The Importance Of This Body Campaign

As an African-American The Perfect “Body” ad personifies some aspects of American society that needs to change. First the ad features women with very European facial features and hair, most of whom are Caucasian with

For women, advertising exemplifies the ideal female body. According to Kilbourne, young girls are taught from a very early age that they need to spend lots of time and money to achieve this “physical perfection.” But realistically this cannot be achieved. The ideal woman’s body is Caucasian, very skinny, big breasts, no flaws, and pretty much no pores. This cannot be achieved because it is physically impossible to look like this; the illusion comes from the secret world of Photoshop. No woman is beautiful enough so they leave it to technology to create perfection. The supermodel Cindy Crawford said, “I wish I looked like Cindy Crawford!” She knew the realities of Photoshop and body image, and more women and girls need to become aware of this as well.

For years our society has set high standards and expectations for girls that are most likely unreachable. I believe that there is way too much pressure on girls to have perfect bodies. Girls are expected to be a certain size, look a particular way and simply be perfect but when everyone has their own definition of perfect that makes it seem as if it is impossible. The pressure of being perfect can cause issues on a girl’s health and overall happiness. This perfect standard can cause a lack of confidence and pride for young women. Body shaming has been an ongoing problem for generations and generations. The typical stereotype of a girl is small, thin and curvy. Our society tends to judge girls based off of how they look rather than their competence. You may not realize it but we are constantly seeing images of the female body everywhere. We see them in advertisements, tv, social media, stores and anywhere else a woman's body could possibly be flaunted. So what is body shaming and why do we do it?

In a typical magazine, skinny women are the standard, but 67% of U.S. women are sizes 14-34. Lane Bryant’s most recent ad is putting down its foot to help redefine the standard for all women, while proving that #PlusIsEqual. As a viewer of the general population, I see that plus is the norm in our society, although it’s not portrayed that way in the media. This ad does not body shame skinny or average size women, but rather focuses on equal representation for the 67%. These women, as proven through facts and research done by the Plus Is Equal campaign, are not the minority and they are starting their equal portrayal with this ad.

Body Shaming is a topic that is coming up a lot lately in pop culture. If you watch TLC’s show “My Big Fat Fabulous Life” with Whitney Way Thore you should be familiar with it. Whitney is thirty-two years old and suffers from PCOS (Polycystic ovary syndrome) ("What Is No Body Shame?"). She started a campaign called “No BS” ("What Is No Body Shame?"). Whitney believes that we were put on the earth for a reason, not to look a certain way ("What Is No Body Shame?"). In her No BS campaign video Whitney says, “It is when they tell you have a pretty face. It’s when they look at you and ask, “what are you?”. It is when they tell you to eat a cheeseburger or want to know what happen to you. It is when they try to sell you make up and wrinkle cream

Since the rise of mass media in America throughout the 20th century, the idea of feminine beauty has changed significantly, especially women’s body shape. American visual media has always been guilty of promoting the current “ideal” women’s body shape, despite these body shapes being virtually impossible for the average American woman to achieve. By analyzing the way that the “ideal” women’s body shape in America has changed, it becomes clear how the media has always kept a tight grasp on the American woman’s individuality. Between 1900 and 1910, popular culture made way for the “Gibson Girl,” who was created by the iconic artist Charles Dana Gibson.

The body farm project was a project on how pigs decompose and why those things happen. The project consists of 9 baby piglets, each piglet died of natural Causes. Each piglet was similar to each other like piglet number 2 was naked but was placed on the black top while piglet number 4 was naked and place in the grass, but there was some that was not the same, some are burnt, stabbed or was shot. Every day that we saw the piglets they started to change a little by little because they were attracting insects. We had to answer questions before we saw the dead piglets in the body farm, because our instructor wanted to know what we knew about this project.

