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Final Paper: Miley Cyrus Transformation

Armela Mustafaj

Visual Culture

Professor Murray

15 April 2017

                     Miley Cyrus: Transformation through the Years

           Breaking into the Hollywood scene since 2006, debuting as Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus has been a household name. From Disney’s “Hannah Montana” and world tours, to pop anthems our youth can’t and won’t stop singing; she has worked hard to earn her name. The starlet’s look has changed dramatically over the years, and with her growing up in front of the cameras, there was a whole world out there to see it happen. Identity is no longer the promise of a product. Rather, identity is the pure product we consume; either as information, an image, or in this case an artist (Sturken Page 228). The brand image of a celebrity is the impression of the products held by real or potential consumers. Her celebrity brand image once had the reputation of an innocent and sweet girl. Her fan base consisted of many young teenage girls who idolized her and were influenced by her fame. When we think of a celebrity’s brand image, we think of consistency. While Miley Cyrus was on “Hannah Montana” for four seasons, she delivered a highly performed brand promise to her viewers. Parents accepted her as a symbol of “pure” fun and the energy between Cyrus and the Disney brand seemed unstoppable. She reinforced Disney’s family values, and vice versa. The brand extended to merchandise and her net worth was thought to have been close to $150 million. Having such a fortune at a young age she reinforced the idea that a good girl can be wildly successful. Just like everything else Disney, people grow up and the good girl is now an adult. The Disney brand is kid stuff and she knew she couldn’t reach an audience of 14-year-old girls as she was hitting her twenties. Cyrus needed to find a way to remain relevant while continuing to grow her fortune.

           When we think of images we know that they present to a viewer clues about their dominant meaning. A dominant meaning can be the interpretation that an image’s producers intended viewers to make (Sturken, Page 56). An image or object is encoded with meaning in its creating; it is further encoded when it is placed in a given setting or context (Sturken, Page 56). Take the show “Hannah Montana” for instance, this show is encoded by meaning by the writers, producers, and the production apparatus that allows it to be made and the audience according to our cultural assumptions and viewing context then decodes it. The show is a comedy series that stars Miley Ray Cyrus as Miley Stewart and unbeknownst to her friends and classmates, Miley has a secret double life; one as a normal high school girl and the other as world famous pop star, Hannah Montana. Now because this was a Disney Channel show and was targeted for young kids, the encoding that writers and producers went for was that you could have the best of both worlds. One of the greatest lessons I learned from being an avid viewer of the show was to be yourself whoever that is. The entire storyline was based on a teenage girl who lies to the world about her true identity. Is she Miley Stewart? Is she Hannah Montana? She doesn’t know, therefore how could we? I don’t even know exactly who I am now at 21 years old much less back when I was 14 years old. Throughout the series, Miley Stewart struggled with the question of her true identity. You see her struggle to define herself and reconcile her two lives and it felt relatable to viewers because otherwise it wouldn’t have been a hit television show. Now fast forward to today with our knowledge of everything there is to know and see about Miley Cyrus, you see the similarities between the characters she played on television and whom she truly was deep inside. Decoding the Hannah Montana series wasn’t difficult. Much like Stewart, Cyrus was struggling pretending to be someone she was not all those years. She was always told what to do, what to wear, what to sing, how to act, etc. How could we ever tame Cyrus? Ironically enough, she wrote a hit song called “Can’t Be Tamed.” She once told MTV in an interview that this song “it’s just about freeing yourself from anything you think is holding you back. And I think that’s really important especially for girls, because so many people are told, ‘No, you can’t do something,’ or, ‘You need to be this because Mom and Dad say that, teachers say this (2)’”.

