Jamie B.
Self Image: Reality vs. Fantasy
Every consumer is engaged in war right now. Not against
terrorism, but against the mass media and pop culture. Unless one takes a stand
and does something to prevent this inevitable influence, the significantly high
rates of eating disorders are going to continue to considerably rise. Although
men and women are both influenced in a negative way, women are often targeted
more and in a very derogatory fashion. This attitude causes society to form a
preconception as to what women are “supposed” to look like. Over the past
decades, the “accepted” image of women has varied, from more “meatier” women,
to today’s notion of beautiful, which is thin, thin, and oh wait, thin. People
may not realize what a tremendous impact the media has on their decision making
and their desires. In essence, advertising agencies influence people every
single day.
Society’s current obsession with thinness has not always
been so destructive. In fact, only over the past four or five decades has this
toxic trend raised to the massive height that it is at today. Indeed models
have always been thinner than the average American woman; the difference in
weight range has augmented over the past twenty years. Twenty years ago, the
average American model weighed 8% less than the average woman, whereas today’s
models weigh 23% less than the average American woman (pbs.org). In the past, for instance in the late 1800s, women who
were more voluptuous were deemed more attractive than the extremely thin women.
One reason for this is that those women were considered wealthier because they
had enough money to feed themselves. However, once the Roaring Twenties hit the
In the nineteenth century, women focused on
their internal character
and how it was reflected in outwards behavior. However, currently, the way of thinking for
girls has changed to put more emphasis
on the physical appearance of women. (qtd. In Kilbourne, 153-154)
Currently, the way of thinking
for girls is usually a very unhealthy method. One woman who was interviewed
claimed that for her New Year’s Resolution she was going to make herself better
in every way, including, losing weight, and getting a haircut, purchasing good
makeup, and new clothes (Kilbourne 153-154). By no means should a woman’s
primary concern be revolved around their physical appearance; however their
concern should be more about how their social behavior reflects their attitudes
towards society. However, it makes sense for such thoughts to haunt women’s
minds everyday, considering they are constantly surrounded by such haunting
images, put forth by the media. Obviously, there have always been images of
woman portrayed in society; however, the sweeping increase of mass media and technology
has made it possible for these images to persistently irk women’s minds. Thus, the
evolution of the “preconceived” image of women has changed over the past
century. Today, for instance, most people would cringe when hearing that
“meatier” woman are considered to be more beautiful than thinner women because
the new fad for thinness has, literally, overpowered so many people’s lives. Thus,
unfortunately, one of the most common motivations for self-improvement is that
one feels that he/she must perfect themselves, physically, rather than working
towards social changes (Kilbourne 295).
Because of such high success rates, it is conceivable to
state that advertising agencies are pure geniuses when designing new ads. They
know just how to corroborate their ads with information in an ideal layout that
will put their consumer into a hypnotic trance. People view over 3,000 ads per
day, while being subconsciously influenced by the ad’s messages (Kilbourne 15).
Additionally, a tremendous amount of money is spent on ads geared towards
magazines, newspapers, television and radio. With so much advertising occurring
daily, it becomes impossible for the average consumer not to be affected. According
to Joseph Goebbels, “This is the secret of propaganda: Those who are to be
persuaded by it should be completely immersed in the idea of the propaganda,
without ever noticing that they are being immersed in it” (qtd. in Kilbourne
64). Furtively, ads tell consumers that the emptier we feel the greater the
chance that they will turn to certain products (Kilbourne 150). While
accomplishing this, advertising agencies convey women’s bodies as an “object
among other objects in the world” (Kilbourne 258). By portraying women’s bodies
as objects, unfortunately, women are still convinced that the product is a
success and will cure them from their anxieties. Additionally, the art of
making women look like objects, or vice versa, is an extremely condescending
action towards women. It is only taking a step back in time to when women were really considered just another
object. More specifically, in alcohol ads, women’s bodies are turned into
bottles of alcohol, which continues to send out the degrading message that
women are just objects. Through these ads, agencies successfully express the
fact that “happiness” results from their product. However, this message has
proved to be destructive for women and girls. With the diet industry higher
than ever before, in fact, it has tripled in recent years, increasing from 10
billion dollars to 36 billion dollars a year, 33,000 women told researchers
they would rather lose 10-15 pounds than achieve any other goal (Wolf 22). Because
of this frightful ambition, eating disorders are rising exponentially. It is
not shocking, then, that 80% of ten year old American girls are on a diet. If
that isn’t convincing enough to portray the media’s insidious tactics, studies
have revealed that one in every eleven ads contain a direct message about
beauty – remember, that does not include circuitous messages (pbs.org). Such ads are placed right before one’s
intoxicated eyes in magazines, newspapers, television and even on the radio. This
creates such a danger, especially for teenage girls, because so many enjoy
reading teen magazines such as Seventeen.
It just so happens, however, that in teen magazines, there is a very thin line between the ads and the
actual context. A high school teacher, Bakari Chavanu, did a media literacy
unit on advertising with his eleventh grade students in 1999. During the unit,
one student approached Chavanu and stated, “You can hardly find the articles in
this magazine. There’s an ad on almost every page” (Chavanu). It is evident
that the influence of ads in teen magazines can only be destructive on teenage
girls, especially when the weight and physical appearance of the models are
virtually impossible to achieve. For instance, the average American woman is
5ft. 4 inches and weighs 143 pounds, while the average American model is 5ft.
