Week 3 analysis
History 2480
Robert Ganton
Looking at the four articles posted for week three’s readings the common thing among all the articles is the projected ideal body type that has been enforced by pop culture and Hollywood. This ideal body has been portrayed in many different ways throughout the years of cinematography and I was already aware of its presence with in society and how it has affected our culture as a whole. This idea of the ideal body type affects everyone whether they know it or not or are willing to admit it to themselves. The reason why this is true is because look at what we consider to be attractive in the twenty-first century compared to the twentieth.
For both men and women that ideal body image has drastically changed, and even though “few women hold positions of power…”[1] While this quote is short and incomplete it is still valid because not many women are in positions of power to begin with, and even if sexism did not play a pivotal role in some job position selection processes it still goes without saying that this matter of power struggle would still exist. The reason being is that some employers do not wish to higher women not out of disrespect but out of fear of pregnancy that would lead to an inevitable maternity leave. Although I have diverted from my main argument my point still remains the same and it is “ nothing is ever fair,” and if it was this placement of beautification on men and women would also strain them because not everyone is capable of a six-pack ab body.
While this idea of the ideal body type for everyone is not possible for us in the real world, animation companies have only more recently started branching out with their human character development. Movies like Frozen, Pocahontas, Brave, etc. all reinforce that ideal body ideal, and it is children that see these movies that later find that what they have seen their entire lives might not be possible for them to achieve. The reason is that our lives are dictated by genetics and these genetics do dictate what you will be able to achieve, but also these princess also set up another problem. That problem is the princess complex, this complex has lasted for years; that the guy should treat her like a princess, she must be treated like royalty around her friends, she deserves the best and only the best. The truth is that not everyone deserves the best and not everyone gets that happily ever after with their first love. Even then we always do not deserve what we want its whether we have worked for what we earned that makes it real.
Now reading through this in its full entirety it may seem like I have not considered all the readings, but the truth is I have its because I look at the world without those rose coloured glasses and expect the worse hoping for the best. Everything most of these articles have stated I’m more than painfully aware that this world has become tainted with these false ideals, and while I would like to argue that I am above them I find that even they have taken root in my life. Men and women look for what is at face value first (how attractive you are) after that we start to talk based of criteria that we have predetermined to fit within an acceptable limit to what we want to be embodied within our partner. Now while not everything is seen in these criteria and there are plenty of surprises that can be had from what we consider to be “The One,” there is no denying that we still force people to jump through hoops to impress us. These articles as a whole have only reminded me that everyone can be shallow.
End notes
Tuchman, “Women’s Depiction by the Mass Media,” Signs, 4,3 (Spring, 1979): 531.
Works cited
Tuchman, “Women’s Depiction by the Mass Media,” Signs, 4, 3 (Spring, 1979): 528-542
[1] Tuchman, “Women’s Depiction by the Mass Media,” Signs, 4,3 (Spring, 1979): 531.