Blog 5

Mark Nesbitt

ENG 201 2 p.m.

Blog 5

10/24/13

            Mal Cobb embodies the “evil demon seductress” trope.  Mal is Dominick Cobb’s deceased wife in the film Inception.  Seeing as Mal died, she technically does not fit the femme fatale trope.  Dom continually sees her projection when he journeys into people’s dreams to plant an idea, or to retrieve a piece of information from their mind.  Mal is a figment of Dom’s imagination that haunts him, constantly attempting to manipulate and control his every action and thought.  She does this in order to fulfill her malevolent master plan of eternally bringing them together again. Her actions throughout Inception coincide with many of the characteristics displayed by “evil demon seductress’’” in other various films.  Her name, Mal, is short for Mallorie.  She moved from France to be with Dom in the United States.  In French, "mal", means bad.  Mal's name happens to be the first indicator of the apparent bad news she embodies.  

            Similarities between Mal Cobb and other “evil demon seductress’” include highly skilled manipulation skills, along with a strong desire to control Dom.  In Mal’s death scene, the camera shows Mal outside her hotel window on the ledge of the building, lying in wait of Dom.  She plans to commit suicide.  This scenario proves to be common, however.  She often commits suicide in order for her to return to reality, when she wishes to slip out of a dream. Dom steps out on the ledge in order to persuade Mal back inside to safety.  They exchange in an adversarial and lengthy conversation that consisted of two conflicting sides.  Dom begs Mal in an attempt to convince her to step down from the ledge, because she mistakenly believes she is simply in a dream.  Mal pleads to Dom, assuring they would both return to reality after they jump to their death.  Here, Mal wants Dom to kill himself.  This displays Mal’s attempt to go to extreme feats in regards to toying with Dom’s emotions and thoughts, seeing as she knew all along the situation they were in.  She wants him to die so they can be together once again, and has no problem doing whatever it takes to accomplish this task by using her manipulation skills.  The words, reasoning, and actions displayed by Mal in this scene exemplify the “evil demon seductress” trope. 

            Mal possesses an extraordinarily strong sense to control Dom throughout the entire film.  One scene in particular that reinforces this statement occurs when Ariadne purposely take the elevator down to Mal’s hotel room to satisfy her curiosities.  Mal confronts Ariadne from her couch, igniting a conversation about true love.  She then proceeds to stand up and make her way over to the counter to grab a wine glass shard.  Mal begins stepping toward Ariadne with malicious thoughts, just as soon as Dom yanks Ariadne to safety in the elevator.  As this happens, Mal screams out, “You promised! You promised we would be together!  You promised we would grow old together!”. This in turn causes Dom to comfort Mal.  Mal’s control tactics were a success, as she attained a positive response from Dom.  She weakened him, and made him feel intense guilt for leaving her.  Manipulating Dom by trying to control his actions is her only goal.  She wants to be together again in limbo, and she is compelled to do whatever it takes to achieve this.  Mal displays utter selfishness with no regard to anyone else’s safety and well-being.  Her actions represent the “evil demon seductress” trope by acting as Dom’s antagonist.

            Mal’s sexuality comes into play when being compared to the “evil demon seductress”.  Clothed in a black, form-fitting dress, Mal emanates a certain eeriness.  She intimidates the people she comes into contact with.  Her voice is soft and feminine.  Her apparent attractiveness and femininity, combined with her warped fantasy-driven mind, make for a deadly character.  She utilizes her sexuality on various occasions in order to manipulate Dom.  Dom’s flashbacks of previous memories with Mal best demonstrate how she uses her seductiveness against Dom.  Mal would woo Dom by exercising her attributes of charm and sexuality in order to constantly fall deeper in love with each other.  Mal’s maliciousness has origins of deep-rooted, intense love she and Dom felt for one another.  Her sexuality and actions utilized against Dom all has to do with her love of him.  I would describe Mal as having tunnel vision, with Dom at the end of her view.  She is willing to go to any length to have Dom back.  It fascinates me by what people will do for love.  Mal is dark and twisted, but also beautiful and identifiable.  Her intense love of her partner causes her to turn into a monster, and also embody the “evil demon seductress” trope. 

