” has become an important aspect of contemporary life in Western industrialized societies, but this “required”, in a cultural, not necessarily in a physical or biomedical sense, exercise is part of the coding. The messages coded are that the people who “work out are somehow “in charge”. “I work out”, jog, do weights, etc. means “I am in control of my body” and, by extension, “I can control my sexuality.” Everything is organized, systematized, put under control.

Of course, everything gets more consumer-oriented and market-conscious. Leading fashion designers make their products now only for the ones who are “fit,” who are in perfect shape. If you want to wear the latest fashion, you have to look appropriate (or you have to look like the latest fashion trend) .even in high fashion, the body comes first. By portraying these trends through some high-profile personalities and many models, like Elle McPherson, or Claudia Schiffer, have become pop culture icons for themselves, contemporary designers can design and envision a new reality. Not that they actually believe that more people will conform to the “ideal” standards . that is perfectly irrelevant. Wha