Women as a snack.
The Perpetuation of Male Desire in Fast-Food Commercials.
“The classic just got a whole lot hotter” at Carl’s Jr.
Is this because of their new Southwest Patty Melt or the ‘classic’ blonde Kate Upton getting hot as she eats it?
Model Kate Upton rolls around in the back of her car undressing as men around her and at home watch and further undress her with their eyes. What does selling a burger have to do with a woman undressing herself? That is what I will be exploring throughout this paper. Advertisements, specifically fast-food commercials are targeted towards men because meat is turned into a masculine object.¹ Women are then introduced into these commercials as a way to sell this meat. Carol Adams in The Pornography of Meat explains, “Advertisements appeal to someone to buy something” which in this case and in the case of many fast-food commercials have become women.² Women are objectified in these commercials as they are turned into consumable objects for males to consume. This can cause damaging repercussions with body image for young girls who are decoding the subtle socially constructed messages that are packed in these commercials. Young women who are exposed to these types of representations can fall into the hegemony established in our society. They can fall into a created role, thus perpetuating these stereotypes as well. Our media, such as magazines, television shows, commercials, and social media posts are all teaching young girls that embodying these stereotypes is the correct way to present themselves, as well as teaching them they are subordinates or ‘others’ to men. Throughout my paper I will examine fast-food commercials that present sexualized women based on gendered stereotypes, and frame them in the male gaze in order to sell both a product and lifestyle. I will do a contextual analysis of each commercial to look at the relation between male desire and meat. I am doing this to determine if these commercials cause any detrimental effects to young girls who are constantly being exposed to harmful images and messages. Fast-food commercials perpetuate gendered stereotypes by framing women in the male gaze, objectifying them for consumption and reconfirming socially constructed norms of the female body. Examining the sexualized frame women are put into in fast-food commercials and how this frame effects our hegemonic thinking we will better recognize and understand why these images are being presented. It is important to learn why these images are being presented in order to create both a higher rate of media literacy as well as less damaging effects to those exposed to the messages.
As a young woman, this topic is one that I have had a connection with throughout my life. I can remember watching television shows and looking to the “attractive, popular” girls as what I hoped to be in High School. These girls I strived to be like were all tall, skinny and fashionable. Watching them taught me what I believed I needed to do for attention and acceptance. Like many other adolescent girls, I looked to the media for representations and for examples on what kind of women to grow up to be. I watched as these attractive, skinny girls became more popular and gain more attention from boys, thinking they were the coolest girls ever, completely oblivious that they lacked substance as role models. I was too caught up in their “glamorous, popular” lifestyle. I was seeking answers, seeking to find who I was during this pivotal time in my development and growth. However, I was presented with false ideas of how I should realistically represent myself. This is why looking into the representation of women in fast-food commercials where sexualization and negative representations are so prevalent is crucial for enacting change in the future. Young girls should not be subjected to these false, and damaging representations of females, but rather should be presented with role models they can strongly look up to. According to Stuart Hall, in Encoding and Decoding, there are encoded messages being presented to these adolescents, for example, as they watch television; the language, the appearance, everything is selected to translate a message to the audience.³ In the case of the fast-food commercials I will be examining, men are being targeted as the primary consumers through the use of sex and women. However, the damaging repercussions of presenting women as a treat in fast-food commercials is that both men and women will believe and accept that this is how women should be viewed and expected to behave. When presenting messages for decoding, Hall emphasizes the importance of the relationship between encoding and decoding.⁴ Many of the misunderstandings, meaning that the message was not properly accepted and digested by the audience is due to an imbalance on the different sides of the communication.⁵ Messages can be misunderstood if people have different sets of values, such as experiences or an understanding on a topic, so the message encoded could be decoded differently than intended.⁶ According to Hall, the encoders are the producers and the decoders are the receivers and they both need to understand the same values and social norms in order for the message to translate properly.⁷ If they have different sets of values, the message can be lost in translation.⁸ Due to this issue of misinterpretation, the representation of women in these commercials can cause young girls who are being exposed to not understand the true meaning of why the model is being portrayed the way she is, thus creating confusing and unrealistic expectations. The values of the producers of commercials is to drive up profits and reach their targeted audience, which in the case of the Burger King and Carl’s Jr. commercials I will be examining, is men. For adolescent girls who are continuously exposed to objectified and sexualized representations of women, the meaning of the commercial can come off as a standard for women rather than unrealistic “movie magic.”