           She decided to rebrand her celebrity image and change the views of others. She was no longer that 14-year-old pop star with a blonde wig and microphone. This was when she chopped off her long beautiful hair and surprised everyone on television by her performance at the MTV Music Awards. It was all over the news and it instantly became controversial news. At the MTV Music Awards she wore a flesh-toned latex body suit and performed provocative dance moves, all while holding a foam finger and creating what is now her signature pose with her tongue out. Cyrus no longer represented the Disney brand and for that matter any pre-teen or teen brand. Parents were outraged and even prevented their children from watching Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball” music video. Who did she represent now? Representation is a process in which we cobble up the world around us, even through a simple reformation of an artist, and making meaning from it (Sturken, Page 14). Miley Cyrus became set on letting the world know she was her own person and most importantly her own woman. She is now a strong and proud advocate for the LGBTQ community and is also a feminist. She is apart of a foundation she launched, Happy Hippy Foundation, which supports LGBTQ and homeless youth. In February 2012, Miley Cyrus revealed that she had received hate mail from the conservative Christians in her fan base for her stance on marriage equality. But she sticks to her guns, writing that it made her "feel sick to my stomach" to think same-sex couples would be denied legal marriages. "Without legalized same-sex marriage, most of the time you cannot share the same health benefits, you are not considered next of kin and you are not granted the same securities as a heterosexual couple," she writes. "How is this different than having someone sit in the back of the bus because of their skin color?" Being one of many celebrities speaking for the LGBTQ publicly, this ultimately tied in perfectly with her representation and how she wanted her fans to view her now. She is so set on telling her fans the truth and only showing them what was real and that is why she was so glad the MTV Music Awards happened the way it did. There are so many adolescents and young adults who struggle with their sexuality in our cruel society. Having celebrity figures as powerful as Miley Cyrus give individuals a voice to be heard. She may have lost the love of a few parents but she sure won the hearts of people who believe in equality and a just world. Cyrus praised Disney Channel for finally adding their first gay couple on “Good Luck Charlie” back in 2013 (3). “I commend Disney for making this step into the light of this generation. They control so much of what kids think! Life isn’t bright sets and wardrobe and kids becoming superstars! This is inspiring,” she tweets. This tweet resonated with me because fans of Cyrus understand her struggle. She didn’t grow up like every average child in America did, she was born with talent and with that she practically grew up in front of the public eye. The way she represents herself now will not change because she is sticking true to her colors and this time she can make her own decisions, rather than have someone else make the decisions for her.

           Let’s take a step back for a minute and talk about twerking (4). Now the roots of twerking are rich and it was commonly associated with the New Orleans scene. Its origins lie in West Africa and it’s exceedingly similar to the Mapouka dance from Cote d’lvoire (4). This was a dance done by woman and its main body of focus was the buttocks, however it was a cultural dance that existed for centuries. Of course we have construed twerking as being sexual, scandalous and controversial. Yet, if you take a look back to its original context you will realize it is a cultural expression of joy not for sexual pleasure. You would see twerking performed by women at family gatherings and weddings. It was simply dancing, nothing scandalous about it. Just like everything that media has twisted and manipulated in the past, twerking has now been branded. Miley Cyrus was the channel that brought twerking to mainstream consciousness. The world is infatuated with black culture and corporations know this. Miley Cyrus cannot twerk and yet has attempted to take something from black culture and appropriate this. She uploaded a video on YouTube twerking to the song, “Wop”, and also attempted to twerk to the MTV Music Awards. Cyrus carved out twerking and aimed to make the dance culturally appropriate. However, what ended up happening was Cyrus misappropriating a tiny element of the black cultural experience for profit and shock value.

           The male gaze is also an important term to consider when analyzing Miley Cyrus’s image. The gaze is uncritically consented to by the audience and in the gaze the subject/gazer (man) has the power, whereas the object (woman) lacks power. The concept of the gaze is fundamentally about the relationship of pleasure and images (Sturken, Page 76). When considering the male gaze there is both pleasure and pain in these ways of looking. The pleasure in being looked at includes the acknowledgement of presence, aesthetic appreciation, and looks of love or care. The pain in being looked at includes the identity as an object and the intention of the gazer. The male gaze theory can be applied through Miley Cyrus’ music video “Wrecking Ball.” There is a scene in the video where Miley places the places the hammer in the center of the shot along with her red lips licking the hammer. This draws attention and signifies the action she is carrying out. This complies with the male gaze theory because many of the scenes in this video have sexual connotations. Resulting in creating an erotic gaze for a heterosexual male. Another memorable scene from the video is her stripping naked and swinging from the wrecking ball. Now Cyrus poses in an extremely sexualized way, implying she is the object of sexual desire. There is also shots throughout the video where her bare legs are being shown slowly and this complied with the male gaze theory because she appears to just be laying in the rubble, almost like an object and her only purpose is for men to look at her for sexual purposes.

