In "Sex, Lies & Advertising", Steinem identifies the large role advertising plays in women's magazines and the high demands that go along with it. I have never really sat down and thought about the logistics that go into advertising sales, but as Steinem points out, there are a lot of details to think about. For example, company's that create ads to offer think about two things: How much am I going to pay for space in a magazine? and Where is my ad going to be placed? A magazine's editorial team's job is to please these company's to maintain consistent relationships with them so that they retain the net sales as a result.
What I took away from this article, was how detail oriented and catty negotiating advertising deals can be. Company's often want editorial pieces to go hand in hand with an ad deal they strike so that they hit readers with a double whammy and are effectively placed twice within the magazine. For example, many food giant companies, Steinem mentions, would not place food ads within Ms magazine because the literary source did not publish recipes that incorporated such agents.
Another important point to recognize with this article, is the target audience such advertisements which to obtain; are they geared towards women? men? or both? The obvious "women's products", such as tampons, clothes, fragrance and shampoo, have ads in the typical women's magazines. But consumer goods such as electronics, toys and cars seem to generate sales within mostly men's magazines. Also, it is noted that for gender neutral items, advertisers tend towards a male audience rather than maintain a 50/50 balance between both men's and women's magazines.
In "Body Projects", we as readers are introduced to the history behind females' illusions of body image and how their main concerns have changed over the years. "By the 1920's, both fashion and film had encouraged a massive 'unveiling' of the female body, which meant that certain body parts-such as arms and legs-were bared and displayed in ways they had never been before. This new freedom to display the body was accompanied, however, by demanding beauty and dietary regimens that involved money as well as self-discipline." (98) This introduction identifies the transition from the Victorian era, a time when the body was for the most part covered, to a the new twentieth century where the body became a form of expression and a means of self-definition. With this came a lot of pressure for girls to look as best they could, and to resemble to the best of their abilities their female idols they placed on pedestals.
At the beginning of transition period, young girls were most interested in staying slim and watching their weight. This article recognizes that it was around the 1920's when girls became concerned with weight gain and implemented diet plans into their daily routine. At the time, however, this body project was more of a challenge or game than a way of life. Next came the breast boom and fascination with boobs and how to care for them. The ideal svelte form is now modified to adhere the addition of larger breasts. To sum up thus far, "American girls [have now] to worry about breast size as well as about weight." (108) Next comes the more modern age of dieting and fitness to obtain the perfect body, a so-called new way of life. While exploring this craze, we see the development of eating disorders and unhealthy fitness regimens girls will implement to lose weight and look they way they perceive as ideal. Next, we get into more specifics. So first we saw the attention boobs got in the 1950s, now around the 1960s, "in the wake of the miniskirt" (125) women start to become more analytical about their thighs and butt. It seems at this point, that women have critiqued all substantial parts of their body and have come to the unified conclusion of what the perfect body is, thanks to magazine covers and movie stars. Today, and rather since the 1990s, the most recent body project women are embarking is the exercise of body piercing. Now that women have critiqued almost every part of their substantial parts, it seems only natural (doesn't it?!). It's a funny switch though if you consider that before, the body project consisted of elements where results were visible to the eye whereas with piercings (specifically naval and genital ones) the results are only visible to private audiences. This seems like a rather natural progression, surprisingly, because when we've come to a day and age where it is normal to see in print and on TV women wearing next to nothing, the only way to go I would argue is, once again, below the seams.
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