Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body

1.)  Bordo’s witty and thoughtful interjections make this 45 page essay a bearable read. For example, after talking about the Gucci ad for some length, she dives into a personal story about how she wanted one of her lovers to strip for her but was to embarrassed to ask him. She relates this personal anecdote back to the idea of cultural models and accepted behavior of the sexes. Bordo never allots an entire section to the topic of homosexuality, but rather sprinkles it throughout the essay: she starts off the essay by addressing homosexuality (she even admits to a slight infatuation with Anne Heche!), she later mentions Calvin Klein’s bisexuality and how it affects his advertisement choices, then describes the androgynous “leaners”, and later talks about Symposium and it’s homosexual plot line as well as the acceptable homosexual practices in ancient Rome. If Bordo had written page after page about the subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) homosexual subtexts in advertising, the reader would have been bored out of their mind. Though she discusses “Male Decorativeness in Cultural Perspectives” at length, she breaks it up by throwing in pop culture references (James Bond), her own sarcastic tone of voice (puh-lease!), and lets not forget the insertion of, “a real dangerous muthafucka”. Her analysis is thorough and accurate, though it does not read like a history essay. The change in pace, insertion of her own voice, and varying of sentence and paragraph structure allows Bordo’s long essay to be manageable.

2.)  Beauty (Re)Discovers the Male Body is divided into six subsections. The first, “Men on Display”, introduces the subject matter to the readers by throwing an image of a nearly naked man into their faces and then later an image of a fully naked man into their faces. This is one of the shorter sections and certainly succeeds in capturing attention. The second section, “Thanks, Calvin!” is also a quick read which delves into the use of homosexuality in advertising, which in turn describes the current craze for men’s butts being put on display. “Rocks and Leaners” is a bit longer than the previous two sections and describes an oh-so-true phenomenon in advertising. The masculine, intimidating, muscular men (who are often black as well) stare directly into the camera and turn their body forward—these are the “rocks”. The languid, sensual, lean, and sometimes feminine male models often lean on something (or someone) and stare on a bias or away from the camera—these are the “leaners”. After this comes “Honey, What Do I Want to Wear?” which describes the overwhelming heterosexual ad campaign for those men who “don’t care how they look”. The final two sections, “Male Decorativeness in Cultural Perspective” and “My World… and Welcome to It?” are the most lengthy and in-depth of all the sections. In these sections she tackles the history of male fashion, masculine “vanity”, African American males in advertising, male body image, and then wraps the whole thing up with John Travolta. Though the final two sections make up the “heart” of the essay, the previous sections succeed in grabbing the reader’s attention by analyzing the current advertisement trends before delving into semi-boring analysis and a short history lesson.

3.)  Bordo brings up the contradicting value of one’s gaze in her essay. Does someone staring at you make you confident that you look sexy, or does it make you feel self-conscious and inhibited? She uses the concept of “subject position” to interpret the gazes and stares of the males in advertising. In “Rocks and Leaners”, she describes the gaze between the rock and the viewer as a competition—“who will advert his eyes first?”—Whereas the leaner flirts with the viewer with his eyes and invites them to “escape” into their seduction. The “face-off” ads exert masculinity and take authority over the viewer, thereby asserting Satre’s claim that the stares of others create constraints on our ability to be ourselves. The “leaning” ads seduce the audience; they are inviting, and support Beauvoir’s assertion that a man’s flirtatious gaze makes a woman feel whole. Another example of this is when Bordo discusses Berger’s concept of, “men act and women appear”.  She shows a Nautica ad featuring a man too busy on his boat to notice how ruggedly handsome he is, next to an ad of a woman in a little dress happily marinating as three men watch her go by. The truly heterosexual manly-man never shows himself as an object to be gazed at, but a powerful working tool who is always doing something. A woman, however, can show her legs and cleavage whenever she wants, because it is acceptable for women to be stared at—besides, they like it when men gawk at them. By taking these opposing subject positions, Bordo shows the value (or lack of value) that can be placed upon a gaze of another.

4.) This ad is the epitome of Bordo’s essay. The main focus is the man’s body, the product that this ad is selling is only half-way visible in the bottom, right hand corner and the name of product is barely readable. This model is taking the classic “rock” stance, staring directly into the camer, hands on his hips, challenging the viewer to look away.

This Abercrombie ad doesn’t waste any time with the man’s face and gets right down to the nitty-gritty. Besides his partially open fly, we can see a glimpse of his toned abs. This ad doesn’t really advertise anything in particular besides the brand Abercrombie as a whole, but even if it did, would you notice?

Now THIS is my kind of Abercrombie ad…. Neil Abercrombie that is, running to represent Hawaii in congress. He’s a hottie. Look at those toned abs and seductive eyes. He’s got that leaning thing down to an art! I’m surprised Bordo didn’t include this ad in her essay!