Free Essay

Women

In: English and Literature

Submitted By Princessambuh
Words 1388
Pages 6
Women Weight Loss Promotion Transitioning between the different trends is like a new driver trying to learn how to drive a stick shift. In the United States women have a fear of not looking their best or in style. As a result women turn to magazines to keep themselves updated on the latest fashion. Throughout America having a fit and slim body has been a popular trend. Magazines advertise dietary supplements and workouts to help encourage women to look thinner and get in better shape.
Magazines pull women in when women see weight loss supplements that are said to work. Women who are trying to achieve the body that is in style might pay more attention to an ad in the magazine other than women who are already meeting societies’ standards. Magazines show pictures of smaller women in their ads to help encourage larger women to get their bodies like the women in the magazine ads.The women in the ads are extremely pretty, trying to make other women jealous. The picture is also placed on the right side of the ad, that way when someone were to turn the page, the picture of the girl would be the first thing someone would see. That was to draw the attention to the girl of the ad. According to Andrew Mitchell, a professor of marketing at the University of Toronto, says, “Most advertisements contain visual elements, and many advertisements provide little product attribute information. The latter advertisements seem to be designed to either trigger an emotional reaction or portray visually the typical users brand. Currents models of persuasion, however, generally assume that attitude formation and change, and eventually behavior are based on the acquisition and retrieval of verbal information about the product” (12). Knowing that advertisers try to get emotional reactions from their readers is good information for magazine readers to have because when they look through magazines they will have an understanding of what advertisers are trying to do. When a reader feels emotional about what they read or saw in an advertisement the reader will know that advertisers put it there to get that certain reaction from them. An example of an ad that is promoting weight loss is an ad for the weight loss supplement called JetFule. In this ad a picture of a woman who is wearing spandex and a sports bra is present. Her legs and her abs show in the picture, and they look as if they have good muscle definition. She is also holding a kettle bell in the picture. A kettle bell is a piece of equipment that one uses while working out. The kettle bell shows that work has to be done to get the body that she has. The ad also says “The Well-Defined Woman Selects JetFule.” This is saying that if someone is well-defined or wish to be well-defined then this product will be chosen. JetFule uses the woman in their ad to catch the attention of female readers to show what kind of body that they can have if they used their product. However, with the kettle bell in the picture, it says that one must work out in order to get the results that are wanted. In the journal “Quality of Life Research” “Weight loss is associated with dramatic improvement in self-reported energy levels and an enhancement in ones ability to perform daily activities”(277).This journal article proves that when there are higher levels of energy and one has the ability to do everyday tasks, it has an impact on weight loss. Understanding that exercise is need to help weight loss should be known. However, many people rely on the weight loss supplements to help weight loss without adding exercise. Exercise will help burn off fat and when exercise and a weight loss supplements are combined, wanted results will appear. The JetFuel advertisement makes readers aware that exercise must be involved by making the kettle bell present in the ad.
Also, around the bottles of each type of Jetfuel pills, are different background pictures to describe what each pill does. For example, around the “superburn” pill bottle a background that looks like fire, represents the burning of fat. And around the “AQX” pill bottle, a water background is present to represent getting rid of excess water weight. The ad shows the different types of supplements that can be taken so that possibly one of them will target what the consumer wants and is looking for. According to Sofia Bratu, a student at SpiruHaret University claims, “When persuasive appeals are covert and audiences are unwary, they can be manipulated or deceived by hidden consumption cues, and focuses on the hidden persuasions of product placement” (333).
Another product that tries to achieve the same goals is a product called FitMiss. In this magazine ad the name of the product is in the colors black and pink. The color pink is put there to target the women because it’s more of a feminine color. The general stereotype for girls is that their favorite color is pink. This is to draw the attention of women as soon as they turn the page to their ad. This product wants women to pay attention to their ad, and buy having colors that generally appeal to women they will achieve their goal.
The woman that is present in the ad is dressed in a pink sports bra and black spandex. She has got a slim and fit body that meets societies standards. In the picture, certain parts of the body were shadowed and others were not such as her lower parts of her legs. The areas that are not shadowed draw more attention because they can be seen. The parts of her body that can be seen are the parts that most women desire, a thin tight stomach and toned muscular legs. M. Khawaja and R.A. Afifi-Soweid, health professors at the University of Beirut, states in their article that “An increasing proportion of Lebanese adolescents considers thinness a marker of female beauty. Young urban women almost everywhere now value once a Western phenomenon extreme thinness, because of the propagation of thin models by global media” (352) Women throughout the world are trying to achieve the slim body that society is demanding. Young women feel as though they aren’t pretty if they aren’t fitting in with the trend. Women should be aware that advertisers use thin models in ads to help promote thinness.
The two weight loss supplement ads use thin, healthy looking women to help advertise because they want other women across the country to see what they could have. Media is always trying to find a way to advertise the latest trends and encourage others to follow along. Rae Langford, an assistant professor at Texas Woman’s University School of Nursing says, “Pick up any newspaper or magazine, and see how advertisements promoting “quick weight loss” abound. In our society, thin is in, and fat is regarded as a stigma. Fat people are often ostracized at social functions, find discrimination in the job market, and are somehow viewed as inferior or of lesser character due to a “lack of willpower” (556) With the change in trends, people treat others differently if they are not following along with the trend. Being thin is the current trend; therefore, those who aren’t following within the trend get criticized. The two newspaper ads follow along with the promotion of thinness, and many other advertisements do also.
The desires and standards of our society change throughout the years. The women of today are currently struggling to achieve the thin and fit body that society thinks is the best. In magazines and television ads, thin healthy looking models are present to demonstrate what women should look like. Due to the urge of looking like a model, many women have become anorexic. Therefore, ads for weight loss supplements and miniature workouts started showing up in magazines. The ads have thin and muscular women to show that work should be done to lose weight, but the supplement was there to help. Ads show different types of supplements that target different problems to help make their chances of getting business better. And they also choose colors that are more appealing to the female gender.

