Throw Her A Hamburger!

An eating disorder is when someone has an unnatural love or fear of food. The most common ones are anorexia and bulimia, which are severely under-diagnosed. While the fashion industry and the media are not completely to blame for women's eating disorders, they are a large component.

The fashion industry likes models to be tall and thin so they can fit into sample size clothing. Unless blessed with amazing genetics, hardly any woman out there wears a size 0 or 2. The film industry usually shows incredibly thin actress too. While there are some bigger actresses, they are given parts in films that are secondary to the lead, and usually never the love interest.

On television, most ads that are run are about how to improve you looks and this includes dieting. The diet industry sees the most interest after New Year's when people resolve to lose weight and then again when it is time for swimsuit season. All of these miracle treatments for rapid weight loss are advertised which conveys the message that we can never be happy with our weight. There are always a few pounds to lose. To top it all off, women on TV are actually skinnier in real life, because it is true that the camera adds ten pounds. It's sickening to think the media wants us to conform to a stick-thin figure.

Model Kate Moss appeared in the 1990s for Calvin Klein and she began what was known as the "waif" trend. She was ridiculously thin, with bones protruding everywhere. The fashion industry has continued to follow her lead although it is evolving a little bit.

A few years ago, Nicole Ritchie was shown in a bikini that was literally falling off of her because she had no fat for it to hold onto. At the time, she didn't consider herself unhealthy, but after having two children looks much healthier. She says she now realizes how thin and unhealthy she looked.

The latest wrinkle for celebrities is dieting with Jenny Craig and so there are several celebrities that have gone on as spokespeople for the company. Valerie Bertinelli was really the first one to lose weight and keep it off, but once again they don't advertise the hard work you need to do to be healthy. The only thing advertised is that you need to lose weight and here is the quick fix.

Jennifer Love Hewitt was ostracized last summer because she had an unflattering photo taken of her in a bikini. She gave an interview in which she said she was only a size two, but that is considered fat in Hollywood. Instead of being a role model for women with butts, she went on a diet to lose what little fat she had.

Mary-Kate Olsen checked into rehab for an undisclosed eating disorder, but it was obvious long before she checked herself in that something was wrong. She was photographed at movie premieres looking extremely skeletal. She is interesting in that she is both a part of the fashion world as a designer, and an actress. Her sister and she have been in the spotlight since they were young, so they were role models to little girls. Mary-Kate's weight was encouraging eating disorders until she reached out for help.

Positive Ad - Paper Part III

As I looked for positive ads to fulfill the second part of this assignment, I realized just how many ads perpetuate the “beauty myth.” I receive “People” magazine and I had to go through seven magazines to find a positive ad about women. Every ad I came across featured products for anti-aging or make-up that will make women look better. It really opened my eyes to the message that Jean Kilbourne states in the “Killing Us Softly” series. Advertisers have an agenda and it does not include showing women in a positive light. However, when I did come across a positive ad for women, it was a very woman-empowering ad.

The advertisement is for Quaker Instant Oatmeal that features a very happy and healthy looking woman. The main copy reads,” Say mmmmm for a healthy heart” followed by a sub-text that says, “A warm, yummy way to help lower your cholesterol.” This ad says that if you eat this oatmeal, you will have the chance to lead a healthier life. Other small shots of the woman show her exercising so it also promotes exercise while eating healthy.

The ad once again mainly targets women, but I think that is acceptable in this ad because it shows that this woman has a positive body image about herself. Age is also embraced here because the editor did not take out the lines on her face or overdo her face with makeup. I can’t even tell that she is wearing any.

By showing a woman eating, already this ad is combating eating disorders. According to Naomi Wolf, author of “The Beauty Myth,” where feminism taught women to put a higher value on ourselves, hunger teaches us how erode our self-esteem (Wolf, 197).” Feminism hasn’t gone away, it just fades a bit into the background sometimes with media being so prevalent and so readily available to women today.

This ad combats the stereotype of the perfect model in ads that has absolutely no lines or wrinkles on her body. According to Debra L. Gimlin, author of “Cosmetic Surgery: Paying for Your Beauty,” states “recipients (of cosmetic surgery) are overwhelmingly women who are dissatisfied with their looks. Today, aesthetic operations make up 45 percent of all plastic surgery (Gimlin, 106).” What used to be reserved for men who were maimed by war has now turned into a present for girls graduating from high school. Botox use is rampant in Hollywood and women ultimately feel that they are not allowed to age or else they will not be considered beautiful.

The lines around her face show when she smiles, and her smile looks genuine, like she is truly happy. Yes, the advertiser is out to make money, but women must eat, so why not promote something healthy and good body image. The crow’s feet around her eyes also say that she smiles a lot. This woman looks happy to be doing something for her, to make her feel better, not to please a man.

The lack of makeup and the frizzy hair also promote a natural look. It’s ok to not going out in public and be dressed to the nine’s because this woman looks gorgeous just as she is. Girls are starting to buy into the “beauty myth” from the day they are born and more ads like this are needed to combat this. No ten dollar tube of lipstick is going to magically make a man fall for you.