           Miley Cyrus has no interest in conforming to today’s beauty standards but still feels low when she looks at touches photos (5). She was insanely famous when I was in middle school and that was a long time ago so there’s no doubt that being in front of television at such a young age impacted her in some way. Cyrus is obviously comfortable in her skin these days but back when she played Miley Stewart in “Hannah Montana” she wasn’t so comfortable. In an interview with Marie Claire she reflected on the negative daily pressures of playing the teenage character had on her. “From the time I was 11, it was, "You're a pop star! That means you have to be blonde, and you have to have long hair, and you have to put on some glittery tight thing,” she said (5). She was working 12 hour days on set and would have coffee 'jammed down her throat' to get her up and moving. Miley said, 'When you look at retouched, perfect photos, you feel like s**t. They lighten black girls' skin. They smooth out wrinkles. Even when I get stuck on Instagram wondering, "Why don't I look like that?" It's a total bummer. It's crazy what people have decided we're all supposed to be (5).” There has been an infinite amount of photographs shot of Miley Cyrus and she has been the face of thousands of magazines over the years, all of which have been digitally manipulated to conform to societies rules on what it means to look beautiful. “I'm probably never going to be the face of a traditional beauty company unless they want a weed-smoking, liberal-ass freak. But my dream was never to sell lip-gloss. My dream is to save the world,” she says (6). Cyrus has been having fun with her own kind of digital manipulation where she posts a variety of images on Instagram of the most random photoshopped images (6). There are been images where she photoshopped herself in an image of Kim Kardashian and Kanye, her mother and her on two carrots, her boyfriend’s head on her body, her face on Nicki Minaj’s body, etc. She photoshops for unintentional purposes and it’s all fun and laughs (6).

           As we all know, Miley Cyrus is a huge figure in media today. There are fans who absolutely swear by her every move and much of what she does affect those who view her as a role model. This year’s Presidential campaign was one that everyone will remember for much of the wrong reasons. Celebrities were very vocal on their political views via social media. The concept of a public culture is an important element in how the mass media is conceived. Media forms in which are one-way, such as radio and television, contribute to a sense of shared audience among viewers (Sturken, Page 177). Our public sphere today is social media (i.e Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc). Cyrus was very vocal during the campaign and after the elections on her stance on President Donald Trump. She uses her voice to stand up for some really powerful movements in our country. She takes a dig at Donald Trump’s campaign with her pimped out red hat that says: MAKE AMERICA GAY AGAIN. She shows her fans that she loves all her fans including her fans in the LGBTQ. She was an important figure in the election because we need to influence young people to pay attention to politics and to never doubt the power of fashion for social change. She even broke down crying after nominee Donald Trump won the Presidential nomination. She shared a video to her Facebook of her thoughts after the election. Miley says that, “I still think that, in Hillary’s lifetime, she deserves to be the first female president, and that’s what makes me so sad. I wish she had an opportunity because she fought for so long and because I believe her when she says that she loves this country. This is all she’s ever done; she’s given her life to make it better.” She later added, “Hopefully we adjust and we accept everyone for who they are, and, so, Donald Trump, I accept you. This hurts to say, but I even accept you as President of the United States, and that’s fine, because, now, I want to be a hopeful hippie. I want to be hopeful that you will step in, too.” Cyrus also took to her Instagram to write a heartfelt message encouraging fans to be loving and compassionate towards one another. This revealed so much about her character and for her image for that matter. She didn’t care if all her followers were seeing her cry and sharing her feelings. She uses this Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook as a modern public sphere. The idea of a public sphere was generated in the eighteenth century yet there is not doubt that it has a modern relevance and is essentially a way for civil society to articulate its interests. But what is the role of the public sphere in the cyber age? Social media has made way for fans to have direct access to Miley Cyrus and they are able to like, comment, retweet, favorite her content as well as express their arguments and opinions without censorship.

           John Berger has written, “The state of being envied is what constitutes glamour.” The idea of glamour is central to advertising, both in the use of well-known celebrities to sell products and in the depiction of models who appear to be happy, without flaws, and satisfied (Sturken, Page 213).  We all remember when Miley Cyrus would smoke marijuana and didn’t care if she sparked public controversy online. This necessarily isn’t a beauty product or a weight loss supplement that she is promoting, however, dedicated fans may see what she is doing, realize how beautiful and successful she is and start smoking too. She could start the smallest of trends and people would follow because she has such a strong affect on her fan base. There was a period of time where even I envied her success and fortune, meanwhile she would post videos and pictures of herself smoking marijuana or anything controversial. Here I am, going to school, working, and being a good girl, however I’m not successful or famous? Maybe I should start smoking weed and chop all my hair off? Of course I wouldn’t do that. But anyone who isn’t confident in themselves and searches for a role model in celebrities such as Miley Cyrus, would probably think that resulting in more damage than good. This creates insecurities and anxiety for the average girl in our corrupt society today. Last thing we need besides being objectified as women is being manipulated into thinking that a drug would benefit our lives because in our eyes she seems happy either way.

