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THE PERSUASIVE POWER OF ADVERTISING IN SHAPING BODY-IMAGE AND SELF-ESTEEM
THE PERSUASIVE POWER OF ADVERTISING IN SHAPING BODY-IMAGE AND SELF-ESTEEM
THE PERSUASIVE POWER OF ADVERTISING IN SHAPING BODY-IMAGE AND SELF-ESTEEM
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The issue, although heavily impacted by the campaigns, has manifested itself in a sport that strives for perfection, dance. The instructors, the audiences, and the dancers themselves encourage the intangible goal of a perfect body. Larkin McPhee, the director of the documentary Dying to be Thin captures the pressure in a scarily accurate film. The title of the movie screams out what many are trying to say: girls around the world are dying everyday just to fit the image that the media has set up for society. Entertaining is the dancers profession, and because of this they are forced into a business where imagery is everything. “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”, says one girl interviewed for the documentary, “this is what encourages me
In the article, “Too ‘Close to the Bone’: The Historical Context for Women’s Obsession with Slenderness,” Roberta Seid goes in depth on the emotionally straining and life altering trials women take on to try to portray society’s “ideal” body over time. She delves far into the past, exposing our culture’s ideal body image and the changes it has gone through over time. The article brings to light the struggles of striving to be the perfect woman with the model body. On the other hand, in the article “Rethinking Weight”, author Amanda Spake, details the many differing views of obesity. Spake voices her opinion on the idea that being overweight, and not losing weight, is caused by laziness. “Too Close to the Bone” and “Rethinking Weight” both deliberate about weight issues that are
Obesity is one of the most serious health problems, and it has been increasing significantly. The film “Fed Up” attempts to provide an answer to why people become obese: food itself. However, “real food” as solution offered in the film begs the question of feasibility. The film assumes that people in general have time to buy, prepare, and cool “real food” and thus commits the fallacy of contradicting its own theory by suggesting that it’s the people’s fault for not being diligent enough in taking care of their health.
One of the hardest pressures that dancers have to get through is the pressure from the media. The media places harsh, rigid, and false ideas of dancers on to the mass public. Constantly bombarded by commercials, magazine ads, posters, etc., the idea of being thin and beautiful is what the society thinks of as the “norm”. The truth is “these ads portray women who have a weight way below average, and have no imperfections” (Karyn p.1). Many ads are airbrushed to give the models the look of being flawless which many women and girls do not realize. Since that look is “virtually impossible to achieve” many dancers will develop an eating disorder feeling that “it is their only road to achieve this goal” of being thin (Karyn p.1). When thinking about it, the whole point of a commercial is essentially to sell happiness. If selling happiness is the goal and the use of models is prevalent in the commercial, then it can be concluded that the only way to achieve happiness is to be just like the commercial by having the product being advertised and looking like the person advertising it.
“Anorexia Nervosa, AN, the most visible eating disorder, is a serious psychiatric illness characterized by an inability to maintain a normal body weight or, in individuals still growing, failure to make expected increases in weight (and often height) and bone density.” (cite textbook) The behaviors and cognitions of individuals with AN adamantly defend low body weight.
Fat Sick and Nearly Dead is a film of a man named Joe Cross and his journey on a 60 day juicing fast, where he travelled across the country, speaking to people about obesity and weight loss. Throughout the documentary Joe discusses how healthy and nutritious juicing is. He also helps others learn about how to do a proper juice fast, and demonstrates that just by taking better care of his body it can heal itself. If done correctly juicing fasts can be a healthy, and quick way to lose a large amount of weight. In the beginning of this film, Joe Cross shows just how poor his diet and health was before the fast. Because of his bad diet, he had an auto-immune disease called Chronic Urticaria, which is essentially a skin rash that is caused by a reaction to food, medicine, or other irritations. By changing his diet, Joe ends up feeling much better and also ends up with much more energy.