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Power of Women

...The Power of Women In “The Company of Wolves”, by Angela Carter, women posses a quality that no one can compete with. This quality is her sexuality and beauty. According to Carter, men are simple and powerless when it comes to women’s beauty. Their carnal desires and passions come out and weaken them which turns them into something animalistic giving the woman the upper hand as the human. Women can then use this and control their desirability yielding it against men to defeat them in times of danger or need. In the beginning of “The Company of Wolves”, Carter centers on the male’s similarity to wolves. Carter paints an image for her readers by using phrases such as “starveling ribs, slavering jaws, and lolling tongue” (625, Carter). These phrases are all used to stress the starvation or more the desperation of wolves hunting for prey. When the “slavering jaws” (625), “lolling tongue” (625), starveling ribs are put together a beast is created in that every ounce of their being is concentrated to finding something that will satisfy their hunger. Every detail including the wolf’s grizzly features is meant to help the reader picture the sometimes excessive masculinity the beast inside men. However even this masculinity, which is usually related to power and dominance is be easily undertaken by the feminine nature of a beautiful, young woman. Throughout the story the young girl begins to transition to womanhood. And this womanhood enables her to bed the beast of a man who...

Words: 854 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Larkin and Portrayal of Women

...“Larkin rarely presents women in a positive light” In the light of this statement, compare the ways in which Larkin writes about women in his poems. In many of Larkin’s poems, his presentation of women is often in a negative light. However, In Wild Oats, Broadcast and Talking in Bed it can be interpreted that Larkin portrays women in both a positive and negative light. For example in Wild Oats, Larkin seems to visually prefer the ‘bosomy rose’, however he goes out with the ‘friend in specs’, in Broadcast he describes his love for the woman compared with his love of music, and in Sunny Prestatyn he compares the vandalism of the poster girl with rape. In Wild Oats it can be interpreted that Larkin does present women in a positive light, as he describes the woman as a ‘bosomy English rose’. Here, Larkin uses a ‘rose’ to symbolise the woman, suggesting that Larkin finds her exceedingly beautiful and attractive; portraying women in a positive light as he appreciates and recognises their beauty. However, a contrast is established between the derogatory choice of word ‘bosomy’ and ‘rose’, which implies Larkin has a sexualised view of women, and that he sees them as sexual objects, therefore negatively portraying women. Also, Larkin describes ‘the friend in specs’ as being someone he could talk to. This is a negative portrayal of women as it suggests that she is inferior to the ‘bosomy rose’, and it also suggests Larkin is misogynist as he’s only talking to the ‘friend in specs’...

