Susan Bordo is the author of “Hunger as an Ideology” which talked about advertisements and how they present men and women differently towards food. Whether it is eating it, cooking it, and body shape and size. Bordo’s ideology was that advertisers take advantage of women’s insecurities by showing women eating alone and eating less while men are eating in great amounts, hearty foods. The real question here is, does Bordo’s Ideology hold up against any advertisement?Behind a mirage of various ads promising “Lose weight” and “control,” advertisers have hidden meanings to lure the female customer. Keeping this in mind I found an ad that goes along with exactly Bordo’s perspective, which is the idea that women are expected to pass up second helpings, eat small portion, and not be tempted to binge. The ad is a young woman holding a chocolate bar that is supposed to be a meal-replacement energy bar, with a small bite taken from the side.This picture of a woman eating a chocolate bar, something many women have a passion for, shows her eating in a delicate manner. She is eating a tiny bar and only taken one bite. It clearly shows a women is using control while she is eating. This woman was most definitely concerned about how and what she ate unlike we see men in advertisements who don’t worry as much about whether they eat a whole lot. “Men are supposed to have hearty, even voracious, appetites” (Bordo 144).“Whether unconsciously reproduced or deliberately crafted to appeal to the psychic contradictions and ambivalence of its intended audience, the disparity comes from the recesses of our most sediments, unquestioned notions about gender” (Bordo 170). The woman in the ad is looked upon as being able to control her eating habits, but also able to control herself while on the other hand men eat freely. These types of advertisements work well beca...
