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Show Wednesday, April 4, 2012 CampusNews Page 2 Project examines exploitation in advertising BY LIS STEWART staff writer What is the correlation between a woman and an uncooked turkey? There shouldn't be one, according to Missy Lambert, a doctoral student who gave a presentation on sexual and animal oppression, entitled "Sexy Chickens," during a Tuesday afternoon Perspectives club meeting. Oppression in society should not be looked at in piecemeal fashion but as a whole system, Lambert said. "It's a system where some people benefit from types of oppressions," Lambert said. "We need to look at the system itself and fight its roots." Lambert used "Sexy Chickens" to explain her view. Advertisers often use the female body or allude to it when trying to sell meat, and this pushes a societal agenda that women are weak and less than human, Lambert said. Showing a collection of advertisements with chickens, cows and other animals in seductive feminine poses to the classroom of about 40 people, Lambert led discussions about how the food industry uses female-body stereotypes to sell meat. She referred to Skinny Cow, which advertises low-calorie MEMBERS OF THE PERSPECTIVES CLUB meet weekly to discuss the way women are portrayed in society and other issues related to gender roles. In the club's meeting on Tuesday, doctoral student Missy Lambert presented research on the connection between the ways women and animals are portrayed in advertisements. Photo courtesy of Meg Pehrson products. She said Skinny Cow's logo depicts a cow with a feminine body type reclining with a measuring tape wrapped around its waist. "The image of the cow is being feminized and sexualized," Lambert said. A man in the audience said, "It seems like the cow singles out a fat reference, too." This type of advertising objectifies women, Lambert said. "Advertisers are trying to sell us a patriarchal world view in which all of us need their prod- uct in order to meet an ideal," she said. Showing advertisements with animals eating pieces of one another at the same table, Lambert said the animals are also being objectified. Animals are portrayed as either seducing the viewer of the advertisement, or they are stupid and deserve what they get, she said. "I think advertisers are selling a worldview in which animals are willing participants in their own slaughter," she said. Throughout the discussion, which ranged from ways the food industry uses to oppress women and animals, members of the Perspectives club and visitors analyzed the issue. Lambert, who has presented "Sexy Chickens" to various groups in the Salt Lake City area throughout the past year and a half, said this is the biggest group she's presented to so far. "So far everyone has been nice," she said of audience reactions to the presentation. "I keep waiting for someone to be like, `You're the worst.' After reading "The Sexual Politics of Meat," by Carol J. Adams, Lambert said she became interested in the subject and began collecting images in which meat is advertised in a sexual manner. She said the presentation evolved out of her research and is still growing as people send her more images after attending her presentation. Lambert said she hopes "Sexy Chickens" will get people to start asking questions about their animal products and where they shop. Megan Pehrson, a junior studying anthropology, attended the presentation as a member of Perspectives and said change can be brought about by presentations like this but it comes slowly. "I would say that things like this plant a seed that later may grow," Pehrson said. "It gives someone that idea, that worldview. And when someone has that different worldview, it can expand their mind." Club meetings like this help others to see the beyond stereotypes, and it's OK if people get mad, said Rachael Steineckert, Perspectives club president. "I think it's a good reaction when people start to get mad, and you can hear them go `Uh,' or `Mmhmm,"' Steineckert said. Perspectives was founded last fall under USU's Center for Women and Gender, Steineckert said, adding that member participation has improved this semester — the club has 10-12 regularly attending members, including a couple of men. "The men offer a different perspective," Steineckert said. "Those who show up are very open minded and concerned about these issues." Steineckert said the main goal of Perspectives is to create a non-judgemental, supportive atmosphere for people to discuss issues like feminism openly. The club has also sponsored movie nights as well as discussions. Recently the club's Mustache Campaign featured pictures of women wearing mustaches around campus to create awareness about gender inequality, Pehrson said. "I think a lot of women and men are in this kind of dream where we have equality here in the U.S., which isn't entirely true," Pehrson said. "Women are still paid less. Obviously, you can see that in our media. Women are objectified or represented as passive or not strong, and not a lot of women see that because (advertisers) make it seem normal." – la.stewart @aggiemail.usu.edu From Page 1 ASUSU information campaign to revamp booth in TSC, install TVs in bathrooms she said. "It will probably be another three or four years until they are up to their usual number." The council also allotted $5,000 for renovations to the ASUSU information booth. The booth — located on the first floor of the Taggart Student Center — will be installed this summer with four monitors that will advertise various on-campus events, activities and groups. "This is part of a multipronged publicity stunt," Mikkelsen said. "We want to install monitors in the bathrooms — we're calling them `toilet talk' — that will also advertise events and organizations on campus." As part of this publicity plan, ASUSU will be sending out weekly emails to all new freshman, transfer students, and any other student who signs up for the notifications. These emails will advertise various clubs and organizations on campus. ASUSU officers have already provided half of $10,000 needed for the information booth project, and the Capital and Support Fund will pay for the rest. The public relations office supplied $2,500; the ASUSU president, $2,000; and the Administrative Assistant, $500. This money comes from the officers' budgets, which come from this year's student fees. In other business, the council approved changes to the ASUSU Graduate Studies Senator Charter. These changes are mainly grammatical, said Cami Jones, Graduate Senate vice president. Under the former charter, "the Graduate Studies Senator was supposed to sit on over a dozen committees," she said. "Under the new charter, the responsibilities are delegated to the other graduate directors." The changes in the charter came in response to the Executive Council's decision to dissolve the the Graduate Student Senate earlier this semester, she said. Currently, undergraduate and graduate students each have their own senates. Beginning next year, the School of Graduate Studies will be represented by a Graduate Studies senator in the Academic Senate, and all graduate and undergraduate students within a college will be represented by a single senator. A final vote on these funding allocations and charter changes will take place at the council's meeting April 10. – rouchelle.brockman@aggiemail.usu.edu Litter on the catwalk THE RE:MIX FASHION SHOW FEATURED DRESSES MADE from recyclable materials to raise awareness of hunger and sustainability Monday. Students from the dress and humanity class designed and modeled the dresses. Attendees were encouraged to bring cans of food to donate to the Student Nutrition Access Center. KELSIE MASON photos of y g applications f CLARKSBUR • BRE L A ,7 • STONELEIG Logan's Premier Student Apartments Accepting Applications for Summer and Next School Year CLARKSBURG BRESLAW STONELEIGH _hit 1► 4 'It._ - otriA fib, wl', 677 EAST Goo NORTH 679 EAST Goo NORTH 67$ EAST Goo NORTH For more information call Dada • (435) 755 - 852 5 • (435) 770 - 0900 • darladclark@pcu.net Sold out for '12-'13 school year. Accepting applications for summer only. • • . • • • . . . • • • . . 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