Exploitation to Make Money

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Throughout history, the image and symbolism of the white woman has overwhelmed the contemporary world. Additionally, the political and the sexual have become entangled in the commodity of the white body. The white body also has had an impact on the idea of location in China. Metropolitan bodies value whiteness because of both the exposure of the western world due to social media, consumer advertisements, and influence due to television, movies and other popular culture. Whiteness also was symbolic of wealth and modernity, as the minority culture living in the country side, known as “Duocai,” meaning colorful, has been indicative of a lower socioeconomic class, where darker skin has been represented by working outside in the sun. This image, taken from Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, has multiple meanings and symbolic undertones that ultimately exploit everything involved in the picture, from the man, the woman, and the Eastern world, in order to make gains for the privileged CEO’s of the company.

 select and focus on one of the “multiple meanings”

There are many contrasts in this photo, both exploiting the man and young woman in the picture. The first blatantly obvious difference between the two is their age. The woman is a young, youthful woman who clearly is a lot younger than the man who is next to her. This creates a perverted type image which is intended to sexualize both the man and half-naked woman sitting next to him. The clear age difference shows that femininity is valued for youthfulness by all ages, and that women should strive to be young. Because of this age difference, there is also a connotation of youthfulness representing modernity. This young woman, clearly out of place in rural China on the elderly fisherman’s boat, is a bold contrast to the traditional Chinese culture that this man has lived through. By placing the two next to each other, the woman looks much more modern than the traditional old man, and this contrast is used to sell a product, because the “white woman sells.”

 the idea of “white woman sells” sounds powerful and you may use it as topic sentence, then explain how and why white woman sells

It is important to remember that the people who run Sports Illustrated are there to make a profit, and are likely not concerned with cultural implications that go along with this picture. By using the exploitation of both the man and the woman, there is no concern for how they are viewed. The man, without this woman in the picture, would appear to be innocent and just doing his job and living his life. However, when the woman is placed into the picture, the way the man is viewed changes. It then appears that he craves young, white women, when in reality, the placement of this woman is so bizarre and does not make any sense. There is also a contrast in the socioeconomic statuses between the people who set up the picture and the people in the picture. The man, a traditional fisherman, is likely not making a lot of money, whereas the producers of this picture and the female model in the picture are likely making a lot of money, and the head of Sports Illustrated is making the most money of them all. Ultimately, the placement of the western woman into the eastern world is forcing eastern culture to value western ideals, specifically, the white woman.

I would say displacement of the white woman. good ideas and intentions which nee a better organization. Try to begin and focus on one pair of denotation/connotation before you move to the next