American Apparel Advertisement

In this image a young woman is leaned over a bowl of cereal, supposedly relaxing “the morning after”. One cannot help but notice the angle of the camera is conveniently placed to look up at her legs and bottom. For American Apparel (A.A.), a clothing company based in downtown Los Angeles, these types of provocative ads based on objectifying women’s bodies are not unusual. A.A. has been critiqued and scolded by numerous feminist based websites and organizations, mainly Jezebel.com, for printing overly sexual based advertisements. This ad in particular is overtly sexist in displaying a half naked female, in the kitchen, with the only part of her on display that will apparently grab the attention of the audience. It is clear this model has been selected based on the modern American beauty ideal: she has blonde, shoulder length hair, she is fairly skinny (probably a size 0/2) with a little extra (seemingly) on the hips and in the buttocks, not to mention she’s half naked and in the kitchen-where a misogynist might say she “belongs”. The most overtly sexist part of this advertisement is that her face is not shown because clearly her face is not what is going to sell A.A. clothing.

The text on the bottom says “Los Angeles. The morning after. Trying to put it back together.” The explicit meaning of this text is describing the context of the image: location – Los Angeles; date/time- the morning after (sex, most likely); action – trying to put “it” back together. Although it is not overtly clear what “it” entails, one could assume a number of things. Personally I would take that phrase as a reference to the date that this woman had last night was such an extravagant lover that he completely turned her world upside down and the only way she can “put it back together” would be to revert to comfortable routines like standing up half naked in the kitchen making herself the same bowl of cereal she has probably enjoyed since she was a child. However, the ad is clearly not trying to sell the cereal but instead how “hot” their underwear will make you look even at a time when your world is in shambles.

This advertisement places an extraordinary value on the female body as a tool, or object, used to sell clothing, considering she is the main and only prominent figure in the photograph. Our society values the half naked female form incredibly and scrutinizes it regularly until the concept of perfection loses all aesthetic meaning because it can never be reached. Generally speaking, men want to have sex with women who look like this and women want to look like this because the beauty ideal is revered and is perpetuated in popular music, commercial advertisements, actresses on television and in movies, and models on the pages of most popular magazines. If we look at society as a whole and how these ads perpetuate the way some men see women –as objects- these ads in no way help bring violence rates down and by no means appeal to the reasoning that women are people, not commodities.

Service Learning Proposal

Service Learning Proposal for NOW

By: Melissa Colon, Caitlin Costa, Alexa Nelen

February 10^th, 2011

Alexa Nelen

WST 3015-0001

Community Partner Profile:

NOW UCF Campus Action Network

Kelly Thibert (President): k.thibert@gmail.com

Kelly Quintero (Vice President): kquintero@knights.ucf.edu

Mission Statement: NOW is a progressive organization dedicated to making legal, political, social and economic change in our society in order to achieve our goal, which is to eliminate sexism and end all oppression (NOW.org).

Key semester goals: Becoming more visible on campus and within the community, raising awareness about issues, more tabling, and to show the community WHO is a NOW member and WHAT is feminism.

NOW was established on June 30, 1966 in Washington, D.C., by those attending the Third National Conference of the Commission on the Status of Women. Among NOW's 28 founders was its first president, Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique (NOW.org).

In order to achieve the above goals, UCF’s NOW chapter is seeking not only funding but also “people power” to fully realize their mission statement on a community level.

The Proposal:

Most of NOW’s issues involve women’s rights and abortion laws, bringing awareness to the problem of domestic violence and rape, and equality among men and women in the work place and the community. In order to bring positive and progressive change in favor of both women and men, contributions and involvement by the community are crucial.

One dominant part of NOW’s goals is to bring awareness to the community and nation as to what being a feminist means and what feminists ideals can bring to movements aimed at evoking progressive thinking and change. In order to accomplish this, it is imperative that NOW UCF contributes to better establishing a working definition of feminism that will invite the community in and will not scare potential involvement away.

NOW aims to change these constructions and give more flexibility to women personally and in their communities by making large scale changes. In order to do this, NOW UCF needs, more than anything, the voice to call out to the UCF community to recruit people to help make these changes.

Plan Proposal:

In order to achieve more awareness for NOW around campus and in the community, and in order to help people in the community realize the power of feminism and what being a feminist means, we will be doing several different things for our Service Learning. All of the projects will bring awareness of NOW as a legitimate and progressive organization at UCF as well as attempt to persuade people in the community to join in and contribute. The most vital part of any movement is publicity and “people power”. Hopefully with the below contributions both of these components can be fulfilled.

A modern feminist is seen as someone to be suspicious of and most are hesitant to be labeled as such. Having an organization like NOW contribute to changing this stereotype will add to the progression of social movements that bring equality to women.

