"To all the girls that think you're ugly because you're not a size 0, you're the beautiful one," Gaga shared a quote of inspiration on Twitter. "It's society who's ugly."
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| Lady Gaga on BTW Tour |
In Beauty and the Beast of Advertising Jil Kilbourne states "Advertising creates a mythical mostly white world in which people are rarely ugly, overweight, poor, struggling, or disabled, either physically or mentally." Imagine a world of no imperfections and that every time you see someone, they've got no wrinkles, blemishes, or scars, and that everything about that person is as Beyonce says in one of her songs - FLAWLESS! The reality is that it is hard to imagine a world where imperfections are not present. Advertising and the effects it has on body image particularly on women has been an alarming issue that dates back for as long as advertising has been around. Women have been programmed to think that how they look has a huge impact on their lives in terms of success and worth. I would like to agree with the film we saw in class about body image earlier in the semester. Among the many concepts that were brought up, one that resinated with me was the idea that advertising can be compared to religion in how people worship saints and strive to embody them as a religious practice of perfection. In essence women emulate this idea in the context in which they worship the images shown in the media of the ideal slender, light skin and barbie doll image. Most of the images that girls see at an adolescent age set the platform for how these images will affect them in their adulthood. The following two reading explores the many forms of advertising that have place women on a platform where she is judged and scrutinized for the way that she looks. "Body Messages and Meanings" and "Hunger as Ideology" by Susan Bordo.
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| Figure 1 Lillian Russell most photographed |
Lets explore how the ideal image of beauty has shifted over time.
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| Women portrayed 1900's-1950 |
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| Women Portrayed 1960's - Present |
The idea of curved woman being beautiful shifted to not being so attractive after the slim frame supermodel came into the picture, from that point on an emphasis on being skinny and maintaining this image increased, year after year more women were excluded because they did not meet this new standard of beauty. While some women resisted the influence of these images, some fell in the trap and some have spent a fortune on companies that sell products which claim to improve imperfections and promote a healthier and beautiful YOU! The following two campaigns (Victoria Secret and Dove) were placed side by side in effort to expose the demands society places on women. While Victoria is promoting a "Love my Body" Campaign, Dove created a campaign to include the outsiders who do not fit in this category the "Real Beauty". Many campaigns including those like Victoria Secret tend to teach only one lesson to the viewer, and that is sexy and beautiful can only come in one package. Companies such as Dove, create an environment where all forms of beauty are represented. The problem is that there is a lack of ads that tend to be inclusive.
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| Victoria Secret beauty Ad VS. Dove beauty Ad. |
The constant bombarding of ads that exclude all body types tend to instill a certain belief on women, and in the "Body Messages and Body Meaning" the author mentions the thin commandments that main stream media tends to instill on women:
- if you are not think you are not attractive
- being thin is more important than being healthy
- you must buy clothes, cut your hair, take laxatives, starve yourself, do anything to make yourself look thinner
- Thou shall not eat without feeling guilty
- Thou shall not eat fattening foods without punishing oneself afterwards
- Thou shall count calories and restrict intake accordingly
- What the scale says is the most important thing
- Losing weight is good/Gaining weight is bad
- You can never be too thin
- Being thin and not eating are true signs of will power and success.
One of our readings also talks about how some celebrities are not the best role models when it comes to fighting off this unattainable image. On more recent news the talk show host Wendy Williams talks about body image and photoshop and bring up a recent controversy surrounding Beyonce.
Recently Beyonce received a lot of criticism over an image she photoshopped in effort to create the infamous thigh gap. Wendy Williams was concerned with how many of her 19 million followers on Instagram are young girls who look up to her and see this image which seems like a regular everyday image posted on Instagram as a reality, and how many of these girls actually try to achieve this look that not even Beyonce in real life has.
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| Beyonce Thigh Gap scandal |
Figure 1 Figure 2
Figure 1:
Mariah Carey Performing her new
single from her album. She is placed
sided by side her edited album cover.
Figure 2:
Britney Spears side by side enhanced photo of herself
in her latest music video.
Referring back to the Lady GaGa example of embracing the natural beauty, more celebrities who are influential and have a large following should be more conscious about the messages they put out in the images they publish of themselves in the media. Images that promote an unhealthy and dangerous lifestyle for many women who look up to them.
Works Cited:
Bordo, Susan. Unbereable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body. University of California, 1993.
Kilbourne, Jean, "Beauty and the Beast of Advertising." Media & Values. Diana George & John Trimbur(Eds.), (1999)
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