Image of the Black Man: Improvement or Illusion?

Lebron James is only the third male to ever appear to the cover of Vogue magazine. He is featured in an article about the body maintenance of top models and star athletes. You may think,

"Wow, we have made such improvement in the area of racism and the image of black males. See, this man is on the cover of a woman's magazine with a white model."

In one sense, yes. But in another sense, the way he is being portrayed is not really that different that the base presumptions of who a black man is and where his value lies. As Varda Burstyn puts it:

"The black super-Athlete is the 'tough guy' par excellence, embodying the physical qualities of the laboring/soldiering ethos . . . This combined class appeal of black athletes - who have emerged from among the impoverished and downtrodden Americans - is both their major asset in commercial sport culture, and a supreme irony. For the presentation of the black super athlete is still, in many ways, continuous with the racist representation of black males in culture more generally."

Look at the stance and facial expression he has: ready to pounce, exuding brute strength, extremely aggressive, with his mouth open like he's screaming. He really doesn't look that nice and he's grabbing this smiling white woman who is balancing on one foot inside his leg span. He is being esteemed by being on this cover. He is being esteemed for physical strength, brute, base qualities of masculinity. He is a black man and that is what he is good at and honored for: being able to play ball.
The perspective of the majority of Americans really hasn't improved that much. Its an illusion to think that the mere fact that this man in on the cover of vogue means much has changed.


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0803/caught.in.the.act0314/content.3.html

The Object of Man's Passion

http://loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org/offensiveads.html

Ok, so its pretty much established that this ad is not necessary selling any products that are shown. This is not the typical man or woman modeling clothes or sunglasses. The ad is promoting a type of lifestyle/attitude apparently manifested in the consumption of Dolce and Gabbana products. The value in this ad is more one of shock value and the message is actually pretty ambiguous. On the one hand, you could say its an image of a woman who is just about to be gang raped. She is beautifully helpless and at the mercy of the five cut-up men surrounding her. But then again, the tone that the audience picks up on is not one of male passion for women. And its not clear if its of male passion for men. It's of passion in general.

The man standing up without a shirt on is looking at the man who is on the ground. Its not clear who the men in the background are looking at, but they really don't seem like they're waiting their turn to be with the woman. The men are dressed in a trim, metro style. they look like they take very good care of themselves. It seems as though they have worked very hard to chisel their bodies to near perfection. And it seems as though they haven't done any of this for a woman. They could have done it out of a passion for themselves.

Is this art? It's advertising. What are they selling? A new image.

In an article written by John Beynon, he speaks about "imaged masculinity" in the yuppie and gay cultures. "In this 'heterotopic world' young men engaged in what Mort (1996) terms as 'experiments in masculinity': 'For the most part these were organized along an axis separating heterosexual from homosexual behaviors. However, at moments more hybrid forms of identity were generated, as ways of being and acting mutated from one group to another' (Mort 1996: 182)."

This is an age of the new man--the one who lives to please himself. His pleasure could be in a woman, it could be in a man, it could be simply in himself and whatever he wanted in the moment. This new man sells. Because nobody wants to be put in a box; everybody wants to just be them. The funny thing is, thats exactly what Dolce & Gabbana are doing--putting the new man in a box and presenting him to the world. And they're buying it.

Body by Dance

watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7FkvzpEa5M&NR=1

I like this commerical a lot. It shows all these women in the hospital for plastic surgery to rearrange their bodies, enlarge or diminish certain parts, and fix all their "blemishes."

The empowering message is that if you are active and work your body to its fullest potential, you don't need any of that. So, dance. Its natural. It will make you beautiful because it is everything inside you working its way out. Its you not having to be cut down and put in a box. Its you released. Why should you let someone else put a black marker on you and tell you what you should be. You should be what you are. You should move and flow and then the way your body is, is the best you could ever hope for and the best its ever going to be--

natural, real, and beautiful.

Jus do It

Nike Commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afb_O-U9O-M&feature=related

So we have 7 women on the national soccer team and 1 man--their PR manager. They are kind of portrayed in a typical "role reversal". The women are strong, athletic and competant. The man is not serious, ridiculous looking and pathetic. I guess this commercial shows what I've had to deal with in my life--guys underestimanting me, mocking the fact that I'm a woman, and writing me off as an athlete. So, I've learned not to talk, watch and be patient, take every opportunity, and jus do it. Talk is cheap from me and them. So, if most men would shut up and enough women would step up show them what they got, females maybe wouldn't be trapped in a negative stigma for the rest of time.