These expectations are achieved by the different dance styles, settings, much and the overall look of the dancers. However, there are many aspects that contribute to the pleasing appearances of dance; the appearance of the dance industry rests heavily on the performers. Dancers, especially in advanced dance studios, have to have the whole collection of talent. Dancers should attractive, physically fit, strength, and be elegance. As a result of such high demands, dance companies have high standards for dancers that are selected to represent their studio. These standards cause loads of pressure that is put onto the dancers that can potentially contribute to the development of improper diets and eventually lead to eating disorders. For dancers, eating disorders are highly encouraged by teachers and even fellow dancers. It appears that the dance industry is not aware of how harmful the unhealthy eating habits dancers can attain can be to their dancers. There are many effects that come with these habits; these effects are exaggerated in dancers as they participate in intense physical activity, and must maintain high energy levels. However, high level dancers cannot maintain high energy levels if their body is not getting the proper
Nowadays, a standard stage of growing up is feeling the stress of one’s body image due to the growing pressure from society and media. In 2012 there was a survey that said “A full 50 percent of children from 8 to 10 years old report being ‘unhappy’ with their bodies” (ProQuest Staff). This is because when girls are growing up they see models/ actresses on TV and magazines that are thin and look beautiful and they think that’s what they are supposed to look like; unfortunately this is unrealistic. In 2006 there was a fashion model named Luise Ramos who died of a heart attack moments after she steps off the runway during fashion week in Montevideo (ProQuest Staff). News accounts later report that Ramos, 22, had been eating only lettuce and diet
If we were to remove plump models from the camera, and keep thin models onset, than it would create a standard of beauty in which motivate young children, and even young adults to live a fit lifestyle by achieving their goal of having a slim-physique.”That’s body shaming, it isn’t right for you to judge a person by their body weight” a statement commonly used by people who don’t regularly exercise, and eat healthy; like all ideals, it is not something that you are
Even though Gelsey Kirkland was a graceful and amazingly fit dancer, George Balanchine, then director and choreographer of the New York City Ballet, approached her during a barre routine, pointed to her upper chest and whispered, "I want to see bones." At 5'4 and 100 lbs, she was already under weight for her height, so did she really need to lose more? Although shocked and appalled by her directors comment, she immediately put herself on a diet. By the end of the season she was down to 92 lbs, a virtual dancing skeleton. She kept this weight off for many years, sometimes by eating one apple a day, cut into fourths with an added spoonful of cottage cheese. Unfortuntately she didn't think about how this behavior would affect her in the future, all she cared about was the "then and now." The "little girl" body image is something that has plagued our young female athletes in the performance arts for a little over 40 years. Unfortunately, I feel the subject about changing our society's mind abou the "little girl" image is useless to write about. Dancers, gymnasts, and figure skaters are always going to have this image attached to them because it is what we want to see. We are not going to change the way people think, so it's time to try and find another solution. What can we do to possibly discourage these athletes from resorting to anorexia and bulimia?
Among women in the U.S., is a constant reminder with the underlying message being “be skinny or die trying”. There is a plethora of diet plans, pills, and meals, and women seem to get the idea that they need to change some sort of physical attribute about their body. Most grown women are aware of anorexia and the effects it can have on the body. Nonetheless, the problem lies within the four walls of the women’s homes. Contained by those walls are the daughters of the women, and they, unlike their mothers’ don’t understand the actual effects of not eating enough. All the young teens understand is that they are not as skinny as the other girls they are surrounded by on a daily basis. –Research shows that by the age of 7, many children have already decided that it isn’t okay to be fat. – The datum that it has already crossed the minds of seven year old girls to want to be thinner, should be an automatic red flat to the media, and society, to tone down the signals they are sending young girls in America. -69% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape.- Social media and other forms of media cause more problems with anorexia than people assume. In a particular instance, the clothing store, Urban Outf...
“My lips and fingers were blue because I was so thin that my heart was struggling to pump blood around my body”, said teen model fashion Georgina (Carroll 1). The new skinny has become excessively scrawny. Is it definitely not normal for today’s society models to walk around with blue fingers starving themselves until their organs start failing! As for the model agencies, they couldn’t care less of the pressure and dangerous practices they put the models through in order for them to stay thin for the runway. Even fashion Designers continue to produce the smallest couture sample sizes and scout for the slimiest bodies to wear the designs not aware of the consequences of the pressure they not only put on models, but on the society girls to look like these starving models. And when the models continue to get offers from the most important fashion industries like Prada, it motivates them to keep doing what they are doing to stay in the shape they are in (Carroll 1). But little did the outside world know what this pressure had on the models and what they were doing to their bodies to peruse their modeling careers.