The frame women are put in to sell products has been an ongoing topic in society and one that has brought up concerns among many women groups such as Women Against Pornography, a U.S. Lobbyist group in the 1980’s.⁹ They believed that representing women in sexual ways in the media would lead to sexual assaults.¹⁰ This is a concern that is shared with Ellen DiSalvatore author of Portrayal of Women in Advertising, who also believes, “when consumers are constantly seeing images of women portrayed in the media as sex then that is how the image of women will stay in their head.”¹¹ This type of representation can be dated back to the 1850’s according to DiSalvatore.¹² Women began emerging in advertisements targeted towards men in sexual ways because sex sells.¹³ Framing women in the light of “sex sells” is much more prevalent in our current Western society through our communication, images in magazines, commercials and advertisements in general. An example of this type of representation can be seen in our daily language and how we think to describe women, “a young prostitute is known as fresh meat.”¹⁴ Women are put in comparison and in conversation time and time again with meat, thus creating a correlation in our mind that women are 1.) objects for male consumption and, 2.) non-humans. This is a two-way relationship between women and meat. While we animalize women we also humanize meat.¹⁵ While in some contexts meat is conveyed as masculine, in other instances it is highly feminized, “a Thanksgiving message circulated on the Internet that describes a man laying “her” on the table, rubbing her, touching her neck, breast, and thigh, his arousal is tracked from sweating to drooling to a joyous cry when he touches the hole… dark and murky. He rubbed his hands and licked his lips… and then he stuffed the turkey.”¹⁶ This connection between meat and women is established as a part of our hegemonic thinking in society, so when we read phrases, it is understood that “her” is referring to meat and not an actual person.
Why is meat described in feminine terms, and not as a he?
Using a different pronoun to address meat would change our understanding and relationship with it, a change that needs to occur. However, instead there is an established and accepted norm that allows women and meat to be put in this frame and have the message decoded by the audience and understood. Adams explains that representing women as meat and feminizing meat is a form of pornography.¹⁷ Pornography labels women as ‘others’ and highlights the differences between sexes.¹⁸ Due to this “othering” of women, it creates the connection that meat and women can easily be interchangeable thus further perpetuating the image of women as meat products or in a meat setting. When we view women in this way Adam’s argues we are creating a formula for absent referent.¹⁹ Absent referent is when “two class terms are merged as one- individual animals into hamburgers, an individual woman into an object ‘woman’.”²⁰ The formula turns women into consumable mass terms.²¹ Turning women into consumable mass terms allows people to view women without making it personal, or without having to think about who these women are as individuals.²² When women are not viewed as women but instead are viewed as objects is where these issues of representation become even more damaging. For those who do not understand the underlying meaning in these representations it can create a cycle of continuous mass production of objectifying messages and images in our Western society. For some, particularly young girls, these messages and images are ones that can be taken as how they should present themselves. Since our society accepts and perpetuates these representations it creates the norm that this is how women should behave, dress, and present themselves. Adams explains these different aspects of women’s representation as “Cues of Violability”.²³ “Cues of violability are cues of inequality. Women learn to exhibit, rather than to inhibit their bodies. These cues arise through three main arenas; appearance, gestures and ornamentation.”²⁴ We look at the figure of the models, the clothing (or lack thereof), and accessories they have on. They are presented as “role models” for young girls to aspire to be. However, the harmful aspect of this presentation is that the majority of women do not actually look the way they are being presented. The way women are presented and why they are being presented is the main focus of what I will be looking at in the fast-food commercials I analyze.
I will be analyzing four advertisements from two different fast-food chains: Burger King and Carl’s Jr. Both of these companies are notorious for having hyper-sexual commercials to promote their products to men. Generally speaking, fast-food commercials target men because meat is associated with masculinity and has the stigma that it was what men should be eating.²⁵ Throughout the history of the world, meat can be traced back to a masculine association because men were viewed as the ‘hunters’ while women were the ‘gathers’.²⁶ Meat is marketed towards a male audience as a feminized object, because straight men are attracted to women and sexual fantasy involving women, and once again, because sex sells. Due to this connection between male desire and meat I chose to examine commercials that were targeting males. This demonstrates how women are associated with meat as a consumable object as well as emphasizes female stereotypes prevalent in our society. While keeping within the frame of male targeted fast-food commercials I chose ones that objectified women in different ways. Two of these commercials were also contextually analyzed by Debra Merskin in Having It His Way. She looked at these commercials in a similar way I plan to, however, she focused more on masculinity and meat while I focus on the relationship between male desire and meat. While examining these commercials, I will be using “Cues of Violability”, to examine the different aspects of how a female exhibits her body rather than inhabits her body.²⁷ In addition, each of these commercials also frames women in the male gaze, which is described by Laura Mulvey as the view a male would be using to look at a woman.²⁸ It is a sexual and demeaning view to be put in to. Mulvey explains the purpose of the male gaze as, “The determining male gaze projects its fantasy on to the female figures which is styled accordingly.”²⁹ The use of the male gaze is intended to sexualize women and establish their purpose as objects for men to look at.³⁰ Women are framed in sexual ways in these commercials as an emphasis on the male fantasy and desire to turn women into the “other.” Much of our socially constructed hegemony is rooted in heteronormative standards. Due to these set of standards, the male gaze is used to “other” women, to reestablish the power and control the straight male has in the situation.