After carrying out lots of investigation into the ever-changing identity of Miley Cyrus, it is clear that as she has matured and become more famous as her identity is becoming more outrageous. She continues to experiment with different hairstyles, fashion statements and tattoos. In fact, she now has a total of 23 tattoos, including several on her fingers, rib cage and even one on the inside of her lip. She played a huge role in the lives of teen girls around the world and will continue to inspire us in becoming our true selves. The mind boggles as to what she’ll come up with next. Will it be radiating or just corrupting? Either way, this is indisputably Miley’s moment. And she’s having the time of her life.

                                                 Work Cited:

(1) Sturken (Seperately Cited Throughout Paper)

(2) Vena, Jocelyn. "Miley Cyrus Female Empowerment." MTV, 23 June 2010. Web.

(3) Macatee, Rebecca. "Disney Channel Praise." E! News, 24 June 2013. Web.

(4) Mbakwe, Christiana. “The Origins of Twerking.” XOJane, 30 August 2013. Web.

(5) "Miley Cyrus and Body Images." Daily Mail UK, 13 Aug. 2015. Web.

(6) Mize, Chelsea. "Miley Cyrus' Photoshop Skill." Bustle, 24 Mar. 2015. Web.

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Cultural Production #3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=PzYKsLch4GM

The 2012 Doritos commercial won best commercial at the Super Bowl XLXII and it astonishes me to think that a commercial so degrading to women could ever be nominated and shown on television. The video starts off by a woman whose main concern is to gain attention from the man. However, he is completely infatuated with the game and the taste of the Doritos. Annoyed, the woman grabs another bag of Doritos and runs off and when the guy realizes that his Doritos are missing he goes on a hunt for them, only to find the woman stripped naked covered in Doritos. The three key themes that correspond with the Doritos commercial is: (1) insecurities, anxieties, and consumer culture, (2) advertising and fantasy, and (3) parody. Insecurities and anxieties in women and men are partially due to what we surround ourselves with and what the media depicts as beautiful. It is evident in this commercial that the man has no desire of paying any attention to the woman. At that particular moment what he is watching and what he is doing is far more important than spending quality time with the woman. Women could watch this commercial and may think, “Am I not pretty enough? Am I too fat? Why won’t he pay attention to me?” Maybe it’s because his mind is already preoccupied with something but this will still make the average woman insecure. Needless to say, they used a beautiful woman to play this role; therefore, the insecurities of women may exceed the maximum. They might then think, “Okay, I know I’m beautiful. Am I too boring?” Regardless of the woman, we will continue to think something is wrong and go to extremes to grab his attention, just like she did with stripping naked and covering herself with Doritos. Which brings me to my second key theme; advertising and fantasy. Now this is an overly exaggerated ad targeted for men and maybe women. The average man could watch this ad and think that in a perfect little world where he ignores his girlfriend, the end result is just finding her naked on your bed. This is highly misinterpreted. Unless the woman has extreme insecurities and anxieties, the average woman will not do this. This ad depicts a fantasy and sends a message to men that it’s okay to ignore your girlfriend because it’s a win-win situation. My final key theme is parody and we know parody as work created to imitate, make fun of, or comment on an original work by means of satiric or ironic imitation. The “parody” was the commentators in the back who were speaking and commenting and what viewers expected to be the football game. But when the man sees the woman on the bed naked, you can see how excited he gets and you can also hear the commentators counting down until they say touchdown. The way I depicted the scene of the commercial was that the only game really played was how long it took the man to sleep with the woman. The only person being played was the woman, where yet again we are sexualized and view not only as objects but merely as a twisted and sick fantasy game.

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CP2

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Organ Donor Foundation AD

The problem of objectification of women has gone beyond sex. An image of a semi-naked woman in the seventies and eighties is not even close to a semi-naked woman today. With the advent of Photoshop, and with retouching now prevalent even when famous people featured in the ads do not want photo editing, the images of women that are flawless, and impossible, are harmful on so many levels. For this post, I will associate the following three terms with the advertisement: propaganda, digital manipulation of an image, and reproduction of an image.

