After reading "Hunger as Ideology" by Susan Bordo, one can't help but realize that advertisements play a major in what and even how western cultures eat. In any commercial or magazine ad, it is clear as day that food is now seen as more than a basic means of survival. This became apparent to me when I observed a magazine ad for Dannon "Light 'n Fit" yogurt. The advertisement consists of a picture of a cup of blueberry yogurt with a small spoon in front of it. Above the picture, the advertisement claims : "100 calories. 0% fat. Proof that there is a God and she is a woman watching her figure." All in all, this particular ad proves that Bordo's theory of restraint for women has become an epidemic in modern times.
First off, one may notice that even though there is an entire cup of yogurt waiting to be engulfed, there is only a small portion of yogurt on a spoon that no one is partaking in.
Godey's Lady's Book magazine cover, June 1867
Food eat
"Get fat on Lorings Fat-ten-u and corpula foods"; ...What is this advertisement attempting to say? It's subconsciously stating that it should be consumed only one small spoon at a time. For if it was consumed any other way, it would be viewed as obscene and non-lady like. Any other image would violate all expectations of the stereotypical women to have a passive attitude about food itself. But this stereotype of the modern women been around for the past couple hundred years. The Godey's Lady's Book warned that it was "vulgar for women to load their plates; young girls were admonished to be frugal and plain in taste" (152). And ironically, the same principles for women apply today. Women are nearly encouraged to eat only small portions at a given time. Or better yet, to eat nothing.
Any person...