Adorno and Horkheimer’s culture industry piece was way ahead of their time. This piece was written in the 1940’s but still sounds a lot like our popular culture today. They explain that culture industry creates a lack of choice because culture industry is homogenous. All the products of culture industry are just a “better” version of the previous product. Adorno and Horkheimer also explain that the culture industry is a business. I agree with them. I believe that the culture industry is a business. For example, clothing lines always have advertisements that show very beautiful women surrounded by men or very handsome men surrounded by women. This type of advertisement is proof of culture industry being a business because they sell their clothes with good looking people wearing them in hope of consumers buying them and thinking that they will fit in that category if they buy that particular brand of clothes.
For this blog I made a collage of different types of advertisements and images of women and what is seen as “sexy”. In almost all advertising women look submissive and are sexualized. Often times only certain parts of their bodies are shown for example their butts or their breasts. In other cases, like in magazines, women are made to look thinner and made to look like they have larger butts and breast then they really do. This is an example of Adorno and Horkheimer’s claim that in the culture industry products are all the same. This creates a lack of choice in women and men. Women have no choice but to try and look like the women that are displayed in advertisements and on television. For men, they come to believe that the way women are portrayed is the way that women are supposed to look.
For my collage I chose a couple picture that I believe correctly depicts the way that the culture industry depicts women to be. The first two pictures on top are pictures of a woman you can only tell that she is a woman because her legs and her butt are showing. The first picture shows the woman’s butt getting wet with water. This is supposed to be sexy. The second picture is a cake made out of a woman’s legs and butt. I think that the message that this picture sends is objectifying women which is what a lot of the culture industry does to women. It is sednign a message along the lines of “women are a piece of cake to conquer” or something along those lines since women are always seen as submissive in popular culture. One of the pictures also shows a woman being spanked by a man and this is also supposed to be sexy since submissive women are sexy. Two of the other pictures are pictures of a woman surrounded by men. These are clothing advertisements that send a message out to women like “if you wear these clothes men will be so attracted to you”. It is another way that the culture industry makes everyone look the same. The last picture I will talk about it the picture in the middle. It is supposed to be Eve the first woman on earth. She looks seductive and she is wearing a serpent around her body. She always has an apple of her leg which is implying that she is trying to “lure” a man. This is also another characteristic that popular culture tries to classify women under. I think that my collage shows that the culture industry is still a business and it is still making their products the same leaving a lack of choice in our society.
For this blog I made a collage of different types of advertisements and images of women and what is seen as “sexy”. In almost all advertising women look submissive and are sexualized. Often times only certain parts of their bodies are shown for example their butts or their breasts. In other cases, like in magazines, women are made to look thinner and made to look like they have larger butts and breast then they really do. This is an example of Adorno and Horkheimer’s claim that in the culture industry products are all the same. This creates a lack of choice in women and men. Women have no choice but to try and look like the women that are displayed in advertisements and on television. For men, they come to believe that the way women are portrayed is the way that women are supposed to look.
For my collage I chose a couple picture that I believe correctly depicts the way that the culture industry depicts women to be. The first two pictures on top are pictures of a woman you can only tell that she is a woman because her legs and her butt are showing. The first picture shows the woman’s butt getting wet with water. This is supposed to be sexy. The second picture is a cake made out of a woman’s legs and butt. I think that the message that this picture sends is objectifying women which is what a lot of the culture industry does to women. It is sednign a message along the lines of “women are a piece of cake to conquer” or something along those lines since women are always seen as submissive in popular culture. One of the pictures also shows a woman being spanked by a man and this is also supposed to be sexy since submissive women are sexy. Two of the other pictures are pictures of a woman surrounded by men. These are clothing advertisements that send a message out to women like “if you wear these clothes men will be so attracted to you”. It is another way that the culture industry makes everyone look the same. The last picture I will talk about it the picture in the middle. It is supposed to be Eve the first woman on earth. She looks seductive and she is wearing a serpent around her body. She always has an apple of her leg which is implying that she is trying to “lure” a man. This is also another characteristic that popular culture tries to classify women under. I think that my collage shows that the culture industry is still a business and it is still making their products the same leaving a lack of choice in our society.