Advertisement Is to Speak Both

¶ … advertisement is to speak both to a general population and directly to an individual at the same time. Image and words play an important part in conveying the message. Susan Bordo focuses more on products for sale and how the male models are displayed in these advertisements and what that is saying about the male body in today's time.

But I see advertisement much broader than that of which Bordo touches on in her essay "(Re)discovering the Male Body." Although she has found that modeling has become an industry of labels (like race, gender, class, and sexual orientation) that has not always been the case. Men had always been dominating figures throughout human history. "It seems that it has been intolerable, unthinkable for male evolutionary theorists to imagine the bodies of their male ancestors being on display, sized up, dependent on selection (or rejection) by female hominids," (Bordo 135).

It has always been women on display for men to look at. But recently men too have entered that reel of modeling. Bordo asks a question, "How do male bodies in ads speak to us nowadays?" (145). One of the advertisements Bordo uses in her essay is the Calvin Klein ad titled "Escape." This ad shows a man leaning against a wall his knees between the legs of the woman who is pressed against him.

Both man and woman seem to be in an erotic embrace, and each intently absorbed in the other. Bordo writes, "face-off' ads are pretty traditional…one might even say primal-in their conception of masculinity….the first imperative of the 'boy code' is to never reveal weakness, pretend to be confident even though you may be scared. Dare others to challenge your position" (147). I agree with Bordo in that some ads with the 'face-off' approach present some ties of male dominance that we (men) cannot let go of.

However, I do not see this ad as traditional, because the model has no 'face-off' stance here; the model is clearly absorbed in the other, and it is the couple as a whole who seem to be acting in unison in this image. This quality makes this ad capable of appealing to a wide group of people as it incorporates various subject positions (like class, gender, sexual orientation, and age).

It appeals to straight men who want to be like the model and to straight woman who would love to be "taken" sexually by a man like this. Even gay men too may see it the same way as straight women. *Rewrite using new image* USE THIS ONE So with Bordo focusing on advertisements, I decided instead to broaden her focus and get away from product advertisements. I chose to look at propaganda, specifically a North Korean Anti-American propaganda picture.

I found the picture online at www.theoriens.com, under Anti-American propaganda. If you go to this site you will see a whole slew of Anti-American pictures, including comments left by people. These comments really gave you a sense of how perspective really plays a very important role in how someone interprets something. One comment by Truth stated, "Pictures are pretty close to reality. Just look at the leaked films of American soldiers sending hellfire robots on innocent civilians.

Why is this less true than hammering nails in the head of people?" Peter's response to whether the picture is true or not said, "Why not? Americans believe in the Holocaust don't they?" Jeff's reaction stated, "you people that actually believe this crap you can just leave my country that I so proudly defended.

you people are the reason that this country is in disarray because you believe everything that the media tells you as far as I'm concerned what happened in Abu Ghraib was nothing compared to what those that have done to us never forget 9/11." I don't know the background of the people who wrote these comments, but they are a perfect illustration on how even an image can be seen in different ways. These are just a few of the many blog comments left by people.

But as this paper is to be about images and what we see. I will not go more into those comments. For the image itself I was not able to find any background information about the picture. I can only infer that it's depicting a time during the Korean War. Even though propaganda is not selling a physical product, it plays more on people's fears, ideas and emotions. Product advertisements play on these too but not to the same extent as propaganda.

We have all learned about propaganda and about the influence is has over people. We learned how Hitler used propaganda to rally the German people and to get them to buy into his perfect race theory. With his propaganda he was able to murder six million Jews in Europe. The North Korean Anti-American propaganda depicts an image so vivid, that it truly represents the saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words." There are no words in the picture, yet the message is powerful and emotionally persuasive.

It is a still image of action. The U.S. Army Soldiers are portrayed as implicating suffering upon the North Korean people. The grey cloudy skies and snowy ground represent a cold and dark setting for this image. The five U.S. soldiers are illustrated as large, powerful men who are surrounding a ditch/hole filled with cowering North Korean civilian men, women and children. The North Koreans appear frightened and cold with their bare feet and light-weight clothing.

Many of them have their arms still tied to their sides as they attempt to huddle together for warmth within the hole. One North Korean boy is shown trying to climb out of the hole, but a tall soldier with a smirk on his face is shown taking his boot and kicking him back down into the hole. On the outer edge of the ditch stands a small, frightened women with no shoes and her arms tied down to her side.

A soldier towers over her with the end of his riffle pushing into her back as he prepares to push her into the hole. Behind this soldier is a line of civilians waiting for the same fate as that woman. Bordo talks about how culture plays a part in advertising.

*She talks about it, yes, but what does she learn? What part does culture play in adverticing?* So how does American culture react to an advertisement like the one I just described? I'd say it's safe to say that the majority of Americans would be angered, horrified and confused by this depiction of Americans by the North Korean government. For me personally, as a person who served in the U.S.

Military and deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan, it angers me to see us depicted acting that way! Even during war us soldiers knew are responsibility was to protect the civilians. We put our lives on the line every day to protect them! So seeing propaganda depicting us in this way is upsetting. Now put yourself in a North Korean's shoes. What could they think about this propaganda? It is possible that they could feel and think the same things as an American, but unlikely.

Why? Because they have been bombarded with Anti-American propaganda, nonstop for the past sixty years. So they are more likely to be angry at America and think that this depiction is exactly how American soldiers will treat them. Bordo would have you look at the body positioning in an advertisement.

*Why? What does Bordo think body positioning can tell us?* since body positioning indicates Western cultural conceptions of gender: The woman, for instance, being in a submissive, or surrendering pose, the male being active, aggressive, dominating, deliberately inviting you with his 'face-off' or challenging expression to look at him. So let's do that. Let's start with the soldier kicking the North Korean back down into the hole.

The soldier is not only physically bigger than the person he is kicking down, but he is also in a position of power as he stands over that person. This says that the U.S. Soldiers will come in and physically make you submit to their will. This soldier almost looks like he is grinning, enjoying what he is doing.

In Bordo's observation*try to provide more context for the quotation, so readers can understand the original reason for the quotation.* many of the male models are featured with 'pulling in" seductive stance, where the model is painting a flirtatious picture by telling you "The other person has stolen 'the secret" of who I am" (Bordo, 134). As though to 'pull you in' by saying wouldn't you like to know this secret too. This is exactly what this North Korean propaganda is saying that U.S. soldiers will do.

We have the audacity to see them from our own perspective rather than from theirs. And with perspective comes stereotypes. The stereotype that.