1) Beach
Well the first picture I chose was a beer advertisement poster. It shows on the poster a beach scene in some Caribbean island paradise with a bunch hot dancing white women and some men hitting on them—and for some weird reason another female has beer strapped in her gun holsters.
Now it’s easy to see why this represents the American dream, for men: what man wouldn’t want to be partying on the beaches of Barbados or Jamaica, drinking Mariachi, grinding with hot women (some with beer strapped to their holsters?) for men it’s a paradise they would never ever want to wake up from.
Now it’s easy to see why this represents the American dream, for men: what man wouldn’t want to be partying on the beaches of Barbados or Jamaica, drinking Mariachi, grinding with hot women (some with beer strapped to their holsters?) for men it’s a paradise they would never ever want to wake up from.
And for women it’s basically the same thing; it’s a woman’s dream for the same reason as the men, but I’ll also add in one more thing; the women in this advertisement are not only dancing with men, and drinking alcohol, on a sunny beach in the Caribbean but if you look closely ( well actually not that closely)you’ll see that even their bodies are flawless. Women always strive for beauty and perfect-looking bodies and whatnot.
Now how does this create inequality? It puts a picture in everyone’s head that you’re economic standing is very low if you haven’t taken a trip or cruise where this is happening to you. This advertisement puts it in your head that Mariachi alcohol is so good that the only time you can drink it is at parties on the beach. Or at least that is what I get from this poster. I also come to this conclusion because every beer commercial is like this; either it involves beautiful women serving/drinking the beer, or it involves Caribbean beach parties with clear blue water and white sand.
http://www.fpusadailyplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/john_stamos.jpg
2) John Stamos
This is kind of funny. I picked this picture not so much for John Stamos himself, (although who doesn’t think this man isn’t gorgeous) but I chose this picture for the symbolism that John Stamos represents in every women’s pursuit of the American dream.
I will admit this isn’t an advertisement photo but more like a female equivalent of the Adriana Lima photo below which is technically the advertisement, I just didn’t want to be sexist and only explain the male’s perspective.
But anyways, with regards to the photo, it’s true that every woman wants that hunky, famous/rich, strapping, young man that will literally take their breath away, sweep them off their feet, and whisper sweet nothings in their ear. (same applies to men if they’re gay)
What John Stamos represents in America is that “perfect man” that all women want: perfect looks (Adonis), physique, charm, career /job(anything that makes money), income (a lot), and so on. It doesn’t mean every women wants john Stamos himself or anything, but that every women has their own ideal type of man that they wish they could have or be with (but unless your john Stamos yourself…. You’ll probably never attain said perfect person)
For men john Stamos represents the man you want to be (not literally of course) but you want to be the best, hottest, richest man your girl has ever met, right? But this causes an interesting inequality with men. Because of the media, for example vh1’s constant top 40 hottest male celebrities countdowns, many men feel like they all have to be “john Stamos” for women to find them attractive. It makes it difficult for people to see the attraction in themselves when they don’t look like any of the male celebrities voted “hottest” on the countdown list.
(P.S. if you caught the step brother’s john Stamos reference I give kudos to you.)
3) Ariana Lima
Now basically, Adriana is the male equivalent of the ‘John Stamos’ photo. This represents the male version of the American dream for all the reasons I listed above. Every man wants to have that hot Victoria secret Brazilian supermodel with good looks and a great charm and personality to match (which surprisingly Adriana actually does. o__O). this photo also just happens to be an advertisement for women’s lingerie and…stuff. (Obviously it Victoria’s secret). Basically the opposite of the john Stamos photo is that women strive to become perfect; more beautiful; more attractive, through clothes (or lack thereof) makeup, hair, workouts, eating, and even resorting to surgery for the “perfect Victoria’s secret model” look.
4) White 4-person family
One interesting thing about how I came about this photo is: as I was typing “American dream perfect family ads” or something along those lines, the first 2 pages of ads that I got were all the same: 4 person families: mommy, daddy, sissy, and junior….but what makes these particular ads perpetrate inequality is that all of the families were white/Caucasian/euro-descent hetero 2 kid families. There is nothing wrong with a white heterosexual family being the face of idealness, but what about the other 80 percent of the families that have adopted children, gay, or just non-white?
It can come off as subliminal racism that a black, Hispanic, Asian, Indian, mixed, gay, adopted family or otherwise are never shown in these “perfect family ads”. I would never see a family that resembles my own 5-person afro-French Caribbean, Creole- Portuguese, Italian, American Indian, Hispanic family, now would I?
It can come off as subliminal racism that a black, Hispanic, Asian, Indian, mixed, gay, adopted family or otherwise are never shown in these “perfect family ads”. I would never see a family that resembles my own 5-person afro-French Caribbean, Creole- Portuguese, Italian, American Indian, Hispanic family, now would I?
However if you don’t take the picture so literally, the American dream message of just being able to have a family I suppose is what you would see.
No comments:
Post a Comment