Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Toscano, Aaron, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of English

Resources and Daily Activities

  • Dr. Toscano’s Homepage
  • ENGL 2116-083: Introduction to Technical Communication
    • ENGL 2116 sec. 083 Major Assignments (Summer 2020)
      • Final Portfolio Requirements
      • Oral Presentations
    • June 11th: Continue with I, Robot
    • June 15th: Ethics and Perspective Discussion
      • Ethical Dilemmas for Homework
      • Ethical Dilemmas to Ponder
      • Mapping Our Personal Ethics
    • June 16th: More on Ethics
    • June 1st: Effective Documents for Users
    • June 2nd: Final Project and Research Discussion
      • Epistemology and Other Fun Research Ideas
      • Making Résumés and Cover Letters Better
      • Research
    • June 3rd: Technology in a Social Context
    • June 8th: Information Design and Visuals
    • June 9th: Proposals, Marketing, and Rhetoric
    • May 18th: Introduction to the course
    • May 19th: Critical Technological Awareness
    • May 20th: Audience, Purpose, and General Introduction
    • May 21st: Résumé Stuff
      • Making Résumés and Cover Letters More Effective
      • Peter Profit’s Cover Letter
    • May 25th: More Resume Stuff
    • May 26th: Plain Language and Prose Revision
      • Euphemisms
      • Prose Practice for Next Class
      • Prose Revision Assignment
      • Revising Prose: Efficiency, Accuracy, and Good
      • Sentence Clarity
    • May 27th: More on Plain Language
    • May 28th: Review Prose Revision
  • ENGL 4182/5182: Information Design & Digital Publishing
    • August 21st: Introduction to the Course
      • Rhetorical Principles of Information Design
    • August 28th: Introduction to Information Design
      • Prejudice and Rhetoric
      • Robin Williams’s Principles of Design
    • Classmates Webpages (Fall 2017)
    • December 4th: Presentations
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4182/5182 (Fall 2017)
    • November 13th: More on Color
      • Designing with Color
      • Important Images
    • November 20th: Extra-Textual Elements
    • November 27th: Presentation/Portfolio Workshop
    • November 6th: In Living Color
    • October 16th: Type Fever
      • Typography
    • October 23rd: More on Type
    • October 2nd: MIDTERM FUN!!!
    • October 30th: Working with Graphics
      • Beerknurd Calendar 2018
    • September 11th: Talking about Design without Using “Thingy”
      • Theory, theory, practice
    • September 18th: The Whole Document
    • September 25th: Page Design
  • ENGL 4183/5183: Editing with Digital Technologies
    • Efficiency in Writing Reviews
    • February 3rd: I’m in Love with the Shape of You(r Sentences)
    • January 20th: Introduction to the Course
    • January 27th: Rhetoric, Words, and Composing
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4183/5183 (Spring 2021)
  • ENGL 4275: Rhetoric of Technology
    • April 13th: Authorities in Science and Technology
    • April 15th: Articles on Violence in Video Games
    • April 20th: Presentations
    • April 6th: Technology in the home
    • April 8th: Writing Discussion
    • Assignments for ENGL 4275
    • February 10th: Religion of Technology Part 3 of 3
    • February 12th: Is Love a Technology?
    • February 17th: Technology and Gender
    • February 19th: Technology and Expediency
    • February 24th: Semester Review
    • February 3rd: Religion of Technology Part 1 of 3
    • February 5th: Religion of Technology Part 2 of 3
    • January 13th: Technology and Meaning, a Humanist perspective
    • January 15th: Technology and Democracy
    • January 22nd: The Politics of Technology
    • January 27th: Discussion on Writing as Thinking
    • January 29th: Technology and Postmodernism
    • January 8th: Introduction to the Course