Words: 1010 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Sexualization of Women and Girls

...Sexualization of Girls and Women in the United States: A Growing Epidemic Kayla Johnson Chamberlain College of Nursing Sexualization of Girls and Women in the United States: A Growing Epidemic Brittany, a freshman in High School arrives at her home after school and turns on the T.V to watch MTV music videos. She watches the T.V. as half naked girls dance in the background of male singers. She picks up her phone to get on Instagram where she scrolls through images of famous women like Rhianna and Kim Kardashian who post scantily clad images of their bodies. Brittany thinks to herself, “I wish that I looked like these girls, maybe if I looked more like them the boys at school would like me more”. Brittany’s mother gets home from work and puts dinner on the dining room table. Brittany sits down and eats only a portion of her meal because in the back of her mind she is still feeling as though her own body is inadequate, she could probably lose more weight and if only she had bigger boobs and longer legs, maybe then she would feel better about herself. She lies in bed that night and wishes that she had a better body so that she could feel beautiful and happy. If only she knew that thousands of other girls were feeling the same way, maybe she would realize that the issue isn’t her own body- the issue is the cultural emphasis on female sexualization that has become a norm in our society. Unfortunately girls all over the world are struggling with self-confidence related to...

Words: 3132 - Pages: 13

Free Essay

Profession for Women Full Text

...PROFESSIONS FOR WOMEN by Virginia Woolf “Professions for Women” is an abbreviated version of the speech Virginia Woolf delivered before a branch of the National Society for Women’s Service on January 21, 1931; it was published posthumously in The Death of the Moth and Other Essays. On the day before the speech, she wrote in her diary: “I have this moment, while having my bath, conceived an entire new book—a sequel to a Room of One’s Own—about the sexual life of women: to be called Professions for Women perhaps—Lord how exciting!” More than a year and a half later, on October 11, 1932, Virginia Woolf began to write her new book: “THE PARGITERS: An Essay based upon a paper read to the London/National Society for women’s service.” “The Pargiters” evolved into The Years and was published in 1937. The book that eventually did become the sequel to A Room of One’s Own was Three Guineas (1938), and its first working title was “Professions for Women.” The essay printed here concentrates on that Victorian phantom known as the Angel in the House (borrowed from Coventry Patmore’s poem celebrating domestic bliss)—that selfless, sacrificial woman in the nineteenth century whose sole purpose in life was to soothe, to flatter, and to comfort the male half of the world’s population. “Killing the Angel in the House,” wrote Virginia Woolf, “was part of the occupation of a woman writer.” That has proved to be a prophetic statement, for today, not only in the domain of letters, but in the entire...

Words: 2743 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

Women for Women

...This is a support group for women who are struggling to cope because of domestic violence. It is a closed group that will run for a certain amount of sessions before starting a new group. This group will consist of 4 to 12 women of any age, preferably with children, but can include any kind of circumstance. All ethnicities or religious affiliations are welcomed, in fact diversity is appreciated. We only ask that you come with an open mind and an open heart. This group will conduct several support groups to help survivors cope with the confusion, anger and fear often experienced after episodes of sexual assault and domestic violence. These groups enable survivors to share their experiences, feelings and provide others and themselves with support to overcome their fears and feelings of isolation. The purpose of this group is to find a commonality among all members and gain a sense of empowerment and unification through discussions and self disclosure. These sessions will be held at the Poudre Valley Hospital on the basement floor in room 111 from 5 to 6 pm. It will be available every second and fourth Tuesday of each month, two sessions per month, for 6 months. A facilitator, Charli Zafarana, will be the leader of the sessions and will also be available outside of sessions. Charli will provide her contact information after the first session. Through the 12 sessions we will discuss and share personal stories, barriers and obstacles, current struggles, how to find empowerment...

