Questions:
How is the female body portrayed within society compared males?
When comparing these two birth control advertisments between male and female, we tend to see a slight difference in approach methods. The advertisement here portraying a female in an upright position with arms folded expresses a state of confidence. This is to say that this particular advertisement empowers the female by stating that they are in control of their own bodies. The short hair is also an expression towards this state as well as it denies the stereotypical long hair of the female body.
Most advertisements on male birth control tend to focus not on the male bodies as a whole, but rather just one portion of their bodies. The penis. The method of approach seems to stress that a male's power tends to reside mainly in his gentinal rather than his body as a whole. If the advertisement is viewed in this manner, this ad seems to reinforce the stereotypical view that men lives are lived and lead not by their intellect, but by their lustful desires. The female ad is taken from a more modest perspective in that it presents the female body as respectable. Although these advertisments are only meant as methods in birth prevention and I may be reading too much into its presentation, but it should be understood that sometimes such ads are used to reinforce the sexual stereotypes that society has created.
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