In the words of Jean Kilbourne’s Killing Us Softly 3, “to a great extent advertising tells us who we are and who we should be”. Advertising shows an ideal feminine body that is flawless, and it is also unattainable because it does not really exist. But ads are not only selling the products they advertize, they are also selling ideas and perceptions about what is truly beautiful. According to Kilbourne, there is an American belief that all women can look like the models in magazines if they try hard enough. If they do not look like these fictional women then they just are not trying hard enough and they need to try harder. Women put all their time, energy, and money into “trying harder” when they will never reach these outrageous expectations because the model body type is very rare. According to Kilbourne, advertising tells us, just like 10 and 20 and 30 years ago, that “what is most important about women is how we look”.
Advertising not only lowers the self-esteem of women but of men as well. Ads put pressure on women to be “perfect”, and they put pressure on men to be with the “perfect” woman. Many times women’s bodies are objectified which sends the idea that women are not fully human. In addition, women of color are often portrayed as being half-animal, half-human which also furthers the idea that women are not fully human. Because women are being dehumanized, men are more likely to feel justified when they resort to violence in order to get their way. After all, they did not really hit a person, only half a person, right?
The relationships between females and males in ads are all about power. Usually the males have power over the females but, when it is about race, the white people have power over people of color. When women do have power it is always masculine power – for example, “women with balls” will buy this product. In pretty much every ad, the women are always passive and the males are always active. The body language of women in ads is one of vulnerability and passiveness – women are told to say things with their body and not with their mouth or they have their hand over their mouths so they cannot even talk.
While thinking about any recent examples of media images that portray a more realistic idea about women I could not think of anything for a few minutes. Eventually, I came up with the Dove commercials I remember seeing a while ago that show regular women. Dove also has these self-esteem workshops that work towards helping you girls feel about who they are. While looking up some Dove commercials to include in this blog I found some Lane Bryant commercials which focuses on plus size clothing. Furthermore, I found some commercials by Playtex that also show regular women. Although, I did not come across that many commercials that used regular-looking women unless the product the companies were advertising was specifically targeted for plus sizes.
CBS News about this LB commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_i-RIQnuhk
Bravissimo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygjLqheHiDQ
I agree that advertisements make women feel less appreciative about themselves and their bodies, it's unfortunate that the media represents women objectively, but also puts pressure on both women and men to have the 'perfect' body when the media is creating a false image of what perfection really is in the first place.
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