When this assingment came up a recent magazaine cover immediately came to mind . I thought of the Vogue magazine cover featurig NBA basketball player Lebron James and Model Giselle Bunchen with the headline Shape Issue Secrets of The Best Body . When I saw this it entails many of the isms that come with society and studied in this course . The main points of this magazine cover is the racism,sexism ,and weightism .
The magazine cover shows a black male basketball player Lebron James clutching a white female model Giselle Bunchen by the waist . At first glance one just sees the sports world and celebrity world come together on a magazine cover but theres racial undertones . In the picture Lebron James is shown with a huge grinning holding Giselle , the add was compared to King Kong and shows Lebron being gorilla like. This also perpetuates the black man wanting white women. Its shows him being animal like and the white women being hopeless or attacked . This shows that being Black is “not a” and being animal like while being white is being”a” and normal or non animalike . (Womens Lives11-12)
This cover is also sexist , it shows the man being gorilla like and the women smiling being docile. When one ignores the race factor which is so hard it can show the blatant use of sexism in this ad. In the chapter on patriarchy it talks about we must recoginze that we participate in the system to fix the system . She is particpating by showing that she is enjoying being rescued by this big man . It shows that this women is helpless and needs to be rescued by the man . This was one of many choices and the other choices didn’t show the differences between them and focus on the both of them not the differences between the woman and the Man.(Patriarchy 65-73)
Last , the cover adresses the “secrets of the best body “ it features other athletes and models and their advice. This cover perpetuates the sterotype of what is beauty and how we must have this certain body image. This is what the article “Body Politic” talks about it talks about how this image of beauty is in the media. The women is slender ,tall, blonde and has blonde and flowing hair. The man is muscular ,tall and aggressive. This article also says “best body” meaning if ur not this you should strive to be this ideal . This is A which is the Best Body and if your’e not this you are not the Best Body so you are not a.(Womens Lives 11-12)
This magazine cover the many isms discuessed in class , sexism,racism and beautis. This cover clearly shows the undertones of the perpetuation of stereotypes and how one is “a” and not A . We must change this in the media such as it was discussed in class.
http://www.ideagrove.com/blog/uploaded_images/lebron-james-giselle-king-k-788885.jpg
Works cited
Patriarchy The System pg 65-73
Vogue Cover April 2008
Women Lives pg 11-12
Feb 8, 2010
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