Blog 3 Beauty Myth

Mark Nesbitt

10/20/13

ENG 201 2 p.m.

Blog 3 Beauty Myth

     There are many instances in modern society, and all throughout history, of certain existing beauty myths occurring in the females of our culture.  The concept of aging as a terrible occurrence happens to be the exemplary model of a beauty myth at work in the P&G brand, Olay, in regards to their lineup of anti-aging products.  Olay’s seven signs of aging display the company’s advertising efforts exploiting the aging beauty myth to sell their products to insecure women.  The advertising of products and false statements that Olay broadcasts allows women to further slip into a psychological black hole. This figurative black hole happens to be that believing the natural process of aging is extraordinarily detrimental to a woman. 

            Olay claims the seven signs of aging to be, in order: dark spots, sagging of skin, dull and glow-less skin, lines and wrinkles, dry skin, patchy skin, and open pores.  If you actually think about what Olay is portraying the signs of aging to be, you can simply deduce that these statements are wholly and totally false.  Literally any human on the face of earth, no matter the age, has one or more of these “symptoms” of aging.  I, myself, have dark spots, lines and wrinkles, dry skin, and open pores.  Honestly, who does not have open pores and dry skin?  That is a preposterous statement whose only reason is advertised to sell a product.  Olay’s seven signs of aging are based off of a lie to exploit the aging beauty myth in today’s society.

            The aging beauty myth influences women to constantly lie about their true age.  This example of the beauty myth in action happens to be something I have witnessed many times throughout my life.  My mom has four sisters, my dad has two sisters, and obviously, my family celebrates their birthdays.  My aunts always lie about what age they are turning.  It is a ridiculous thought to believe that you must lie about your age to please a controversial societal norm, and even more preposterous to lie to your own family.  Your age should not determine how people look at you, at least in a negative sense.  Many societies revere age and the elders, which is why the aging beauty myth confounds me.  One of my aunts even has Olay’s anti aging cream in her bathroom, as I had noticed over the summer.  I find absolutely zero reason to hide the person you are, and to attempt to cover up a wrinkle or two in order to please a ridiculous norm.  Of course my own opinions have no effect in changing the infectious nature of the aging beauty myth.

Women are influenced by such products as Olay’s, in order to relieve their intense self-criticism and societal pressures.  A great deal of women carry themselves in such a way as to be reminiscent of a young woman in her prime.  A first-hand example of this occurrence would be my previously mentioned aunts.  My youngest aunt is forty-four years old. Her non-professional wardrobe consists of clothing styles that are popular with girls right around my age, and that I would see on a day-to-day basis here on campus.  This demonstrates her sense of attempting to stay young and to keep up her persona of being young and full of life.  To prove this can happen, and does happen in some form or another to most every woman, she has a Ph.D. in kinesiology.  Having a Ph.D. is not a common occurrence, and is not representative of the population, which I believe further aides in proving that the beauty myth can affect any woman, not just the common, everyday housewife.  There are no exceptions to the grasp it has on the women of today. 

Commercials have a large impact on women when it comes to the women on the television.  Women want to look like the models on Olay’s television advertisements, rather than act age-appropriately.  No doubt you should express yourself, but some women take it a step too far.  I have witnessed many times a woman dressing almost identically to their daughters.  They also tan regularly, and use many cosmetic products, such as Olay, to alter their appearance to a more stereotype-pleasing image of the beautiful woman.  They even take it a step further and have cosmetic surgery performed by a plastic surgeon.  This is the epitome of insecurity, in which women take it further than just anti aging products. Some women want to feel like they are part of a young and beautiful category of society, which plastic surgery seldom cures.  As you can see clear as day, women like Joan Rivers, Donatella Versace, and Jocelyn Wildenstein all have been afflicted by the aging beauty myth. They want to keep pace with the young and beautiful women of today, but you simply cannot just defy the unstoppable force of aging.

