Advertising: A Nutritional Disaster
Sauntering through the mall, viewing a magazine, surfing the net, or watching television, people are inundated with thousands of images—images that influence their thought. What inspires a woman to buy lingerie, a man to buy cologne, or a teenage girl to buy a school wardrobe? Is it the actual product that is advertised or are people subjective to the subconscious thought that maybe they would look like the model? As seen on television and movies, the newest fad is to look “skinny.” Attaining the correct weight is now associated with success and “hitting the gym” has now become a part of daily vocabulary. Who is to blame for this increase in body image awareness? Why are people suddenly so obsessed with obtaining the correct weight?
According to studies into diet, weight loss, and body shape, many individuals feel dissatisfied with their body shape. Who is to blame: none other than the advertising industry. Walking through the mall, there is a multitude of advertisements for different stores ranging from clothing stores to department stores to specialty stores. Most of the advertisements portray the product with fit, good looking models as if they were the norm. The fashion industry, presumably more than any other industry, has the clothing on fit men and thin women. Even meandering through the stores and observing the mannequins, a person can see that the product is advertised on a lean figure. In fact, compared to the average woman a mannequin has quite the envious figure. The average woman is around 5’4” with a dress size ranging from an 11 to a 14 while a mannequin sports a mean 6’0” with a dress size of six. Also, the average woman has a bust between 36- 37” with a waist ...
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...standards? Is advertising really that important over life?
Works Cited
“The Biggest Loser.” TV.com. 20 Oct. 2006. CNET Networks Entertainment. 23 Oct. 2006. .
Collins, Anne. “Statistics on Eating Disorders.” 23 Oct. 2006. .
“The Drive for Thinness.” 23 Oct. 2006. .
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“Spanish Fashion Show Bans Underweight Models.” CBC News. 13 Sept. 2006. The Associated Press. 23 Oct. 2006. .
“Statistics: How Many People Have Eating Disorders?” Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders, Inc. 16 Jan. 2006. 23 Oct. 2006. .
Throughout the centuries, history finds women doing whatever they can to fit into the current cookie cutter mold of popular, accepted society. From the whale bone corsets of the late 1800s to the psychedelic style of hippies in the 1960s and 1970s, one major trend that followed these fashions through the ages is weight. For the past fifty years or so, since the dawn of models like Twiggy and Verushka von Lehndorff, the world turned away from the “plus size” and opened its arms only to the phenomenon of thin.
In this generation, filled with technology, we are surrounded by the media and are constantly seeing commercials for weight loss and billboards covered with extremely fit people that have the bodies we wish we could obtain. We see images in the media all the time and do not even realize the affect that they are having on us. When watching television,about 30% of what you are watching is advertisements that are slowly stimulating your mind. “The media and body image are closely related due to the number of images we see in the media and the excessive amount of exposure we have to those images” (The media and body image, 2015). When people view advertisements they do not think of the effect that it is having on them, it may be small but it can grow as more and more are viewed. Advertisements lead us to believe that we need to be like that, so when a magazine has photo shoot of a woman with a perfect body getting a tan on the beach we strive to be like that. We do know that that body is not achievable but want it so badly we will do whatever the magazine tells us. Photoshopping is also a dangerous thing when it come to body
...odels in magazines usually achieve their body shape in unnatural ways. They either undergo plastic surgery or have an eating disorder like anorexia and bulimia. Most models have the BMI of a person with anorexia. Their weight is 15-20% below what is considered normal for their age ad height. The photos seen in magazines of these models are also airbrushed and photo shopped before being printed. The body shapes of the models are unrealistic, unhealthy, and unobtainable for the average person. In addition to the models, magazines are also filled with advertisements. Most ads in magazines are directed towards beauty in some form. Again, these ads all show photographs of women with the unreachable “perfect body” that can cause multiple victims to feel insecure and unhappy about their body shape and weight. In some cases it will result in developing an eating disorder.
The effects of the exposure to the idealized images presented in advertisements have been an area for extensive media research for a long time. Many researchers suggest that watching repetitive messages presented in advertisements influence people’s behaviors, attitudes and perception. One area that many researchers are concerned about is how the idealized model figures in advertisements affects women’s perception of the ideal body weight. Some researches claim that when women watch skinny models who are perceived in the society as the ideal feminine figures intentionally or unintentionally they compare themselves to those models. This comparison can cause insecurities, body dissatisfactions and it also can affect women’s confidence and self-esteem. Some researchers suggest that this may eventually cause women to engage in unhealthy eating behaviors or excessive exercising to lose weight; moreover it may cause eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia.
The media’s depiction of female bodies has a detrimental influence on women’s perception of themselves and has come under fire in recent years. Girls growing up in our media soaked culture internalize society’s ever-thinning standard of beauty, believing that they can never be slender enough. The negative effect of the media has been linked to the spread of eating disorders (“Never Just Pictures”, Thompson). This has led to a public outcry against impossibly thin, airbrushed models and a demand for more honest advertising.
ANAD. “Eating Disorders Statistics”. National Association of Anorexia Nervosa & Associated Disorders, Inc., 2013.Web. 18 Nov 2013.
Noordenbox, Greta, et al. "ANAD." Eating Disorders Statistics: National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2014.
