Gloria Steinem
Gloria Steinem's piece "Sex, Lies, and Advertising" was a very interesting essay. I had never read any of Steinem's work, and I quite honestly did not, and still don't, know much about her, except that she is a feminist. I was very interested in hearing about the battle she had trying to get advertisers to change their way of thinking when it came to advertisements in women's magazines, particularly Ms magazine. I had no idea there were so many rules and regulations when it came to the placement of advertisements in magazines. Steinem used many examples of her quest for advertisers throughout her essay and this is what kept me interested. In addition I was able to relate to what Steinem was saying about the amount and quality of advertisements in women's magazines. Throughout Steinem's essay she uses great example that allow the reader to see how difficult it was to change the minds of company executives.
Steinem says, "Even "real" nonmodel women photographed for a women's magazine are usually made up, dressed in credited clothes, and retouched out of all reality" (265). My personal favorite was when Steinem contacted the executives at Lionel, a toy train company, she told them that little girls where writing in to complain that only little boys appeared on the toy box. Is not bad enough that the magazine is being taken over by ads, but why do these products have to be advertised over and over again in the same magazine? I also have a problem with the women that appear in women's magazines. I would be very interested in reading more of Steinem's work. I am sure many girls feel the same way as I once did and if more companies catered to this market, they would sell more products. " (265)I see this happen in other women's magazines repeatedly, it is very annoying. Simply flip through a copy of Vogue magazine, the entire issue is one big ad. This is a slap in the face to women. Inside were full-page ads for Samsara and Guerlain antiwrinkle cream. I used to read women's magazines everyday; my favorites included glamour and cosmopolitan. Is this company saying that girls are only going to enjoy a toy if it is pink? As a child I only played with "boy" toys. Many ads contains beautiful woman with a tiny bodies, perfect hair, and perfect skin; "perfect" everything. I absolutely loved toy cars, not because they were made and advertised for boys, but because they were a hell of a lot more fun than Barbies and dolls.
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Acceptance Essays
