False Ideological beliefs

In class on Wednesday we talked and watched a video about common ideological views in today’s society and how it affected people in our society. The video focused mostly on young women and what are some of the images women have to live up to, to attain the perfect life. I believe this video was specifically focused on women because the mass media concentrates more on women’s appearance rather than a man’s appearance. Some ideological images for women are: women have to be thin and beautiful, they have to be housewives that take care of their men, women must find a prince charming to be happy, and they should have the most glamorous wedding that is fit for a princess.

In Today’s society we turn on the television and see beautiful actresses and models in makeup commercials advertising for the newest product. When we open a magazine or look at a billboard on the side of the road we also see thin beautiful models selling products. All these advertisements are very hegemonic because they are causing women to believe this is what they need to look like to get somewhere in life. In addition these ideological views are now becoming the dominant image in our society for women, but what most women don’t know is that all these advertisements that they do see aren’t real and are exaggerated.

In my high school we watched a Dove commercial depicting s what women actually look like before the commercial is put out. The woman in this advertisement started off being a regular girl you would see walking down the street every day, but when the makeup and touching up was done she looked like a totally different person. As a result, women see these commercials and strive to be that ideal women when in fact they can never fully achieve this goal because they aren’t even real. The media just allows women to believe this is the normal and natural way for women to look and no matter how hard we try to get away from these hegemonic ideas we ultimately fall right back into them.