    • March 11th: Writing and Other Fun
    • March 16th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 1 of 2
    • March 18th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 2 of 2
    • March 23rd: Inception (2010)
    • March 25th: Writing and Reflecting Discussion
    • March 30th & April 1st: Count Zero
    • March 9th: William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984)
  • ENGL 4750-090 & ENGL 5050-092 Video Games & Culture
    • Assignments for Video Games & Culture
    • August 25th: Introduction to the Course
    • November 10th: Aggression & Addiction
    • November 3rd: Moral Panics and Health Risks
    • October 13th: Narrative, ludology, f(r)iction
    • October 20th: Serious Games
    • October 27: Risky Business?
    • October 6th: Hyperreality
    • September 1st: History of Video Games
    • September 22nd: Video Game Aesthetics
    • September 29th: (sub)Cultures and Video Games
    • September 8th: Defining Video Games and Critical Theory Introduction
      • Marxism for Video Game Analysis
      • Postmodernism for Video Game Analysis
  • ENGL 6166: Rhetorical Theory
    • April 13th: Umberto Eco & Jean Baudrillard
    • April 20th: Moving Forward on Theory
    • April 27th: Last Day of Class
    • April 6th: Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition
      • What is Postmodernism?
    • February 10th: St. Augustine, On Christian Doctrine [Rhetoric]
      • Oratory and Argument Analysis
    • February 17th: Knoblauch on Magical and Ontological Rhetoric
    • February 24th: Rene Descartes’ Discourse on Method
    • February 3rd: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Books 2 and 3
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 2
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 3
    • January 13th: Introduction to Class
    • January 27th: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Book 1
    • March 16th: Friedrich Nietzsche
    • March 23rd: Mythologies and Meaning of Meaning (part 2)
    • March 30th: Derrida’s (refusal to have) Positions
    • March 9th: Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women
    • Rhetorical Theory Assignments
  • LBST 2212-124, 125, 126, & 127
    • August 21st: Introduction to Class
    • August 23rd: Humanistic Approach to Science Fiction
    • August 26th: Robots and Zombies
    • August 28th: Futurism, an Introduction
    • August 30th: R. A. Lafferty “Slow Tuesday Night” (1965)
    • December 2nd: Technological Augmentation
    • December 4th: Posthumanism
    • November 11th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2)
    • November 13th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2 con’t)
    • November 18th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 1)
      • More Questions than Answers
    • November 1st: Games Reality Plays (part II)
    • November 20th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 2)
    • November 6th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 1)
    • October 14th: More Autonomous Fun
    • October 16th: Autonomous Conclusion
    • October 21st: Sci Fi in the Domestic Sphere
    • October 23rd: Social Aphasia
    • October 25th: Dust in the Wind
    • October 28th: Gender Liminality and Roles
    • October 2nd: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • October 30th: Games Reality Plays (part I)
    • October 9th: Approaching Autonomous
      • Analyzing Prose in Autonomous
    • September 11th: The Time Machine
    • September 16th: The Alien Other
    • September 18th: Post-apocalyptic Worlds
    • September 20th: Dystopian Visions
    • September 23rd: World’s Beyond
    • September 25th: Gender Studies and Science Fiction
    • September 30th: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • September 4th: Science Fiction and Social Breakdown
      • More on Ellison
