The Power of Heels

Magazine Article

Collected on: 3/25/09

Article can be found at : http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1846719,00.html

This article talks about the impact of high heeled shoes on women. It gives both obvious and underlying reasons that women wear "pumps" and talks about the recent trend where more powerful women in the work world are wearing high heels.

This article relates to women's studies because it relates women wearing heels to sexuality, femininity, women in the working world, and power imbalence. A related topic is work, because the article talks about how heels are a woman's greatest asset in the world of work. It references women in professions like: model, cfo, actor, and politician, saying that all successful women in those professions wear high heels. It relates to power imbalence because it says women wear heels to look more powerful and combat power imbalence. It relates to sexuality because it says that heels make legs look longer, and long legs communicate a healthy youth and good breeding potential (according to evolutionary psychologist Martin Tovee). It states all the ill effects of wearing high heels like a "pump bump" and high heels causing knee injuries on stairs. It says women wear heels despite this because world of work rewards women who are both powerful and feminine and that high heels exude power combined with femininity.


Related readings include: "the second shift" (because it discusses society's unfair and suppressive expectations of women) , and "your life as a girl" (because it addresses how society tells women to behave and do "their feminine gender") among many others.

This article reflects an advance for women because it was in time magazine so it publicizes the oppression of women. Oppression in the sense that society demands that women in "men's fields" be both powerful and feminine and they can't do that with out wearing heels which are extremely harmful to women's health. The fact that women have to wear harmful heels to succeed in the work world is a big setback for women.

Scantily Clad Skyy Vodka Ad

Magazine Ad

Collected on: 3/11/09

From: Google Images Search For: "alcohol ads" (4th ad in the search.)

This is an ad for Skyy vodka. It depicts a man standing over a woman in a power position. It relates to women's studies because it uses the power difference between men and women, the objectification of women, and the power of watching. The man shows power because he is fully dressed while she is in a bikini. He is standing over her. He is offering her something. The viewer has the power of watching over the woman and not the man because his top half is cut off. This is to insinuate that Skyy vodka gives the viewer power over women. The ad suggests that if you buy the vodka you will be more attractive to women and maybe even able to get them drunk and take advantage of them. This relates to objectification of women because the woman she is just an object to draw your attention, just a tool to sell the vodka. She is only there for the viewer's viewing pleasure. The ad implies she is an object, a trophy which you will obtain if you buy their product. She is almost naked and not looking at you, just an attention getter like bright colors, or a lour noise, instead of a person. This embodies the objectification of women and thus relates to it.

The ad also relates to women's studies because it relates to gender socialization. It is an example of gender socialization. It portrays a woman and man in an intimate situation and shows the woman as submissive. Women and men will look at the intimate situation to learn how to act when they are in a similar situation.

There isn't much in this class it doesn't illustrate or relate to, male privilege for example. It demonstrates male privilege because the man is not objectified in this ad only the woman, men are rarely if ever objectified in the media.

This ad is a setback for women because it objectifies them and furthers harmful gender socialization. It is a setback for men because it teaches them to objectify women. It is a setback for culture in general because it worked effectively to sell a product, ads objectifying women are everywhere, and they wouldn't be if they weren't effective.

Don't Hate Love

Website/Video

Watch Full Video at: http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/divorce

collected on: 3/11/09

The courage campaign is a group supporting same sex marriage and they have made a video called fidelity which is very powerful. The video is related to women's studies and politics because it is a political statement that same sex marriage is ok. Since the topic is same sex marriage it relates to sexuality because same sex marriage is a gay rights issue, and any gay rights issue is a sexuality issue. The video is not only related to politics, but it is an effective political tool. It made me, a former "homophobe" do a "180 degree turn" and join the cause for gay rights.

The video shows happily married same sex couples and their families and friends and takes away the stigma surrounding them. It shows that they are really just normal people who are truly in love and it stirs up feelings of perfect love and fairy tale "happily ever afters". The reason i say it does these things instead of saying it tries to is, I was a full fledged "gay-hater" before I saw this video. I hated it because it was "unnatural" and "against god" and "weird" and "fake" and "nasty". This video really showed me that I was dead wrong and that same sex couples are none of those things. Their love is easily as strong and beautiful as heterosexual couples, if not more so. The video is so powerful that I just want to keep watching it over and over and I am as I write this. It is very inspiring and has shown me what an "idiot" I used to be.

Hopefully it can show many others what it has shown me, because its goal was to give support against Proposition 8 which is a proposition to ban same sex marriage and nullify all same sex marriages that have been made. That is another way it relates to politics, its goal is to fight a political regulation. We have talked about gender roles which also relate because this video's message goes against traditional gender roles, and if the video's message is right than gender roles are quite wrong. It also broadly relates to topics like oppression and legal rights of women, same sex marriage would be a legal right of women and without same sex marriage gay couples are being oppressed. A related reading is "The Five Genders Revisited" because both it and the video relate to gay rights.

Proposition 8 reflects a definite setback for men and women, it is restricting their freedom and depriving all gay people no matter their gender of the right to get married and in turn their right to the American canon "the pursuit of happiness". This video is the opposite, it is a step ahead for men and women and gay or straight, because it is very effective at making "gay-haters" have that "wow-moment" when they realize that gay people are ok and all marriage, gay or straight is beautiful.