GWST 1501 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Sut Jhally, Jessica Valenti, Baby Powder

• School: York University
• Department: Gender and Women's Studies
• Course: GWST 1501
• Professor: Kristine Klement

Document Summary

Western consumerist society is obsessed with personal appearance, and is constantly attempting to better itself by utilizing the overwhelming influx of beauty enhancement products. The advertisement i chose targets young teenage girls and is promoting the brand love"s baby. This advertisement emphasizes the modes in which mainstream media manipulates an audience"s insecurity and exploits the younger generation, fetishizing and idealizing the bridge between sexuality and youth. Jhally examines how the values, rituals and attitudes that our consumer society practices are defined ultimately by the marketplace. The effects that this problematic industry has had on society is that now advertising has completely infiltrated our daily lives in many ways including most public spaces, and the media. These seemingly innocent forms of entertainment are overcome by image based modes of representation. (jhally 328) the media shapes our identities and regulates deviance to remain within the status quo, making our culture a site of contestation.