When analyzing the following commercials will be looking at the clothing women are presented in, gendered stereotypes, how they are framed in the male gaze and if they have a speaking role, its significance in the following four commercials. Before doing a contextual analysis, I will briefly summarize each of the four commercials.
Burger King:
Long Chicken Sandwich Commercial.
A young man sits on the subway holding a Burger King Long Chicken Sandwich in his hands over his crotch. A sexual innuendo for his penis being held in his hands. He continues to look up with a charming smile and laughs at the young woman standing in front of him. She returns the flirtatious look and responds by sexually rubbing her body against the pole she is holding onto. The man and woman continue to exchange playful laughs while she glances down at his ‘big sandwich.’ However, the moment is ruined when a less attractive, smaller man peeks out at the female while holding a much smaller sandwich over his crotch. The female is immediately turned off and recoils, covering her breasts back up. Copy reads, “wish your chicken was bigger?”
‘I Am Man’ Commercial
Men ban together to get meat after being shown eating more “feminine food”. The commercial opens with a man dining at a fancy restaurant being brought a small, yet attractive, portion of food. All the men are singing a parody to “I Am Woman” by Hellen Reddy, a feminist song. It is however turned into a very male-centric song.³¹ “I will eat this meat until my innie turns into an outie”³² The commercial continues with men abandoning their tasks in life, such as driving a car or working to run to Burger King to get different kinds of meat just to reassure the world that they truly are men. Tagline: “Eat like a man, man.”
Carl’s Jr.
Teriyaki Burger Commercial
The commercial opens to model, Audrina Partridge, with her butt in the air as she suns tans in a bikini. Once we see her face, a label comes up on the screen with her name and “Top-Rated Bikini Body” underneath. As she frolics around in her bikini on the beach and begins to eat a Carl’s Jr. burger her voice states, “To look this hot in a bikini, I have to give up like everything. But there is no way I am giving up the teriyaki burger.”³¹ The camera shifts between angles of showing her whole body while she puts the burger in her mouth to zoomed in clips of her body and open mouth as she continues to eat. We never see her talking, we only watch her eat as her voiceover addresses the audience, “I have to be a little bad”³³ Tagline: “More Than Just a Piece of Meat.”
Southwest Patty Melt
Kate Upton is in a drive-in theatre by herself enjoying a Carl’s Jr. Southwest Patty Melt. The song playing in the background is “Some Like It Hot” by Marilyn Monroe. Kate Upton is shown eating a burger very sexually, opening her mouth wide, licking her lips, and wiping off her body from being ‘too hot’. She is shown in the backseat of the car with her bra coming out of her dress and taking off the rest of her lingerie because she is overheating from the burger. The audience is shown close up shots of her bodacious lips and then her rear as she crawls through the car. She is framed as a sight to see as the boy in the car to her left watches her with his jaw dropped. His girlfriend then turns his head back straight, appearing upset he is watching this other, more attractive female. The copy reads, “Classic just got a whole lot hotter” Referring to both the burger and the female.
In order to further breakdown and analyze these advertisements to better understand what the different aspects are telling us I will need to look at, (1.) the stereotypical and accepted representations of women and (2.) how these representations are adding to our hegemonic thinking. I will do this by highlighting the different cues of violability, use of the male gaze and stereotypes that are present in each of these separate commercials. The male gaze is seen in three of the four commercials, and is emphasized by the stereotypical positions and clothing the women are wearing. The “I Am Man” Burger King commercial is a change up in comparison to these commercials and puts more emphasis on how these commercials are framed for men. I included this commercial because it speaks to why Western media presents women in this way in fast-food commercials and who they are attempting to connect with. By contextually analyzing each of these commercials I aim to discover themes that are present across all four commercials and unpack what the encoded messages are women could be taking away.
