Sunday, May 15, 2016

Do commercials cause body shaming?

     In nearly every add we see dealing with makeup, clothes, beauty products there is a specific body type repeated. I am not shaming the girls in these ads, but is this creating a perception of what beauty looks like? I looked through several companies and clothing lines to notice a pattern throughout most of the models.
     Last year, Victoria Secret launched a series of ads dealing with "The Perfect Body." They had an ad with several girls lined up, promoting them as the ones with what they consider a perfect body. I have nothing against the models in the ad, but i do have a problem with the fact that the company put one body type in. This, to girls across the country, will give them a single image of how they feel they should look. This also goes for nearly every PINK and Victoria Secret ad. They have several models with only one body type. Although this may not be intentional, it is something that could cause several problems and make girls feel bad if they do not look like they models featured in the companies' ads.
     Recently, Calvin Klein has made an attempt to ad a line of "plus size" models. I was glad to see this happen, but when photo shoots were released many people became angered. Many girls believe that these models should not be considered to be plus size, and i agreed. Then i realized there was a flaw in the both the company and the people giving hate to the company. It showed that since we are so used to seeing girls considered beautiful or having the "perfect body" that anything different from a size zero becomes bad. I believe the company had good intentions, but in our society plus size has become something negative, and they are teaching girls that if they are not a size zero they are put into a different category. I do agree that the models considered plus size in brands such as American Eagle or Calvin Klein are not plus size, but I am not proud that I, too have associated being plus size with something negative.
     This body type image has also effected people across the world on social media such as Twitter and Instagram. Earlier this year, across twitter, there was a hashtag where people said what they can and can't wear at a  certain weight. For example, someone said "If you are over 125 lbs you can not wear crop tops and leggings." This was disgusting to me, and i believe some of these opinions were formed from what movies, ads, and commercials have advertised as the ideal body. Not only should girls be able to feel beautiful in anything they wear, they should not be judged for it. Every girl is obviously going to look different, and it is 2016, why are we still shaming girls? Although this isn't brought up as much, this goes for boys to. There should not be one image for how any girl or boy should look, but i believe media has done this to our society.

1 comment:

  1. I agree completely. It is horrible to look at tv commercials and feel so self conscious. The ads set such an unrealistic standard for beauty and external expectations. We have to stop comparing ourselves to the edited, full makeuped, photoshopped world we see on the screen!! :)

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