November 25, 2012
Dear Head of Television Advertisements,
Being an American in today’s society one is bombarded by advertisements and commercials constantly from the media. Many of the ads do a great job at showing a false idea of body image for both genders (men and women). Ads also seem to contribute to idea of the gender gap and show the way men and women are still unequal in society, we see men almost always as dominant or violent in the media. It is common to see women with so much makeup and digitally altered bodies to make then look desirable to millions, when realistically it is physically impossible to even look the way you show them. I’m writing this today to bring this problem into the light and hopefully reveal this to all Americans and eventually change what we are seeing men and women in the media and advertisements and reverse this false idea of the “ideal American” and away from the materialistic American society.
Advertisements are a way of showing the public a message or something a company wants to try and get the public to buy. We see plenty of advertisements for things like toys, electronics, cars, restaurants, etc. But we also see endless amounts of commercials for beauty products, diet programs and weight loss formulas trying to get us fall for the unattainable standard of “beauty” in America. Advertisements are so profuse that it is impossible to ignore them and the altered images gradually become the definition of beauty. This beauty standard is born and the need to attain it becomes the common goal for so many boys and girls around the time of puberty. The competition for the unattainable body image leads to self-consciousness, as many wonder how others view each other and whether or not they have achieved this “beauty image” which takes a toll on people constantly being judged and at times ranked solely on one’s body image.
Rather than continuing to show the unattainable body image for men and women it would make more sense to show men and women that are healthy, that are real and not digitally altered. The effects that the media and advertisements have on humans, both men and women are very serious. Americans become surrounded by the image of what their bodies should look like and in order to reach it many people are hurting themselves by eating unhealthily if even eating at all creating life threatening eating disorders, while some turn to drugs and alcohol abuse nonetheless, both creating an immense amount of mental and physical damage to oneself. If we can change this tradition and reverse these advertisements by showing healthy bodies and photos that are not digitally altered, we can shift the ideals to a more healthy and attainable body image for everyone while at the same time lower rates of eating disorders, violence, and drug abuse. It only makes sense to show the public images of people that are healthy and really do exist, not the false idea of what American’s “should” look like.
For example, in Jean Kilbourne’s article: Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence, she points out that woman are being portrayed in advertising as sexual objects and also inferior to the more dominant gender being males. Kilbourne makes a claim that, “all girls growing up in this culture are sexually abused- abused by the pornographic images of female sexuality that surround them from birth, abused by the violence against women and girls…(598)” Kilbourne goes on to explain that this type of abuse is not as bad as obviously being abused or physically raped however, it does hurt and sets girls up for addictions and self destructive behavior. Noting that girls turn to food, alcohol, cigarettes, and other drugs in a misguided attempt to cope (598). I bring this up because advertising is only part of what our cultural context is showing us, but nonetheless an important part and thus is what traumatizes and changes lives for so many people because it is something we are surrounded by on a day to day basis.
Similarly, in an article from Obesity & Health the author points out that media messages in three ways create a distorted picture of reality. All of which adversely affect women and have contributed to the prevalence of eating disorders, says Karin Jasper, PhD, Women's Center, Toronto. By showing women along with food and weight issues, the media causes problems by: frequently propagating myths and falsehoods, normalizing or even glamorizing what is abnormal or unhealthy, and creating a false impression of homogeneity by failing to represent whole segments of the real world. With this being said your advertisements are myths showing the world false information about what the body must look like to be accepted even while showing us before and after pictures of what is despised in this society and what you should be looking like with the product, pills, program, or whatever else it may be these companies are trying to put into these young teens head.
Having grown up in public schools and now in community college I have met plenty of men and women that have been fooled into believing these advertisements and try to follow this false idea of the unattainable body image. What I have seen and experienced is real and it is saddening. Girls that I talk to feel that they are fat and don’t look good most of the time because of this idea that girls must be wearing the least amount of clothing possible and should have make-up on and should be slim and slender and if none of that applies, then men will most likely not even notice you let alone want to talk to you or be seen around you. I hear so often from female friends, “I’m so fat” or “ I need to work out” or “I’m going on a diet” when these girls are clearly not fat nor do they need to be on any kind of a diet but rather what has been engraved in their head is a false idea that must be achieved, which we know is impossible. Yes, the results can be ugly, I have a few friends that are damaged by these false ideals and have eating disorders and have even seen drug abuse due to the idea that she couldn’t achieve “the perfect body” without them. Obviously these results are traumatizing and it is clear that the body image we see in the media and in advertisements is impossible and unattainable for everyone without the help of chemicals resulting in immense health issues or with the help of technology to digitally alter the body in a way that cannot be achieved by anyone.
Although not everyone in America faces this issue and is affected by the idea of the unattainable body image, it is something that millions of people are having trouble with and it must be confronted and eventually reversed. Clearly, Americans come in many different shapes and sizes and it is impossible to show this large diverse group as having one established standard of beauty or perfect shape that everyone must achieve in order to be considered beautiful or good looking in this society. There has been this established standard of beauty that really doesn’t exist. We shouldn’t care much about what society says; about how men and women should look like. We have to look like what makes us as individuals happy, as long as that is healthy. If you are healthy and feel good about yourself, who is society to tell you how and what you should look like. We must be who we are regardless of the media that is constantly trying to change our ideas of what we should look like. Unfortunately we live in a world that is trying to convince us that we don’t look right, that we should change our appearances whether it is plastic surgery, a certain diet, drugs, or eating disorders to change our bodies to look “acceptable” and up to par to the standards of “beauty” in America. This harsh reality has made me question what I have learned from the media and this propaganda that I continue to see on a daily basis. Because at the end of the day we all need to be who we are because all of our differences is what beauty really looks like. We need to understand to love one another for who we are and not what society wants or thinks we should look like.
Sincerely,
Ian Marting
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