Burger King Long Chicken Sandwich
The male and female in this commercial both appear to be in the working class because they are on a train in work clothes. The woman is placed holding a pole in the middle of the train as the man sits and watches her. This scene is similar to one that would be found in a strip club, where a female performs on the pole for the male’s arousal. The man is sitting watching the women with his sandwich cocked in his hands stemming from his groan area. Framing the woman as a stripper, or a performer for the man re-enforces heterosexual and hierarchal relationships. As they exchange laughs, the male looks at the female and then down at his crotch where he is holding his sandwich then back up at the women. This is a sexual innuendo being used by Burger King, replacing the sandwich with the male penis. Gesturing down sends the message that it should be noticed by the woman. After the man acknowledges his arousal and shows it to the woman she begins to unbutton her blouse. Another similar trait to a stripper. This also sends the message to males that their penis size can easily entice women to do anything. This undressing soon turns into more of a “show” as she grinds down the pole seductively exposing more cleavage. She turns her body to the side to show off her butt and small waist to the male, a feature that women are taught to show men for sexual approval while tightly gripping the pole and moving her hand up it. Her tight fitting clothing show off her skinny waist and hips, while her unbuttoned shirt allows for cleavage. She is showing off her body, rather than just living in it. The moment of seduction is interrupted when a less attractive, small built and awkward male peers out at the woman holding a smaller sandwich as his penis. This is boy is dressed in casual, dingier clothing giving off the appears of a lower class than the couple flirting on the train in work attire. Once the woman sees the other less attractive male with a smaller sandwich looking at her she becomes creeped out and recoils. This represents unwanted male attention and how women can easily feel unsafe. Her response to the two different men also sends the message that only certain male attention, is bad attention. Throughout the commercial the female fits into a stereotypical representation of a woman preforming for a man, however, it adds an interesting twist that not all male attention is good attention. This twist increases the stereotype and desire of appearance for both male and females.
Cues of violability
Appearance: tight clothing, cleavage, smooth legs, showing off her body on the pole, turning to show better body angles, straight silky hair, unbuttoned shirt, short skirt
Gestures: smiling, leaning into pole, moving body down pole, shaking butt, moving hand along pole as movement. Turning torso so butt is facing the man, eyes appearing down and big at unwanted male attention, arched back
Ornamentation: high heels, tight belt around waist
Male Gaze:
This commercial is frame primarily in the male gaze whenever we are looking at the female on the pole. The camera is positioning her as if we are the man on the train watching her perform for him. The camera continuously switches off between showing her in the male gaze and showing the audience who is doing the gazing. We look at her as an object for our entertainment rather than a person. She does not talk once in the commercial, she only performs for the male fantasy. She is being watched not only by the male she is interacting with, but one she was not even aware of at first.
Carl’s Jr. More Than Just a Piece of Meat
This is a commercial that shows off a model eating a big burger in a bikini. It starts off with showing her “meat”, her butt, as she rolls over on the sand to eat her burger. The rest of the 30-seconds are clips of each part of her body broken up into segments. First her butt and thighs, then we see her face, then a full body shot of her in a bikini, then just her waist down. When showing her face it is a close up of her stretching her mouth wide to fit in the burger. This is the most sexualized part of the commercial, hinting at what other meat women are “expected” to put into their mouth. The close up allows us to see her whole mouth as she shoves the dripping, stacked burger into it. We also watch as she uses her tongue to grab the grilled pineapple from her hands that has fallen out of the burger as her voice over says, “sometimes I have to be a little bad.”
The model being used in this commercial perpetuates the stereotypical female “beach body” while unrealistically showing young girls the way to obtain it. She has large breasts, a tiny waist which extenuates her hour glass figure, skinny thighs with a perky butt and is tan. She is beautiful with voluptuous lips that are put on display with each bite and lick she does.
Cues of violability
Appearance: smooth legs, smooth arms, small waist, beach waved hair, small bikini, breasts accentuated, arched back, raised hips, rolling around on ground, legs spread apart
Gestures: eyebrows raised at burger, licking fingers, licking lips
Ornamentation: Earring
Male Gaze
Audrina Patridge is being viewed through the male gaze in this commercial because we are projecting the male fantasy onto her as we watch her role around on the beach. The camera zooms in and focuses on different parts of her body that turn her into an object for our viewing rather than a human. We look at her mouth putting meat into it without the rest of her face, dehumanizing her. This continuously happens as we see just her legs or torso highlighting the aspects of the female body that men want to see. When we do see her whole body she is laying down in a submissive position reestablishing she is not the one in control of the erotic look.
Carl’s Jr — Kate Upton Southwest Patty Melt
This commercial is like a mini porno of model Kate Upton getting extremely ‘hot’ from eating her burger. The burger seems to have taken the place of what a man or a man’s meat could do to arouse a woman. Kate Upton is depicted throughout the commercial undressing from sweating so much due to the hot burger. We start with watching her eat the burger and then get up close shots of her different body parts such as her breasts that are dripping in sweat while she unties her shirt. Similar to other commercials we have an up-close shot of her putting the burger into her mouth and also watch as she pulls part of the burger out and opens her mouth to put it in. The man in the next car is watching her but gets in trouble from his girlfriend for doing so which establishes the idea that women are supposed to be fighting over men’s attention. This creates an unhealthy rivalry for women for attention and teaches them to put other women down in order to make themselves feel better.
Cues of violability
Appearance: smooth legs, smooth arms, small waist, blown-out hair, cleavage, tan, sweaty body, clothes coming off,
Gestures: eyebrows raised at burger, open mouth, wiping sweat off of body, rolling around, spread legs, hands and arms between legs, lifted legs, crawling, lifting up butt, arched back, waving around hair, licking lips, licking fingers, pursed lips.
