“Body Projects” explains the different trends that women focused on in the 1900’s leading up to today. The first trend change occurred in the 1920’s when women became focused on having a slim, flat, and boyish shape. The next trend occurred in the 1950’s with the obsession and craze of having big breasts while still maintain a thin figure. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, weight became a major concern in which the “cult of fitness and exercise took hold” (120). In the 1990’s there was a shift in the focus of the lower body such as thigh and buttocks in which slimming of the lower body became a concern. Women tried to get rid of their “thunder thighs” and cellulite. Then one of the most recent trends that occurred was the decorating of the body with piercings which became popular in the 90’s as well. “At the end of the 20th century, fear of fat, anxiety about body parts, and expectations of perfection in the dressing room have all coalesced to make ‘I hate my body’ into a powerful mantra that uniforms the social and spiritual life of too many American girls” (130). One of the many important concerns that the author pointed out was the difference based on class and the diet mentality. It seems as the middle and lower class women were less concerned with issues of losing weight compared to middle upper or upper class women. This is probably due to the fact that healthy food is usually more expensive, thus less accessible for those lower class women who have more important things that they can spend that extra money on such as bills and taxes.
“Sex, Lies, and Advertising” by Gloria Steinem is about this magazine called Ms. that was targeted towards women and eventually the company tried to make strides toward making the magazine less gender focused to increase sells, thus attracting male consumers by increasing the number of ads in their magazine targeted towards men such as car ads. This magazine tried to expand to include many different groups such as people of color and homosexuals. But it was also by trying to expand their audience that they lost a lot of money because an Eastern airline canceled thousands of subscriptions to Ms. because they were offended by ads for lesbian poetry journals in the magazine. In 1987, the magazine ended up getting sold to some Australian feminists who made some drastic changes by limiting ads, but their outspoken articles in the magazine lent for some serious judgment in Australia as well thus no producing enough ad revenue. The company was then sold again to a man which is probably why the Ms. magazine changed completely. This magazine no longer was blunt, but became more conservative in their topics by teaching women how to please their men and how they were to become better ladies such as an article published on “how to write politely.” This magazine now was based on telling people what they wanted to hear, thus increasing the number of male authors.
“Ruminations of a Feminist Fitness Instructor” by Alisa L. Valdes is about a young woman who gets encouraged by her mom to become a fitness instructor instead of the cheerleader that she always wanted to become once she lost weight. The author talks about how she ended up getting a job as an aerobics instructor to pay her way through college and ended up working for some of the best known Gyms. She was even getting asked by sneaker companies such as Reebok to help them design their next shoe and she had her own office at 23, but she was not satisfied with her job because she wanted to be a feminist writer. Unfortunately after graduating she resorted back to being an instructor because she saw that being a writer was not bringing in much money especially since she first had to start in internships. She then continued doing aerobics, but found a way to liberate women through aerobics by empowering them and letting them thrive without inhibitions in a space which was only for them to feel comfortable. Unfortunately many of her students did not think like her and continued to be patronized/ socially constricted by the patriarchal norms because still their goal for doing aerobics was to be “skinny” and “beautiful” (31). Unfulfilled, Valdes decided to take a risk and go to graduate school although she ended up 40,000 in debt and was able to achieve her goal of becoming a successful feminist writer while also utilizing her previous fitness experience to empower women.
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