Everywhere one looks today, one will notice that our culture places a very high value on women being thin. Many will argue that today’s fashion models have “filled out” compared to the times past; however the evidence of this is really hard to see. Our society admires men for what they accomplish and what they achieve. Women are usually evaluated by and accepted for how they look, regardless of what they do. A woman can be incredibly successful and still find that her beauty or lack of it will have more to do with her acceptance than what she is able to accomplish. “From the time they are tiny children, most females are taught that beauty is the supreme objective in life” (Claude-Pierre, p18). The peer pressure for girls in school to be skinny is often far greater than for boys to make a team. When it is spring, young girls begin thinking “How am I going to look in my bathing suit? I better take off a few more pounds.”
In our ever-changing society, the one common thread that now every American seems to possess is a desire to have a body that is not hour-glass (1950’s) nor waifish (1990’s), but one that is lean, trim, and can physically go the “extra mile”. I speculate that the all-around athletic look is so popular because it is probably one of the hardest body types to achieve. In earlier times, hour-glass figures were the product of genetics and corsets, and the emaciated Kate Moss look could simply be achieved by starvation. To be physically fit inside and out is something that every person can control and achieve, but only through strong self-discipline. “The $52.9 billion fitness industry is constantly coming out with activities and products designed to get and keep us interested in working out” (Whigham-Desir 84). Two of these types of work-outs, specifically Tae-Bo and Spinning, were created just for the purpose of keeping “us” interested in working out. Despite this revolution in the fitness industry, many false preconceived notions about losing weight persevere and impede the movement.
Fashion models don’t need to be thin, they need to be diverse and healthy at whatever weight that is. Not everyone is supposed to be thin, some women are big boned and curvy, others are naturally slim and small boned, some are tall, others are short, some are light skinned and others are darker. So many diverse looks exist in the world today and the fashion industry need to change their perception of perfect. Body image in our society is out of control. We have young men and women comparing themselves to unrealistic models and images in the media and feeling bad about the way their own bodies look because they somehow don’t measure up. (Dunham, 2011) The struggle for models to be thin has led to models becoming anorexic or bulimic, untimely deaths, and inferiority complexes. Even worse is the fact that they influence a whole generation of young women who look up to these models and think “thin” is how they are supposed to be. They influence what we buy, how we eat and what we wear. Why has this specific group captured our attention so much? Why do we seem to be so fascinated in their lives, to the point where we try to look and act just like them? The media is largely to be blamed for this, many people believe the media has forced the notion that everything supermodels do is ideal. Others believe that the society is to be blamed because we have created a fascination with their lives. There are many opinions, and I agree with both of these specific opinions. We allow ourselves to be captivated by these people's lives, and the media portrayal of their lives seem to also enthrall us. (Customessaymeister, 2013) Despite the severe risks of forcing models to become too thin, designers, fashion editors, fashion brands and agencies still ...
Everyone seems to compare each other to the media or to each other. Friends ask their friends opinions, sisters compare themselves to each other, and every person is compared to those in the media. Sometimes people can’t help it or they don’t realize they do it. Media has consumed the viewer’s mind, leaving everyone under a state of unreality. Jessica Yadegaran held a survey for one thousand girls based on body image in the fashion industry. 65% of those girls think the image the industry presents is too skinny, 63% say it is unrealistic to look like that. Surprisingly, nearly 50% wished they were as skinny as the models and that they actually strive to look like that. The image society and the media projects is distorted, unrealistic, and is effecting how young women view themselves and others. The images of the perfect women in advertising and movies sets up the stage to what people expect and want to be. Eileen Guillen and Susan Barr were set out to research just what kind of image Seventeen magazine was sending to their viewers, back between 1970 and 1990. They proved that even back then, magazines had a part in the expectation of thinness from women of all ...