“In the magazines they talk about weight loss, If I buy those jeans I can look like Kate Moss” – Lily Allen, Everything is Wonderful
I remember in gym class when I was 9 some boy called me the typical and oh-so creative insult for a female: fat. It had never dawned on me before that my body was something that didn’t match up. Sadly, this was the first in the sequences of messages I would hear telling me that my body needed to fit an ideal.
Since advertising is everywhere it makes sense to turn off the television and avoid the commericals. What Friedrich says in “All of your insecurities wrapped up in a 30 second spot” is very true. The advertisements call out to people who it will affect, and like the example given (tampons) there exists so many body issues that can reach at least half the population.
Now what does the resistance to these ideals look like? Well the Dove Campaigns for realy beauty and the ‘pro age’ advertisments that are arriving. But is this really resistance if they are still trying to get you to buy a product that calls out to the ‘real’ you? Dove is still saying that beauty must be managed and their product can do it while building your self-esteem back up. It is good to have resistance, but it still prepetuates the myth of beauty and consumerism.
As for women being active in advertisment. Well it happens, usually in birth control or pregnancy commerical, but note that these active participation seem to be linked to our sexuality or reproduction. Have you ever seen an active empowering commerical for women and computers? or women and cars? I personally have not, the car commericals I see with women are usually linked to mini-vans – why, b/c once again women are defined in relation to their reproduction: minivans=children.
To be honest, I used to not have cable and I was much more productive. As for the commericals, I am very critical when it comes to them. I really wish i wasn’t sometimes, but I am always thinking about the norms that are being projected and it somehow makes me feel better. However, these ideals are so engrained in my psyche that a commerical is merely a reminder. I don’t think that we can ‘re-socialize’ ourselves to get rid of them being there, really we can just minimalize their impacts on how we live and purchase.
Nice blog, although I agree that we cant stop commercials, resocializing is possible or people wouldnt be able to integrate into a new society after immigartion. We do create our own realities and on some level we choose to believe these riculous ideals….
CHeers
Good post!
I think you brought up a good point about women and the minivans. If commercials really were aimed at empowering women this is not the image they would portray and there would be more then just the “happy housewive” idea in commercials.
I too am very critical about what I see however that doesn’t stop it from making some sort of effect. you see a product that is adertised in an interesting way and go oh i want to try that. This is the influence advertisers have on us and I think we need to become conscious of it and how it influences each person.
That was an awesome post! It completely summed up everything I believe in. Our pre-teen girls, and even younger unfortunately, are being affected by messages like this, and they are everywhere.
I think that it’s good that you’re so critical of advertisements, I thought I was, until we started talking about them, and I became conscious at the way that they effect me. This is scary. Someone who considers themself media literate is finding faults … so then what about the people who are totally clueless to big corporations’ trickery?
Something you made me think about was those Dove commercials. They are a great message … but I forgot about how they still link product to it, and therefore it is still the same (although this time with a positive message … so you’ve got to give them a little slack). But if advertising has to be done, and I have no evidence to think that it will cease even the slightest, this is the way that it should be done. Associating positive messages with items will probably not only sell the product better, but it will effect the millions of viewers in a more positive light.
Again, awesome post!
That was a really good blog!!!
I agree how women are always portrayed in commercials that show them in some way, shape or form connected to reproduction or something sexual. That is why I really appreciate the Dove commericals… They show how “real” women actaully are, and that this ideal that magazines and the media put out everywhere really don’t match up to everyone. I saw a presentation not to long ago in one of my classes, and the girl got everyone to shout out what they thought the “perfect” body types were… for example, big lips, skinny, pierced belly button etc. And when she drew what everyone said on the poster paper, the girl looked ridiculous! I guess that goes to show that perfection doesn’t always look “perfect”!
Good blog!
Our reactions are synced. I think that while Dove is great for promoting real beauty I still think that they are trying to promote their products.
I have seen car commercials with women in them, driving a stick shift too! Imagine that! But women are definitely portrayed in either the seductress or domestic wife type of role. I was saying in my post that women are the only ones that are in cleaning commercials. Lysol, Mr.Clean, Swiffer you name it, I guess it’s still ingrained in our culture that women are the ones concerned with cleanliness.
Wow, I think everyone female, and even some males have heard the ever dreadful comment “fat”. I think what is important is knowing that we need to be comfortable with ourselves and our body. Although this is made difficult by the media. It has amazed me to read all the different blogs and all the support that Dove is getting for their commercials. Everyone should send them letters/emails of approval and tell them our sides lol. I mean to know that their making a difference to what some may call the “most prone to advvertisements” aside from young girls, it truly is amazing. I know I hear my hardships of name calling, however they come from my brother and well, I’m sure the majority of us can relate. Cause I mean we gotta face it boys will be boys…Good Post!
I rather like the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, mostly because it’s something that is not so mainstream, being made to be mainstream. And what I love most about it is that it supposedly doesn’t try to pigeonhole every female into a completely unobtainable image. That being said, as you mentioned, it’s nevertheless advertising. And to some extent my reaction to the Dove campaign is therefore a paradox, since it rather bothers me that I am still being exploited, this time by being told that my imperfection is not the end of the world, which is obviously something that every woman would like believe. Imagine that.
Great post.
Although the Dove campaigns seem to be “selling” themselves in their commercails on real beauty. But I think that those commercials are powerful and I think they get accross a great message that you don’t see alot. I watch them and I don’t really think wow I need to go get that product I think wow that is great they are showing that real beauty is in all shapes, sizes, and colors. I have also noticed that although it is not a major change but the commercial for SECRET deodorant has changed its slogan from “strong enough for a man” to “strong enough for a woman” which I don’t know if that happened a long time ago but I just noticed it and thought it was great.
I really hate how the media, whether is be advertisements or television, is sending out the message that people need to be thin to look good. Why can’t people love the skin they are in? I know it sounds corny, but how can a person “be the best that that can be” when they are consumed with the thoughts that society has implanted into their heads? Even though it is hard to avoid all the images and messages that are placed in our subconscious, people must become media aware and decipher what is best for themselves rather than trying to fit into the ideal image that the media is telling us to be.