Women's Portrayal in Advertising: A Rant

Ahem.

*Steps onto virtual soapbox*           

           Earlier this week, I mentioned to a few of my friends at college how I always feel guilty after I eat a couple cookies and don’t do anything exercise wise that day to balance it out.  It wasn’t so bad during high school when I was at home, but I think that the stigma that surrounds college and the dreaded “freshman fifteen” has gotten to me. 

            Later that day, my friend sent me a link to this video about the way that women are portrayed in the media, and especially in advertising.  If you have the time, I would seriously recommend watching it...believe me, it’s worth it.    

            I’m glad my friend sent this to me, because it certainly made me feel better about myself.  But then it did something else…it made me angry.  It made me angry at the western ideal of beauty, and how we’re conditioned from a young age to believe a standard that just a tiny percentage of the population will ever be able to attain.  I mean, even as little kids girls we’re are shown an ideal of beautiful that is unrealistic.  Yes, I’m talking about the Barbie doll here.  I personally never was much inclined to play with the Barbie, but I think that I’m in the minority when I say that I’ve never owned a Barbie doll of my own.  Think back to your childhood…what did your Barbie look like?  With her petite frame, waist that was tinier then her head, gigantic bust, and ever-growing list of accessories, she pretty much kills two birds with one stone: she reinforces the western ideal of sexy in the minds of young girls, and she sells kids early to the idea of consumerism…if your Barbie has the new Christmas/Halloween/Justin Beiber outfit she’ll be more fun to play with!   

            Watching this video, as well as the video lecture “Killing Us Softly” by Mrs. Jean Kilbourne, really started me thinking about the way that the media is affecting us.  Do we see tv shows that feature a slightly chubby girl but never comment on it?  (I know that there are overweight characters on television and movies, but their weight is always called into notice, shunning them if they look less then the ideal that we as a culture are told to strive for.)  Not only do women and girls feel bad about themselves because they can’t be the tiny, lithe, tall, sexy things that we see in magazines and in adds, but the way that many men look at us changes as well.  Men may see real girls, real women, as second rate because they don’t fit into the beautiful image that we see in the movies.

            Anecdote time!  When I was in junior year of high school, I had a crush on a guy that sat at the desk opposite me in my AP studio art class.  This boy was slightly heavy, had a very boyish face, and generally didn’t look like the stereotypical high school idiot.  I didn’t even think about that, I thought he was funny and nice and after much pushing from my mom, I actually asked him (stomach twisting this whole time) to prom.  He said no.  Now, I wouldn’t have been so hurt by this if it weren’t for his justification…his reason for turning me down was that he liked skinny girls and I wasn’t thin enough.

Wasn’t thin enough.

The ass.

The next time I saw him in class, my friend that worked at the table next to me told him to jump in a lake.  So much for nice and funny eh?  And you think you know a guy…

            And now if I may direct your attention back to the video above…while watching the video I felt the ways that the human body, the female body especially, is treated in advertising absolutely disgusts me.  There are ads of topless women, carefully posed to conceal the nipples, to sell brand name jeans.  There are sandwich ads that say things along the lines of “is 7 inches long enough for you?” showing a woman about to bite into the sub sandwich.  Gee I wonder what that’s supposed to make people think of.  In many ads, the women are clearly shown as sex objects, somehow silenced, or even turning into the objects that the ad is advertising.  What do I think of this?  It’s wrong.  Plain wrong.  Disgustingly wrong. 

            That night I was talking to my roommate about the same topic and I asked her what she, a business major, thought of the whole subject of the portrayal of woman in the media.  She replied, “I did a paper on whether or not sex sells…and it does.  I don’t always agree with it, but from a business standpoint, it makes sense to continue with what works.”  Wow.

            But even more then the business big wigs making the decisions, I’m ashamed of the artists.  As an art major, as an artist, in general it infuriates me that there are graphic designers that sell their souls (figuratively speaking) to the large corporations and mistreat women in the world of advertising.  Even more then infuriates me…it makes me ashamed.  It’s so wrong, and the artificial ideals of perfection that are being perpetuated are harmful. 

I guess that when all’s said and done, the only thing that I can actually say to those behind these things is this....

  What. The. Hell.