2007/04/10 15:11
Girl Power
Today I attended a lecture about how marketers glamorize destructive lifestyles and unhealthy body images. I know, it sounded a little like a hippie event to me too, but it was actually an interesting talk.
Really, Dr. D didn't say anything I hadn't heard before. But then, I've spent a long time studying advertising and media. My degree is in mass communications, for Frank's sake. But some of the disbelieving gasps around me -- from college students, people who should at least have close to my experience -- made me realize: what about Margarita?
On top of everything else, I'm going to have to teach my daughter media literacy.
The fact is women are schooled to believe that a positive self-image hinges on what men think of them. And men are schooled to believe that a woman can accomplish anything and should be lauded for it -- as long as she's hot. Advertisers, publications, films and television drive this idea home every day. Sure, it's an echo of our ideals, but how did the ideals get there in the first place? And how do they perpetuate, if it's not because we have to look at them on TV every day? Does art imitate life, or does life imitate art?
I was pretty disgusted at the video of producing a Cosmopolitan cover where they casually photo-retouched 15 pounds off of Cindy Crawford. This woman -- the body ideal of all men my age, the way we think women are supposed to look, the bane of the real woman's existence -- is already impossibly hot, and now the editors of this mega-magazine are making her image even more unattainable.
The speaker pointed out that breast enhancement is the most common surgery in the United States. However, the failure rate, as measured by women who have a corrective second, is 45%. Approximately half of those are because the woman is in pain. So, doing the math, of all the women who feel they need to look better by having bigger knockers, one in eight pays twice and lives in pain. And yet they keep lining up.
My daughter doesn't need to look like Barbie to be successful and happy. She doesn't need to have a D-cup, a 22-inch waist, long blonde hair or an ass that won't quit. But she doesn't know that yet. And unless I show her as much as I can about how to view the images pushed at her with a critical eye, she might never know how to be pleased with herself based on her accomplishments.
Man, they should pass out a list of all the stuff you're going to be responsible for when you have a kid. That would be the best contraception in the world.
Really, Dr. D didn't say anything I hadn't heard before. But then, I've spent a long time studying advertising and media. My degree is in mass communications, for Frank's sake. But some of the disbelieving gasps around me -- from college students, people who should at least have close to my experience -- made me realize: what about Margarita?
On top of everything else, I'm going to have to teach my daughter media literacy.
The fact is women are schooled to believe that a positive self-image hinges on what men think of them. And men are schooled to believe that a woman can accomplish anything and should be lauded for it -- as long as she's hot. Advertisers, publications, films and television drive this idea home every day. Sure, it's an echo of our ideals, but how did the ideals get there in the first place? And how do they perpetuate, if it's not because we have to look at them on TV every day? Does art imitate life, or does life imitate art?
I was pretty disgusted at the video of producing a Cosmopolitan cover where they casually photo-retouched 15 pounds off of Cindy Crawford. This woman -- the body ideal of all men my age, the way we think women are supposed to look, the bane of the real woman's existence -- is already impossibly hot, and now the editors of this mega-magazine are making her image even more unattainable.
The speaker pointed out that breast enhancement is the most common surgery in the United States. However, the failure rate, as measured by women who have a corrective second, is 45%. Approximately half of those are because the woman is in pain. So, doing the math, of all the women who feel they need to look better by having bigger knockers, one in eight pays twice and lives in pain. And yet they keep lining up.
My daughter doesn't need to look like Barbie to be successful and happy. She doesn't need to have a D-cup, a 22-inch waist, long blonde hair or an ass that won't quit. But she doesn't know that yet. And unless I show her as much as I can about how to view the images pushed at her with a critical eye, she might never know how to be pleased with herself based on her accomplishments.
Man, they should pass out a list of all the stuff you're going to be responsible for when you have a kid. That would be the best contraception in the world.
Hippie event? Come on now, Moya. You said it yourself: you're a media buff, you know what they're doing to us! This isn't hippie fluff.... it's red flags! Save Margarita! She won't have the neuroses I have!
Yes, it is great contraception, now that you mention it. I need to add this to my list of things to initiate in case I ever get the urge to have kids of my own (other items include making me take people's four-year-olds shopping and being sleep-deprived by an infant for a week).
Have you seen the Dove commercial where they show how the retouching is done? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U Funny thing is, chick looked pretty hot before they started (except she could've brushed her hair, hehehe).
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