Blog #2: Mass Media and Body Image

 

     When we look at how the media affects us, it can seriously distort how we view ourselves, particularly body image. In this day and age, we see thousands of ads, TV shows, movies, and photographs depicted as the “ideal” look according to the media. This applies to males and females. For example, Victoria’s Secret and Abercrombie ads. It is well-known that these two companies only depict the skinniest and best-looking models around in their ads. A few years ago, these were the highly controversial comments made by the former CEO of Abercrombie Michael Jeffries, “We hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don’t market to anyone other than that.” (About Money)

     After reading what Jeffries had to say, it made me realize that the media portrays such extreme ideals, and even a CEO like him knows that despite the consequences, sexualizing people is something that sells well in our world unfortunately. He was of course highly criticized by the public for this comment, as he made others implying that he did not want “fat” people wearing his clothes. His thought is the main reason why Abercrombie does not sell XL or XXL sizes for women. Fortunately, he has since stepped down as CEO and the newly hired one is now listening to customer complaints about sizes. Abercrombie has now made their sizes more realistic to fit a wider range of people. This goes to show how some companies will go to extreme lengths to be seen a certain way by the media.

        Another company that has been famous for continuously pushing the limits for body image and sexualizing women is Victoria’s Secret. In 2014, the lingerie and clothing brand launched a campaign for lingerie called “The Perfect Body.” This ad featured their signature impossibly thin and large-breasted models. According to an article by the Huffington Post, a petition was put up, “A Change.org petition requesting that Victoria’s Secret apologize and change the campaign had over 27,000 signatures at the time of writing.” (Bahadur) The clothing brand did respond to this criticism positively. They kept their campaign the same, but now have a new slogan on their website, “A body for everybody.” As a female myself, I do find these depictions of women as sexual objects to be offensive at times. It gives me hope that some companies are standing up to the skinny stereotype and giving people a new perspective on how we see beauty. Another company that has done so is the underwear brand Dear Kate. The Huffington Post says, “Another response to the campaign came from the underwear brand Dear Kate who released their own ‘perfect body’ ad- featuring diverse women of all sizes.” (Bahadur)

        The growing sexualization of our media has increasingly had negative effects on our nations’ youth. According to this article, these are some of these effects, “Numerous correlational and experimental studies have linked exposure to the thin ideal in mass media to body dissatisfaction, internalization of the thin ideal, and disordered eating among women.” (Mass Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders)

       This site also contains statistics of eating disorder case increase among men and women in their teens and twenties. To me, this is proof that the mass media constantly putting these images in front of us can seriously affect how we see ourselves, as well as having trouble accepting ourselves as we are. Although I can confidently say I for the most part accept myself, I can definitely see how it can affect someone. When I was in middle school, I longed to be thin and attractive as many of us may have felt at that time. It is something that people may take to the extreme to achieve, when in reality, Photoshop helps many of the images we see become real. As you can see, the media affects us in many negative ways, but with the help of an open mind and confidence, that can be changed for the better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                        Works Cited

"Quotes from Mike Jeffries, CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch Stores." About.com Money. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.

"Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders | National Eating Disorders Association." Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders | National Eating Disorders Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2015

Bahadur, Nina. "Victoria's Secret 'Perfect Body' Campaign Changes Slogan After Backlash." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.