The Sticky Embrace

Let me start off by saying, I had a lot of trouble following this article, as well as the previous ones from Writing New Media. I'm not sure if it's the terminology, or the word order, the name dropping... or maybe it's me and I just need to read more, and am a prime example of the failure of the education system. Either way, I had issues with the text, and so I may not be getting out of these what I should be. But here goes.
When Wysocki started to talk about her confusion at the contradiction of her reaction to the Peek ad, I felt I could relate. Only, I broke my reactions down into a simpler analysis, and eventually decided that I was more impressed than appalled at the ad. While Wysocki analzyed the artistic aspects and decided that this way her emotions could remain mixed, I felt like I had to pick a side. And I decided that I was more impressed than appalled. I read the ad as more artistic than pornographic. Yes, the woman is portrayed as an object, something pretty to look at, but to me this adds to the "artsy-ness" of the ad. Her proportions, the shape of her body, are too unrealistic for me to take seriously.
Of course, Wysocki found her pleasure easier to explain than her anger. Her research on visual composition told her what it was about the ad that made it pleasant to look at. And then she points out the flaw with that analysis, saying that "we are not encouraged to ask about the woman in the ad as a woman, only as a shape." A simply structural analysis of the ad takes it out of time and place and history and takes away any social consequences. This is the comfortable world I want to stay in when I look at this ad. I don't want to think about what this ad could potentially be saying about the objectification of women. Or what that says about the society I'm living in. But if I am forced to look at this composition from all angles, take into consideration every meaning, it is so obvious just how important visual literacy is.

I used to refer to myself as "a feminist's worst nightmare" because my life's ambition is to be a housewife. But the more I read and the more ads like this I look at, the more I feel that, as a woman living in the 21st century, feminism is not optional.