Bordo’s Second Reading Questions

*1. Susan Bordo’s lengthy essay certainly emphasizes her own opinions and reactions as well as the ideas of others. I found that her essay was prolonged at certain times, especially ones in which she emphasized a lot of emotion. For example, one of her longer segments, Male Decorativeness in Cultural Perspective focuses on the history of male representations in the media. She discusses the emergence of the middle class in the nineteenth century. She then goes into World War II and how independence is celebrated in women, thus creating the notion that “men act” and “women appear”. She finally discusses the issue of emancipation of African Americans and how their styles were incorporated into advertisements. This section seemed very informative, yet still emphasized Bordo’s opinions. In this segment, Bordo also shifts direction many times. Although the essay is rather extensive, it is broken down into subsections, then further broken down, as in the case of the history of male decorativeness. This is a way in which Bordo can organize her text into a comprehensive essay, rather than a blog of ideas. This type of relief to the text worked for me because it kept my attention. However, I did think her points were a little overstated in areas. this strategy of more rahter than less can be adaptable to writing. I suport this because a point can be over emphasized through repetition and example after example, as in Bordo’s essay. However, if a point is under emphasized and not enough support is presented to back it up , the argument may not be clearly understood or may be not be proved as a viable argument.

*2. Bordo’s essays are divided into many subsections. I noticed that she tended to start the sections with an argument or point she is trying ot make. Bordo also asks a lot of questions when discussing her argument. “How do male bodies in the ads speak to us nowadays?”…”Are American males just an anomalous species?” Bordo further emphasizes her point by expressing how the ad made her feel or what her reaction was to a particular idea. The ads seem to be arranged in a way that further emphasizes the previous subsections. For example, the first section discusses basically how men are displayed as sex symbols and the following section, Thanks Calvin, continues this argument by saying that the emergence of the new age of sexuality in ads was implemented by Calvin Klein. She further states that he did this in part due to his bisexuality that led him to explore the male body as a symbol of advertisement. Then the argument arises of the gayness of ads and how men are perceived in feminite ways. Therefore, through this example of how Bordo’s essay is organized, the reader can gain a basic insight into Bordo’s thoughts as well as a more general understanding of how she came to this assumption, which is attainable through pictures, and outright observations. The pace and rhythm of the text seems to be flowing, and the attitude is very cinical. The slowest section would be the backround and history section and the loudest would be the places where Bordo’s attitude becomes very passionate and she poses questions and concerns about certain ads. These “loud” aspects of the essay are placed throughout the text, not in one general area. This ads a dimension to the essay that makes it not so rigid and historical.

*3. Subject Postition: (affected by) gender, race, ethnicity, age, stereotypes, culture, religion, education, social class, beliefs, pre-conceived notions (symbolic complex)…etc.

All of these examples show how the dysjunction between self-conception and external judgement can be harsh. Bordo is most convincing when she proposes examples like a black man walking down a street and a white woman clutches her purse. My own subject positon does affect how I view others in society. I may look at a magazine ad and purchase a specific shampoo because the actress on the cover is of high class and of attractive appearance. “We may all have felt shame…”, Bordo states. I strongly agree with this idea because I have learned to imitate and act on ideas and images in the media, and I have seen people doing the same thing.

*4. (See my previous blog on the “Coca-Cola” advertisement!)

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