Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body by Susan Bordo - Essay Example

Technology has played a vital role in the evolution of advertisements, and television, radio, print media, LED screens etc are the most readily and widely accepted sources of advertisements. The studies conducted on consumer behavioral psychology have given marketers a boost in tackling their consumers. Basic human needs and desires can be a very effective accelerator for marketing since they grab attention more easily. The primary trends in advertisements that Bordo talks about in “Beauty (Re)discovers the male body” are of clothing and fashion.

These two goods have found their most successful marketing approach which is to tell the consumer what is beautiful and what is not. The advertisements of these two products have primarily changed the perception of beauty and that can be observed in the recent years. The concept of masculinity has shifted in the recent years. Once the Marlboro described masculinity as tough, rough and calm in its advertisements, now masculinity is more associated with the white collar look. The role of genders in advertisemnts has changed in a peculiar sense.

The essence has been the same. The portrayal of men and women has been for the same purpose but it has changed its mode and approach. The aim has been to provide the consumer with a unique identity and for that the consumer can be convinced of what identity he/she wants. Self image has become increasingly important over the last two decades and this self image is primarily related to the appeal their appearances produce to other people. The desire to look like someone else and the desire to have someone else is in essence the reason for the war of the sexes.

The video commercial of Calvin Klein underwear X can be an ideal depiction of objectification of men. The commercial stars four male models with seemingly perfect bodies; three of them white and one black. The commercial is in black and white and the models seem to be oiled up. Each guy addresses the viewers individually in his underwear. Almost all the underwear that they are wearing highlights the outline of their penises. The commercial starts with one model calling the viewers. After the first model makes his statement, the camera shifts to the next model and after he makes his statement the camera shifts to the third models and this is how the advertisement continues showing all four models addressing the viewers in a cycle.

All four male models are extremely confident and blunt. They convey confidence, through an image they portray, that anyone can succumb to their sexual appeal. The models have stiff but not exactly Schwarzenegger bodies. For convenience in visualizing the advertisement, the advertisement can be broken down into parts. In the first part of the commercial each model asks the viewers if they want to see his penis. Though the word “penis” itself is censored, the audience, as is evidently intended by the advertisement’s producers, can well make it out.

In the second part the models assert that the viewers want to see their penises. They are shown to be so good at reading the minds of people from their experience that they know for sure that the viewers want to see their penises. One of the models asks the viewers to look at his face not at his crotch. In the second part of the commercial one of the models makes a bargain for showing his penis. His statement sounds like “