The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the article "Beauty (Re) discovers the Male Body" by Susan Bordo. Specifically, it will discuss her outlook on advertising with males, and look at some modern ads using the male body as the central focus of the ads. Throughout this essay, author Bordo equates the new appreciation of the male form in advertising to a greater acceptance of homosexual attitudes and male "femininity." This may be the case, and certainly gay men would enjoy many of these ads as much as straight women do. However, to credit changing acceptance as the main reason these ads are fashionable seems a bit one-sided. Certainly male sexuality is at play in the ads, but there are also many other factors at play, including changing morals throughout society that allow these ads to exist in the first place.
             In her essay, Bordo writes, "Throughout the century, gay photographers have created a rich, sensuous, and dramatic tradition which is unabashed in eroticizing the male body, male sensuousness, and male potency, including penises" (Bordo 176). Throughout this essay, Bordo gives much of the credit for the new male image in much advertising to gays, but this seems to be one-sided. As a feminist, Bordo appreciates the male form, but cannot acknowledge that at least some of the erotic male advertising has nothing to do with homosexual behavior, and is created to arouse and attract a female audience. That is why many of these male ads often appear in women's magazines, such as "Cosmopolitan." Gays may have added to the feeling of male sexuality, but many women do much of the clothing shopping for their husbands and lovers, and these ads remain in their memories, too. Bordo indicates this with the ad "Honey, what do I want?" where the man asks his wife what he should wear (Bordo 189).
             It is also interesting that so many straight men are somehow threatened by this male nudity, while they...