This Means That: The Sexuality Of A Plastic Bag

We are not born with innate attitudes for which we hold toward various things in our environment. Instead, we learn and form our feelings of approval or disapproval largely through the information that infiltrates our subconscious mind. Emotive subject matter of advertisements allows them to break almost all order which we believe governs our own susceptibility to their messages. This begins with what we take in upon first glance. What do you see? In the image above I see a white woman placed in front of a clean white background. I see her thin stature standing upright, adorned with a simple white two piece bikini, the top highlighting the breasts. The delicate placement of the woman’s hands on her hips draws attention the waist. Additionally, the right leg crosses over the left, creating a curve in her posture.

In the forefront is a clear plastic bag which overlays the woman, the top of which is horizontally placed over the her neck. This placement of the top of the bag creates a separation between the body and the head. Bold clear letters stand out in the middle of the image, with a bright blue halo in an almost angled triangular form highlighting the letters from underneath. This is the only text that exists within the image, allowing much room for interpretation when it comes to the implicit nature of the advertisement as a whole. Clearly the information that I have processed from an initial viewing of the image focuses largely on the female figure rather than the plastic bag. It is when I begin to use my semiotic knowledge that I realize this was precisely the advertisers’ goal. It is our emotional predisposition that drives the advertiser, and this example in particular reveals many disturbing cultural normalizations that target just that: the fragile subconscious emotivity of the viewer. Let’s return to the the content of this advertisement. A partially nude white woman is the clearly the primary subject. The sexual undertone is evident, as the use of sex as a tool to draw attention and sell a product to consumers is now a well known fact.

However it is not merely the woman’s lack of clothing that strikes me. The socially constructed ideals of femininity and masculinity are repeatedly insinuated in the media, and this example of an ad for plastic bag manufacturer “Ziploc”, as indicated by the text on the image, is no exception. The “ideal female body” has become firmer, ubiquitous and normalized over time; thin, lightened skin tone, complete lack of imperfection, enlarged breasts, cinched waist, the list goes on. According to this contained list alone, the model shown meets each mark with extreme accuracy. Slenderness is equated with competence, self control and intelligence, implying that the use of this product will be a guide for young women in attaining this almost anatomically impossible ideal. Let’s not forget, however, this is an ad for plastic bags. The model’s body alone acts as a messenger of the very distressing tidings of our culture. It is hard to escape the recognition that a societal battle is being waged over the energies and resources of the female body, a battle in which at least some feminist agendas for women’s empowerment are being defeated, especially in the world of advertising. One prominent feature of this ad, as perviously mentioned, is the purposeful separation of the head and body through the use of the top of the overlaid bag as the barrier. The body is clearly youthful, glorified and recognized as the ultimate ideal.

However the head belongs to an older woman with greyed hair, wrinkles and smile lines, an antithesis of the body below. The intersecting levels of oppression in popular culture undoubtably include ageist views of women. Specific bodies are defined as too old, therefore undesirable, ugly, and often ignored completely in the media. Thus, the older woman’s body was unquestionably and purposefully discarded by advertisers, and replaced by a quintessential example of the female body. The symbolic assertion of a woman’s limited “place” in the world is a narrative that is continually expressed in the media and is intensely problematic. In this case, it appears that a woman’s body is best placed into a box, or more specifically, contained within a plastic bag. At surface level the framing of the bag and contrast between the old and young seems to communicate the message that while using their product that is meant for food, the contents will be kept fresh.

However rather than using food as their subject, they use a woman, merely an object that exists in a space designated for a material as discardable as food. The female body has been degraded to such an extent that society accepts the abusive sexualization of women as objects. The message here is that the public is drawn to the submissive female form such as this one, in an exposing bikini with hands resting upon hips and a stance that highlights the body’s curves. The most effective form of publicity is drawn so heavily by the female body that companies such as Ziploc feed off this desire. As a consequence, a woman’s body is reduced to that of an object for baseline satisfaction: food.