Hunger as Ideology
In “Hunger as Ideology” Susan Bordo observes closely women and their constant
obsession with weight control and the gender ideologies present in the food advertisment.
Girls learn at a young age that being slim is beautiful and they start thinking about tricks on
how to achieve that beauty. Media knows that women like “control “and commercials use this
word a lot, appealing to an audience who feels this lack of control, teaching them that one
easy way to get what you want is using your sex appeal.
With a lot of relevant examples Bordo is focusing on locating gender disparities in
advertising and the effects that these commercials have on women body, behavior and
psychology. In the first paragraph Susan Bordo introduces us to a commercial where two little girls
have a quite disturbing conversation about what is beauty ”Your mom is so slim, so beautiful!
Does she eat?” Even from a young age girls learn that the way they look is directly connected
to the amount of food they eat.”Silly, just not so much”. The FiberThin commercial is trying to
create envy between women ”Aren’t you jealous?” and then also offers a solution to this
problem ”Not if I know her secrets.” Today even after we learned that these kind of
commercials influences girls to have eating disorders we can still find the following ads like:
The first picture is advertising a weight lose program, kids get a clear message
that in order to feel good you have to be skinny. The second picture is an ad for a famous
brand name and even if it does not say anything about being skinny it is hard to miss how tiny
the model is. As grown ups we know that this is not real and it still influences us, imagine
what an influence has on children who look up to movie stars and models. This is how eating
disorders start and it looks like not much has changed since Bordo first criticised
commercials.
Women have been fighting for their rights for a long time, they want to be
obsession with weight control and the gender ideologies present in the food advertisment.
Girls learn at a young age that being slim is beautiful and they start thinking about tricks on
how to achieve that beauty. Media knows that women like “control “and commercials use this
word a lot, appealing to an audience who feels this lack of control, teaching them that one
easy way to get what you want is using your sex appeal.
With a lot of relevant examples Bordo is focusing on locating gender disparities in
advertising and the effects that these commercials have on women body, behavior and
psychology. In the first paragraph Susan Bordo introduces us to a commercial where two little girls
have a quite disturbing conversation about what is beauty ”Your mom is so slim, so beautiful!
Does she eat?” Even from a young age girls learn that the way they look is directly connected
to the amount of food they eat.”Silly, just not so much”. The FiberThin commercial is trying to
create envy between women ”Aren’t you jealous?” and then also offers a solution to this
problem ”Not if I know her secrets.” Today even after we learned that these kind of
commercials influences girls to have eating disorders we can still find the following ads like:
The first picture is advertising a weight lose program, kids get a clear message
that in order to feel good you have to be skinny. The second picture is an ad for a famous
brand name and even if it does not say anything about being skinny it is hard to miss how tiny
the model is. As grown ups we know that this is not real and it still influences us, imagine
what an influence has on children who look up to movie stars and models. This is how eating
disorders start and it looks like not much has changed since Bordo first criticised
commercials.
Women have been fighting for their rights for a long time, they want to be