Conchita Wurst

Tom Neuwirth is an Austrian man who is a notable and highly revered pop star in Europe. He is an example of someone who loves going against the status quo in several different ways. The main way he accomplishes this is by performing as a female pop star. Neuwirth performs under the stage name Conchita Wurst, and dresses as a woman with a wig and makeup. Obviously, society expects men to dress as men and women to dress as women, so by performing in gender swapped clothing he is going against the status quo. However, he is not the only man to become famous while dressed in drag. Gay icons such as RuPaul, Divine, Coco Peru, and many others have made successful careers around performing in drag. Drag queens have their own subculture within the LGBT community, and there is a status quo, albeit for a smaller group, within that community. Conchita defies that status quo as well, by performing as a female with a beard. One of golden rules of female impersonation is to have absolutely no visible facial hair, because that is the standard that society expects of women. Neuwirth chooses to keep his beard when he transforms into his drag persona Conchita because he loves to challenge social norms. By keeping his beard while dressed as a woman, he is rebelling against society’s notion of how he as a man should dress, against society’s notion of how a woman should present herself with no body hair, and against other drag performer’s notions of how she should present herself as a female impersonator. Despite all of these things that Conchita does that society is not accustomed to, she is incredibly successful and adored by many fans. She won the televised 2014 Eurovision song contest with her song “Rise Like a Phoenix,” becoming one of the few LGBT identifying contestants to win the competition and the first drag queen to ever win. Since then the song became a number one hit in Austria and the UK, and placed high on the charts of other European countries. The Eurovision competition has also gained huge support from the LGBT community and has cultivated a massive gay following. Conchita Wurst is a perfect example of someone who is rebelling against social norms and making statements on how society views gender and sexuality. She is an inspiration not only to gay people and drag queens, but to all people who feel outcasted by society and instills the courage in people to be themselves and go against the status quo.

Old Spice Ad

The ad I chose is an Old Spice poster that is advertising their “Matterhorn” brand deodorant. Old Spice as a company mainly targets the male demographic, pushing their products as being overtly masculine and manly. This particular ad pushes this point very successfully. The aspects of masculinity pushed in the poster are power, muscle, being larger than life, and athletic outdoor activities. The model used is a handsome, muscular man that other men would look up to. His facial expression is very charismatic; friendly and attractive, but not in a sexual way, because though the ad features a handsome shirtless man it does so in a way that does not rely on it becoming overtly sexual. The man is depicted as a snowy mountain with miniature people and scenery on it. Comparing this man to a mountain is a way of showing that he is larger than life, because of the deodorant he wears.

The various activities the miniature people are doing on this mountain speaks a lot about the ad itself. There are people doing awesome, impressive stunts, such as snowboarding, going off a huge ski jump, riding a sled guided by polar bears, and hiking to the top of the mountain. The character that is on the mountaintop sets up a flag that says “Success!” on it; having this positive word displayed prominently gives the entire picture a positive tone. There are also people on the mountain doing silly things, like being chased by a yeti and being caught up in a snowball rolling downhill. These things show that the ad is not taking itself too seriously, enforcing that the man is not being presented in a sexual way.

The one controversial aspect is that the only place a woman is shown in the ad is as one of the miniatures on the mountain, but she is wearing a bikini in a hot tub. This may speak to the idea that looking at half-naked women is seen as something that is manly. The woman in the ad, however, is not made out to be sexual. She has large gray hair, her body is not skinny or emphasized on her breasts, and she is not in a sexual pose.  The ad is not directed at women and the woman is not at al displayed prominently, so it is in my eyes acceptable. Overall, the ad is creative, effective, and refreshing.