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Athlete or Model? 30-Jan-2015 At 8:37:27 AM Wendy

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On 30/01/2015 The good Dr wrote:
>With respect to the marketing and the assumption by Wendy that this womans
>marketing is ... 'smiling and putting themselves out to the male gaze at
>the same time' ... you are missing a salient point. She is sponsered by
>a number of clothing manufacturers etc. They are not aiming at the male
>market, the actual target is the female market and the female response
>to the presentation of the 'athlete-model'. The question that needs to
>be asked is why women need to be marketed to in that fashion (and often
>driven by women within the industry). This also answers why there are less
>male 'athlete-models' as they are a less effective marketing tool to men.

It's not at all disconnected. People says SBC looks hot. Our culture likes women to look hot. A gazillion teenage girls are hoping they too can look that hot in Roxy hotpants. Women's identities remain bound up in appearance. It still all relates to male gaze. Who are actually her followers on social media? A gazillion blokes. See Damo's post.

She's also sponsored by 3 climbing companies, a sunglasses and a bodybuilding supplement company. They aren't specifically marketing to women. They are just getting their brand name over a bunch of photos that will be seen cause men are gawping at them and they are raising some controversy.

In brief and simplified form, people participate in the construction of discourses: they buy, sell, reflect and replicate them, they aren't just top down messages. That's what makes them so powerful. In this particular case, one that we value women for being hot (with a slight increase in being intelligent and fit, but only if it doesn't interfere with the hot bit) and men for being strong, bold, powerful, capable etc etc. What particularly disturbs me is that somehow people keep buying into the appearance side, such that men are now copping a bit of it and women are expected to be superwomen. I still haven't had enough chocolate.