The aging beauty myth affects many women in today’s society.  It is something that will probably never vanish.  It will remain ingrained in the minds of all women that seek to be beautiful in the wake of aging.  Products such as Olay will continue to exploit this seemingly innate characteristic of modern society that women will continue to crave a younger and youthful appearance.  Complying with this statement, women will continue to play into this stereotype, completing the relentless and never-ending cycle that is the aging beauty myth.

http://www.womansday.com/life/10-worst-celebrity-plastic-surgery-mishaps-103522

http://www.olay.in/Pages/SevenSignsofageing.aspx

Blog 4

From a very young age, girls have what society believes is the ideal woman ingrained into their minds, telling them how they should behave.  These impressionable youths soak up information like a sponge, which will in turn make them act in that certain manner.  Barbie is the quintessential model on how young girls learn what the image of the perfect girl/teenager looks like.  A great deal of young girls look up to Barbie, and even want to look and behave like her when they grow up. Barbie has tainted the minds of the female youth, and has caused much controversy because she undoubtedly complicates gender roles.

            If you were to look at a Barbie doll, you would think she is pretty.  She has long blonde or brown hair, she is very thin, and she has decently large breasts.  She is rather attractive.  In reality, Barbie is an extraordinarily false interpretation of the actual dimensions of the human body.  If Barbie were a real woman, she would be 5’9” tall, have a 39” bust, an 18” waist, 33” hips and have a size three shoe.  Barbie would literally need to walk on all fours in order for her to mobilize.  Her body proportion and body mass index is so twisted, that she physically does not have the means to menstruate.  By having Barbie look the way she does, it gives off the wrong message to young girls in terms of how they should look.  Being dangerously thin is the “norm” that Mattel is broadcasting, and that is rather warped. 

            Barbie is dressed to look like a supermodel, as she is clothed in many garments that are modeled after high fashion designer’s clothing lines.  Barbie wears many clothes and swimsuits that are very revealing, which is categorized as a feminine gender role.  The main color Barbie wears, and the most subconsciously associated color that you immediately think of when you hear: “Barbie”, is pink.  Pink is a color just like any other color, how can it be possible to feminize a color?  Barbie did just this.  She always seems to be wearing pink and everything about her life is pink, pink, pink.  From her car, to her clothes, and everything in between, is pink.  Barbie feminizes the color while at the same time de-masculinizes it.  She makes it seem like it is solely acceptable for girls to wear pink, but not boys.  This goes to show how Barbie is morphing gender roles into what is acceptable and what is not. 

            Barbie is even programmed to speak basic phrases.  An example of a phrase she says is: “Math class is tough!” which is clearly derogatory towards women, making it seem like the quintessential woman is stupid and useless.  Other actions Barbie seems to do a great deal of the time is shop and talk on her phone to her friends.  “Will we ever have enough clothes?” and “I love shopping!” are more programmed phrases she can speak.  This is portraying that the perfect teenager is always shopping, and not spending time doing much else such as math homework.  By having Barbie represent her actions so proudly, it is sending the wrong message to female youth, further stereotyping the perfect teenager gender role. 

            A Barbie is not complete without her accessories.  Not her makeup accessories or purse, but accessories such as her book on how to lose weight and her scale.  The only words printed on Barbie’s book reads: “Don’t eat!”.  How much more blatantly controversial can it get?  By saying, “don’t eat”, Mattel is directly telling young girls that in order to look like Barbie, you literally cannot consume food.  This can cause major physical and psychological health problems such as anorexia and bulimia.  In regards to Barbie’s scale, it is permanently stuck at 110 pounds.  This is conveying the notion that it is acceptable to be strictly 110 pounds in order to exude the essence of the perfect teenager, which also can cause major health problems.

            Surprisingly enough, there is an actual disease called “Barbie Syndrome”.  The exact definition from the free medical dictionary is as follows: “The drive, often of adolescent girls, to attain impossible standards of beauty, projected by toys—e.g., Mattel’s Barbie Doll—and the media, resulting in failure and frustration, issues related to body image, eating disorders, and self-image.”  Anastasiya Shpagina and Valeriya Lukyanova are girls in the Ukraine that have altered themselves to mimic the Barbie doll. This is actual proof that Barbie has a massive, life altering impact on the gender roles of females. 

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Barbie+Doll+Syndrome

http://www.forbes.com/sites/katyasoldak/2012/10/17/barbie-flu-spreading-in-ukraine/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbie

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20055694-10391704.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/21298/Mind&Body/Portrayl.html

http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/idealabs/ap/essays/barbie.htm