{"id":27325,"date":"2010-09-11T10:15:53","date_gmt":"2010-09-11T15:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=27325"},"modified":"2013-12-05T03:54:20","modified_gmt":"2013-12-05T08:54:20","slug":"divergent-body-ideals-for-men-and-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2010\/09\/11\/divergent-body-ideals-for-men-and-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Divergent Body Ideals for Men and Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth C. sent along two advertisements for body slimming garments from DreamProductsCatalog<\/a>, one for men and one for women.\u00a0 Side-by-side, they reveal subtlety different expectations for male and female bodies:<\/p>\n

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Notice that the women’s garment is aimed solely at making her thinner and more fit appearing.\u00a0 It “slims,” “eliminates unsightly bulges,” “lifts,” and makes her look “20 pounds thinner.”\u00a0\u00a0 Her sexy pose and come hither look emphasizes that her main job is to look good.\u00a0 In contrast, the man looks confidently and calmly into the camera and, while his garment is also aimed at making him look more “slim” and “trim,” it is also supposed to make him “feel” better and look younger.\u00a0 It improve his posture and offer back support, too.<\/p>\n

The difference here is subtle, and I don’t mean to make too much of it, but it is nonetheless an illustration of the variety of uses to which men’s bodies are believed to be put (aesthetic, yes, but also functional and personal) and the one primary thing that women’s bodies are supposedly for (being looked at).<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth C. sent along two advertisements for body slimming garments from DreamProductsCatalog, one for men and one for women.\u00a0 Side-by-side, they reveal subtlety different expectations for male and female bodies: Notice that the women’s garment is aimed solely at making her thinner and more fit appearing.\u00a0 It “slims,” “eliminates unsightly bulges,” “lifts,” and makes her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[218,55,2103],"class_list":["post-27325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bodies","tag-gender","tag-gender-bodies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27325"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59769,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27325\/revisions\/59769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}