Women Nature Association

A lot of advertising sexualizes and stereotypes their audience to make them feel the product will make them feel better or fit what stereotype they are supposed to be. In the readings, I feel it makes it sound as women and animals are both horridly oppressed and consumed. I would argue that there are issues of oppression in the division of sex, but I would not compare it to animals. I feel the I agree with Carol J. Adoms that” Within two months of becoming a vegetarian, I realized there was a connection between feminism and vegetarianism, and ever since then, I’ve had my work cut out for me!”. I would say there is a connection between the two movements, but I feel the point is missed. The connection is respect. A vegetarian or even more extreme version, a vegan who eats no meat or animal products, do so because they respect the animals. What a vegan wants for animals and what a feminist wants for women, or people in general, is equal respect. On page 13 ten statements are made about the feminist-vegetarian belief and the first statement is that meat eating societies gain male identified societies. Which I feel is only partly correct, that it is not what you eat, but what you think. It has become clear that men are also victims of our culture. Advertisements are being used to sexualize food, attracting men, making them feel they need that product or they are not a man, or not good enough. I personally never quite consciously thought this, but I can definitely see how the advertisements have made me feel I need to go get that burger to feel more manly. Again, it is not what you eat, but what you think, and we in our current society have forgotten what to think. Eating meat is not the issue, but the idea which is the papers premise that how we view meat is the issue. We have lost touch with where our food comes from and have lost respect for our food. In farming communities and remote villages still practicing their ancient believes, they celebrate their food. They will celebrate the harvest of crops, they will celebrate the respect of an animal with bloodletting ceremonies. They know how vital their cattle are and how important it is to give them respect. Our society has become overly masculine and we as a whole need to take a moment and realize masculinity and femininity are equally vital and should both be utilized. The pictures below not only make me feel disgusted that these companies have discovered they can so easily manipulate a man by making him think he needs to eat meat to feel a man, or the meat is sexy and give arousal to get you to buy their product, but also in the fact it disrespects animals and women in sexualizing them. We all know sex sells, and it is clear that it works due to the over sexualizing of many commercials. I think what really needs to occur is a new awakening. I feel the feminist movement can do that, they roughly believe from my understanding that all life needs to be recognized as important and treatment of all others needs to have standards. Cows should not be mass produced, but respectfully cared for till it is time to use them for food. As should the earth not be used as our personal resource, but with respect to the robust balance the earth and life provides. So to directly answer the three questions posed to me, women and animals are being objectified to make men feel they want a product they do not need to better sell goods. The sexualization of animals as womanly and sexualization of women is effective at getting products directed at men to sell. I would most importantly highlight that the consumer are the people allowing this type of advertising to occur as well as the companies doing the advertising and that the consumed are the women and animals being used as a means to make money, as well as those with the insecurities’ falling for the lies that the product will fulfill their desires.

Though the caption is opposing what the image depicts, the caption itself is inherently negative. The image shows a women in a meat grinder showing how women and meat are essentially the same thing. The caption though says women will no longer be seen as just meat. Which is good for women, but still allows for a way of thinking that animals/ food is just a piece of meat and not something to respect. A better slogan is are women will be respected like all organisms should be.

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One Response to Women Nature Association

  1. tflood1 says:

    I think you make a lot of great points, especially with the connection between feminism and being a vegetarian. I think the majority of feminists are not fighting to change society from one ran by predominately by men to one by women, rather for a world that shows them respect and a sense of dignity. Vegetarians take this respect for life form even further by respecting the Earth from which they came, that supports them, a general respect for life. Some of the older ads displayed looking at them now seem extremely distasteful, even seemingly malicious and cruel. For example, the hustler image you displayed, to me is a bit serial killer, hide the body and feed it to your in-laws, type of vibe to it. The other ad that comes to mind, perhaps you saw it, was the ad for a mans pants. The man is standing on a tiger skinned rug, that has the head of a woman, again giving a similar disturbing vibe. Even on a more interpretive look on the pieces, you see women being stepped on, nothing more than meat, only for domestic goods, things for men to enjoy even at the woman’s expense. These ad subliminally send messages to both sexes, to men it the sense they are above women, better than them and can walk all over them. For women, it is a sense that they are supposed to be handled by men and for men, as if they were born into society to please. I think an important aspect to also remember is who is producing these ads, large corporations with nothing more in mind than profit maximization. They will do almost anything to increase sales and attract customers. I think looking back at the ads tell a true reflection of society and the culture of the time, after all if the ads were not successful in a way they would not have run them and continued to push the image. I think this shift in advertising comes with the advancements women have made in the workplace, and thus the consumption of good, giving them market power. If tomorrow all women woke up and found Jeep had just put out an ad that they find distasteful many women my cease to buy Jeep, this could even have spill over into male community as well. Advertising like the ones we have been looking at can be very reflective on the values and ethics of where a culture is. We cans see that Americans still are deeply rooted in many of our stereotypes, but have become more open minded and respectful for of different beliefs, species, and ways of life.

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