I am an avid follower of the AMC television show “Mad Men.” The show is about an advertising agency; as a result, many of my favorite moments involve the creative bursts of the staff of the Sterling Cooper agency, who tease out small truths about humanity while working on slogans and catchphrases.
The slightly irrational nature of advertising that targets women, but is created by men, was bared by the show in a season-two episode called “Maidenform.” During the episode, Playtex hires Sterling Cooper to create a campaign for its lingerie that can compete with the more creative print ads put out by another brand, Maidenform. The men of Sterling Cooper provide a spot featuring two women: One recalls Jacqueline Kennedy while the other closely resembles Marilyn Monroe. The advertisement boasts that nothing fits all women like Playtex.
In making that generalized statement, the advertisement reduces American women of the early 1960s to two archetypes; the ad aims to speak to women’s inner desire to embody one of those two sex symbols. In explaining the reasoning behind the campaign, the show’s main protagonist claims that women value that image because men do. The “Mad Men” era seems ancient today, and its concept of femininity almost absurd, but that rationale can still be applied to modern advertising targeting women. How many pages of ads in tabloid and fashion magazines make women feel inadequate instead of empowered? How heteronormative and male-focused is the sex we consume through advertising? I think the answer is, unfortunately, very much so.
If every woman in 1959 was either a Jackie or a Marilyn, then the women of 2009 are either Vogue readers or Cosmopolitan readers. The projected sophistication of Vogue appears to directly contrast the garishly colored Cosmopolitan, but the two barely differ in their message to women. Vogue may have an article written by socialite Plum Sykes in which she frets about whether to curl her hair or allow it to remain naturally straight, and Cosmopolitan may feature yet another tutorial on how to get “sexy hair,” but both target women’s insecurities in relation to others. I don’t think I would worry so much about my hair if the women on the covers of these magazines didn’t always seem to have a wind machine following them around to make sure their tousled curls look appropriately bouncy. Maybe if I could afford a wind machine, all of my problems would be solved.
There is only so much time in my day, and very little of it can, or should, be spent worrying about what my body language says. Who has time to focus on the size of her thighs, the bounce of her hair, the shine of her teeth and the shape of her skirt? Women are often expected to hold careers, raise healthy and well-adjusted children, and be sexually available and exciting to the men in their life. Add on to this the expectation that we read multiple magazines per month, telling us how to do these things well, and it all begins to seem a bit grotesque.
Yet, despite the perception of inadequacy that can be developed through women’s magazines and the ad content contained therein, we keep buying them. Full disclosure: I read every issue of Vogue, religiously. I tear out pages, make note of the colors I enjoy and books reviewed that I want to read. Perhaps Vogue is actually making me a better woman, training me in my fight toward the Platonic ideal in femininity. Maybe Cosmopolitan can actually tell me how to understand men. Either way, I don’t really care. I flip the pages because I like to see myself reflected in the perfect women inside the photos, giggle at the titillating sex stories and rejoice with actresses celebrating the release of a hit film.
As Don Draper – the main protagonist of “Mad Men” – points out, women like Marilyn and Jackie because they see themselves reflected in them. Every Cosmopolitan issue with Blake Lively pouting on the cover – and every Vogue feature on Penelope Cruz or Nicole Kidman – act in much the same way: They hold up a mirror in which we see perfection reflected back at us.
Whitney McAniff is a sophomore in the College. The 52 Percent appears every other Tuesday.
