The Male Consumer is a Loser!

Imbibing liquor is men’s main antidote or escape from their inadequacies regarding women. The “male consumer is a loser” (Messener & Miontez de Oca 1).  The different media types are telling the masses this over-abundantly.  One of the ideas the media are subliminally planting in their heads is that they will really never get the girls they see. These “Average Joe[s]” (27) will never be lucky enough to get the girls they oogle in the “Sports illustrated swimsuit issue” or in the Super Bowl commercials (22).  And in turn, media are telling them that the consolation prize is alcohol.   Alcohol is the retreat for many men when it comes to dealing with women.  Having a beer with the guys is the man’s ultimate escape from dealing with his own feelings of insecurity and inadequacy as well. It also allows him “to escape the emotional needs of his partner while retaining regular access to sex” (14).  Ultimately, this makes women become objects instead of equals. The problem with reality is that men often see the women who are the real girlfriends as “bitch [es]” who just want to control men’s lives (24).  This again circles around to alcohol with which men can enjoy momentary power over their girlfriends by drinking in excess and complaining by trash talking their girlfriends, as long as the girlfriends are not within earshot.  This is why many ads for liquor and other alcoholic beverages accompany a beautiful, surgically enhanced woman wearing scandalous clothing, or lack thereof, that their girlfriends would never wear.  Those women create a fantasy that male consumers can have sex and alcohol without the girlfriend.  However, this feeds men's insecurities because they know that this is a fantasy that will never come true.   And this is a sad way of thinking that perpetuates the truth that the “male consumer is a loser” and always will be (1).

Ads protect us from ourselves?

Often advertisements sell us on the idea that we need their product to undo what we have done.  In order to bend to the media’s view of how women should be, we abuse our bodies and in this specific case our hair.  We spend hours crimping, straightening, and dying our hair to appease what the media has convinced us is beautiful.  And then they turn around and sell us something to undo what we have done.  It is a vicious cycle that perpetuates itself.  This intern makes women feel inadequate in a lot of ways.  When we need products to fix ourselves, this reinforces the concept that we are insufficient to begin with.

The target audience for these ads is often women who are discontented with themselves initially. “It might be those women and girls most invested in or dissatisfied with their appearance who seek out particular media content, and so might buy and read more fashion magazines” (Tiggemann and Mcgill 24).  These media outlets portray women with no visible flaws including perfect hair.  This depicts the notion that in order to be that beautiful, we have to do exactly what they are doing and use the product they are representing.  The supposed end result makes us think that we will be transformed in to the pretty women we saw in the advertisement.

This thinking also perpetuates the idea they we can abuse ourselves in pursuit of this beauty.  In one commercial by Dove, the add states that you can keep abusing your hair because Dove will take care of the damage you have caused.  This opens a can of worms containing eating disorders and other forms of self punishment.  This idea that we can create messes of ourselves knowing that someone else will clean it up is a dangerous game to play.