10 inches and weighs 107 pounds (Dr. Steve Salvatore). Consequently, as a
result of the ingenious tactics created by advertising agencies, women’s
self-images are deteriorating, which is leading to a tremendous rise in the
amount of eating disorders throughout the country.
There many dangers that result from the negative impact
of the media, especially for women. As John Berger stated, “Men look at women.
Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only the relations
of men to women, but the relation of women to themselves” (Wolf 58). In
essence, not only does the media cause men to judge women based on society’s
preconceived notions, however, it triggers women to be their own worst enemies.
Every day, ads continue to cause women much stress and anxiety about their
appearances. This trepidation has only led to negative and destructive
behaviors, such as anorexia and bulimia. It is obvious to the average consumer
that men are sold to the sports industry, while women are sold to the diet
industry. To attain their goal, advertising agencies exploit “ironic
juxtapositions” (Kilbourne 52). This interesting technique is achieved by
placing two ads with conflicting messages on opposite sides of each other in a
magazine. For example, very often a magazine’s cover will include a headline
for a new and improve diet, while adjacent to it, there is an ad with a picture
of sweet and rich desserts telling women that they can enjoy such food without
feeling guilty. Therefore, how are women suppose to deal with such cultural
ambiguities involving food and eating? Unfortunately, to cope with so many
contradictions and to enter back into the realm of being able to control
situations, women are often faced with eating disorders. One cannot ignore the
fact that ads do not directly initiate
eating disorders, not are they the main
cause of these vicious lifestyles; however, they do play a significant role in the loathing of self-images
(Kilbourne 136). Advertising agencies have the ability to insinuate themselves
so deceivingly into people’s lives because, while dispensing all negative
consequences, they are aware of the psychology of food addiction and compulsive
eating. As they are so knowledgeable in these areas, agencies design ads that
normalize harmful situations towards eating and make addictions seem
appropriate, by showing women, happy, in destructive circumstances (Kilbourne
120).
It would be ignorant to deny the fact that men, without a
doubt, are also afflicted by the media; however, there are many reasons as to
why advertisers choose to target women more often than men. Firstly, the
psychology of women differs from that of men’s psychology. Women are more
concerned with their relations with others. Therefore, when ads show women with
relationship failures and then they indulge in food or another addictive
product to subdue loneliness, it makes women believe that a tangible object can
cure their pain. However, the problem with this type of advertising is that the
ads fail to address the real issue of isolation, while proliferating eating
disorders. Additionally, women are more
vulnerable to succumb to the messages of advertising, because many products “promise”
a successful relationship, which women are more sensitive to than men.
Despite the fact that women are the more besieged of the
genders by advertising, there is an intended age group that advertiser’s aim to
manipulate – adolescents. For girls especially, adolescence is a very perilous
time, and advertising agencies only yearn to take advantage of that (Kilbourne
132). Thus, women and girls confront great dangers from the media, and,
therefore, must learn how to view an ad without becoming brainwashed.
All in all, it is palpable that the influence of the
media is a huge problem. Such a huge problem, that attempting to avoid it is
almost impossible. Some even say that the influence of the media is inevitable
and by no means stoppable. However, there are proposed theories on how one is
to circumvent the impact of such a poisonous pop culture. For instance, people
of all genders and ages, must realize that in life, there is no such thing as a
panacea, a cure all, heal all, and end all. To solve a problem, one must
confront the problem itself, rather than turning to addicting substances that
appear to end suffering only on paper. Moreover, people must recognize that “addiction,
eating disorders, male violence, child abuse, the increasing commercialization
of the culture, exploitation of children by advertisers”, and false images of
women and girl are all interrelated (Kilbourne 293). To combat these issues,
and to fight against the rising obsession with thinness, Congress, the Federal
Trade Commission and the Food and Drug Administration should take an active
role in regulating and investigating diet programs and products. In doing so,
labels should be put on ads that include success rates for diets, while laws on
advertising towards children on the internet are put forth (Kilbourne 301-302).
R.D. Laing stated in, The Divided Self, when
discussing women who are affected by the media that,
In this position the individual experiences
his self as being more or less
divorced or detached from his body. The body is felt more as one object among
other objects in the world than as the core of the individual’s own being. Instead of being the
core of his true self, the body
is felt as the core of a false self, which a detached, disembodied,
“inner,” “true” self looks on at with tenderness, amusement, or hatred as the
case maybe.
The media has a profound
affect on women in today’s society. Although some women believe they are
oblivious to ads intended messages, they are incorrect. With the amount of
advertising that each person in the country views per day is enormous. Thus,
the media’s and advertising agencies influence is inevitable. However, now one
must take a stand and fight for protection of people’s rights, by describing
the variety of dangers caused by such a lethal weapon.
Works Cited
Chavanu, Bakari. Seventeen,
Self Image and Stereotypes. Rethinking Schools,
online.
Kilbourne, Jean. Can’t
Buy My Love. Touchstone.
McCabe, Marita P. and Lina
A. Ricciardelli. “Parent, Peer, and Media Influences
on Body Image and Strategies to Both Increase and
Decrease Body Size
among Adolescent Boys and Girls.” Adolescence 36 no
142225-
40summ2001<http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/results/results_single.j
html?nn=82.
Salvatore,
CNN
“Show Stats.” www.pbs.org/inthemix/shows/showstats_self_image.html.
Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty
Myth. Doubleday.