I really enjoyed reading Markula's (2001) article Beyond the Perfect Body. I believe that our society revolves around body image and many women and men are suffering because of it. Magazines such as Shape, Self and the New Weekly have simple intentions of showing women healthy ways to achieve a healthy body. However I believe that unintended consequences are largely at play here. Having pictures of fit or "skinny" women throughout a magazine can really take a toll on the reader. Constantly seeing images of "how they should look" ultimately leads to Body Image Distortion (BID).
While these magazines are promoting a healthy life and often times promote healthy body image they are not helping their readers with the pictures that are placed throughout the magazine. As someone who has never been "skinny" by magazine standards I can relate to this. Media is constantly telling our culture what is popular and what is healthy. They do not take into account how American's are veiwing themselves and the negative consequences the pictures of fit bodies is having on thier readers.
I really like what American Eagle and certain other companies are doing in their no retouching campaigns. While yes they are still using attractive faces it shows that all bodies are different and helps promote accepting self. I also think Dove does a good job with this type of campaign. My mind pops to a video that I watched with the BGSU volleyball team last year. It shows that how negativity we see ourselves yet strangers have a more positive view of us. I think that there needs to be more campaigns like this because eating disorders are a huge issue especially in sport (both men and women).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=litXW91UauE
Maddy,
ReplyDeleteI agree when you state "Having pictures of fit or "skinny" women throughout a magazine can really take a toll on the reader." Even when I was in the best shape of my life as a competitive athlete, seeing photos in magazines such as Shape, Cosmo, magazines or basically anywhere did get tiring, because I felt as if I wasn't pretty enough, since I'll never look like those models. It seems as if many companies and organizations are trying to make a stand and change the way we view things, and going for a "healthier" look. No retouching is very neat in my opinion, especially when you think of recent events where there was clear photo shopping with models. The first one that comes to mind is Target (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/11/target-photoshop-fail_n_4940819.html), which I only heard of because Ellen DeGeneres had the model on her show, and was exploded on Facebook.
Another commercial I found empowering was a Dove commercial, which is really neat. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=litXW91UauE) It goes to show how negatively we view ourselves, and how hard we can be, when we blatantly ignore the fact that we are beautiful people with wonderful qualities.