Brumberg follows the changes in ways women control their body in the 20th century, shifting from external contraptions to internal changes. Her article is titled "The Body Project" because of the way the body functions as means of self-creation and definition. The 1920s introduced new themes surrounding female expression; freedom through exposing one's skin became the new mode of modern expression and style. Food restriction and dieting were introduced in this decade as key daily regimens, if one was to look good while showing off the body. The desirable figure of young women at the time could be described as "slender, long-limbed and relatively flat-chested" (p. 99). An increase in telephone use and unchaperoned automobile traveling also corresponded with this increase in freedom and separation from traditional family customs and relations. Controlling food intake became the means of enhancing one's self-esteem, as confidence revolved only around external appearance, and girls would compete in weight-loss challenges. Weight loss was seen as the way of reducing one's stress and low self-confidence in the uncertain high school and college years. In a time when one's image is of great importance, girls could now talk openly about how to change their hair, face, and figure without being seen as shallow. One could dress as a "decorative object" and be accepted and even exalted for one's femininity and thinness.
The arrival of the 1950s brought with it a new-found obsession with breasts; men now desired more busty women who still remained thin in the remaining parts of their body. The bra changed from a flattening device to one emphasizing the roundness of breasts. It's mass production and marketization no longer made it possible for mothers to make their daughters' undergarments and monitor their general clothing choices. Store-bought bras, unlike ones made by mothers to fit their daughters' bodies, could not be altered; thus girls and women had to transform their bodies to fit standard sizes, discouraging acceptance of diverse body types. Doctors and advertisers perpetuated the bra-buying craze, even amongst younger and younger girls, by discussing the physiological need for the devices, in order to prevent unappealing physical changes. Aggressive education programs were created to encourage junior figure control, the key to maintaining beauty once the body matured.
In the 1990s, society now demanded that women perfect their bodies by extensively exercising and toning. Appetite control remained a prominent part of the adolescent lifestyle but now large breasts and the necessity of working out were also inserted. Advertisers and the media connect their products with toned bodies and sexual appeal. Airbrushing and retouched photography further push girls into a depression about the unattainable level of beauty they are trying to achieve.
Steinem discusses further the connection between advertising and women, specifically about readership of women's magazines and the continually low standards in terms of content of the more mainstream subscriptions. When Ms., a woman's magazine, began, the editors knew that they must take ads in order to keep subscription prices low but also wanted to encourage a dialogue between advertisers and readers. They strove to appeal to both men and women, and sought advertisements traditionally geared towards both genders. For example, Ms. believed that women were in fact the ones who made many of the household technology decisions, but to most advertisers, women and technology seemed mutually exclusive; because of this Ms. had great difficulty getting these types of adds in their publication. Their refusal to include recipes in their magazine also proved to be detrimental to their success. Even though most women disliked combining recipe and food advertising content because this associated work with food, food advertisers generally stayed clear of Ms. They attempted to convince airlines that women make most of the traveling and transportation decisions but they were generally wary of the magazine because of their support of lesbians.
Despite a disproportionate of number of women of color readers, the general advertising trend was described by Steinam as "being filled with enough white women to make a reader snow blind." Additionally, even though the publication had won numerous literary awards and had a greater impact on society than any other magazine, and a place for ads to reach women who did not read traditional "women's magazines," most beauty advertisers did not invest. Este Lauder's editor claimed that they sold to a "kept-woman" mentality, and not the traditional Ms. readers. Women's magazines appealed to this "kept-woman" mentality by including how-to articles (please a husband, gain social approval, etc.) and avoided controversy and less-than-cheerful subjects. By also adding career and business-success articles, these magazines created an unattainable "Super Woman" standard for women to reach, all while remaining thin, white, and beautiful.
Women need to change women's advertising so that it does not belittle them and perpetuate anti-feminist stereotypes. They need to demand that magazines and advertisers take women and their general consumer influence more seriously, providing a diverse range of product and literary options as well as changing ad imagery and the sexual/beauty focus.
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