      • More on Forster
    • September 9th: The Time Machine
  • LBST 2213/HTAS 2100: Science, Technology, and Society
    • December 10th: Violence in Video Games
    • December 15th: Video Games and Violence, a more nuanced view
    • December 1st: COVID-19 facial covering rhetoric
    • December 3rd: COVID-19 Transmission and Pandemics
    • December 8th: 500-word Essay
    • November 10th: Planet of the Apes. (1964) Ch. 27-end
    • November 12th: Frankenstein (1818) Preface-Ch. 8
    • November 17th: Frankenstein (1818) Ch. 9-Ch. 16
    • November 19th: Frankenstein (1818) Ch. 17-Ch. 24
    • November 3rd: Planet of the Apes. (1964) Ch. 1-17
    • November 5th: Planet of the Apes (1964) Ch. 18-26
    • October 13th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 5 and 6
    • October 15th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • October 1st: The Golem at Large Introduction & Ch. 1
    • October 22nd: The Time Machine
    • October 29th: H.G. Wells and Adaptations
    • October 6th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology) Ch. 2
    • October 8th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 3 & 4
    • September 10th: Science and Technology, a Humanistic Approach
    • September 15th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 2
    • September 17th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 3 and 4
    • September 22nd: Collins & Pinch Ch. 5 & 6
    • September 24th: Collins & Pinch Ch. 7 & Conclusion
    • September 29th: Test 1
    • September 8th: Introduction to Class
  • New Media: Gender, Culture, Technology (Spring 2021)
    • February 16: Misunderstanding the Internet
    • February 23rd: Our Public Sphere and the Media
    • February 2nd: Introduction to Cultural Studies
    • January 26th: Introduction to New Media
  • Science Fiction in American Culture (Summer I–2020)
    • Assignments for Science Fiction in American Culture
    • Cultural Studies and Science Fiction Films
    • June 10th: Interstellar and Exploration themes
    • June 11th: Bicentennial Man
    • June 15th: I’m Only Human…Or am I?
    • June 16th: Wall-E and Environment
    • June 17th: Wall-E (2008) and Technology
    • June 18th: Interactivity in Video Games
    • June 1st: Firefly (2002) and Myth
    • June 2nd: “Johnny Mnemonic”
    • June 3rd: “New Rose Hotel”
    • June 4th: “Burning Chrome”
    • June 8th: Conformity and Monotony
    • June 9th: Cultural Constructions of Beauty
    • May 18th: Introduction to Class
    • May 19th: American Culture, an Introduction
    • May 20th: The Matrix
    • May 21st: Gender and Science Fiction
    • May 25th: Goals for I, Robot
    • May 26th: Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot
    • May 27th: Hackers and Slackers
    • May 30th: Inception
  • Teaching Portfolio
  • Topics for Analysis
    • American Culture, an Introduction
    • Feminism, An Introduction
    • Frankenstein Part I
    • Frankenstein Part II
    • Futurism Introduction
    • Langdon Winner Summary: The Politics of Technology
    • Marxist Theory (cultural analysis)
    • Oral Presentations
    • Our Public Sphere
    • Postmodernism Introduction
    • Protesting Confederate Place
    • Punctuation Refresher
    • QT, the Existential Robot
    • Religion of Technology Discussion
    • Rhetoric, an Introduction
      • Analyzing the Culture of Technical Writer Ads
      • Rhetoric of Technology
      • Visual Culture
      • Visual Perception
      • Visual Perception, Culture, and Rhetoric
      • Visual Rhetoric
      • Visuals for Technical Communication
      • World War I Propaganda
    • The Great I, Robot Discussion
      • I, Robot Short Essay Topics
    • The Rhetoric of Video Games: A Cultural Perspective
      • Civilization, an Analysis
    • The Sopranos
    • Why Science Fiction?
    • Zombies and Consumption Satire