Ornamentation: Earring, lace stockings, lace bra, ribbon in hair, sweater, old fashion car, high heels
Male Gaze:
The whole commercial is shot as if a male is watching her. She is the ideal male fantasy, rolling around and undressing while showing off key elements of her body. She is overwhelmingly steamed up and hot as if she is having sex but the camera just happens to be watching. They show her putting her hand between her legs as if she is pleasuring herself and men are meant to be watching her. As we watch her get ‘hot’ from eating her burger on the top of her car, her shadow is projected onto the drive-in movie screen. She is curled up with her hand between her legs, the audience watches. This is a play on the male fantasy showing that everyone is watching her by putting her up on a screen while having her act as if no one is watching.
Burger King — We have the Meat’s
This commercial is different than the other examples because it speaks to how meat and masculinity are related in a different way than through the sexualization and dehumanization of women. Men are the obvious target audience of all of these commercials, but this one plays into a different male fantasy, the fantasy of freedom. The commercial emphasizes the male liberation from the constraints of women and that meat is a way to regain their masculinity. It shows women as small, submissive features in the male’s world that are creating a burden on their life by trying to emasculate them through eating fancy smaller portions. The significance of this commercial in context with the other ones I have examined is the connection between meat and masculinity. This commercial perpetuates male stereotypes of being rugged construction workers or “whipped” by women. By emphasizing these male stereotypes, it simultaneously reestablishes the gender binary thus the fixed and rigid boundaries females must fit into. By targeting men and connecting their power and masculinity it tells women this is not for you, this is for men.
After examining each of these commercials, it can be seen that sex is used to sell burgers and products to men. Male desire is a main theme and message encoded into the commercial. Women are used for their bodies, presented in unrealistic situations because sex sells. In the first three commercials, where women are the main subjects, they are not being used to promote anything about the burger, but rather to sell the male fantasy. Two male products being presented in one commercial, a women and a burger. The women are all shown off for their bodies, de-humanized and turned into objects. Each woman had their body on display and waspresented to the camera in some way. In the Long Chicken Sandwich commercial, the women had tight work clothes on extenuating her thin waist while allowing her breasts to show. She was rubbing her body up and down the pull, as if she is showing it off to the male watching on the subway as well as men watching from home. This is seen in both the Carl’s Jr. commercials that show the model’s body moving around before even showing the product. All three of these women do not look like realistic goals for young women to be achieving, however they are being presented as if it is the norm. This type of unrealistic presentation also sends mixed messages on what it takes to obtain these bodies.
Visual cues used in all of these commercials to drop hints, such as women putting objects in their mouths. The image of seeing a women put an object in her mouth is a sexual innuendo constantly used in fast-food commercials. It was used in the commercials that featured females interacting with the food that I analyzed. It automatically turns the commercial into a hyper-sexual commercial. It also exemplifies how fast-food commercial perpetuate the male fantasy by showing women in this frame. A frame that puts them in a submissive and demeaning position. In addition to the visuals in these advertisements, the tag lines and language used are key in dissecting the encoded messages. First, Burger King; the tag lines from the two commercials were, “Wish your chicken was bigger?” and “Eat like a man, man”, both clearly targeting men through the stereotypical norm that, meat is a masculine food and that all men strive for the biggest penis. “Wish your chicken was bigger” insinuates that the woman was interested and eager to talk to the male because he had a bigger penis. This sends the message out that by eating more meat and sandwiches it will allow men to feel more masculine and attract women, the same way men would do with their penis. For Carl’s Jr. the tag lines refer more to the women in relation to meat instead of targeting the male masculinity directly, “More than just meat” and “Classic just got a whole lot hotter.” Both of these tag lines animalize and objectify the women in the advertisements and in society by creating this accepted understanding. “More than just meat” uses ambiguous language so that it could be applied to the burger or the women that is in the commercial. This creates the connection that like a burger, the woman is for sale. By using tag lines that degrade women and show little respect for their bodies dehumanizes them and re-establishes stereotypes. Having women play into the male fantasy perpetuates the standard of how women should expect to be treated by men, as objects. Products and food are being framed as consumable objects just as women, so it makes sense that in our society the difference between the two is sometimes blurred.