Words: 367 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Defying Expectations Of Women In Little Women

...Defying Expectations From A Young Age In the novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, the four March girls are all close in age and relation but so different when it comes to their personalities and attitudes. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy are all loving sisters who journey from adolescence into womanhood experiencing many captivating moments along the way. Jo, unlike her “prim and proper” sisters, goes about life in a very different way than that of a typical nineteenth century woman. She recognizes her disparities and strives to be different when she says, “I want to do something splendid...something heroic or wonderful that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead. I don’t know what, but I’m on the watch for it and mean to astonish you all someday”...

Words: 773 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Women Empowerment

...2. Women Empowerment in Modern India Dr. Shruti Singh For centuries women were not treated equal to men in many ways. They were not allowed to own property, they did not have a Share in the property of their parents, they had no voting rights, and they had no freedom to choose their work or job and so on. Gender inequality has been part and parcel of an accepted male-dominated Indian society throughout history. Women were expected to be bound to the house, while men went out and worked. This division of labor was one of the major reasons why certain evils like 'Sati Pratha', ‘PardahSystem', 'Child Marriage', 'Dowry System', etc. took birth in our society. The traditional Indian mentality assumes that the place of women is mainly concentrated to the household activities like kitchen work and upbringing of the children. There is systematic discrimination against women economically, socially, politically and culturally more so, in India. These discriminations & disabilities are practiced at all levels day in & day out. Women Empowerment is the ability of women to exercise full control over their actions. This means control over material assets, intellectual resources and even over their ideologies. It involves, at the psychological level, women's ability to assert them which has, so far, been constricted by the 'gender roles' assigned to them especially in a culture like India which resists changes. This essay throws light upon the different challenges that are faced by Indian...

Words: 3533 - Pages: 15

Free Essay

Empowering Women

...debate on women, their rights, their future and their plight has been going on. As time changed, women also changed but the issue of conflict remains the same. In this regard many oppose the changes and many accept it. This essay will discuss the issues that are surrounding the empowerment of women. The implementation of women empowerment has both negative and positive aspects. There can be many disadvantages of empowering women. Firstly, many people still have the traditional perception that the woman's place in the society is her home. Empowering women would mean to allow her to leave her comfort zone and indulge in activities that could pollute her spiritually, emotionally and physically. A woman’s most precious possession is her virginity (Hudson, 1977). Most Islamic countries still follow this norm. Therefore, many at times women might not be given a fair chance to go out in the society to fulfill their dreams, socialize or to even voice out their opinions. For example; a Muslim woman is denied the right to choose her husband, report of abuse and is even excluded from mosques due to certain Islamic principles (Issues Of Concern For Muslim Women, 1995). As such, this can prove to be a little difficult for women living in some Islamic countries to totally move away from their cultural values. Secondly, lack of education for rural women restricts women from knowing their legal rights and also from getting involved in activities outside the home. In some areas women are still...

Words: 936 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Women Reservation

...Policy brief series: No. 3; 2008 July CLRA Policy Brief for Parliamentarians Women’s Reservation A Long Delayed and a Much Needed Step “Achieving the goal of equal participation of women and men in decision making will provide a balance that more accurately reflects the composition of society and is needed in order to strengthen democracy and promote its proper functioning… Without the active participation of women and the incorporation of women's perspectives at all levels of decision-making, the goals of equality, development and peace cannot be achieved.” - Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 1995: Article 181 Introduction Women represent more than half of the world's population and just less than half of the global electorate. Nevertheless, women constitute a marginal proportion of representatives in the world's legislative bodies. In 2008, the average rate of female representation in national parliaments stands at a meagre 18 per cent. India has of yet managed notably limited success in rectifying these imbalances, with women currently holding only 8 per cent of parliamentary seats. Although India was one of the first democratic nations to grant women the vote, women are neither represented in the legislative spaces nor contributing towards the formation of national laws. After twelve years of the Women's Reservation Bill lying in limbo amid intermittent and embarrassingly hot-headed scenes in the House, it was finally introduced in the Rajya Sabha during...