The campaign is centered on the 50th anniversary edition of the issue where Barbie represents a doll version of the magazine’s wearing a new version of her white and black striped swimsuit she wore in 1959. Hashtag “unapologetic” was the theme of the campaign which was used to keep up with the popular internet just as Dove used the selfie as a marketing brand. Barbie has always sparked up controversy

I feel as though in the 20 years I have been on this earth, society has witnessed the skinniest models walking down the runway, which has, in turn, impacted many aspects of media. With editing tools like Photoshop, “skinny” became the norm In recent years, however, there has been a “reform”: companies and designers, celebrities and your average joe’s, are taking action to promote all body types as equally beautiful. This battle against unrealistic bodies, or seeing only one body type as “ideal,” has taken the world by storm, and has been very effective in promoting such a positive message. That is why when I read that a Gucci ad was banned in the United Kingdom for featuring a model who was so skinny that she looked unhealthy, I was thrilled to see another positive step forward in promoting healthier living- that is, until I actually saw the image of the ad.

One will see a white female with pouting red lips and the very petite body that resembles a thirteen-year-old girl. The extremely artificial women and the heavily photo-shopped pictures in these ad’s create a norm and make those women who look differently, feel insecure of who they are and make them feel as if they are less of a woman, for example they tend to over represent the Caucasian, blonde with bright eyes, white complexion and a petite body. This is an unattainable beauty for most women, which has caused many to develop issues such as eating disorders, depression and the very much talked about these days, anorexia.

This message of “Real Beauty” was being sent in a time where feminism is reaching a peak and social awareness is at an all time high. The “Photoshopped” model body was viewed as being more and more unrealistic. The falseness of the images were being called out by groups as causing problematic behaviors in young girls in regard to self-esteem and realistic expectations of the female form. Female empowerment is a constant theme in the last decade or so, specifically the female form. The first steps taken in the campaign for Real Beauty were “Tick Box” billboards in Canada and later made their début in the United States and the United Kingdom. “The outdoor billboards featured images of women with two

But that should be their own choice on how they choose to look, and not influenced by society or the media. The media can have negative effects on the way a woman sees her body image. Women are bombarded with advertising and messages daily. Whether it’s on television, magazines or along the side of a bus; we’re brainwashed daily. And those images are in our subconscious waiting for us to notice something irregular with our nose, ear, lips and figure.

Body-Shaming is known as criticizing or humiliating someone by making impolite comments on an individual's body shape or size. Body-shaming is a subject that has been recently brought to light with the use of social media; many celebrities have talked about body-shaming along with quite a few other individuals who have even went out to do social experiments. Generations and generations have passed and as the years go by, the problems only seems to get worse. Comments like “you should put more meat on your bones” and “you should go on a diet” are both equally demeaning and overused. It shouldn’t matter what someone’s body size or shape is to anyone as long as that person is happy and content with himself or herself. Almost everyone has

Many young women in today’s society struggle with confidence and their body image. This is a huge problem in society and many people have spoken out against the influence of media on women’s body image. However, it continues to be a major problem and more can always be done to raise awareness about societies unrealistic expectations for women’s beauty. Dove’s Choose Beautiful campaign was started to promote the self-esteem of women and encourage them to see their beauty, however there are some criticisms, including the company using this campaign to increase their sales. Dove is selling a product with the expectation that confident, beautiful women will purchase it, however people still have the ability to resist the ad industry.

A girl gazing in the mirror of her high school's bathroom, feeling discouraged, unwanted, and self-conscious in her own skin. She looks at her self remembering earlier that day walking through the dull and lifeless hallways of her high school being called fat and ugly. A beautiful blonde, popular, and skinny senior walks by her, she whispers to her posse "Do you see how fat she is?". They think she doesn't hear but she does; she always does. The girl begins to feel herself break down, her eyes begin to burn with salt filled tears, but she holds them back, because she is courageous and she is beautiful. This is a bitter reality for men and women on a daily basis. The act of demeaning, making fun of, or harassing someone for their body's shape or size has come to be known as body shaming. According to an article from WCNC.com, "94% of all teenage girls … have been body shamed for the way their body looks"(Study: 94 percent of teenage girls have been body shamed). While many people may not hear body shaming on a day to day basis, it happens through the social media world, at school, in the work place, and even on the streets. Body shaming has a negative impact on many men as well as women today, and it often leads to low self-esteem, eating disorders, and even suicide.