Bordo Male Identity And More
...looked at by women? These are two of the claims made by Susan Bordo in her writings of "Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body" where she discusses these two topics and some others in great detail. In her writings she reveals her view of men and also the view that society portrays about their attitudes towards life, women and clothes. The male identity is very complex and does not run in just black and white. Many of the impressions she drew from men were very much skewed to fit female views. Most of the ideas about looks, style and fashion come from media form today's society. Places like billboards, music videos, magazine ads, movies and many other areas shape the way all ages think they should look and act. It is these forms of media that lead the different genders into expecting certain things from the other.
Bordo makes it clear that media all depicts this image of a man in control and not caring about the way he looks. "but men are not supposed to enjoy being surveyed period. It's feminine to be on display." (172). In my experiences both genders "survey" each other continuously. She explains the why she thinks that women have fallen into dressing to attract men's attention. "When women are transformed from professionals to "pussies" by the comments of men on the street, it's humiliating, not so much because were puritans as because we sense the hostility in the hoots." (172). She thinks that men have set up this standard to make women turn themselves into attractive objects to avoid their own humiliation. The reason that women put on all of the sexy clothes is to turn the humiliation into pride. She also hits upon aging as a very difference between men and women. As a man gets old he gets wrinkles as a sign of "wisdom and experience" as when a woman is getting older she starts to sag "advancing into decrepitude". She also points out how all of...
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