Criticism Of Body Positive Advertising

The media should stop publicizing young female bodies and telling them what beauty is perceived to them. They should think of all those adolescents girls that they send into depression or force to become bulimic, just because they wish to make money. The media brainwashes too many of adolescent girls, making them think about their body in relation to models who have unmistakably the “perfect body”. Making them think that you have to be thin in order to be beautiful.

The effects of seeing beautiful thin celebrities, models, and even athletes have negative effects on girls like eating disorders, poor self-image, and even getting plastic or cosmetic surgeries. The widespread images of thin actresses and models have harmed the self-image of girls and young women and encourage disorders (“Eating Disorders”). There should not be any encouragement for eating disorders; it can end up killing a person in just a few short years at least. Also, beauty pageants do not help either, they basically focus on a women’s attractiveness and nothing else. The pageants objectify woman creating a homogenous unachievable model of attractiveness that promotes poor self-image among girls (Beauty Pageants”).

A Distorted Perception of Beauty: Media’s Influence on Body Image In today’s society, young women are developing a distorted perception of beauty because of the affects of media: advertising, magazines, and television and movies. Almost every image in the media features a picture of a young woman who is edited almost beyond recognition. It seems that every image of a young woman is the media’s “perfect lie,” that is hardly any image is pure or untouched. This perfect lie negatively effects young women’s perception of their look, style, and body. These false images cause severe consequences in young women’s physical and emotional aspects, negatively effecting how they perceive themselves.

The weight loss advertising has definitely caused adverse effects on the youngsters and women. The adverse effects are in threefold. They are giving an illusion to women, coercing them into losing weight and providing a wrong means to lose weight. The first adverse effect of weight loss advertising is that it gives an illusion to women that being thin means beauty. The slimming companies recruit many beautiful celebrities to be the spokespersons.

The media bombards humans with images that portray women as passive objects. It is unfair that the media cites the First Amendment as the reason for not censoring such depictions of women that are degrading and robs women of their desires. The media – through advertisements, films, and music videos – portray women as desirable objects for those whom the media and therefore society, assumes to be the genuine sexual beings, men. By posing the “thin-ideal,” advertisements convince women to believe that their bodies are objects in need of constant improvement. Striving for the “thin-deal,” however, causes many girls and women to become self-conscious and dissatisfied with their bodies.

Now, what should blame for this unhealthy obsession that has bloomed among today’s women? Of course it would have to be the media. Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely other causes of eating disorders, but with constant advertising and material showcasing visuals that feature seemingly flawless and thin women, who would not feel insecure? Who would not feel influenced to want to have a similar body image? The very image of the ‘ideal’ woman has caused many women around the world to place outer appearance on a pedestal, to hate their own image, and ultimately fall victim to terrible eating disorders.

They provide impossible body images for women to strive towards, and sadly, many women do. The repercussions of these images and stereotypes are quite serious. The female body image is distorted, and many women and girls, in effort to reach the distorted image, develop serious eating disorders. The perpetuation of sex in ads creates a casual attitude towards sex. Sex is used to sell almost anything: from lingerie to makeup, perfume to food and household items.

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.

I believe mass media is pressuring the way woman and girls want to look, twists reality, and is sexist towards woman without people even realizing. I think the most dominant affect the media has is on young women. The number one message the media sends is that all females must be skinny to be happy and successful. It expresses the idea that being fat, or even a normal weight, is completely abominable. The majority of runway models are considered to be anorexic.

Psychologist and eating disorder experts agree the fashion industry has gone too far in showing dangerously thin images that women and young girls may try to emulate. The use of super slim models and stars, is sending the wrong message to young impressionable girls. These harsh influences lead us to think that thin is ideal body size. Seeing super thin models in the media plays a role in anorexia. Society’s promotion of a thin female body contributes to eating disorders for females striving to achieve this ideal bod... ... middle of paper ... ... creation is just a doll” says the article “Beyond Thin”.