an example of women objectification advertisement. We are NOT BARBIEs!
This semester I’m taking a course that I find really useful and something that I can easily relate to. The course is FNH 342 – Consumer Aspects of Food taught by Gwen Chapman. Something that I’ve learned from this course and would like to share with everyone is the topic about women’s body image; how women think about their body and their perception about how their body should look like. We looked at the dominant discourse of women’s thinness/body image and how women engage in controlling their food consumption.
Most women would say ‘no’ if they were asked the question of whether they are fully satisfied with their bodies or how their bodies look. Most women (adults or teens) have gone through ‘dieting’ in order to achieve their perception of ideal body weight. Due to many negativity associated with the term ‘dieting’, there is a trend moving toward what they call ‘healthy eating‘ that is often associated with more positive views and less of negative views. In one of the class readings, the paper looks at the differences between what women’s refer to as ‘dieting’ and ‘healthy eating’. The paper finds that there are actually a lot of differences associated with both terms. For example: often ‘dieting’ is referred to something that results temporarily while ‘healthy eating’ is for long-term. While I agree that there is a lot of differences identified in the reading in terms of food practices, concepts, beliefs and values between ‘dieting’ and ‘healthy-eating’, I would argue that the common ground for both references is very similar in terms of women’s references as ways of weight management in which women find both are hard to follow.
In this class, we also watched a video related to how advertisements have brought up so many social structures and/or constraints within the society about women’s body images. The video emphasized that advertising plays a strong role in putting messages about women’s body images. Mass media plays a big role in influencing how women feel about their bodies. With increased advertising in the fashion and cosmetic industries, women perceive how they should look and dress in a certain way. While the main goal of advertising is to sell products, advertising also tends to sell value and belief simultaneously. The image of ideal beauty that’s been put on advertisement affect both women’s and man’s feelings. This also affects men’s expectations for women’s bodies. In turn, all these images often result in ‘objectification’ of women and/or even triggering abusive behavior toward women.
Another really really important point from this topic is thatwomen tend to internalize the sociocultural norms regarding body image. This idea really makes me wonder that the social structure of woman self-portrayal issue is like a ‘chicken and egg’ question. On one hand, it is true that the media has created certain standards that are unachievable in reality that may affect men’s expectations for women’s bodies. On the other hand, women tend to take some views or behaviors regarding body images for granted as something ‘natural’ that happens socially and culturally. In turn, these ‘natural[s]’ create social structures or constraints that women have to face as consequences. These internalizations made by women certainly would perpetuate the wrong message of women body image among all women and men as a society as well as for future generation. Clearly, the image would affect women (our) reality of life!
My stance: it is hard to change the reality of woman regarding perception of body image around the world due to the unclear social structure – like I said it’s like a chicken-and-egg question, BUT I believe that it is not impossible for women to make a change regarding this issue because women are indeed part of the active participants in the process of constructing social structures and reinforcing the social message. So women please, you look fine!! =) ~be grateful for all the things you have in your life =D