As we have seen, there are also steep increases in cases of anorexia and bulimia. This ad doesn’t tell you to go on a diet. It tells you to make a lifestyle change and with their product you can do that. The woman is exercising outdoors, so she is not afraid to mess up her hair or get pollutants on her skin. She is just living life to the fullest as a woman. Women need to see more positive ads like this one.

Offensive Ad - Paper Part II

The ad for Nabisco 100-calorie snacks features Venus and Serena Williams in the back of a limo glamorized. The advertisement is meant to sell Nabisco 100 Calorie Milk Chocolate Pretzels, but the product is barely visible. What is visible, however, are negative messages.

The ad copy says, “Venus and Serena Diet Like a Diva” which already implies that these beautiful women are fat and need to go on a diet. The problem with this statement is that both women are athletes and athletes need more calories to supplement the ones the burn off while working out. It implies that the Williams’ sisters eat these measly snacks and get great, toned bodies.

It targets women in general. There are no constraints to age, but it does seem more targeted to women of color. This ad is offensive for many reasons, the first being that you would not know these women are incredibly successful tennis players, because the ad implies that women are only judged on how much they weigh,

Visible in this ad are the sort of bulky muscles that these sisters have developed from playing tennis, and even though it is muscle, they are considered heavier. In “Food for Our Souls,” by Dyann Logwood, she says “Black women have forgotten to define health on our own terms. Even as we continue to embrace the diversity of sizes among us, we must ask, what does a healthy body feel like (as cited in “Body Outlaws”, Ophira Edut, 101)?”

Eating disorders are also subtly encouraged in this ad because the copy does not say anything about eating fewer calories to be healthier. It explicitly says that this is meant to help you diet. The choice of the word “diva” also has an impact. A diva is usually viewed as a person who is incredibly high-maintenance, but at the same time beautiful. This is the girl that guys want to take out, but not necessarily take home to their mothers.

Although Venus and Serena are African-American, the only way you would know that in this ad is by the color of their skin. Their facial features and their hair are distinctly altered to give them a more “white” appearance. African-American women do not possess this hair type naturally, so the audience is told more of the body must be altered to be beautiful.

In “The Art of the Ponytail,” by Akkida McDowell, focuses specifically on the vast amount of effort it takes to tame an African-American woman’s hair and make it look like a woman’s. They feel the need to have their hair relaxed instead of going natural because of ads like this one. McDowell says, “According to movies, my beloved television, my classmates and even my neighbors, a proper hairstyle not only completed the package, but defined and delivered it (as cited in “Body Outlaws, Ophira Edut, 124).”

The photographer was also apparently unhappy with their African features because it is obvious that the women’s noses and lips have been tampered with. Both have been thinned out to not look so African. Because they are African American women in an ad, they are supposed to be breaking stereotypes and yet here they are condoning them. Worse off is the fact that they are supposed to be role models to girls all over the world because they got ahead in life, not on their looks, but on their talent.

They send the message that they are not proud of their heritage. Serena is known to stand out in outfits she wears for tennis tournaments, but here she blends in to the background. They become like any other celebrity endorsing a product; they are in it for the money. They star power should have been used in another ad that actually promotes a healthy body image and acceptance of one’s culture.

Defining The Beauty Myth - Paper, Part I

The structure of American society operates on capitalistic ideals, and without this system in place, our consumerist economy would crumble. The “beauty myth” has several checks and balances established through the years to ensure its success, so no one institution is to blame. Instead, several are.

According to Naomi Wolf, author of “The Beauty Myth”, the “beauty myth,” “claims to be about intimacy and sex and life, a celebration of women. It is actually composed of emotional distance, politics, finance, and sexual repression. The beauty myth is not about women at all. It is about men’s institutions and institutional power (Wolf, 13).”

The “beauty myth,” according to Naomi Wolf, evolves constantly to maintain its hold on women, making them think that they are never beautiful enough and need something more to be seen as beautiful. The “beauty myth” works because “the core of the myth – and the reason it was so useful as a counter to feminism – is its divisiveness (Wolf, 284).” Instead of rallying being the powerfulness of being a woman, girls are taught at a young age to judge other girls and hold them to certain beauty standards.

The “beauty myth” is advanced through pop culture. One most recent example is Heidi Montag who used to be a reality show, “The Hills.” She underwent ten plastic surgery procedures in one day because she says she wanted to cross over into the pop-star business and therefore she needed to look like one. Popular culture has told her that she needed to look a certain way, so in order to fit the mold, instead of just accepting who she is, she changed her looks.

Kelly Osbourne, daughter of famous rocker Ozzie Osbourne, has recently lost a lot of weight, and has spoken out about the pressures to be thin in Hollywood. According to Osbourne, she says she was criticized more for being overweight than for being a drug and alcohol addict who went to rehab three times. Because Osbourne is in the entertainment industry, she is expected to look a certain way, regardless of how she achieves it.