http://www.nugenix.com/report/testosterone.php?t202id=610292&t202kw=
I was browsing Yahoo news and noticed this ad on sidebar. Ads about health-boosting vitamins are nothing new, but seeing as this one was through testosterone boosts, it made me think about views of masculinity in tandem with scientific knowledge, kind of like the case with the electric belts. So I clicked it out of curiosity to see how the ad in this product would argue its case. The ad claims that restoring lost testosterone answers solves a variety of health problems, mainly fatigue. The way this ad argued its case made me think about the marketing of DES to females and made me realize that even decades later, society hasn't changed much. It still uses scientific knowledge to "justify" certain views of aspects in society. This ad claims that men just need testosterone to help their fatiuge. I'm not even 20 yet, and I feel fatigued all the time. I guess I'm simply just not a man?
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ReplyDeleteA couple aspects that I believe you undervalued is the sexual implications this article hopes to convey, and subtle places where it shifts focus from you to other entities.
ReplyDeleteIt states that "Low testosterone... [robs] a man of his natural energy". Not that men lose it, don't upkeep it, or are otherwise responsible for it, but that it is taken from them. It may be overtly obvious, since it is ad it's core an advertisement, but it also emphasizes the need for something outside of the man himself to fix this problem: a product that someone gives you, no work required.
This speaks not only to the electric belt argument, but also to the concept of America being a 'consumer' nation rather than a 'producing' nation as described in class recently.
Also, even though the article hints at "strong overall health", it focuses solely on sexual competence. Not that it helps build muscle mass for, say, manual labor, or the increased competition drive to exceed in business and sports, since both are also attributed to testosterone, but that you'll perform better in bed.
This further represents the claims made by De La Pena, and also the consumerist American ideology. It highlights that enjoyment is more important than productivity.
Also, that "manliness" is determined by some scalar rating of sexual competence rather than hard work, or helping to providing for a family. This somewhat undermines the core of the American Dream and the self-made man.
I agree with David. I also wonder if this has to do with the fact that ever since our economy went down the toilet, studies have shown that there are now more women in the work force than ever before. Perhaps, this tough economic period in our history is also raising anxieties with the gender roles of the American culture because a measure of success has historically been paralleled with the measure of masculinity since they are supposed to "provide for the family" but now it is the women who are doing it. Hence, the connection from masculinity and virility that was also happening at the turn of the 20th century.
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