Words: 6775 - Pages: 28

Free Essay

Comfort Women

...Writ 1301 The Tears of Korean Comfort Women After Chosun (the former name of Korea) was invaded by Japan in 1910, Korean women were forcibly sent to Japan as comfort women: sex slaves of the Japanese military. ‘Comfort woman’ is a euphemism for a female sexual slave to the Japanese Imperial Army before and during World War II. The Japanese military recruited young and unmarried Asian women to join the military, then sent them to brothels in China and other Asian and Pacific countries in order to “comfort” Japanese soldiers. One of the few surviving Korean comfort women, Soon-duk Kim, gave the following testimony to Sangmie Choi Schellstede, the editor of the book, Comfort Women Speak: Testimony by Sex Slaves of the Japanese Military: “I was promised a job as a military nurse…[however, the Japan military took us to] a ruined village of Shanghai. Rooms were divided into tiny cubicles. Each of our fifty girls was divided to one of these cubicles. Now this house became a brothel, and we were sex slaves in it” (38). Kim was wounded due to numerous rape. She explained about the horrible remedy she received: “One day our manager gave me packets of black powder to take once a day…[But] after I used it several times, he then told me the powder was made from a leg of a Chinese soldier’s corpse” (38). This experience is not limited to Kim. Approximately 200,000 Korean women suffered as sex slaves of Japan’s military system before and during the World War II. Today, however, not many...

Words: 3041 - Pages: 13

Premium Essay

Little Women

...her participation in the Civil War. Abate discusses how the Civil War is a metaphor for Jo March’s experiences in the novel, Little Women. Foote, Stephanie. "Resentful Little Women: Gender And Class Feeling In Louisa May Alcott." College Literature 32.1 (2005): 63-85. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 2 Nov. 2014. In this article, Foote examines class and gender in the novel Little Women. The first section in the article discusses anger and resentment. Details how the girls in the novel deal with gender, anger, and repression. The home is a safeguard for the March girls. The second section discusses the gender roles learned at home and the March girls going out into the world. The failures and successes, and how the roles in the family set their roles in society. Foote writes how Jo’s ambiguousness for society made it harder for her to become accepted in society, and as Meg’s love of the social graces gave her an open door for her future. Amy’s domestic life choices make her the first sister to marry, and how Mrs. March speaks of hoping her daughters move up in class as they enter into society. The third section Foote focuses on the distinctive difference in the classes the three sisters live. How they find love and how each marriage is so very much different. Grasso, Linda. "Louisa May Alcott's 'Magic Inkstand': Little Women, Feminism, And The Myth Of Regeneration." Frontiers:...

Words: 792 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Little Women

...Little Women Little Women was written in 1868-1869, the setting is New England in the 19th Century during and after the Civil War. The story begins at Christmas time. The girl’s father is away in the war. It is Christmas and there are memories of better times. But this Christmas their father is in the war and they have no means of support and very little money. There will be no presents and the beautiful breakfast they had put together is given away to a family who has no food. It is not a happy time for the sisters and their mother, who they call Marmee. The main characters are the March sisters. The oldest sister is Meg. She is kind, responsible and very moral. She watches out for her younger sisters and makes sure they do not act inappropriately. She is very aware of social expectations for them as young women of the time. Josephine March is the second oldest sister and is referred to as Jo. She is the protagonist of the novel and her character is probably based on the author, Louisa May Alcott herself. Jo has a temper and is outspoken. She is very intelligent and wants to be a writer. Beth is the third sister and is very shy and reserved. She has a very caring and tender personality and loves to play the piano. Amy is the youngest sister. She is very beautiful and artistic and dreams of marrying a wealthy man who will take care of her. Her character serves as a foil for Jo’s character. Amy wishes and dreams of marrying a wealthy man and being taken care...