Modern propaganda uses all the media available to spread its message. In life, donating organs is a very difficult subject to be brought upon families who have just lost a loved one. What this Organ Donor Foundation thought to do was NOT put a terminally ill child who was in desperate need of an organ (this could have been for more convincing or realistic), but what they did do was use propaganda to their advantage. Propaganda is so powerful because everyone is susceptible to it. This is true because people exist in a rapidly moving and complex world. This failed attempt by this organ foundation promoted an idea in order to persuade only men with a sexualized woman in lingerie, when we should be persuading people nationwide. This comes to show how powerful the message on the ad is, Becoming a donor is probably your only chance to get inside her. The wording of the text came off as highly sexualized, the Organ Donor Foundation could have chosen any other words yet they chose the phrase inside of her.

It is no secret that this image has been manipulated. Advertising, marketing, and the fashion industry have created a new type of woman that does not exist in the real world. This woman has no wrinkles, blemishes or scars; her skin is perfect and she has impossibly long, smooth, and shapely legs. Men from an early age are told to desire this woman. Women, from the same early age, are told they must look like this woman. They should aim to have those long legs that perfect skin, beautiful hair, and incredible body. This woman does not exist, anywhere. She is the product of hours of in the makeup chair and days of photo retouching. Every woman has imperfections in their skin because every woman is human. This woman in this ad is manipulated. This is advertising's main function. Create a need. Then, provide something to fill that need. In this case, people donate their organs because they associate them with having sex with an impossible woman.

When viewing art in a gallery or a museum you get a far different experience than if we were to view images through screens. When I see this ad, for some reason it looks like something I would see in train stations. These are the kind of ads that you quickly walk pass and think, “That’s horrible,” shrug it off and go about your day. This image would have no affect on me whatsoever if I were to view it as a passerby in train stations. However, if I were to view this ad on a bus station stand that sits by a hospital, as someone who takes these “jokes” serious I would be so disgusted. I would be so mad and aggravated that I would probably sue the company. Because who in their right mind thinks of these things? I understand sexualizing men and women in fashion because that is the world we live in but when it comes to something that has a life or death decision behind it there needs to be a fine line of what’s right and what’s wrong.

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Keeping Up With Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian, known for her fame, is a marketing genius and what she markets is herself. Her image is obsessively edited and scripted, though she continues to appear to bare it all. She is infatuated with her carefully crafted image. Her rise to fame began in 2007 with a “leaked” sex tape with her then-boyfriend Ray-J. Many starlets have leaked sex tapes, but few have gone to become iconic names in the 10 years that have passed us. Kardashian epitomizes the modern day American dream: beautiful, rich, and curvy. She is our society’s distraction and the Marilyn Monroe of the 21st century. On a typical day of work, errands, and leisure, the activities of people in cities are recorded, often unbeknownst to them, by numerous cameras (Sturken, Page 23). In the case of Kardashian, she is under surveillance by everyone: paparazzi, fans, enemies, etc. Many don’t understand her fame though they photograph her daily. Her face is on the cover of magazines and billboards and it surrounds us everyday. As a consumer, you read what’s in the media and you’re shown what needs to be shown and there’s never a moment of doubt. We are always under surveillance, whether it is through the eyes of others, social media, or the media itself. Media discourse normalizes surveillance and self-surveillance.

When I think of Kim Kardashian, the first thing that comes to mind is selfies. She published a book, “Selfish,” filled with selfies, mostly in bathing suits. Kim posts pictures of herself on private planes, on fancy vacations, at the MetBall, in gorgeous beaches and at exclusive events. Viewers feel like they get a taste of what it is like to be a celebrity, and they click on her photos to live vicariously through her. Again, all of these images are carefully crafted, and even when she shows a picture of herself as she is just waking up, she has full hair and make-up. She is so brilliantly crafted that everything she posts on Instagram/Snapchat/Twitter, everything she wears, everywhere she goes, etc. has a motive. She went from being Paris Hilton’s best friend to America’s sex symbol. The timing of the sex tape, was perfect leading her into having a hit reality television show, Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Her fame has continued to grow, especially when she “quit” social media. Though I, as an individual, may think of her as a talentless joke, she is a smart talentless joke at best. People want to be her and crave her life style, therefore when you see her she will be surrounded by glistening cameras. On October 3rd, 2016, Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint during a visit to Paris. Kim has stayed silent on social media since she was targeted by thieves in a violent robbery. She returned to Instagram just a month after the robbery and it drove the media crazy.

