When we look at advertisements today, what do we see? We see skinny, beautiful women with flawless hair and makeup. Women are told that this is what we are supposed to look like at all times, but we don’t, and neither do the models. Today, women are held to such high and unrealistic beauty standards that have recently been created by the media and advertisements. This issue points to the immediate problem with the portrayal of women. The issue is that we are taught to think in binary.
Now before you get scared by the math term, let me first explain what this means. Binary thinking means that we only see two options, which are usually opposing. For example, pretty and ugly, fat and skinny, tall and short, happy and sad—the list goes on. It is ultimately due to this binary thinking that women are held to these standards. Once we start thinking in a more open way and start seeing mediums and options, then we can solve this issue.
If you are not skinny, then are you fat? No! We have to start seeing that there are other body types that need to be portrayed. Take, for example, if you start looking for wedding dresses online. The pictures that come up advertising the dresses are usually shown on a model who is either a size zero or two. Let’s face it, most of us are not a size zero or two, so why are we shown dresses on models that do not share our own body type? On the other hand, we have “plus sized” models, which are supposed to be sizes 12 and above. So where is the representation of the average woman? They don’t exist!
We have to keep in mind that when we see women on covers of magazines that even they do not really look like this. Model Cindy Crawford once claimed, “I wish I looked like Cindy Crawford.” Each picture is edited after the shoot and body fat is reduced, imperfections are removed, and they are once again airbrushed. Remember that modeling requires healthy eating, constant exercise, hours of makeup and hair, and much more, yet they are still not good enough to be placed on the front of a magazine. They are further manipulated and made even more beautiful, showing that even a model's image is not good enough! One can’t even begin to imagine what that does to their self-image based on the fact that their job is to remain skinny and beautiful, yet they are told that they are still not good enough. This is why so many models suffer with anorexia. Many celebrities and models have passed away due to their anorexia, showing that models literally cannot get any skinnier.
This unreal “skinny” portrayed in magazines gives unrealistic standards to girls on how they should look. They can literally spend their entire life trying to look like a model, but never will. This is why 90 percent of people with eating disorders are females between the ages of 12 and 25. The problem is that if women do not feel skinny, then they automatically feel fat and lose self-esteem.
Furthermore, if we examine the concept of fat, we realize that its negative connotation was recently created. Fat was a term originally used to describe body mass, which it still does today, but then why is it such a negative term? Because we made it into one! Fat does not connote ugly just as skinny does not connote pretty. This then makes us question why being described as fat is negative, but being described as skinny is positive. Beauty was once used to describe facial features, but it has recently been extended to the body as well.
This concept then brings us back to the real problem: Binary thinking. When we start listing binaries, they usually fall into two groupings of good and bad, and this is unfortunately why fat gains a negative connotation and skinny gains the positive one. One recent movement towards challenging binary thinking is the concept of “thick,” a term used by rappers. Many rappers express that they want a “thick” girl, which is another body type that has become labeled as desirable. Thick basically means that a woman has curves and meat on her bones, but only in the right places. Although it is still a shallow concept of wanting exaggerated curves that most women do not have, it is still a movement in the right direction in that it shows a different body type between the levels of skinny and fat.
Calvin Klein has recently debuted their first “plus size” model, Myla Dalbesio. This has caused an abundance of controversy considering she is skinnier than most females in America. With its negative connotation, plus size tells females that they are bigger than average, yet this model has no stretch marks, no body fat, and no stomach rolls. She is simply curvy. If we are telling children that this is what plus size looks like, then we are setting them up to be anorexic.
In many advertisements, women are portrayed as objects, which encourages even more issues of self-image. The female body is often made into beer bottles and other products that makes women into “objects” rather than actual people. This belief that women are objects encourages not only poor self-image, but also negative responses from males who begin to see women as products rather than people.
There have recently been complaints and memes on the internet about women after they take off their makeup. Some men even go as far as saying that women who wear makeup are basically false advertising, which basically reinforces the concept that women are objects rather than people. The ultimate responsibility of objects are to be sold and made more attractive to the market, which causes women to want to become more desirable and take the concept of advertising into their personal lives. This then enforces a competition amongst women to be more desirable than others once again based on their appearance.
It is ultimately through binary thinking and the use of advertisement that the portrayal of women has become so wrong in the last decade. Once we learn to change our frame of mind, we can finally open our eyes to the beauty of the world no longer based on the binary that we have been taught. Beauty is out there, and we just have to shift our perspective to really understand it.
