In the essay "Beauty (re)discovers the male body", the author and philosopher Susan Bordo discusses the history and current state of male representation in advertisements. Using her feminist background, Bordo compares and contrasts aspects of how men and women are portrayed in the public eye. She states that there has been a paradigm shift in the media with the theory that not only are women being objectified in the eyes of the public, but so are men. Since the mid-1970s, with the introduction of Calvin Klein commercials, men began to become more dehumanized and considered sex symbols. Similar to how Bordo depicts gender, race plays a similar role in media. People of all different ethnicities and cultures are classified by the media in an overly simplified and usually unfair image compared to basic characteristics. Bordo's thesis can be shown in many common examples of modern media and advertising. For example, in the animated television show The Simpsons, creator and writer Matt Groening uses satire as a means to address these gender and racial stereotypes through the exaggeration of certain distinguishable traits and personalities of the characters. At the same time, however, stereotypes reinforced by some members of the show are then unexpectedly shattered by others to show the viewer how much the media can alter one's opinion. In The Simpsons, the son of the protagonist, Homer Simpson, is a ten year old boy named Bart. He is the type of male who works hard to try to make women like Bordo spill coffee on a table and become "weak-kneed" at first sight (191). Like a model in a Calvin Klein poster, Bart constantly presents himself to the gaze of those around him. Instead of monitoring hello… middle of the paper… believing in a stereotype and at the same time disproving it and making sure that it is not true for all people of that particular race. After twenty-five seasons, The Simpsons continues to be an influential show. Using animation as a medium, writers use satire to highlight stereotypes generated by the media. In some cases, they take a stereotype and push it to the extreme, like Apu and his eight children, and other times they go against social norms, like Lisa who is a strong, independent woman. This reminds viewers of what the media says about their perception of others and how they constantly make judgments about an entire group of people based on the characteristics of some. I don't think stereotypes will ever cease to exist, but I think it's important that we are at least aware of what they are.