Advertising or Life Sucking Force?

Advertising or Life Sucking Force?

Sick, malnourished, and flat out unhealthy. Those are the images that advertising has put into female minds. Achieving those images is thought of being sexy and desirable. In a recent American Eagle and Diesel Jeans advertisement the girl is so skinny you could fit your hand around her upper arm and this is supposed to be thought of as sexy and desirable, this leads to women, especially teenage girls, starving themselves or developing eating disorders in an attempt to achieve an image that is not just unhealthy, but nearly impossible.

The recent American Eagle and Diesel Jeans advertisement really puts a picture into women minds that this is what beauty is and that you should be like her. This mentality is leading to many eating disorders especially among teenagers. An article titled “Eating Disorders” on KidsHealth says that up to ten million teenagers will develop eating disorders. The article goes on to say that research studies show that forty two percent of first to third-grade girls want to be thinner and that eighty one percent of ten year-olds are afraid of being fat. As I read over research studies it disgust me to think that our society is putting so much pressure on beauty that eleven to thirteen year-old girls are starving themselves or even resulting to bulimia. In my opinion girls that young should not be that obsessed with how they look, but should be concentrating on being a kid and their education. The same article states many physical after effects of eating disorders which include dehydration, dizziness, confusion, inability to concentrate, and even memory loss. The eating disorders, especially Bulimia, can also lead to behavioral problems such as sexual promiscuity, crime, and drug or alcohol abuse problems. This means that advertising is not just increasing eating disorders, but also indirectly increasing crime, teenage sex, and drug or alcohol abuse.

It’s sad to think that the average natural woman is not thought of as beautiful, but that these fake images created by advertisers is. Even if the average woman tried hard it would be nearly impossible to reach the average statistics of models. Take a look at these statistics proposed by Elizabeth Kozitza; the average woman’s dress size is twelve while the average model’s dress size is six, the average woman’s weight and height is one hundred thirty eight pounds at five foot four inches while the average model’s weight and height is one hundred twenty pounds at five foot ten inches. Now really think about this one the average model is six inches taller and weighs eighteen pounds less than the average woman. A woman that is five foot ten inches tall should have a weight of about one hundred thirty eight to one hundred and fifty pounds. That means even compared to the low end of the scale the average model is about eighteen pounds underweight.

After looking at some of these statistics it really makes you wonder why we are trained to think that beauty has to have something to do with unhealthiness. Why is it that the natural form of a woman is not thought of as beautiful anymore, but this picture of a malnourished and computer edited woman is? It’s because we are brainwashed by advertisers to think a certain way and to want to be a certain way even if it means sacrificing our own health to try and achieve it. I have a very personal example of how this brainwashing can affect a person. My mother was a victim of being heavier than she wanted to be because she thought she should look like how everyone else thought they should look. This feeling of not looking how she wanted came to be so powerful that she went to a doctor that said she could have gastric bypass surgery. She went into the surgery and ended up having complications and dying about a week later in the hospital. I remember the words my mom told me when I asked why she was going to try a risky surgery, “I would rather die than to live my life like this.” This is an example of a woman that had been pushed so far by advertising and society’s views that death was a better option to her than to live her life outside the view of perfection.

The thing to think about is that my mother was not the only woman to ever think this way, many women constantly feel like their beauty is the number one importance in their life and that not having that beauty is the worst thing that could possibly happen