Same Old Manipulating Advertisements

As a heavy media consumer, I’m always exposed to many advertisements. And because the internet now filters what advertisements I see, I often see a lot of advertisements trying to sell me some type of beauty product. And though I normally try not to pay too much attention to these ads, I have noticed a disastrous amount of one type of woman in these ads. And yes, they are your stereotypical thin, long-haired, white woman -the ones with the soft brown smokey eyes, and long perfectly done hair. And not to say that these women aren’t beautiful, they’re just not your average woman (especially in America) looks like. The majority aren’t thin, long-haired, white woman. I find it kind of ironic that a country solely based on immigrants have only white people in their ads, as if white people can represent this entire country.

Not only is this a false representation of what women in this country looks like, but it also leads to many self-worth problems within many people in the country. When we are given this end all be all representation of beauty, we’re all striving to be this imaginary versions of ourselves. These images can constantly raise questions like whether or not we’re worth anything at all if we don’t look like those people on magazine covers. It’s like what Gunther said in “Body Messages and Body Meanings”, “there is a twin message here: to be a famous, independent, attractive star necessitates a certain ‘look’ and that same look will also deliver a man. Sexual success and financial success are both modelled on a certain body image” (page 212). The underlying message in many of these magazines is that if you should look like this if you want to be happy, if you want to achieve all of your dreams.

Of course as struggling adults, (hopefully) many of us realize that we don’t have to look like this to be happy and successful. Would it be great? Possibly - but we don’t have to look like the people on magazine covers. However, because all of the technological advances, many kids and teens nowadays are exposed to this too. The scary thing is that they absorb anything they see without being slightly critical of it. They will carry thing imaginary idea of perfection around in their pockets hoping that one day they can transform into that idea. This can lead to many eating disorders and even mental disorders as they often think that they aren’t good enough since they don’t look like that. And these images can carry on with them into adulthood. And it can be harder for them once they are exposed to more advertisements as adults to realize that these advertisers are manipulating them, that they’re the prime targets for advertisers because they’ve been dealing with self-esteem issues since a little kid. In Steinem’s  “Sex, Lies and Advertising” she says that Lauder wouldn’t advertise in Ms. Magazine because “he knows his consumers, and they would like to be kept women” (119). As if any of us who don’t buy Estee Lauder aren’t kept women. Apparently those who cannot afford astonishing prices of Estee Lauder products are just wild, crazy women that people should not strive to be.

One magazine I read from time to time is Vogue, and though Vogue is quite entertaining, I have to admit that they keep making the same mistake over and over again. They still use the stereotypical woman as the magazine cover. In one of their recent magazine covers, they tried to use many different kinds of women as the main feature of that month. Here is a photo of the cover.

Notice that the darkest woman on the cover is no darker than an actual paper bag and the plus sized model is being covered by her own arm and other people’s body parts. At a first glance, one might not even notice the plus sized model (she’s the second one from the left). It’s been an entire century since Vogue was first issued and found, and they still can’t get diversity right.

Darling Magazine is also another magazine that I love to read from time to time. It’s definitely less known than Vogue, but they handle many issues much differently than Vogue. One of the factors that drew me to Darling Magazine is the fact that they don’t touch-up any of their models in programs. They have actual respect for a woman’s physical and mental self. Granted they still have a long way to go because I think that they could add more people of color into their magazine, but I truly believe that they'll get there soon. To the right is a picture of a model from one of their recent articles - completely untouched. How great is that?

One of the videos that I stumbled upon recently can really show us how damaging photoshop and other retouching programs are. I think it’s safe to say that the majority knows that people in magazines are touched up, but I don’t think people realize how much they are actually touched up just because it’s so flawless. It constantly just goes over our heads since the people on magazine covers slightly resemble other photos that are taken of them.

Works Cited:

Gunther Barrie, Maggie Wykes. “Conclusion: Body Messages and Body Meaning” pp 212.

Steinem, Gloria. “Sex, Lies and Advertising” pp 119