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15
ordinary people. Advertising seized on the connection between the psychological and the
physical, urging consumers that they could overcome insufficiencies ranging from dandruff
to bad breath by buying the right products. Because women were estimated to make up
eighty percent of the consumer market, much advertising of this sort would be targeted at
them, but men were far from immune. For men, inferiority feelings about physicality could
arise from the belief that they were too short, too unmuscular, too w eak-or too old.
The way in which Americans came to perceive themselves physically by the second
half of the twentieth century was profoundly influenced by changing attitudes toward aging.
In American culture, people are defined as “older” because they look older. A recent study
of ninety-five industrial societies showed that the second most important reason stated for
negative stereotyping of the elderly was the decline in their physical appearance.27
Appearance is a causative factor in objectification of aging, specifically with regard to
society’s negative valuation o f aging women. Aging has traditionally been viewed as a stage
of life far more friendly to men than to women, especially with regard to physical
attractiveness. Men, especially in the corporate world, were likely to be reaching peak
career achievement by middle age, gaining an appealing aura of maturity indicative of
power and hence physical-and sexual-enhancement. But as youthfulness became elevated
to an ever-higher level of importance, men would find that they were not immune to the
negative imagery associated with aging.
Commercial packaging of youth began in the 1950s, when marketers recognized the
purchasing power and market specificity of teenagers (who, by 1959, were estimated to
control more than $10 billion in discretionary income). Commodification of youth surged in
the 1960s, a decade marked not only by prosperity and growth but by a growing perception
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
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| Title | Looking good: A social history of male body image in postwar America, 1950-1990. - Page 24 |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 15 ordinary people. Advertising seized on the connection between the psychological and the physical, urging consumers that they could overcome insufficiencies ranging from dandruff to bad breath by buying the right products. Because women were estimated to make up eighty percent of the consumer market, much advertising of this sort would be targeted at them, but men were far from immune. For men, inferiority feelings about physicality could arise from the belief that they were too short, too unmuscular, too w eak-or too old. The way in which Americans came to perceive themselves physically by the second half of the twentieth century was profoundly influenced by changing attitudes toward aging. In American culture, people are defined as “older” because they look older. A recent study of ninety-five industrial societies showed that the second most important reason stated for negative stereotyping of the elderly was the decline in their physical appearance.27 Appearance is a causative factor in objectification of aging, specifically with regard to society’s negative valuation o f aging women. Aging has traditionally been viewed as a stage of life far more friendly to men than to women, especially with regard to physical attractiveness. Men, especially in the corporate world, were likely to be reaching peak career achievement by middle age, gaining an appealing aura of maturity indicative of power and hence physical-and sexual-enhancement. But as youthfulness became elevated to an ever-higher level of importance, men would find that they were not immune to the negative imagery associated with aging. Commercial packaging of youth began in the 1950s, when marketers recognized the purchasing power and market specificity of teenagers (who, by 1959, were estimated to control more than $10 billion in discretionary income). Commodification of youth surged in the 1960s, a decade marked not only by prosperity and growth but by a growing perception Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. |