Words: 1461 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Women in Combat

...WOMEN IN COMBAT Abstract As the band is lifted on women serving in combat, some would say it will affect our military readiness as a whole. Through research this paper will show that all these misconceptions of women not being cut out to serve in combat zones are just that a misconceptions. This paper will also discuss physical standards, the fact that women have already seen combat, and whether women are able to make the same decisions as men in stressful combat situations. WOMEN IN COMBAT Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will lift a longstanding ban on women serving in combat, according to senior defense officials. The services have until this May to come up with a plan to implement the change, according to a Defense Department official. "To implement these initiatives successfully and without sacrificing our war- fighting capability or the trust of the American people, we will need time to get it right," he said in the memo, referring to the 2016 horizon (Martinez, 2013). The new order, signed Thursday by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, will open as many as 237,000 new jobs to women. Women comprise about 14% of the 1.4 million active military personnel (Michaels, Vanden Brook, 2013). (See Appendix A, photo 1.) During the Iraq War, 4,475 U.S. service members were killed and 32,220 were wounded; in Afghanistan, 2,165 have been killed and 18,230 wounded through Feb. 5, 2013. Among service members deployed in these conflicts, 103,792 were diagnosed with post-traumatic...

Words: 1211 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Women Crime

...7/20/2014 Crime Against Women In India By Ajay Kumar Ranjan Like Share 24 Home Printer Friendly Version Crime Against Women In India By Ajay Kumar Ranjan 30 January, 2013 Countercurrents.org “A society that is unable to respect, protect and nurture its women and children loses its moral moorings Support Us Popularise CC Join News Letter CounterSolutions CounterImages CounterVideos Editor's Picks Press Releases Action Alert Feed Burner Read CC In Your Own Language Bradley Manning India Burning Mumbai Terror Financial Crisis Iraq AfPak War Peak Oil Globalisation Localism Alternative Energy Climate Change US Imperialism US Elections Palestine Latin America Communalism Gender/Feminism Dalit Humanrights Economy India-pakistan Kashmir Environment and runs adrift.” (The Hindu- Opinion Sept, 15 2012 ) Introduction: Centuries have come, and centuries have gone, but the plight of women is not likely to change. T ime has helplessly watched women suffering in the form of discrimination, oppression, exploitation, degradation, aggression, humiliation . In Indian society, woman occupies a vital position and venerable place. The Vedas glorified women as the mother, the creator, one who gives life and worshipped her as a ‘Devi' or Goddess. But their glorification was rather mythical for at the same time, in India women found herself totally suppressed and subjugated in a patriarchal society. Indian women through the countries remained subjugated and oppressed because society...

Words: 2158 - Pages: 9

Free Essay

Women in India

...as his abuse of the better half of humanity, the female sex”-Gandhi. The struggle women face for equality is a battle fought all over the world, but especially so in India. India was recently rated the worst place in the world to be a woman, defeating Afghanistan and Somalia. Women of India struggle to survive at every age from birth onward, facing hardships of neglect, rape, murder, poor healthcare and diet, violence, abuse, prejudice, and discrimination. The notion that Indian men have a hatred for women has really hurt India’s economy. Female tourist have become scared and turned off by the idea of visiting the country.   India is the world’s largest democracy yet women there are treated as lesser beings. India has had women as prime ministers, a president, and other high ranking political positions and still they struggle to fight for equal rights for its women. This is ironic because many current politicians and powerful people in India are women. Although many politicians have made promises to change the poor treatment of their women little change has been seen. Many politicians in office currently have been charged with crimes against women as well. People are standing up to their politicians and government and letting their voices be heard.   India has had an up and down battle with gender equality through the ages. It is believed that in ancient India women were equal to men, and women had many freedoms they now are deprived of such as the right to marry who they wished...

Words: 4255 - Pages: 18