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Woman as Nature
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 <Background:
Sherry Ortner’s significant article “Is Female to Male as Nature is to
Culture?” sets the stage for a critical understanding of the division of
the cultural world into gendered dichotomies—male (culture), female
(nature); male (public), female (private/domestic); male (creativity),
female (procreativity). A quote from Ortner’s article offers an
explanation of these divisions: “woman’s body seems to doom her to mere
reproduction of life; the male, in contrast, lacking natural creative
functions, must (or has the opportunity to) assert his creativity
externally, ‘artificially,’ through the medium of technology and symbols.
In so doing, he creates relatively lasting, eternal, transcendental
objects, while the woman creates only perishables—human beings” (1974:75).
Though Ortner’s work is not focused on popular culture and the media, it
is clear that the suggested universality of male to culture/female to
nature is prominent in many of the print ads. In many of the ads women are
pictured in reference to nature in such a way that they are seen as closer
to nature than men. This trope focuses on the ways in which women have
been represented as an extension of nature.
The
Ads:
As you review the following ads, note that nature is constructed in varied
ways. Discussion Questions: (1)
Can you find similar
advertising images of men being connected to nature, or are they typically
connected to culture? (2) Why have women been typically associated with
nature in popular culture? (3) In recent years, more men have taken on
what has been wrongly assumed to be "women's work," that is work in
the home. If this is the case, has this social change had an impact
on images of women, particularly those that depict women as
"naturally" connected to childrearing?
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<presented by Scott A.
Lukas, Ph.D.>
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