Language and Culture

Commercial Analysis

Instructor: Aiden Yeh

YE4A

Number	Name	Job distribution
1094100004	Julia Wang	Body
1094100005	Nicole Juan	Body
1094100009	Freda Lee	Body
1094100013	Cassidy Huang	Introduction and coordination
1094100041	Trisha Hsiao	Conclusion and PPT.
1094100053	Rachel Lin	Commercial introduction

Breast or Brain: viewpoints of Taiwanese female through analyzing commercial "Grape Vodka"

Now, women are expected to be not only skinny but also have outstanding breasts and bottoms. They have been tried to squeeze themselves in the stander of beauty. They are surveyed by male, peers, mass media and by themselves. In other words, woman bodies are now viewed mostly under magnifying glasses that focus only on certain parts of body especially breasts. Except for thin, “womanly women” are equivalent to big breasts. This stereotyped concept is easy to be seen in daily conversation and mass media. As a result, the original meaning of being a woman is changed. Women are no longer viewed by how they behave but what they have. Their bodies are reified and judged. This phenomenon will be discussed in observing the commercial Grape Vodka that was released by the Paolyta Co., Ltd..

The sparkling wine is a very common drink when people go to the pub. Young people love to drink it, but in the pubs, the price of the sparkling wine is very high. That is why the Grape Vodka becomes popular nowadays; it is cheaper than other sparkling wine. For the background of this advertisement “Grape Vodka,” it announces that its substance is genuine, so does the woman’s beauty. For one of the advertisement “The Genuine Substance,” it mocks “The Genuine Substance” between women and men. At the beginning of the advertisement, the viewers see an ideal woman and man are sitting together. The woman is nervous, and she wants to say something. Then, she tells the man her tiny mole which makes her like Marilyn Monroe is a fake. Furthermore, she continues confessing her breasts are also unreal; she asks the man whether he would still love her. The man remains silent, but he shows his baldhead and asks the same question to the woman. Finally both of them embrace each other warmly. Both of them do not have the outer beauty, but they show their inner beauty, their genuine substance. But behind the advertisement, focusing on the women’s images, women’s bodies become a best-selling product which can make the sales volume higher. However, the publics only focus on women’s bodies. Do the large-breast women have more confidence in today’s society? Do the viewers need to follow the fashion which the media, the companion or the men persuade the women to pursue?

It seems to be a universal and historical habit of focusing female beauty on their breasts. The “female bosom” is the most conspicuous body part of all. The idea of a perfect breast is so powerful that both men and women would do everything by hook or by crook. However, it is a phenomenon that worth pondering the questions: why are breasts such a big deal for female beauty and who defines it.

Almost every woman is complaining about having small breasts. From the TV commercials that advertise magical Chinese herbal drinks or scientific working-wonder pills that will boost female breast growth and the endless underwear advertisement that promise to make breasts look fuller, more lifted, and more centered, we know that women are not satisfied with their breasts. The message of “there is something wrong with your breast” is everywhere. The media is giving us the ideas that only hugely breasted women are sexy, able to attract men, and called women. Thus women become the victims of this objectification. They convince themselves big breast is what men want from them, and what they must acquire in order to compete with other women.

The pressure to achieve the “female beauty” is so hugely posed upon women that they start to do unimaginable things to achieve it. A new trend surgery called “breast implant surgery” is a medical procedure that cuts women’s breasts open and insert silicone into their bodies to upgrade their cup sizes. When a group of people become willingly to put themselves under the knives just for the pleasure of the other, there must be something wrong with this society. What needs to be mentioned is that women will lose sensations to their breast after the surgery, so the surgery is just to manufacture women into the eye candy for men but take away women’s ability to enjoy pleasure around their breasts. Of course there are some other minor methods that women use to make them look more sexually attractive. Thanks to the invention of sponge bras.

Originally women sought to have big breasts for the need to survive. Since ancient time, big breast has been a symbol of eternity. Now, under the manipulation of the media and pop-culture, the messages of what a sexy woman should be are sent out constantly.

Women will keep sacrificing their own values, and fearing their breasts are never big enough until something changes.

The woman breast is a symbol of woman body. Unlike men, there lays clear body difference from women; it represents the characteristic of feminine. The original function of women breasts is to produce breast milk to feed the baby, or they are just two lumps full of fat. However, for the past few decades, the attitude of how society views women breasts has changed. Breasts are no longer viewed as a tool to feed babies. Instead, they are not only capable to fulfill their original task, but also are becoming a criterion to examine woman’s beauty. When it comes to judge women's figure, big sized of the breasts always comes as the first requirement, and these false images which come from mass media, male perspective, and others do affect the self-consciousness, or self-value on how women view themselves in a negative way.

Since women live in a male-orientated society, it is common for women to be seen as an object than others. There are enormous examples appeared on TV programs and even commercials. Whenever entertainers are asked to do the performance, they are asked to dress as less fabric as they could so that the body figure can be shown. Or in a commercial, it reverses women breasts into an object for males to consume and pray about. Also, the topic of breast size is often mentioned in men discussion. Men feel satisfied and tend to fulfill their sexual fantasy by talking about breasts. However, there are terms that describe the size of the breasts such as, big boobs, flat pans, and they are often discriminated terms.

In the society, we have always given strict expectations on women. People expect women to have pretty faces and slim bodily features. If you watch TV or movies, there are always beautiful women with small faces, big breasts and petite hips. We have slowly accepted that this is how women should be. In Taiwan, it is probably more serious because people tend to think western people have better appearances and body features. This means a small face with bigger eyes, a pointing nose and thick lips is considered beautiful and sexy. Unfortunately, most Asian people do not look like that at all. Our eyes are small without folds on the eye lids and we have stubby noses and thin lips. Therefore, many women go for plastic surgery hoping after the surgery they will be prettier and reach the beauty that society expects. Just like the woman in the commercial, she has fake breasts because a sexy woman ‘should’ have big breasts and that is what society expects. Pressure from peers is another problem as well. For example, if your friend is slim but she still complains about how she is too fat and wants to go on a diet, will you ignore her and keep eating whatever you like? Or, if you are told by your friends that you are too fat even though you are perfectly all right, will you start eating less? I think the answer is obvious. You probably will not listen to your mother, but you will definitely listen to you friends. That is how peers influence you so much.

To conclude, through viewing the perspective from male, peers, and mass media, different female expectations are set in different societies, which have been made up as gender stereotypes. Women are supposed to be thin and with big breasts, and it is also natural for men to view female as sex objects. Under this circumstance, women seem to lose the original meaning of being a woman. They tend to “make up” their defects through medication or surgeries without knowing the fact that they are losing their true selves. Through our analysis and discussion above, we hope, we have displayed the phenomenon of reification and judgment of women precisely for women to ponder their roles in the society.