In regard to Susan Bordo’s, “Never Just Pictures”, I agree with the points she makes in her essay about what is being projected through advertisements and fashion modeling and the negative effects that these have on developing a healthy self-esteem and body image. Everyone, without gender as a factor, should openly embrace the good points of their body, flaws included. But still, we are surrounded by everything from commercials about diet pills, to articles on celebrities who are doing anything to become thinner and thinner, and the bizarre concept that a plus-size model is as small as a size 6 or 8. The saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words” rings very true to the emphasis put on what is seen when someone looks at an advertisement for something because it acknowledges something much deeper than the image that is seen. Besides the company selling the product that is shown, they are in some ways, sending subliminal messages of what a person who would buy or wear the product should look and act like. Even though advertisers and the media would be quick to deny that their work has anything to do with young women turning to eating disorders to look like what they see all around them, it is evident that this obsession with self-image and being as thin as humanly possible is clearly a result from none other than what is depicted in those very ads.
For instance, in magazines one will barely ever find a female’s body who has wrinkles or cellulite or a few more pounds than she is supposed to and this “perfect” image negatively affect the way women look at themselves. Not only magazines but even television and advertisements or other media tend to show the female body in the way society wants them to look. The article, “Body ideals in women after viewing images of typical and healthy weight models,” by Rebecca Owen and Rebecca Spencer explain the depression women go through when they fail to satisfy society’s ideal expectations of what a woman’s body should look like, shedding light on “Barbie Doll.” These two texts help us see the negative impact the popular culture cause on women about body image. The authors of the former work stated in their article, “Consequently, women who aspire to the thin ideal and who fail to achieve this ideal will in turn experience negative feelings about their bodies” (495). This means that women who are not capable of reaching the “ideal” will feel insecure. Women look at other thinner women and look at them as someone inspirational. They tend to compare themselves to them and find themselves dissatisfied with their own bodies. Society expects women to have a perfect body that make woman feel depressed when they have a hard time reaching this ideal goal. The negative body image has been associated with depression,
Throughout time, the most controversial subject among female’s health has been body image. Society and our culture molds females’s brains into believing that being thin is what will fulfill complete happiness. Being thin means you are more successful, loved, attractive, and overall truly beautiful. Thin women are seen as having an altogether perfect life. However, there is another female figure that is seen as undesirable, hopeless, mainly disliked by most. This type of woman is the curvy or larger female. If one were to go out on the street and gather a group of men and women and show them the thin vs. large female and which one is more attractive, most would say the thinner is. Thus, we deny the larger women because they do not fit societies norms. Thin women are timid to turn into this other that is not widely accepted. To this extent, society and our culture have constructed a monster.
The popular media; being television, movies and magazines, have increasingly held up a thinner and thinner body image as the ideal for women and masculine bodies for men. This is a problem caused by social media’s portrayal of ‘the ideal appear’, however this is only one aspect of the body image issue; others include the advertising company’s photo-shopping every picture to construct people desire to purchase their merchandise. The majority of these companies is promoting their clothes, accessories, fitness and cosmetics. This has affected people all around the world for the reason that human beings deem that it is crucial to be such as every photo-shopped figure that is advertised in the majority of every fitness, beauty or clothing product. The last point that will be discussed in this essay will be
Step out into the everyday world as an average American and you will witness an entanglement of varied body size, and shape. Now, enter the world of the media, a world in which you are formally introduced to high fashion, where flashing lights, money, glamour and riches crash around you, satiating every crevice of your being. Here, you will find two unified body types, divided into two categories of shape in women; thin, and thick. Naturally, any woman who wishes to someday strut down the catwalk in Zac Posen, or pose in Marie Claire wearing Dolce and Cabana must have a body that fits one of these required molds, right? It is a well-known reality that many women who cannot reach by healthy means, or do not already have, the desired body type for fashion industries, will develop an eating disorder to starve their way into the position. However, most fail to address the issue of obesity that curdles on the other end of the physical spectrum; the plus size modeling industry. This statement not only boils the blood of millions of American Women, but begs the question: If extremely thin models promote eating disorders, should we prohibit advertisers, especially those in fashion, from using plus size models, as they may promote obesity? To put it simply, no. Plus size models do not promote obesity because they only provide thicker, much larger women, confidence and appreciation for their body without pressuring them to take unhealthy means to shed pounds; they do not encourage overeating and lack of exercise.
As previously said, people see this everywhere they go. Citizens all over this world turn their heads and see an altered picture without even realizing it. The average model in the runway fashion industry has a body mass index under 16 (“Is it Time”). This is not only a sickly body mass index, it is unattractive. Having young women see this presented as attractive can become just as sickly. Models on the runway should not have to starve themselves in order to be what the runways ideal beauty is. Such as picking up an eating disorder to become more thin, to be the ideal look of what they call
Advertising is always about appearance. It is also about information and what really satisfies people. Undoubtedly that advertisement of woman has been increased dramatically and obviously in such a way that turn out to be an important part of people’s lives. Recently, with advertising developments, there are more and more prospective is shown to the public. It cannot be denied that advertisement consist of negative scenes that shape females identity. Nevertheless, majority of individuals in modern societies deem that, such advertisements can caused so many harmful effects to women gender identity, such as low self-esteem. Also, it can cause depression to the women advertising due to the lack of confidence. Whereas, minority of people believes that, it is all about the women own decision whether to be exposed in such kinds of images or not. As well, it may benefit both parties, women who advertise and the advertising companies organizing them. It can be assumed that, this issue so-called advertising shapes female gender identity, has both benefits and damages, and damages can occurred more than advantages. This essay will attempt briefly to argue the damages and benefits of how advertising shapes women gender identity.
Have you ever felt you needed to lose weight because of pressure put on you by the ideals created by the fashion industry? People often feel inferior to models because of the contrast between their bodies and the models and pressures on society make them feel they must look like models. Currently the standard set by the fashion industry is to be thin; for some people thinness to this extent isn’t easily attainable causing people to adapt unhealthy dietary habits. Pressures from the fashion industry promote eating disorders. This is because the fashion industry largely influence what is beautiful in society.