So here I am reading this article and I find it quite pessimistic. I understand “Sex Sells” and both men and women alike are being misconstrude as sex-crazed individuals with perfect 10 bodies. In my opinion, i think that the advertising industry has created a new genre of art and design, the human body. I think that the 120lbs , 5’10 women that are ont he covers of high fashion magazine should be seen as art. Think about it only 5 % of americans are born naturally thin. That to me is a rarity and rarity equals beauty and intrigue. Now its not to say i am encouraging eating disorders or am saying that should be the standard that we measure beauty. I am simply stating that our society ( maybe feminist more then any other group) have taken it upon themselves to criticize an industry that’s main goal is to make more money thru consumerism. The problem is not the influence of the advertisers on our society because that, to me, gives these advertisers to much social control which they have no right interfering in. I think the problem is our societies ideologies. We are not a group of incompetent individuals who can’t appreciate the human body and sex. We are a group of people that immigrated from other countries to gain prosperity and grow socially. Now you might be thinking ” what does this have to do with advertising and sexism and sexuality in advertising ? ” I’ll tell you with one word “Culture” . You go around the world and you will see “healthier”, full figured women in advertisements, with no plastic surgery done. Why is that ? Because people understand that the womans body is beautiful. I think is goes back in history to this idea that the richest people of the old ages were easily noticed by their excessive amount of weight they carried to represent their status in society. The US is still relatively old and always coming up with innovative ideas from social to political standards. I think because the US is a free market economy and millions of immigrants reside here, people have can freely express and create controversial art, design, theories , philosophies etc. without getting penalized. This idea comes to play when pornography was introduced to scoeity and strip clubs and peep shows. I think pornography is a head turner, regardless of if its seen in a good or bad light. I think the more controversy pornography made the more it become intrigated into different mediums , like advertising. And i think thats’ where it derives from. Because this country prides itself with the capability to do more and make more money, regardless of how ( although some restrictions apply) is something that can help understand why our society is so sex driven and image obsessed. Now int he article , it states that “One effect of such ads is to give women unrealistic notions of what they should look like. After instilling anxiety and insecurity in women, the ads imply that buying consumer products can correct practically any defect, real or imagined. “ the author puts fault at advertisers for womens insecurities. I dont think this is accurate. Our society has become to fragile and delicate i think. If women and men alike , are going to react to ads in an insecure manner, then yes of course they will be more prone to take notice to ads and perhaps be more willing to try new things to becoem more accepted in society. I think it is a travasity in our society that the people are not solidified enough to distinguish the entertainment industry from realy life. a girl that is 110lbs and is 5’10 is not the reason for eating disorders and self inflicting pain women and men put themselves through because they aren’t perfect. Society is to blame. We need to start changing our views on real vs. unreal and accept the unreal for what it is, a work of art. People complain about havign perfect, attractive people on the covers of magazines and ads, but if they put a normal face on the magazine, a face filled with blemishes, people would be repulsed. People pick up a magaziene and watch tv for leisurely purposes.They don’t flip pages of Vogue or watch cable to be hard on themselves. They view them because its a form of entertainment and people fial to realize how important to keep a reality check. For the girls that claim that barbie caused their eating disorder, i blame the community, school and parents for not building up a childs esteem.
You make some interesting points here. First, about the writing – break this up into multiple paragraphs. Right now it appears as one solid block of text.
You’re idea that this is a masochistic form of entertainment is thought provoking. Same with the repulsion of a normal face. And most people would agree that individuals need to take responsibility. No one wants to think that they can be affected by advertising – it’s makes us seem helpless. Regardless, we see around 5,000 ad images per day and it starts very young. Men and women clearly are affected by this distorted body image and the public perception (currently) is not that these images are analagous to rarified pieces of art. How do we change this view? How do we change society? Do we change society and leave advertising be? Or should advertising change as well? And how?
Thought provoking stuff here. I want to see you carry it through either in this post or a future post.