Contact Me

Office: Fretwell 280F
Phone: 704.687.0613
Email: atoscano@uncc.edu
Science Fiction in American Culture (Summer I–2020) » June 9th: Cultural Constructions of Beauty

June 9th: Cultural Constructions of Beauty

Overview

  • Images of Women in Advertising
  • “The Beauty Myth”
  • The Twilight Zone‘s “Eye of the Beholder”

I have some background information that might help you reflect upon The Twilight Zone‘s “Eye of the Beholder”. The follow section is about Jean KIlbourne’s documentary, and I have a link to it if you want to watch it. The section on “The Beauty Myth” briefly summarizes Naomi Wolf’s argument on how society makes women conform to unrealistic standards of beauty. Again, these sections are background information. You don’t have to read Wolf’s chapter (or the entire book) or watch Kilbourne’s documentary.

I have a link to Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women from the Media Education database available through Atkins Library.

Kilbourne on Images of Women in the Media

Jean Kilbourne’s lecture on images of women in the media has been revised and re-presented for nearly 40 years. If we were to locate her thesis, it would be, roughly, that advertisements condition our feelings–consciously and unconsciously–of what it means to be a woman or a man. Additionally, she points out that although men are sometimes objectified, it’s women who suffer the most from advertising’s objectification.

{Of course, just like what we discussed concerning technology from a social perspective, what influences what? Does the media influence our perceptions of femininity and masculinity, or does society influence the media’s (re)presentations of femininity and masculinity.}

Some specific points about how advertisements “use” women:

  • Women are often shown as submissive, silent, and docile.
  • The images of women are often of manufactured or spliced-together body parts of women.
  • Also, the supermodels or “typical” models are a small percentage of the population but appear as the norm because the type is repeated constantly.
  • There appears to be a recurring pattern of infantilization of women and a sexualization of young girls in advertising.
  • Kilbourne believes that many ads show violence against women (both explicitly and implicitly), which goes along with the preponderance of domestic violence and rape of women in society as a whole.
  • In many ads, men are shown as powerful
  • Most ads conform to (hetero)normative white standards of beauty or power. Women of color seem to be “silenced” and dehumanized more according to Kilbourne.
    • Consider alternative views of beauty.
    • Sir Mix-a-Lot on mainstream ideas of beauty.
    • Oh my Becky, look at her… {I include this as an opportunity to critique representations of women}
  • Most importanly, (I guess I could be biased…) Kilbourne points out that we’re no longer citizens but consumers. Where else did we hear that?

Although there may be some disagreement, Kilbourne is not the only one who makes the argument that images of women in the media influence how women and girls see themselves. Additionally, she provides empirical evidence for Wolf’s idea of the beauty myth that women are supposed to conform to in patriarchal society, specifically, that the standards are impossible for most women.

I’ve been showing this lecture for several years, and I’m amazed at the responses I get. I’m especially amazed at the defensive tone many male students have about Kilbourne’s argument. I’ve heard that she’s just a scorned feminist who’s “taking out her frustrations on men” to arguments that she is manipulating her evidence by choosing particularly suspect ads. However, the ads she shows are quite representative of images of women in the media. For examples, see the following “industry” websites:

  • Vogue Magazine
  • Cosmopolitan Online
  • Seventeen Magazine
    • Flirty Text Message Ideas!
  • See a retouching campaign (The interactive page requires a few more clicks…)

One thing I have noticed about the images of women and girls on the magazine sites above that’s different from many of the images Kilbourne shows is that Kilbourne’s selection had many images of vulnerable, passive women and girls. While those images haven’t gone away entirely from my unscientific sampling of magazines (especially perfume/cologne ads), the above sites have an abundance of happy, active women and girls. Everything from new jeans to ice cream seems to make the models happy. I wonder what that says about advertising? These happy women and girls still conform to Kilbourne’s argument that petite, white, airbrushed models are the standard for conventionally beauty images.

But her most airtight claim is about the ideal(ized) version of women digitally enhanced and manufactured: Take a look at this Dove commercial for a look at how to construct the “perfect” woman.

The Beauty Myth

How does the beauty myth fit into our discussions/reading on psychoanalysis? How does a woman achieve the socially constructed status that is beauty?

Some specific points about “the beauty myth”:

  • p. 10: Wolf argues that women’s political and social gains–including reproductive freedoms–played a role in creating the beauty myth.
  • p. 12: “The beauty myth tells a story: The quality called ‘beauty’ objectively and universally exists.”
    “None of this is true. ‘Beauty’ is a currency system like the gold standard.”
  • p. 14: Women in competition.
  • p.16: “The modern arsenal of the myth….is summoned out of political fear on the part of male-dominated institutions threatened by women’s freedom, and it exploits female guilt and apprehension about [women’s] liberation–latent fears that we might be going too far.”

Role of Women in Media

Maybe I read too much into things, but I see so many romantic comedies ending the same way–marriage and/or children. In fact, it’s not even just romantic comedies: there are countless shows and films that follow the “boy meets girl” format. What do we think about this romantic pattern?

Right about now is when we start talking about double standards. The authors we’ve read recently (as well as Jean Kilbourne) point out that men don’t have the same stigmas attached to them or the same expectations:

  • Things to think about as you contemplate your Canvas post for today:
    • What are some roles and expectations that women have but men don’t or, at least, don’t have to the same extent?
    • Where do these roles or expectations show up? Be specific. Don’t just say “the media”–that’s a given in this class.
  • Think about Language and Hegemony
    • Have you ever thought about language and how it replicates hegemonic practices? What’s the word for a promiscuous female?
    • How about a male?
    • Check out the definition for the word ‘slut’ (if you’re on campus, check out the OED’s expanded definition–you’ll need to be signed in through Atkins Library). What’s the double standard in that word?
  • Where else do ideal(ized) images get reproduced?

