Man[2]
(Man) n.; pl. Men
1. A human being; � opposed to beast.
2. Especially: An adult male person; a grown- up male person, as distinguished from a woman or a child.
3. The human race; mankind.
4. The male portion of the human race.
5. One possessing in a high degree the distinctive qualities of manhood; one having manly excellence of any kind.
6. A term of familiar address often implying on the part of the speaker some degree of authority, impatience, or haste; as, Come, man, we 've no time to lose!
7. A married man; a husband; � correlative to wife.
8. One, or any one, indefinitely;
Woman[2]
(Wom�an) n.; pl. Women
1. An adult female person; a grown-up female person, as distinguished from a man or a child; sometimes, any female person.
2. The female part of the human race; womankind.
3. A female attendant or
servant.
It is universally believed that there are two sexes; man and woman. These two sexes are not only distinct from each other, but they are like opposite poles of a magnet. Man is the positive end and woman is the negative. When these two ends are brought into proximity, they are suppose to attract and lock together into a perfect unity. In keeping with the same terminology, the male sex has positive qualities, like courage, ambition and strength. Conversely, women not only lack those positive male qualities, they also possess negative qualities such as compassion and weakness. Man is positive and woman is his negative.
����������� Woman has been stereotyped in such a manner throughout history in both the public and the private sphere. Woman is defined by these stereotypes, as she is �woman� by nature of her biology and through the roles that she is expected to play. Woman is a mother, yet she is also a sexual object. Woman is expected to be selfless, thus she must restrain herself from those things that gives her pleasure. She is confined to roles in which society has set for her, and even though we are said to have lived through a sexual revolution, Woman has no way to break free of this structure.
����������� Woman currently lives in an era of low-rise jeans and transparent blouses, short skirts and �hooker� boots. Woman�s sexuality and her ideal body type has been recreated over the years with the advent of new fashions[16]. In the Renaissance Era, women who were full and well rounded, were considered to be ideal women. Later, the Victorian Era represented Woman as an hourglass figure with big busts, big hips and an itty-bitty waist. In the 1920�s the ideal woman was masculine looking flappers and finally in the 1990�s Woman�s look was young, girlish and vulnerable[16].
����������� Since the advent of television and movies, femininity has become something that is standardized[17]. Advertisements have become a focal point for the promotion of these norms. Advertisements tell Woman what clothing is fashionable, what type of makeup to wear and how to behave. Essentially, the media takes what cultural stereotypes of women that have been created and they promote and support these images.
In the remainder of this project, I will be examining some of these stereotypes and how advertisements reinforce the ideas.....