I watched the video about women’s health because as a young woman, it relates to me the most and I have a strong opinion for this topic. The way women are portrayed to look like is absolutely absurd. Fashion has created a mindset within women worldwide that skinnier is better. It is one thing to have health and wellness articles as a guide for women to remain in good shape and to be healthy for the prevention of disease and death, but when models are nothing but bones wearing the clothes “we” are supposed to want to wear, then what kind of image is that sending women?
When models are roughly 5 ft. 9 in. and weigh approximately 100 pounds and they are publicly displayed as what women should strive for, multiple consequences are created. Women feel pressured to look emaciated because that is what is advertised as pretty. Airbrush work is also a major problem because it has the capability to destroy any imperfections and flaws women have. Magazine advertisements and television commercials make women look flawless with no visible wrinkles, blemishes, excess fat, cellulite and whatever else makes a woman feel ugly. Most women get so wrapped up in how amazing models look in a product that they do not realize how much touching up was done to make the model appear so perfect.
This video also made me realize how bad women feel when we see these flawless images of “women like us” looking so elegant, beautiful and skinny. Advertisements not only make women want the product or give them the desire to become skinny just like the models in the ad, but they also give women that feeling of “hmm there’s no way I would ever look like that, I must not have the capability to be a pretty girl.” That is not at all the way women should vie themselves. Media makes it so hard for us to see past it when we are constantly slammed with fashion, hair and makeup advertising.
Beauty should be characterized by uniqueness, not whoever is the skinniest is the prettiest. In my opinion, looking half dead where you might as well be a walking skeleton does not make a girl pretty. In fact, that is a little but frightening and causes people to worry. I find it very unfortunate that girls and women starve themselves and spend all their money in order to look like what is on television or in magazines. Maybe if the fashion industry would step back and see what they are doing to women worldwide, they would change their whole view on what is hot and whats not. “Dove” products have done a good job recently of using “real” women in their advertisements, which is putting a small dent in this ongoing phenomenon of appearance-related women issues, but simply not enough. Everyone is beautiful in their own way, no we are not all a size zero, but why should everyone look the same? Like I said earlier, beauty should be characterized by uniqueness, and the variety of shapes, sizes and colors women possess, is what makes them truly beautiful.
Wow, you make a powerful argument in your blog. It's quite disgusting to see models who are so skinny to the point that they are nothing but bones. If only really women can see what these models go through (how miserable they may be), and how they really look without all the airbrush touch ups. Then maybe models can look more "real" rather than imaginative.
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