The Weight in the
World
Interviews,
magazines, and television shows all tell us at one point or another what women
need to have a perfect body. Young girls scrolling through Instagram see a
social media model and hope to be her one day. What does this say about our
world? Why do pictures of slim, fit women work to make people want to change
their bodies? In our society, the “ideal” body type is a slim woman, with large
assets. The media industry did not always hold standards like this.
The next ad starts
out by saying “Men wouldn’t look at me when I was skinny…” and has a woman in a
swim suit saying this. This ad is promoting weight gain, which means women can
be too skinny. This ad is from somewhere between 1930s to the 1960s. The text
tells women that they need to gain weight because if you are too skinny you
become sad and alone. The ad does this by saying in the first sentence “Now there’s
no need to be skinny and friendless…” they go on to mention being skinny can
make you “weak” and your “flat chest will develop”. These ads were put out by an
ironized yeast production company. They were intended for women seeking men, or
feeling disappointed in their weight. This is shown by the woman, who looks
around her early twenties representing the ad. What she is saying, “Men wouldn’t
look at me when I was skinny...”, is also an indication that it is pointed
towards single females. The purpose of this ad was to put women who are “too”
skinny in a shamed place so they will buy a product to six their insecurities.
The creator wants to change what women look like and how they feel about their
body. They want these women to buy their product, so they targeted a certain
group who they think will benefit from it. They work towards this by making the
thought of being skinny repulsive and less great than being a thicker body
type. They support women changing their ways to please a man. As a whole, this advertisement
wants to change women. It is giving power to a certain body type and trying to
force women to conform their bodies.
The next ad has a
headline of “How do you look in your bathing suit?” another ad from the 1960s, and
it promotes gaining weight. It shows an image of two women, one with brown
hair, a frown, and a slim body. The other woman hair light blonde hair, a bright
smile and a curvier body. She looks happy and excited whereas the other woman
looks dull and sad. It is telling women to be happy they need to gain weight.
The publisher of this ad was another ironized yeast tablet maker. Theses texts
are mainly pointed towards women, but at the very bottom there is a quote from
a man who “gained 14 pounds in five weeks”. We know these texts are pointed
towards men and women because they used a woman in their photograph, and in the
smaller text they wrote “Thousands of skinny, rundown men and women…”. The purpose
of these texts is to get skinny people to buy their product. They want men and
women to feel bad about being skinny so their product will sell better. They
want to change society from being skinny to becoming more thick and curvy.
These ads work because they tear down one type of person and promote a
different kind. They use society views to sell their product. They wrote “Read
how thin, tired-out, nervous, rundown people have gained health and
strength-quick!” this promotes becoming thicker by saying when you gain weight
you gain positive qualities like strength. It tears down thin people by
describing how bad being skinny can be to your body. This ad helps to control
women and even men who have a body type society does not see as beautiful or
perfect.
The cover of Seventeen Magazine from March 2009 promotes
“Flat abs and a great butt” and you can get all of that by spring break
according to them. This ad is telling young girls what they need to have for
men to be interested in them. Not only are they targeting their bodies, but mentality
by telling them it is what they need. This ad works because society has already
put pressure on teens to look a certain way, that putting “FLAT ABS” in all
capitals on the front cover makes the subject want to buy it. We know this ad
targets younger girls because they include words and phrases like “Free lip
gloss!” and “The best guy advice EVER”. The magazine itself is called “Seventeen”
and has a star from a popular young adult show on the cover with flawless skin
and hair. The purpose of this ad is to get young girls to buy the magazine so
they can have a particular body type. In large bolded font the cover reads “672
WAYS TO LOOK PRETTY FOR SPRING” because of this the magazine is cleverly
telling the reader “You aren’t pretty now, but with our help you could be!”.
Not only does this give society the power to tell young girls what they should
look like, it tell them how they should act and what they need to get a man.
In conclusion, no
matter what time period we are in we still see that society wants to control
what women do and how they look. These ads all together show the world that
women need to be a certain way to be happy and accepted. The publishers of all
these ads want to change women’s appearance by using her weight as an issue. They
all target younger women, by using images of women who are flawless and young
looking. The purpose of all of these ads is to chow women there is a way to
change your body to be happy and get more people to like you. They want to
change the way they look, so others will change the way they see them because according
to these ads women cannot be happy until they are accepted by everyone. They
work because they all target a certain group of people by putting them down,
and then showing them what they can do to be better. They all value the shape
of women’s bodies and how women look. We can tell that is what the ads target
because they use words like “pretty” (Seventeen Magazine) or “rundown” (How do
you look in your bathing suit). The key phases they use are “women naturally
alluring curves and new popularity” (How do you look in your bathing suit ad), “The
new, easy way I have all the dates I want” (Men wouldn’t look at me when I was
skinny) and “Look pretty for spring!” (Seventeen Magazine). Together these ads
promote body shaming to adjust the way a woman looks and feels about herself
and change the way women see themselves so that their products will sell better
in day to day life.
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