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Both Kliszynski and Piercy have recognised the detrimental effect on the mental and physical health of women (and men) of society's objectification of the human body. By constantly portraying an idealised myth of not just the body but the very role of women in society, the media (and sections of the art world) have created a culture which views the body in it's natural human state as somehow wrong and abnormal.

Equally, both Kliszynski and Piercy have recognised the complicity of women in this culture; the girl in the poem is healthy and intelligent, born 'as usual', presumably 'normal' in all respects, and yet she accepts the truth of her low value in society because she is not perceived as physically perfect. Only in death, with her nose cut off and a cosmetically enhanced 'putty' nose in place instead, can she be seen as 'pretty'. Her value as a strong and useful member of society is non-existent in a world that refuses to see past her face.

Kliszynski himself has said that 'the main body of my work is a number of human-dolls that aim to raise questions about the numerous images of the objectified and idealised body that we see in the mass mediaa€|I came to make this work as a reaction to the lowest-common-denominator approach to masculinity taken by the media which serves and perpetuates the 'lad' or 'raunch' elements of our culture. Curiously this 'lad/raunch' culture seems also to be embraced by many young women; a phenomenon which seems contrary to a properly progressive understanding of gender and identity in a post-feminist era.'

'Lad magazines' such as Maxim, Stuff and various other UK-based magazines intended for teenage boys and young men are notorious for endorsing a highly commodified view of the world - men and boys are encouraged to buy lots of 'bling' like cars, stereo components and expensive suits etc. By their very placement in such magazines, in 'glamorous' soft-porn poses, female models become as much merchandise as the gadgets featured in the articles; and as the reader 'must' own the right phone to attain status, so he must have the 'right' woman.

Yet this attitude of the body as commodity is ironically trapping men as much as women, and both sexes are in a crisis of identity. Men are met on a daily basis with conflicting images of themselves, from the traditional Action Man role of husband, father, provider, patriarch, to the more sensitive, metro sexual Ken, whose status, like that of Barbie, is defined by how he looks and what he owns. This crisis is as important for men as for women; statistics show that young male suicides are increasing, there is a high rise in cases of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in males, crime statistics are rising, divorce rates are going through the roof, and with mothers routinely given custody of the children even the role of fatherhood itself has come into question, exacerbated by the rising number of fertility clinics and the ability for women to so easily be single parents.

Role models such as Ken and Action Man are without doubt as harmful to young men as a role model such as Barbie can be to young women. No longer seen as breadwinners, or the head of the family in a patriarchal society,本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。