by: Rose DesRochers
Mass media and the killing campaign.
Well it is certainly not old news that sex is what sells. I'm sick of advertisers using women to sell their products. Women are included in the traditional role of sex object in magazines, commercials, videos, TV, advertisements, etc. Media has made women obsessed with the way that we look. Women seen in advertisements and media are often seriously underweight. The average fashion model weighs 25 percent less than the average woman?
You would have to wonder just what a well known fast food company was selling, when they put images on them of a woman holding a salad. Well thank you Mickey D's for acknowledging that women have breasts. There is nothing that makes me want to run out and purchase a salad more than your recent advertising. Why is it that in music videos men are dressed and women appear half naked? What kind of message is marketing sending to the young boys and girls who watch these videos?
What is it with all of Hollywood’s attention on Kelly Osbourne and Kristie Alley. What does the paparazzi do, follow these stars around trying to get a glimpse of them at their worst or pigging out on a bacon cheeseburger?
Mass media sells women as sex objects. The pressure put on women to look good is sickening. It is a male dominated society and beauty and body image in the media is just more proof of that theory. Beauty is a good thing but the way that media portrays us is unhealthy. They hint that if we don’t look like the women that grace the cover of Vogue and Cosmopolitan then we should change our appearance. How does a woman do that – by purchasing the products that advertisements are selling. Makeup, perfume, and clothing have very little to do with beauty. If you use these products, it is not going to make you look like the woman in the advertisement. What the woman in that advertisement is doing is creating an unhealthy image in young girls minds. Images that often later result to eating disorders. Young girls already insecure about their bodies are now comparing themselves to made-up air brushed models.
Women might have come along way in society but now we have gone from the image of the “Leave it to Beaver” mom of yesterday’s advertisement icon to the sex object that is the current icon of advertisement. News flash to marketing executives, "physically attractive" and "sexually desirable" does not mean that you must starve yourself to look good. Ninety-eight pounds with ribs sticking out of a dress is not sexy to everyone. Sorry boys, but not all of want to look like Paris Hilton.
It is a real disappointment when women start judging their own appearance by the media’s standards of beauty. Now is your chance to speak out against media images of women. What are your thoughts?