By Laurel Elfenbein, Contributor, Emerson College
Everyone knows that advertisements are almost everywhere we look. Would you guess that the number of ads you see a day is actually about 2,000? We spend significant parts of our lives looking at images in the media through magazines, newspapers, television, and more. American society is so focused on what is aesthetically attractive that women in the media are almost exclusively portrayed as such. Television and magazines often depict images of women that are over-sexualized, unrealistic and even photoshopped. Because of this, young womens’ expectations of their bodies and their appearances become unrealistically high, and they’re likely to develop negative body images.
Everyday, we see the same kind of women in magazines -- the same thin body type, the same flawless skin, and the same perfect bone structure. Because this beauty culture is constantly portrayed in magazines, it is easy to forget that most women don’t actually look like that; in fact, not even the models in the magazines look like that naturally. Magazine images of women are largely a product of airbrushing and digital altering. For example, in 2011 L’Oreal signed Julia Roberts and Christy Turlington on to do print ad campaigns for their makeup lines Lancôme and Maybelline. The pictures of them were altered to make their skin appear flawless, which is dramatization and false advertising. Ads like these create so many problems for young women, because not only will they become dependent on wearing certain makeup brands to feel beautiful, but they will also lose confidence every time they see a blemish on their own skin. When young women see other young women with flawless skin, they believe it’s attainable, a goal which is unrealistic. Therefore these women will inherently be unhappy with themselves because it is impossible for their natural skin, even with makeup, to look like that of the women in the airbrushed, digitized images they are exposed to.
Read More Here
Everyone knows that advertisements are almost everywhere we look. Would you guess that the number of ads you see a day is actually about 2,000? We spend significant parts of our lives looking at images in the media through magazines, newspapers, television, and more. American society is so focused on what is aesthetically attractive that women in the media are almost exclusively portrayed as such. Television and magazines often depict images of women that are over-sexualized, unrealistic and even photoshopped. Because of this, young womens’ expectations of their bodies and their appearances become unrealistically high, and they’re likely to develop negative body images.
Everyday, we see the same kind of women in magazines -- the same thin body type, the same flawless skin, and the same perfect bone structure. Because this beauty culture is constantly portrayed in magazines, it is easy to forget that most women don’t actually look like that; in fact, not even the models in the magazines look like that naturally. Magazine images of women are largely a product of airbrushing and digital altering. For example, in 2011 L’Oreal signed Julia Roberts and Christy Turlington on to do print ad campaigns for their makeup lines Lancôme and Maybelline. The pictures of them were altered to make their skin appear flawless, which is dramatization and false advertising. Ads like these create so many problems for young women, because not only will they become dependent on wearing certain makeup brands to feel beautiful, but they will also lose confidence every time they see a blemish on their own skin. When young women see other young women with flawless skin, they believe it’s attainable, a goal which is unrealistic. Therefore these women will inherently be unhappy with themselves because it is impossible for their natural skin, even with makeup, to look like that of the women in the airbrushed, digitized images they are exposed to.
Read More Here