This ad from Versace depicts a lot of what Susan Bordo describes in Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body. Male advertising has undergone a shift in the recent years with men being more exposed and displayed in a more feminine light. The suit this guy is wearing is much more feminine than it would have been in the past. Not only is it pink, but its pretty tight. He is also wearing jewelry which is a pretty bold feminine symbol. The increased femininity of males in advertisements helps to appeal to a greater audience. It attracts women and both heterosexual and homosexual men. This shift of femininity is bringing more equality to the world of advertising but not in the way that Bordo expected, as she stated, “I never dreamed that ‘equality’ would move in the direction of men worrying more about their looks rahter than women worrying less” (227). Bordo states that, “men act and women appear” (210). This dude looks like you caught him smoldering while he was mid-walk to somewhere important (or wherever you would go dressed like that).
In Bordo’s passage, a strong point about women versus men in advertising is that “men act and women appear” (210). Bordo further describes women’s role in ads as, “Even walking on a city street, headed for their highpowered executive jobs, women exist to be seen, and they know it — a notion communicated by the constant tropes of female narcissism: women shown preening, looking in mirrors, stroking their own bodies, exhibiting themselves for an assumed spectator, asking to be admired for their beauty” (211). No one looks like the girl in this ad when they are in the shower. I don’t care how great the body wash is, it does not make you smile from ear to ear. This is clearly for an ‘assumed spectator.’
