Sunday, September 11, 2011

Is this the new stereotype?

Starting in the 80s and continuing even to the present day is some genres, women in music videos have largely been objectified and shown as nothing more than hunks of meat or livestock to be bought, sold, and used at the buyers discretion.  The video I'm about to show you, however, seems to diverge from this path of sexism, and usher in something new, though still slightly unsettling.  Take a look.

Watch the young Hispanic woman in the video, and the elderly woman earlier on.  Pathetic, aren't they?  It's a harsh statement, but one that is ultimately true.  The elderly woman has taken an entirely submissive role, seeming content to weep in one short frame and then later on in the background, once more relegated to being nothing more than scenery.  The second woman almost mocks the conventions of music videos.  A flash of her bra is seen after we watch her try to rub something (lipstick?) off of her face in a disturbingly sensuous fashion.

This is definitely different than most things we've seen before, but does it break the stereotype?  Hardly.  It just lets us look at it from a unique and undeniably dark point of view.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

What is this? I don't even...

Most people, myself included, have a tendency to filter out advertisements wherever we may see them.  They become that much more white noise or background, or even just a quickly flipped page.  While this may seem convenient to most (OK, to ALL), this does give us a tendency to miss almost everything about said ads.  It's only when you really take a closer look at that obnoxious image, and start to delve into it's inner meaning that you truly say "Um... What the f*ck?"

Take this, for example.
So it's a hairy camel man smoking a Camel cig.  Redundant?  Yes, yes it is.  But lets just go over exactly what we see.

Our subject, despite being an animal that spits, is smoking and assuming a very masculine and "cool" posture, complete with tight black shirt and jeans that probably make is genitalia cry.  Behind him is some kind of vintage convertible, polished to an awe inspiring gleam.  Obviously he's the focus of the picture, and it drips with masculinity, but on closer inspection of his nose we see a very obvious phallic symbol.  Creepy, and kind of disgusting when you think about the fact that this was probably in a men's magazine.

Like most smoking ads, this one is trying to make the reader think that smoking is cool (and won't turn you into a camel).  You'll look better, be cooler, and have a nice car if you smoke!  Really, it's true!

This Advertisement really reinforces the focus on outer beauty in this country, though in a different way than the ultra thin super models that occasionally flit about our vision.  Guys are expected to be tough, slick, smooth, and never make mistakes (or have interests that go against the social norm).  So the moral of this story is to start smoking, dress well, buy a nice car, and date a woman who weighs about 60lbs.  Cool story bro.