Lest we Think the Revolution is a Revolution Imgages of Tecnology and Nature of Change

In Selfe’s essay,” Lest we think that Revolution is Revolution” from pages 309 – 322 she discusses the role of woman in society and how they are portrayed. The roles of women reflect the historical background for women. For example, women are used for their beauty to sell things instead of being the one that actually created them. In paragraph two on page 15 she states that, “ Finally, the 1990’s retro series offers Americans the role of seductress – also traditionally defined role for women, and one that has retained enormous strength even in cyberspace where change is expected to affect so many areas of our lives.” To me this quote means that women are the only ones used by sexual means to sell items. They are the ones wearing a black dress and jewels to show beauty to attract an audience and have people remember the product, when really what they are wearing has nothing to do with what they are selling. Along with the women being portrayed so are the men. The men are seen more as a business man and a worker with their suits and ties looking professional. Occasionally men will be viewed sexually as a mechanic, nerd, biker or professional. In most cases men are viewed as the money making CEO of a major company. With men being portrayed as the business man it infers that men are more successful than women are in the work place. On page 321 first paragraph it states that,” It is far easier and more comfortable simply to re-construct for ourselves those traditional narratives that tell the same old gender stories over and over again, and that re-create the status quo every more clearly in their re-telling.” From my point of view this means that people who are in charge of advertisements take the easy way out and put the women in their advertisements as the sexual object or like in the past where they are portrayed as housewives that clean and cook.