Ever since we were young we have been tricked into believing certain myths or 'truths' that are reinforced by the media. One of the biggest mythologies that is pushed onto the audience is body type, body image and more specifically, what the 'perfect' body looks like. Even though most of us now know and understand that there is no one single body type that is 'perfect', this ideology is still promoted by the media.
All of our lives we are exposed to thousands of images promoting what the 'ideal' body type is through the media- magazines, advertisements, music videos, social media and even in newspapers. For years it has been presented to us as 'the truth' and common sense and despite many body diversity and body positivity movements, it is an ideology that is often still promoted in the media today and one that many companies still believe and push onto their young, impressionable audience. Due to this, many women are forced to believe that they should change themselves in order to fit society's view of 'the perfect body'.
This advert by Victoria's Secret is shown promoting their idea of the ideal body type for women, shown explicitly through the caption, 'the perfect 'body''. Despite the fact that this is in reference to their bra range called 'body', this combined with the image of ten girls with the same body type clearly reveals how the company believes that all women should be tall and skinny. The advertisement caused outrage back in 2014 and the hashtag #iamperfect trended in response. Victoria's Secret's main target audience is teenage girls and this kind of message could potentially be very damaging to their self esteem, mental health and physical health.
This magazine cover of 'Women's Health' also reinforces and promotes the ideologies that women must look a certain way. The text around the image reinforce the idea that women need to go on diets and lose weight in order to achieve the ideal body. Words and phrases such as 'Run Yourself Slim', 'Sexy Abs and Butt' and 'Get Lean' are evidence of this. Furthermore, the way in which the model is posed to show off her 'idealistic' hourglass figure adds to the pressure that is inflicted on the audience to look a certain way. It also acts as a visual trigger to entice the audience to try the diets and exercises so that they can look like the woman on the cover of the magazine. This is further reinforced by the text in the corner saying, 'Get These Curves Now'.
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