Advertisements, such as the fast-food commercials I have examined, send out negative message and ideals into our society. It can be argued, that these messages themselves can cause harmful effects because they are creating destructive standards in our society. However, Jean Kilbourne argues in Beauty…and the beast advertising that “Advertising images do not cause these problems, but they contribute to them by creating a climate in which the marketing of women’s bodies — the sexual sell and dismemberment, distorted body image ideals and the use of children as sex objects — is seen as acceptable.”³⁵ Kilbourne believes that advertising adds to an already toxic culture rather than blaming advertisement for creating the culture.³⁶ I however believe that presenting woman as a snack for male consumption does not only add to the culture but that it did also help establish it. Commercials are encoded messages of our societal standards being projected out to those who are easily influenced by mass opinion. Ideals, representations and standards are continuously being broadcasted out. Advertisements are used as a medium to send out these messages but also are to blame for continuously re-establishing norms in our society. In order to create a society that does exist in the climate of marketing women’s bodies we need better media literacy. Understanding why images and messages are being put into a commercial will allow young girls to be less influenced by what they are exposed to as well as teach us to not so easily fall into hegemonic thinking.
Fast-food commercials often exploit women and objectify them because sex sells. Women are used to play into the male desire in order to sell meat. They are sexualized, objectified, framed in the male gaze and in comparison with meat products all to attract male consumers. However, it is not just men that are watching these commercials. Representing women in stereotypical, sexist ways sends the message to young girls while also creating a culture that heterosexual men are the superior sex.. The message and ideals of our societal hierarchy are encoded into 30-second fast-food commercials. Fast-food commercials such as the Burger King and Carl’s Jr. I examined, promote an unrealistic and sexualized version of the female body. Healthy, fit bodies are not the result of eating at fast-food, yet in our culture often what comes to when thinking of a fast-food advertisements are half-naked women. Creating a language and culture that understand messages that put women in comparison with consumable products is damaging girl’s self- representation. Framing women based on “Cues of Violability” and in the male gaze perpetuates the harmful standards that women’s bodies are objects for male desires as well as objects women should be showing off rather than inhabiting. The hyper sexualization and objectification of women in fast-food commercials encodes harmful and unrealistic stereotypes that are then perpetuated in our society creating a toxic culture for adolescent girls seeking influence.
Work Cited
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[32] Burger King. Advertisement. Long Chicken Sandwich. 2010.Burger King commercial
[33] Carl’s Jr. Advertisement. Teriyaki Burger Audrina Patridge. 2009
[34] Carl’s Jr. Advertisement. Southwest Patty Melt. Kate Upton. 2012.
[35] Kilbourne, Jean. “Beauty…and the Beast of Advertising.” Beauty…and the Beast of Advertising | Center for Media Literacy, Center for Media Literacy, www.medialit.org/reading-room/beautyand-beast-advertising.
[36] Kilbourne, Jean. “Beauty…and the Beast of Advertising.” Beauty…and the Beast of Advertising | Center for Media Literacy, Center for Media Literacy, www.medialit.org/reading-room/beautyand-beast-advertising.
Annotated Bibliography
1. Adams, Carol. “Home.” Carol J. Adams, caroljadams.com/.
Adam’s website provides excellent examples of how meat is feminized throughout our society. She has a section of the website dedicated to supporters sending in examples they see in their everyday life. This helps to give a perspective of how often and in what ways framing women and meat in this way people are often exposed to. She gives a history of eco-feminism and explains it as a way to identify the way meat has been turned masculine and how it reinforces our gender binaries.
2. Adams, Carol: The Pornography of Meat, New York: Continuum, 2003.
-. The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory. New York: Continuum, 1990.
Adams discusses and highlights the different ways women and put in comparison and shown similar ways to animals. She claims that the reason for this is because women and meat are both for men to consume. She explains how this idea of meat being viewed as a masculine food, dating back through history and gender roles in the kitchen. This has formed a new way of gender roles thus why meat is so often put in a sexual way to attract men. Adams brings attention to Carl Jr’s inappropriate commercials and how they are used to reestablish that women do not have any power in comparison to men. They are always hypersexual and aimed towards men.
3. Carl’s Jr. Commercial. Texas BBQ Thick Burger with Paris Hilton. 2014.
This is one commercial by Carl’s Jr. that shows how these fast-food commercials are targeted towards men and put women in this light that they are there to show off to men. The women in the commercial is in a bathing suit washing off a muddy truck, yet another male item placed in the commercial to send the message that this is for the male viewer’s attention. She is posing in many different sexual ways in between seems of her shoving meat into her mouth, another sexual innuendo hinting to the men. The commercial is focusing on selling her more than selling the burger. At the end, the commercial showed a male fantasy of Paris Hilton arriving on the scene and creating sexual tension between the two females. This commercial has many levels to examine but as a young girl watching the message can be seen as simple, that they too need to be thin, tan white women but can eat like a man. It creates a confusing representation to show young girls and reestablishes a false image to men.
4. Carl’s Jr. Commercial. Southwest Patty Melt. Kate Upton.
Kate is highlights ‘cues of violability’ through how she is presented in the commercial. S
5. Debord, Guy “Society of the Spectacle” Media and Cultural Studies:Keyworks, Second Edition.” Ed. Durham Meeakshi G, ED. Douglas Kellner. Blackwell, 2006. Malden, MA. Print.
