Advertising is defined by Merriam Webster as, “the activity or profession of producing
advertisements for commercial products or services” or simply the act of
producing attention grabbing content in order to sell something. However, the post- Edward-Bernays world of
advertising and marketing seems to be a manipulative agenda of propaganda and
creating false images. According to
Bernays, otherwise known as “the father of public relations,” “The conscious and intelligent manipulation
of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in
democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society
constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our
country” (Bernays, Propaganda). The absolute maniacal nature of his thinking
has ultimately manifested itself in the form of present day advertising and
marketing. In this largely capitalistic
society based in consumerism, it is necessary to establish social standards,
and these standards are established by and upheld by the media, particularly,
advertising. Because of widespread and
stubborn patriarchy, women are the primary target of the horrors of
advertising. The media is catered to the
“male gaze,” a concept introduced by Laura Mulvey. Understanding “the male gaze” is the
identification that media is structured in such a way that only keeps in mind
the male viewer. Advertising has
promoted a view of women that is appealing to the male gaze, so much so, that
women have begun viewing themselves through the dominant male gaze.
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| Women are convinced that they should shave their legs to feeling and looking more beautiful and sexy. Women begin to see themselves through the male |
The most prominent example of this is prevalent in the
current standards of beauty. Everyone
questions these standards put and place and everyone tries to combat it. But while doing so, women don’t realize that
they are simply trying to make room for themselves within this standard, rather
than overthrowing it entirely. For
instance, instead of saying only skinny girls are beautiful, current
advertising schemes will promote that “hey, even curvy girls are beautiful.” This inclusiveness is actually highly
problematic, because it only exacerbates the problems within the standard. The other day, I was having a discussion with
my cousin online. She’s always trying
some new diet plan or some new exercise regime to shed the pounds she gained
stress eating through much of high school and college. She angrily told me that she detests the
whole “body positivity” campaign and the whole “embrace your curves”
promotions. At that point I was
confused, so she went on to say, “It promotes unhealthy eating habits and
proclaims that its now okay to objectify curvy women too!” Her point was, women should feel confident
with the body type they have, while still eating healthy and maintaining
healthy habits, but not through patriarchal objectification. This brings me to an article written by
Lindsay King Miller about the unnecessary concept of beauty in the promotion of
body positivity. She discusses the
nature of beauty and that current media works and advertisements make things
okay and include things within the standards of beauty by labeling them as
beautiful. Or we purchase things to be
more confident so we could be more beautiful.
Current media makes it a necessity for women to be beautiful. No matter what you look like, you must look
beautiful. Such a method of advertising
is twisted and ultimately skews the concept of confidence. Miller says, “The prevailing cultural
definition of beauty is rooted in hierarchy, racism, misogyny, ableism,
homophobia, ageism, cissexism, and other forms of marginalization. Instead of
fighting for a seat at a table so rife with oppression and violence, wouldn’t
it be better to find somewhere else to sit?”
What Miller is trying to say instead of forcing our way into the system,
making the system more inclusive, allowing the system to objectify us, and
allowing the system to transform us into a standard, why don’t we simply
overthrow the system, or at least ignore it?
Looking for representation in the media is problematic because you would
be allowing the media to basically…man-handle you.
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| Even having this discussion enforces that its necessary to be "hot." |
Speaking of representation in the media, Miller touches upon
the topic of a well-known Dove commercial that “chastises women for not having
higher self-esteem.” The commercial depicted
women describing themselves to police sketch artists. And then it shot other people describing the
same women to the sketch artists. The
women were then presented with both sketches and were shocked to see how
beautiful they looked to other people versus their own perception of
themselves. Miller talks about how the
necessity to feel beautiful is the core problem in all these
advertisements. It is a common theme in
today’s advertisements to push for empowerment, body positivity, inner beauty,
and self-worth. However, they also
advertise that in order for a woman to be happy, she must be beautiful, “But all this advertising has the same central flaw, which
frustrates me when I see people praising these companies to the skies. These
ads each depend on the assumption that in order to be happy, empowered, or
confident, women need to feel beautiful.” Capitalism wins the game again. Women now associate beauty and feeling
confident and empowered with…beauty products.
Essentially, these products do nothing to make you feel good; however,
purchasing these brands definitely increases the monetary value of them. Women are merely a capitalistic tool in the
hands of media and advertisements.
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| "Look good, feel better." |
Works Cited:
Bernays, Edward L., and Mark Crispin. Miller. Propaganda.
Brooklyn, NY: Ig Pub., 2005. Print.
King-Miller, L. (n.d.). Pretty Unnecessary: Taking Beauty
Out of Body Positivity. In https://bitchmedia.org/article/pretty-unnecessary-beauty-body-positivity
King-Miller, L. (n.d.). Here's What Bothers Me About the New
Dove Ad. In https://bitchmedia.org/post/heres-what-bothers-me-about-the-new-dove-ad.
Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative
Cinema." Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. 1999.
Web.
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