However, as the article really shows the world of fitness modeling has a dark underbelly. According to the article fitness models undergo crazy rituals to make muscle definition more prominent than it actually is, through dehydration and alcohol binges the model attains the unattainable results that the common man will never see. Because the “common man” does not know that fitness models essentially try to kill themselves for the sake of a fucking picture. Men are also subjected to various other unrealistic expectations such as the need to be wealthy, and handsome. For as long as men have been alive, they have tried to attain this goal of “perfection” they want to be something that other men are jealous of and that women readily want to go to bed with. However, the sad fact is that you cannot be prefect. You must accept what you are, and who you are for that matter.
Big corporations are going to try to force these ideals down your throat, and you are going to be miserable if you are naïve enough to buy into them. That is why framing is essentially so important in the media world, they can wrap a turd of shit in a pretty package and some fool will buy it. All you have to do to sell anything controversial would be package it friendly, meaning you shouldn’t except something with a negative correlation to do well. For example stem cell research, has been a huge controversy because of the implications of “playing god”. People are against harvesting embryos to supply the cells needed for this type of research, so the companies involved now harvest from adults, and umbilical cords. They are still doing the same thing, but the package has changed, thus eliminating the entire argument of “playing god” as far as those are concerned that are opposed to killing fetuses, or what have you.
To sell the turd you would have to rename it, make the box pretty, and flavor it up a bit, essentially removing the aspects that are commonly associated with shit. Much like the use of dehydration, alcohol binges, and Photoshop do for the fitness magazines, diet companies, and not to mention Gatorade. They produce the ideal that you have to be healthy, to be successful. They clearly do not expose the truth behind the “health” removing all negative associations mentioned above. The typical human is geared to buy into anything that is pleasing, be it that sports car, dream home, or diet product that promises insane results. As long as others are seen endorsing or benefitting from a product, fad, or otherwise, middle America will be draw to it like flies to offal.
However, that entire concept can be at fault for the downfall of American health, you take a McDonalds commercial, you will see an actor having the best time ever with a McChicken and maybe an apple and assume that McDonalds isn’t that unhealthy, I mean look at that actor! They are having a great time; they are so vibrant and pretty… I need to run out and buy some. Then after about a year of those catchy commercials, you are ready to jump into a diet that promises you will look like Brad Pitt naked in Legends of the Fall. Thus returning to the entire argument that men should be something they are not.
An example of propaganda associated with “fitness models” would be the misleading nature that companies present the models. They never disclose the true nature of the actual career as a fitness model. They just use the models as the prototype male figure; making thousands upon thousands of men generate more revenue for their companies. If they present something that builds off the already bruised male ego then they are going to see many males striving to fulfill the requirements that are placed upon them.
Women are just as much victims as males, only to a lesser extent, magazines that show us beautiful men force us to think of males in certain ways, and we strive to obtain those men because they are what is “desirable”. We allow the media to oppress our general ways of thinking by invading us with images so far from reality that we will do anything to fit into a role they describe.
Another form of propaganda would be those companies that provide “enhancement” to men. They lie through their teeth and make bald promises that if you take a pill your penis will just become so enlarged that you will have all the women in the world knocking down your door. Those pills work no better than anything else that is supposed to “enhance” your member. Yet they show you these images of men sitting around with beautiful women, talking about how some pill changed their entire lives. Companies are aware of the insecurities that humans have, and they will exploit them at any cost. Even to go as far as making claims that a rational person should know to be false.
Propaganda and framing are valuable to the media, not just to sell products but to sell general ways of thinking as well. Politicians use propaganda to smear the opposition, big companies will use propaganda and framing to destroy the “mom and pop” competition. Hitler used propaganda to try to justify the killing of the Jewish people. Propaganda is always going to be prevalent in our culture; we just need to be more careful with what we will buy into. People on a whole are naïve, but when some trusted brand tells you what the “right” way to live/be is you need to think very seriously to see if they are forcing some rhetoric down your throat to generate revenue or gain something for them.
Work Cited
Christina, Greta “Wealthy, Handsome, Strong, Packing Endless Hard-Ons: The Impossible Ideals Men Are Expected to Meet” http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/ Web. Accessed 23 August 2011.
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