Fascades of Current Society

Throughout history women, men, and children have all felt the pressures and manipulations by the media through some faÐ*ade style form or shape. A FaÐ*ade by definition is a false, superficial, or artificial appearance or effect, which is primarily imposed or placed on an object, group, or even individual. Through the use of words, deliberate images, and material items advertised within society, as a result have become pressures felt by all types of individuals. Many of these pressures forced upon individuals, prevalent in society today, has in turn created a false sense of ideals and an artificial basis of reality. Men, women, and children all wear some form of a mask in a faÐ*ade sense as an attempt of self defense against one another, which is clearly an affect of the media's dominance. In turn, we are all targets and victims to the controlling media weather we realize it or not.

Advertisers have shaped and evolved our society from the beginning and has made it into what exists currently: It defines what it is to be a "Girl" or a "Boy", even a man or woman, and images presented of these "supposed" ideal gender definitions have become the basis for our decisions made in our lives everyday. These pressures of social definitions overtake men, women, and children's thoughts; some of which are feelings the having to look or act a certain way in order to be beautiful or accepted in this world severely obsessed with appearances as a basis for self-worth. From the clothes one chooses to wear or the product chosen to consume, all are somehow related to the media's images seen in magazines, newspapers, internet, and television advertisements. Messages conveyed through all forms of common media known to contemporary man affects them subconsciously regardless of age, color, beliefs, or any aspect which many diversify one man from another, one woman from another woman, etc. Advertisers pursue knowledge of society's defining aspects and embrace all diversities of individuals in order to be able to target their product or message to all these parties. Advertisers have been quite successful, but in part gave birth to an obsessive and consumptive society which has severely damaged the aspect of personal identity, especially among young women.

The idea of anyone wearing a type of metaphorical mask is a major theme running through Spiegelman's work Maus I and Maus II. Due to the serious and deadly time period Spiegelman's characters endure through, they are forced to conform to other society in order to not be discovered as Jews. In other novels read and analyzed specifically in this class, which provide additional examples of characters displaying types of facades, are Tayo in Silko's novel Ceremony, Henry in Valdez's production of Zoot Suit, Sula in Morrison's novel Sula, and Akiko Ueno in Ozeki's novel My Year of Meats, just to name a few. In Maus mainly, Spiegelman portrays the Jewish mice wearing pig masks in order to blend in with the surrounding Polish society depicted as pigs. Spiegelman does this for many reasons, but one in particular is to expose the destructive effect. In reality, people walk, dress, and talk a certain way in order pass as another type of person, or to feel acceptance among peers, such as teenage boys and girls. All characters display some kind of inner and outer struggle wearing a sort of faÐ*ade due to conflicts encountered, thus forcing them to morph themselves as a way of survival. In actuality, no one is wearing a physical mask but rather an adaptation by change in behavior, manner, and appearance to blend in with the rest of mass society.

In relation to my Advertisement FaÐ*ade, which depicts pieces of magazine images and textual material from American magazines targeted towards young adults, represents the type of mask prevalent among individuals of today. By analyzing media material presented to the entirety of society, it is obvious that the media has