When women compare themselves to models and pictures of people in advertisements, they believe the only way they will get noticed is if they also appear the in the same image of the models. To achieve this goal, they begin to starve themselves. They start to believe that by eating anything at all they will get fat and the most important thing to them is not to be fat. It becomes a compulsion to become thin and some women will do anything to get there. Women need to realize that what the media displays as the “perfect body” and what really is the healthy body are two different things.
For these reasons, the connection between media and body image is very important because low body image will lead to eating disorders and potentially death. Many women are very sensitive about the way they look, which makes them depend on media products more. The media culture sends mixed messages about what is sexy, which causes women to face similar unrealistic expectations when exposed to media images. Some mes... ... middle of paper ... ...hat is unrealistic and unattainable for a majority of women in society. Models shown in all forms of popular media are often under what is considered healthy body weight, which sends a powerful message that women must sacrifice their health to be considered attractive by societal standards.
The problem with this is the media has a specific way of doing things and can be negative to a susceptible teenage girl. Media’s way of portraying a woman can be skewed and unrealistic way from what reality is. Teenage girls then have a desire for this look or way. In this essay the three ways I will describe as to why the media can negatively affect a teenage girls body image is by showing unrealistic bodies and women, women whose bodies are desirable by a mass number of people, and lastly not allowing all body types to be equally shown as “attractive.” The pattern is similar for the portrayal of women on television, magazines, and other parts of the media. The way media represents women are for them to be thin-like models and other women on television to be the high standard of “attractiveness” to others.
In today’s society mass media creates unrealistic body images of women not ever being thin or flawless enough. Advertisements of this “ideal” body image affects how many women view themselves and how they think they should look. Advertising companies overly edit and photoshop images of women to create the so-called perfection that is the norm for the advertising world. These images of the “perfect” body send negative messages and create insecurities amongst many women. As the mass media uses unrealistic models to advertise its products and services, this sets the idea that the “ideal” woman must been unhealthily thin and blemish free.
The reason why this advertisement was chosen is because of its irony. Victoria’s Secret is attempting to promote healthy bodies, and encouraging women to love the skin that they are in, which is contradicting to the image that is portrayed in the campaign. Advertisements intend to have very specific messages (Valenti, 2007). As individuals attempt to decode these messages, women get an idea of what the media believes beauty is, causing multimillion dollar industries due to lack of self esteem (Joey, 2003). Often times, magazines use images of youthful looking models to promote lingerie.
The cultural messages that we are receiving from these ads do affect young women immensely. To be aware of this issue is important to everyone. As author and lecturer Jean Kilbourne says “These days, self-improvement seems to have more to do with calories than with character, with abdomens than with absolutes, with nail polish than with ethics.” References Calvine, Howard. (1999). Depicting Women as sex objects in television advertising: Effects on body dissatisfaction.
What is the perfect body type? Throughout our adolescence ages into the adult hood stage many of young women struggle to answer this question. Our idea of what the perfect body type is ever changing however it is always influenced by the Medias perception of what the perfect body image should look like. We all idolize these images we see on television and in magazines and some of us would do anything to look just like them. This image forces us to have self esteem issues.These advertisements are damaging both our mental and physical state of being Many young girls who take extreme measures to live up to the Medias perception of the perfect body type are more likely to develop one of the many body image disorders.
Furthermore, a majority of the beauty campaigns, despite their well-intentions, are flawed and reinforce stereotypes. By targeting women’s interior lives, they “take the dissatisfaction women have with the beauty industry and sell it right back...under the guise of well-being” (Whitefield-Madrano 213). In modern day society, there is a greater excitement and interest about the portrayal of un-retouched, real images. This notion is used by many companies as a marketing tool to increase sales, rather than for the genuine benefit of women and spreading awareness. Brands
People are drawn to conforming to the norms for they want to feel accepted by others and feel that this is the only way, this process is called normative social influence. Most humans desire interaction with others and are afraid of not being accepted therefore losing connection to others. Throughout the history of America, the ideal image of the woman changed due to different influences in the media. The image has changed due to flappers (thin), pinup girls (thicker), Marylin Monroe against British model Twiggy, and recently “thin is beautiful”. These images of the ideal woman produce dangerous consequences for woman in society.
The main issue with Unilever owning both these brands is whether or not Dove’s self esteem campaign was created in order to just sell their products or to genuinely gain support for the cause due to how Axe portrays women in their advertisements (Said et al.). These two major brands being from the same company and having opposite marketing tactics bring to question how honest the brands are. Even though Dove seems to want to generate a revolution with young girls and women around the world dealing with confidence and self esteem issues, they still have the end goal of making a profit from selling products. Knowing that Dove and Axe do come from the same company makes it seem as if the real beauty and self esteem campaign from Dove are all part of a marketing tactic to gain popularity for the brand with their positive message (Said et al.). A few do disagree with how Axe shows women in their advertisements which goes against what Dove’s campaign is trying to promote.