Debord believes that life is just a representation, which is the spectacle. By living in this capital world that is revolving around media and how messages are transmitted to people that are not a part of reality. The messages are not real because they are socially constructed. The images that people think of are not real, they are generally pixels that are generated through programs.
6. DiSalvatore, Ellen. “‘Portrayal of Women in Advertising.” 10 Dec. 2010.
In this article, DiSalvatore explains some of the histories of women’s representation in advertising and how it has evolved to what it is now. She talks about how this constant representation sends the wrong message about how women should be viewed and treated in everyday life. She also begins to look at how this leads to women being represented in fast food commercials. When we do see women in fast food commercials they are typically submissive and put in a sexual frame. I used this source as a way to understand the history of women in advertising. DiSalvatore discusses how women have been portrayed and how sexualized portrayals of women can cause harm to them. Seeing images of women in a sexualized manner can create a connection with the viewer that this is how women should be viewed and treated in real life.
7. Dyer, Richard “Stereotyping” Media and Cultural Studies: Keyworks, Second Edition.” Ed. Durham Meeakshi G, ED. Douglas Kellner. Blackwell, 2006. Malden, MA. Print.
In Richard Dyer’s essay Stereotyping, he explains the construction and harm of stereotypes in our society as a whole and more specifically on the gay society. Stereotypes that are shown in media are not created by the media, they are already established and accepted norms that are then reinforced through the media.
8. Hall, Stuart “Encoding and Decoding” Media and Cultural Studies:
Keyworks, Second Edition.” Ed. Durham Meeakshi G, ED. Douglas Kellner. Blackwell, 2006. Malden, MA. Print.
In Encoding/Decoding by Stuart Hall, he discusses how audiences respond and accept messages that are sent out by the media. There is a system that is set up, according to Hall, that shows the process of producing a meaningful or an un-meaningful message. Consumers have an expectation of being spoon fed information and how to react to that information. This is why society has a set of words that make us feel a certain way so as a public, people will know how to feel. For example, during a television program if the producers are trying to get across the message that teenagers should be practicing absence words with good connotation will be used to describe what the media is trying to get the audience to do.
9. Hooks, B. Eat the Other: Desires and Resistance
The term, “otherness” as described by Bell Hooks in Eat the Other: Desires and Resistance is referring to the groups of people excluded from the word stereotype. Hooks explains that the exploitation of the others is how the dominant group is able to reestablish the status quo. Stereotypes and Otherness are dependent on one another for their existence because people need to be outside the stereotype for there to be otherness and vice versa. However, those who fit into their stereotype and are not considered the other get pleasure from engaging with the other because it is different and makes them feel more worldly according to Hooks. By exploiting the otherness of the others it helps the white dominant male cope with the guilt of being in the dominant position. Adding in these stereotypical views of the other, it re-inserts the white males as the dominant group, “Fucking was a way to confront the Other, as well as a way to make themselves over, to leave behind white ‘innocence’ and enter the world of ‘experience’” (309)
10. Jim, Mason. An Unnatural Order: Why We Are Destroying the Planet and Each Other
(New York: Continuum, 1993)
This source provided information for a historical background on the association of meat with masculinity. It discussed how men were the hunters and women were gathers and how that created what gender we associate with what food.
11. Kilbourne, Jean. “Beauty…and the Beast of Advertising.” Beauty…and the Beast of Advertising Center for Media Literacy, Center for Media Literacy, www.medialit.org/readingroom/beautyand-beast-advertising.
Kilbourne shares her argument on the use of advertisement and how they can cause detrimental effects because of the culture they create.
12. Market, Roger. “Literary and Cultural Theory.” My Ad Analysis: “I Am Man” Burger King Ad, 1 Jan. 1970, literaryculturaltheory.blogspot.com/2008/02/my-ad-analysis-i-am-man-burger-king-ad.html.
This is an article that goes in depth about the Burger Kind commercial that is a parody to the song “I Am Woman.” This gave me a different perspective on the advertisement that I was watching.
13. Marx, Karl “The Ruling Class and The Ruling Ideas” Media and Cultural Studies: Keyworks, Second Edition.” Ed. Durham Meeakshi G, ED. Douglas Kellner. Blackwell, 2006. Malden, MA. Print.
In, The Ruling Class and The Ruling Ideas, Karl Marx explains this division between social groups describing one group as the thinkers, which would be the elite class who come up with the ideas, and dictate how people should behave. The subordinate groups are the active groups in society, such as the working class, who have the ideas from the thinkers trickle down to them and who then turn those ideas into practice. This transferring of ideas can establish a hegemony according to Marx if, “one must bring an order into this rule of ideas, prove the mystical connection among the successive ruling ideas” (33), the people must see the worth in following these ideas.