It would be easy to dismiss the Kardashian culture as a toxic concession to the male gaze, but I think that ignores the complexities of success. The Kardashians are women who have built an empire on the power of women. Even if you do not agree with their lifestyle, it is remarkable they have had the success needed to live it. And yes, they hardly are a diverse representation of women, but in a world where women are only 12% of the protagonists in films, it is still noteworthy a TV show exists with 7 female leads and no consistent male lead. The Kardashians are never second stage to the men in their lives. And if you don’t believe me, ask yourself if Scott Disick is even relevant anymore? Exactly.

Media discourse normalizes how we talk about and present female bodies. Self-surveillance is a type of surveillance in which individual people monitor themselves and their behavior because they believe that they are being watched at all times. In our society, it is usually done through social media in which people are present. It makes people more aware of what they do and on their best behavior without anyone else really having to do anything. Going back to Kim’s robbery in Paris, she became more aware of her social media and what she posted. Once she started to post again the spotlight was on her family because this is how she wanted us to view her after this traumatic thing that happened to her. She wasn’t as sexualized as she usually was, her family never posted pictures of her, and she was in legit hiding. As she disappeared, it was like she was reinventing herself. When she returned her look was dramatically different. Kim wasn’t spotted with any flashy jewelry on, her make up was more natural, and her style was a glammed down version of her former designer self. This is just one of many ways that self-surveillance was evident in the celebrity’s life.  According to one brand expert, her brand would have taken a deep hit if her sisters weren’t able to pick up Kim’s social media reigns pretty quickly. Captiv8, a social media analytics company, estimated that Kim missed out on an estimated $300,000 per week during her absence. That is a total of $3.9 million that she potentially lost during her months of silence. We may think to ourselves that self-surveillance only happens with celebrities but that’s not true. We are under self-surveillance every minute of the day even when we don’t know it. We are constant and obsessive users of these social media applications that we can’t live a day without and we post our entire life on these apps.

The camera never blinks, it’s always watching in a world where the camera is aimed.  Being under surveillance and opening up to the world is a form of catharsis. I believe there is something nearly uncontrollably seductive about being connected, about being part of the vast network. We no longer live private lives: everything is instagrammed, shared and distributed. We are our own self-surveillers. We are the portraitures of our everyday reality. We are storytellers, exhibitionists and voyeurs all at once. It’s not about facing the camera; it’s about the camera facing us.

Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2017 at 5:40pm

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Equinox’s “Commit to Something” Ad

This luxurious gym released this ad through a press release, which shows model Lydia Hearst breastfeeding two babies in a fancy restaurant. This brings me to three important key words that speak to this image; encoding/decoding, role of intention in the creation of images, and the male gaze. It is through sets of meaning where we learn codes that we then decode. Codes simply mean an implied message. What does it mean to normalize breastfeeding in public? How can we do it right? This ad by Equinox has many implied messages hidden within it. One thing for sure is that you will never see a woman look that well kept and have two babies, one in each arm. Just by the way she is holding the children implies that she herself does not know the first thing of being a mother. Lydia Hearst was a poor choice of a model because she doesn’t realize the message she is sending out to mothers who struggle with the shunning of public breastfeeding. She is not a mother therefore this doesn’t affect her. The message that stood out after decoding this image is that breast-feeding is only okay if you are in a sexualized state because then otherwise it is not prohibited. Our interpretation of images, and the power that they have on us derives from the images and ourselves being apart of the same social context. The role of intention in the creation of this ad was hoping to help women in their fight to normalize breastfeeding, but many moms felt that the ad was just sexualizing something that they were initially trying to desexualize, and that presenting moms in this light is doing a disservice to women everywhere. The male gaze is the way in which the visual arts and literature depict the world and women from a masculine point of view, presenting women as objects of male pleasure. Though there isn’t an obvious male counterpart “gazing” at her or viewing her from our point of view, we can infer that her attention has been caught as we may suspect a male in this ad. She is being portrayed as sexualized and though the intention of the message was to normalize breastfeeding, her being sexualized is to grab ones’ attention. There is clear pleasure in being looked at: acknowledgement of presence, aesthetic appreciation (as a mother of twins), and the looks of love and care. Overall, this ad from Equinox received a lot of backlash and it’s understandable to why.

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