 Firstly, the most seemingly affective way to bring attention to NOW in the UCF community is to first set up a table at least once a week outside of the Student Union and advertise meeting times, set up an email list for information on events and meetings, bring attention to NOW UCF’s Facebook page and finally to clearly dictate NOW’s goals and the goals of many feminists to UCF students and faculty. Secondly, we plan to make and distribute NOW posters that would advertise dates and times of various events around campus and Orlando and meeting dates and times. Considering NOW UCF needs both funding and “people power” in order to achieve its goals, these two ideas would be incredibly affective in bringing these goals to fruition.

In order to contribute to the “people power” needed by NOW UCF, we will participate in planning events with NOW like an event for Feminist Coming Out Day. The tentative plan for an event like this would be to first set up a table outside of the Student Union in order to advertise the event at least a week prior. Then have the three of us and some other members located around campus and ask students if they consider themselves a feminist. If they say yes they will collect a ribbon, a sticker or some badge that will demonstrate their decision to “come out” as a feminist. The goal is to bring awareness to the day and the importance of feminist ideals. By wearing a badge like this, hopefully one’s friends or classmates will ask about it and that would spread the word of Feminist Coming Out Day orally and simultaneously bring attention to the amount of people that may share one’s ideals and have similar views about issues presented by NOW. By giving the proclaimed feminists a physical identifier, it would make others with the same ideals more comfortable with the idea if they knew their friends or peers felt the same, considering the “F” word is something that is skirted around most of the time. Lastly, the entire thing would be one big advertisement for NOW and hopefully recruit new members that have found their voice by “coming out” as a feminist, or one with feminist ideals.

Rationale:

NOW is a progressive organization that has continued to strive for a change in socially constructed gender roles. As Judith Lorber said, “everyone ‘does gender’ without thinking about it” because these roles are so inscribed in our daily lives and how we are raised (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey, 64). Most young girls and women are complacent in their rigid gender roles and do not know any alternative. By bringing awareness to programs and institutions like NOW, the goal is this complacency will turn into contemplation and change.

All women should be educated and encouraged to define themselves by what makes them happy. NOW helps women do just this; by encouraging progression and development of gender equality in social, political, personal and economic practices. Lorber further states “gender is one of the major ways people identify themselves”, and it is important to help create positive and equal gender roles (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey, 65). Re-inscribing these roles however can be intimidating considering they are such a natural part of our lives. But in order to make progress, it is imperative to denaturalize and examine such constructions that have encroached on our inalienable right to equality.

Action:

I have met with both the President and Vice President of NOW at UCF along with the other members to discuss our tentative plans and goals for the semester. I will be attending meetings regularly and tabling in front of the Student Union to bring attention to NOW and its events. I will discuss further plans with the members of NOW to create a cohesive vision for carrying out NOW’s mission statement.

Timeline

We are working with the other members of NOW to increase visibility on campus so that we may raise awareness on key issues. The following dates are subject to minor changes. Tabling events in front of the union will occur no less frequently than on a bimonthly basis.

1.      Abortion Discussion Panel Hosted by the College Republicans- February 21

2.      Feminist Coming Out Day- March 2

3.      Green Waves Festival Interactive Tent- March 20

4.      Take Back the Night March and Rally- March 24

Works Cited

National Organization for Women (NOW). Web. 08 Feb. 2011. http://www.now.org/.

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.

Word Count: 964

Introduction Letter

My name is Alexa Nelen, I am a junior at UCF majoring in History with a minor in Women's Studies. I'm from Maitland Florida and still live here in Maitland while commuting to UCF daily. The reason I'm taking Intro to Women's Studies besides it being a requirement for my minor is because I'm very interested in learning about the history of feminism, the three waves in history and how they may relate to my life today. I'd also like to gain some experience in the community with the Service Learning because one of my main goals is to become more active in the community with organizations that make an impact every day. One reason why I've really developed an interest in not only women's studies but gender studies is because I have always experienced both advantages and disadvantages of societal constructed gender roles if not with my immediate family then with classmates and peers. I am the only female of my generation in my family and that has been a downfall for me because my family expects very different things from men and women and essentially my life goals SHOULD be to be a paralegal or a steno typist if anything at all; I should be content with being a wife and mother and to never speak back to the man of the house; I should own no opinions of my own and "yes" is always the only answer when asked anything. It's needless to say that this is not the reality in which I'm actually living but it's nevertheless forced on me every day. I feel a certain connection to this subject and to it's past.

I want to learn more about the three waves of feminism, notable feminists and their particular advancements that impacted their generation and what difficulties and controversies these women (or men) faced. After all, the majority of notable men and women in history are noted because of the controversies they overcame; the things that challenged their beliefs and presented them with difficult decisions in balancing personal beliefs and moral responsibilities; much like those facing people every day but magnified and exploded by media attention. I’d also like to learn about the different goals of feminists during the three waves and how they planned on accomplishing them. Furthermore, I’d like to construct more complete and well-rounded views about what feminism means to me through the personal anecdotes and scholarly segments presented in the text. This class and its collaborative learning technique, I feel will also be valuable to me when looking to draw upon personal experiences and other perspectives on feminism and the roles of gender in everyday life.

I have read and fully understand the terms of the academic policy and the syllabus for this course and the terms of blogging procedures.