14. Mulvey, Laura. (1999). Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. Oxford Journals.
The male gaze, as described by Laura Mulvey in Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema is looking at a woman as an image from the male’s perspective. Women are used not to help the plot but to be a sexual distraction for the male character and add dilemma to make the movie more interesting. The use of the male gaze is to sexualize women and establishes their purpose as objects for men to look at.
“her lack of penis, implying a threat of castration and hence unpleasure” (271).
15. Osaďan, Róbert, and Rania Hanna. “The Effects of the Media on Self-Esteem of Young Girls.” Acta Technologica Dubnicae, vol. 5, no. 1, Jan. 2015, doi:10.1515/atd-2015–0031.
This article looks at how the media can create body image dissatisfaction in young girls. The main focus is primarily younger girls and how this exposure can affect their own self -image, and confidence. This is relevant because it is giving insight to how these gender norms are established and accepted at a very young age. This article explains and gives an example of different studies conducted to determine how the media represents women can have an impact on the females watching. One study, for example, was on 97 girls who were watching television programs that were appearance themed and discovered that over time there was a direct impact of the self-esteem of these young girls.
16. Packwood-Freeman, Merskin, Debra “Having it His Way”: The construction of Masculinity in Fast Food TV Advertising. Georgia State University
This dynamic between man and meat was established from historical contexts of human’s role as animal hunters. Now food, primarily meat is viewed as a masculine food. Ecofeminism critiques this relationship between man and meat as a sexist oppression of women. In mass media, it is often seen that meat consumption is tied to male masculinity, framing meat and its consumption is a way that represents a large group. Merskin points out how this is a common trend in advertising because they normalize gender to promote constructed stereotypes. This is made prevalent in the over-sexualization of women in fast food commercials. In our society today, meat is still viewed as a masculine characteristic while vegetables are viewed as more feminine. The marketing of meat in advertisements is primarily to men. Merskin conducted a textual analysis of 17 fast-food commercials that were targeted towards men. This is similar to what I plan on doing by picking and analyzing specific fast-food commercials.
17. Perloff, Richard M. “Social Media Effects on Young Women’s Body Image Concerns: Theoretical Perspectives and an Agenda for Research.” Sex Roles, vol. 71, no. 11–12, 2014, doi:10.1007/s11199–014–0384–6.
This article researches how social media and the mass media have an effect on female body image. It explores different communication and social psychological ideas that explain why and how young girls represent themselves based on what they see peers and models do for attention. The young girl is exposed and worried about having what is viewed as the perfect body leading to other damaging effects. The idea of thinness is perpetuated throughout the mass media, and Perloff gives the example of the Barbie doll that creates this idea from a young age. There are patterns that can be seen through the media that reinforce this similar ideal.
18. “The Making of a Moral Self” Media and Cultural Studies:
Keyworks, Second Edition.” Ed. Durham Meeakshi G, ED. Douglas Kellner. Blackwell, 2006. Malden, MA. Print.
In The Making of a Moral Self Johnson discusses the different ways humans understand and implement moral thinking into our lives and how moral thinking affects us. The main point that was made by Johnson is the importance of growth for the individual and that we first need to understand we are growing to make ourselves and the world a better place and that happens through our moral choices.
19. “Trump’s Selection for the Dept of Labor Teaches Sexism at Carl’s, Jr.” Carol J. Adams, caroljadams.com/carol-adams-blog/trumps-selection-for-the-dept-of-labor-teaches-sexism-at-carls-jr.
Adams brings attention to why this issue of the sexualization of meat and women matter currently in our society. In this blog post she brings up similar issues as she does in her book, The Sexual Politics of Meat, and that women are used in fast-food commercial to reestablish gender roles and reinforce the idea that women are a consumable item at men’s disposal. She highlights that one of the reasons this is so damaging is it reinforces a world of sexual assault and rape culture. The reason that this is so relevant for us today and why she is writing this blog post is because the head of Carl’s Jr, John Berger, was nominated as Secretary of Labor and how this shows the social norms and acceptance of men behaving in this way and where the power is held. This is important to my paper because it adds evidence to why writing about this topic is needed and relevant in today’s society.
20. “Women: Representations in Advertising.” Ad Age, 15 Sept. 2003, adage.com/article/adage-encyclopedia/women-representations-advertising/98938/.
This article lays out how advertising with women has transformed. It highlights main moments for women in advertising such as targeting to women rather than men. This was a significant and interesting time for advertising because agencies realized women were the ones that were purchasing most items or had influence. This lead to women being in commercials more in different roles such as breaking out of having to be confined roles based on gender. This however did not prevent women from still being used in sexual ways to appeal to male audiences.