Unrealistic Images Of Perfect Skinny Women

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Advertising bombards society with images of beauty, which catches people’s attention making them think that achieving this look will ultimately improve their lives. The media is influencing people with unrealistic images of perfect, skinny women, telling us that this is how we should look today. Advertising plays a major role in aiding consumerism; people see advertised products as a way of enhancing their life, therefore they think that if they try any of these products, the end results will be pleasurable and fulfilling. In this essay, the representation of women in advertising and in social networking sites will be analyzed as well as the extent to which this has led to consumption and self-representation of audiences. In a research carried …show more content…

When women are used they are often shown in a sexually arousing way to aid in the selling of the product. Women often look at these images and have this idea that they need to look like this if they want to be able to please men. As Rossi (2007) states, it is “generally thought that women watch images of women as models for ideal appearance, whereas men have been thought of as getting sexual pleasure out of watching images of women, 'naturally' desiring them as objects of their 'male gaze’.” Advertisers are finding ways to make the audience want to buy their products; therefore they use …show more content…

Social networking sites are often bombarded with adverts with unrealistic images of perfect, skinny, flawless skinned women, which make us want to look like them. It is rare to find images of average sized, realistic women today in adverts. However, American Eagle, a well-known American clothing company, is trying to change this by releasing a new lingerie campaign called Aerie real. They promote non-retouched photos featuring ‘real body shaped models’. They state in their adverts, “ The real you is sexy”. They want to send a message to their young customers that they should embrace their own beauty, instead of trying to be the ‘impossible ideal’. “The difference between the Aerie real campaign and, for instance, a Victoria's Secret campaign, is that in Victoria's Secret … they completely airbrush out every single blemish or stretch mark” (Peppers, 2014). A new trend on social networking sites is called “thinspo” or “thinspiration” where women post pictures of friends and models who are supposedly meant to be positive and inspirational. These images, however, actually promote thin bodies and the ‘thigh-gap’. Some women in thinspiration also show women who look fit and healthy, but the main message in these photographs is that you must look like this. Stonebridge (2011) says that thinspo “consists mainly of pictures or videos of other girls who are

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