Suga Suga

Suga Suga
by Baby Bash

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6szDIy6SUs

So, I love this song. Its mad smooth, but I don't like the music video. I don't get it. Is this a man's fantasy world? Every woman portrayed in this video is barely dressed and they are labeled kind of like in a board game. Such as "the delivery girl", "neighbor" and "police officer." I'm trying to get to the core of the message. That women's value is only found in their physical appearance and sex appeal? This song and many times the video as well is very popular among the females I know. Do we just accept the way we are portrayed? I fell such a lack of respect, especially in the parts where the man is spanking the police officer on the butt with a stop sign--She's smiling and "playing" right along. Its such a joke. Another girl is shaking her hips and butt all around him with a carpenter's belt on. Ms. Tasty pop works at a food booth and he goes right behind her while she is bending forward and check out her ass. And you wonder why women pursuing professional careers have it so hard. This is a mainstream video that came out only a year ago. Why do we accept the ideology behind it?

E-Trade Superbowl 2008 commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMl839M5hKc

The message is that E-Trade is so easy, even a baby can use it. This commercial cleverly uses age to grab the attention of the audience. The immediate question though is why they used a white baby. Was it because the majority of people living in the states are white? Why didn't they use a black or latino baby? Is it because white is supposed to be symbolize universal man? This is an image from a mainstream, modern day media frenzy--the superbowl. How is man being represented? Is it accurate? Is it fair? Or are questions like these just "overthinking" it?

I was looking through a Cosmo magazine and it struck me that almost everything said, asked about, referred to, and pictured was about sex. And I had to ask, is it because the female audience consuming this magazine is really that into sex? A number of them probably are, but it just kinda struck me as funny, because the average healthy person has much more going on in their life besides sex. Now, there is relationship advice and some "daily tip" things, but everything is about "arousing him", "sex secrets", "what he wants, but wont tell you." There are countless articles about make-up and fashion, and it all comes down to one message. Be desirable for a man. Now, I'm not saying its a bad thing or a good thing. But basically, Cosmopolitan's billion dollar business is based on the ultimate question of "How to: be desirable and give your man what he wants." . . . and girls can't get enough.

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/

"Irresistable to Men"

Click to view beer commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzAxWWL4wZA&feature=related

This commercial is interestingly making a statement about both women and men as also giving a message to both women and men. The statement about men is that they don't have enough self control to work in a beer factory, because it's just that good. They cannot be professional is such an atmosphere. The statement about women is that they can have enough self control, but look at how they are represented. Are they really half-dressed, looking that sexy for their female co-workers? The message to men is the appeal to their brute instincts. Basically saying, 'its ok. You can't resist this. Don't try to.' Plus they are putting the desire for alcohol right next to the desire for sex, blending the two. The message to women is that they can be just as irresistible. What woman doesn't want to be desired?

Bold statements. Loud messages. One product.

The "common woman"

Dove body product commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqSlSXqlRfk

This commercial appeals to "the common woman." Its trying to show that a lot of the key images in the media are misleading. The images put forth as the female "model," have been touched up, shaped, and glossed over to perfection. Dove is actually taking the opposite approach in their marketing. Instead of saying that if you use this product, you will look like this, they say, be real, nobody looks like this. Use this product, it will make you look like you. On the one hand, that may seem to appeal to many who are sick of never meeting the "media standard." But on the other hand, women have been trained to aim for that standard. Dove's sales arent always skyrocketing, because they have taken this different approach. Is this approach better? more truthful? less effective?

Break it down, Drink it up

Click this link to view a commercial for Pepsi that was aired during the superbowl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EEZLYKN8Fo&feature=related

Question: Why does taking off your clothes have anything to do with drinking soda?

Answer: it doesn't.

Reason: Pepsi needs to sell its product. A carbonated drink doesn't sell that well by itself. Sex sells. The most intelligent marketing move would be to record a blond girl in a bra dancing, flipping her hair everywhere, and making bedroom eyes as the camera goes close up.

Result: The audience pretty much forgets logic, sees the pepsi logo and because they have certain desires and feelings associated with such a sensual scene, they go out an buy a 6-pack.

Effective: Yes.

Constructive: No.