Beauty and the Trap

"Finger touches her lips and she becomes silent"

"Compete with other girls for the attention of boys"

Due to the fact that teenaged girls are in the process of finding their own identities, they are extremely vulnerable and gullible to consumerism. Advertisers prey on young girls’ low self-esteem and provide many ideas of what real women consist of, by using sexual images of women to sell their products, which will supposedly make them more attractive and boost their confidence. However, young girls often fall into the hidden traps that television commercials and teen magazines set especially for them. The commercials tell them to purchase bodily products for unattainable beauty. Also, they are encouraged by these images to remain silent and allow their bodies to serve as voices.

Advertisers use sexual images of women to sell their beauty products. Wolf compares sexualized women to slaves: “An economy that depends on slavery needs to promote images of slaves that ‘justify’ the institution of slavery”. (Wolf 124) She is clearly saying that if the economy seems to function progressively due to the expense of a group of innocent people, then it will try to distribute justifications through images and rally up those in favor of the system so that it does not change, but perpetuate. In women’s case, advertisements are somewhat degrading and offensive to them, but they are very popular and often advertised. Thus, like slaves, women are tightly chained to the shackles of this unattainable beauty ideal that advertisers have locked them in.

As girls grow up, advertisers teach them that they should stay quiet and gradually lower their self-esteems. In like manner to slaves, Kilbourne describes the socially- constructed behavior of women, “Girls…are encouraged to be silent.” (Kilbourne 264) She is implying that within these bodily product commercials, they are persuading girls to remain silent and let their bodies speak for themselves. In other words, instead of men actually listening to a woman’s verbal conversation, they should pay more attention to her body language. Therefore, similar to slaves, the mentality of young women would prove to be unthreatening to the dominate men.

Work Cited

Kilbourne, Jean. “The More You Subtract, The More You Add: Cutting Girls Down to Size.”
Gender, Race, and Class in Media. Ed. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage, 2003. 258-267

Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth.” Female Beauty. (1991): 120-125

Work Cited

Hot Women Wearing Jeans

by Brokenradio1974

picasaweb.google.com/lh/view?q=rampage&psc=G&filter=1#5232236713870387714

My Desktop W...Screenshots

by Andy

picasaweb.google.com/lh/view?q=sex+sells&psc=G&filter=1#

2009-04-Nayarit

by Kevin Wohlmut

picasaweb.google.com/lh/view?q=sex+sells&psc=G&filter=1#

Vancata la Roma

by Corina

picasaweb.google.com/lh/view?q=sex+sells&psc=G&filter=1#5020569111310983186

Sex Sells Advertisements

by Jonathan Rick

picasaweb.google.com/lh/view?q=sex+sells&psc=G&filter=1#5295379169500066530

Sex Sells Advertisements

by Jonathan Rick

picasaweb.google.com/lh/view?q=sex+sells&psc=G&filter=1#5295379261453678898

"Dead" Women ads?

by Jessica

picasaweb.google.com/lh/view?q=women+ads&psc=G&filter=1#5063925940271390562

Top 10 Actress Hollywood

by raju

picasaweb.google.com/lh/view?q=women+ads&psc=G&filter=1#5307783670383564690

SEXY LADIES...& Sex Photos

by Sita

picasaweb.google.com/lh/view?q=women+and+sex&psc=G&filter=1#5230610005084145586

2 . S . E . X . Y . 01

by dhruv sexy

picasaweb.google.com/lh/view?q=women+and+sex&psc=G&filter=1#5155290568190700626

Sexy Women

by Orlando

picasaweb.google.com/lh/view?q=sexy+women&psc=G&filter=1#5284305755622371010

Jon and Kate Plus Eight

In Jon and Kate Plus Eight, Kate and Jon Gosselin live in central Pennsylvania where they face the daily challenges of life as the parents of eight. The married couple always yearned to have children, but they could not on their own, so they had to use fertility treatments. As a result of these treatments, the couple miraculously had eight children together; a set of twin girls and a set of sextuplet boys. However, there is an episode where Kate is overwhelmed by all the chores of the house and tries to tend to her children at the same time, which causes her to consider hiring a cleaning assistant. Throughout the entire episode, there are several examples that simultaneously reinforce and dismantle hegemonic representations based on masculinity and femininity.


The Gosselins have the roles of a traditional married couple. While Jon works full-time as an IT analyst, Kate resigns from her job as a nurse to take care of the children at home. In other words, the fact that Jon works full-time and Kate stays at home implies that he is indeed the “breadwinner,” and reiterates his role as the traditional husband and father. Likewise, every day, Kate tends to the children, cleans the house, and prepares meals for her family. Therefore, she pursues her role as the traditional housewife.


In like fashion to the roles of the Gosselins, Johnson states that the expectations of a marriage through patriarchy: “believe that mothers should stay home and that fathers should work out of the house.” (Johnson 95) He is saying that according to patriarchy, men’s number one priority is his career and to provide financially for his family. Contrarily, women’s main goal is to establish good health and the welfare of her husband and children. These gender-based responsibilities are what reinforce hegemony. Thus, Jon and Kate’s roles are a hegemonic representation of marriage.


Kate illustrates the responsibilities that the traditional housewife performs in her home. When it comes to cleaning, Kate admits to possibly having a case of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, also known as OCD. In like manner to the traditional housewife, she cleans the entire house three times per day. For example, Kate literally mops the wooden floor, wipes the table, and disinfects six high chairs three times throughout the day. In addition to these chores, she washes the dishes, wipes the countertop, and cleans the stove; all of which are the works and done on a daily by the traditional housewife.


Johnson disregards the notion that women are physically weaker than men, and agrees that “women perform a huge share of hard physical labor.” (Johnson 95) He is stating that although men’s bodies are built more masculine than women’s bodies, it does not necessarily mean that they are stronger and have more strength than women. Due to the fact that women have an innumerable amount of duties, especially wives and mothers, they must possess enough strength and energy to execute them. For example, a woman, who is a wife and mother, has to keep the home clean, goes grocery shopping, and cooks meals for her family so that they could function properly and in a positive manner. In addition, it is her duty to stay physically involved in the children’s lives and satisfy her husband’s sexual needs, which requires all of her strength and energy; the woman seems a bit more masculine than feminine.



Works Cited
Johnson, Allan G. “Patriarchy, the System: An It, Not a He, a Them, or an US”. The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy 1997: 5 pages
“The Housekeeper Hunt.” Jon and Kate Plus Eight.

Five Topics

Hello! Here are links on five of the topics that I was interested in.

1.) Family Guy Episode 15
http://lilyrose85site.blogspot.com/2009/06/family-guy-episode-15.html
lilyrose85
lilyrose85site

2.) Gossip Girl Feminist Index- The Goodbye Gossip Girl
http://thebroadspot.blogspot.com/2009/05/gossip-girl-feminist-index-goodbye.html
Rantsalamode
Broadspot

3.) One Tree Hill
http://danielle-dballard.blogspot.com/2009/04/one-tree-hill.html
Danielle
Danielle's Blog

4.) Kill Bill, vols. 1 & 2
http://feministhemes.com/kill-bill/
Miss Wizzle
feministhemes.com

5.) Pantyhose and Sexism
http://community.feministing.com/2009/07/pantyhose-and-sexism.html
kheckrot
feministing.com

Big Blog

Test