The Twilight Zone’s “Eye of the Beholder”

This episode goes along well with another Twilight Zone episode titled “Number 12 Looks Just Like You” (Season 5, Episode 17). Both episodes are about social constructions of beauty and conformity in general. I’m amazed at how eerie The Twilight Zone makes me feel each time I watch it. Many horror movies (and science fiction for that matter) from 40+ years ago just seem cheesy because the acting and special effects don’t have the same realism (I now that’s now a loaded term for us after the hyperreality notes from yesterday) that today’s media have. I still find that The Twilight Zone and Hitchcock films still hold up over time. For those of you into studying film technique, notice the use of camera angles and shadows throughout. These techniques reflect the mid-1940s to 1960s genre of film noir. At about 11 minutes into the show, the doctor (who’s smoking…something they did back then) sits in a chair, and a nurse enters the room. Directly across from the seated doctor is a lamp, and the lighting casts an eerie shadow that makes a face. Very creepy.

  • The doctor and nurses frame the tension through lines that reveal this society demands conformity.
    • The doctor claims “We’re afforded to fit into society. We spend lots of time, money, and effort. {This also relates to education, an institution we spend time, money, and effort on to get people prepared to be contributing, conforming citizens.}
    • One nurse says to another “some people want to live no matter what.”
    • Near the end, the Leader comes on the television and gives a speech about the virtue of conformity.
  • Janet Tyler (Ms. Tyler) wants to have her face “fixed,” so she can live like everyone else. She must have been hideous!
    • She says she “wants to belong like everybody else.”
    • The state law is for people to have 11 mandatory surgeries to “fix” their appearance.
  • The Twilight Zone has several episodes about segregation. The show first airs in 1959, 5 years after Brown v. Board of Education, which made segregation illegal in US schools. This episode has subtle allusions to racial segregation.
    •  If this surgery doesn’t work Ms. Tyler may “move into a special area where people of [her] kind congregate.”
    • She responds by screaming such a place is “A ghetto designed for freaks!” and “The state isn’t god. It doesn’t have the right to make ugliness a crime.”
    • The doctor tries to assure her that she “can still live a long and fruitful life with people of [her] own kind of disability.”
  • She ends up with a hideous chud of a man to take her to the place where her kind lives.

Remember, interpret this episode metaphorically. It’s not about using surgery to correct serious deformities; instead, the comment is on the pressure to have cosmetic surgery to attain beauty. In other classes, I’ve shown parts of Dr. 90210, a reality show about cosmetic surgery. Full disclosure: This is a difficult segment to watch, and, while there’s technically no nudity, the pixelations barely leave anything to the imagination, so don’t watch if nudity offends you.

One last thing about conformity: The 1950s is a time in American culture where conformity prevailed and was sought by the middle class. This theme comes through in many films, but it’s subtle. Another science fiction film with this theme is Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 and remade twice). Interestingly, two prevailing and opposing views about this film are that it’s about the bland conformity of the era and it’s a film about communists secretly turning people into collectivists. Authors and directors aren’t always conscious of the socially constructed meanings they convey in their works, but, sometimes, they have to mask their works so as not to upset those in power. Science fiction is full of examples of hiding the direct focus of criticism because it can project into a different time, galaxy, dimension, etc., which the uncritical mind might miss…

Future Stuff

I’ve assigned Interstellar for tomorrow, and don’t forget I also assigned Stanely Weinbaum’s “A Martian Odyssey.” It’s a short story on adventure, but it isn’t as…deep… as Interstellar. I hope you’ll find some connects between the two texts.


Works Cited

Wolf, Naomi. “The Beauty Myth.” The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women. New York: William Morrow, 1991. 9-19.

Skip to toolbar
  • Log In