Question

How does Bordo characterize the relationship to food in marketing
to women of the 'ideal woman' ?

A woman who indulges her desires, who has her way in all things.

A woman who is herself reduced to a food object to be consumed by hungry men.

A woman who strongly desires food and demonstrates her power by choosing the foods that she really wants.

A woman who is detached from desire, who through that cool attitude demonstrates power of self-control.

Answer 1

• ANSWER-A woman who is detached from desire, who through that cool attitude demonstrates power of self-control.
• Bordo describes the process of “psyching out the female consumer” when she examines the psychological game that media plays with women. The media exploits women by first sending a barrage of advertisements depicting the “ideal body image” which causes the development of insecurities about one’s body. Then the same media market products to “help” the women achieve the advertised ideal body image.
• Bordo claims there is a growing “strategy” in advertising and marketing to give consumers a sense of control in their lives. All types of products, such as eyeliner, cat-box deodorant, and felt-tip pens, claim to give “control” to the user.
• Bordo believes that women are taught that they can master anything in their lives, and this extends to body size and weight; hunger can be mastered so that an individual will conform to the societal view of attractiveness.
• For Bordo, eating disorders imply a mastery of sorts; they represent a pseudo-control of the person’s body. The end result of control is supposed to be a sense of happiness, but the behavior is disordered because the body is actually out of control.