Something.
It's hard to come up with a word that is capable of garnering enough attention to bring light to something that has become such a sad case of normal.
The day after Christmas, while out visiting family, the husband and I took the boys to the mall to spend some gift card money that was burning a hole in our pockets (okay, in my husband's pocket-- I was just determined to get the kids out doing something after spending so much of the past several days in the car travelling to various family locations to celebrate the holidays). As we were headed to our store of choice, there was a Pepsi advertisement with Sofia Vergara. I'm annoyed with myself for not taking a picture of the advertisement-- I assumed I could just google it and find it, but this particular one won't come up (and I got a little sick to my stomach viewing all of the google images that come up when you search for said actress-- Good. Grief.). I saw the ad, almost life-sized near some soda machines, and I started to laugh. Here was an actress touted for her curves, claiming her figure is a result of regular pilates and nothing more (though, to be fair, certain other actresses have claimed this as well in the past, and it turns out "pilates" was code for "cocaine and bulimia", but I believe Sofia on this one), and she was whittled down to a stick. Her image, her liveliness, was processed out of her through a click-happy photoshopper who destroyed everything about her that makes her wonderful and attractive, simply so she could fit into some idea of what is considered "beautiful." Why get her in the first place, then?
I'd been thinking about using models and actors to promote various products lately, and I started to get annoyed. I'm supposed to purchase a product based entirely on what some pretty person says-- that they love it, so I should too, out of a quest to also become one of the pretty people. Why, I asked, don't they have someone like Hillary Clinton telling me what cell phone she likes best? That's something I'd listen to. Or what Condeleezza Rice prefers to drive. Or which clothing line Rachel Maddow prefers-- because these are brilliant women, and I'd strongly consider their judgement when trying to make a decision for myself. But then, in my quest to find the Sofia Vergara Pepsi advertisement, I also simply searched for "Pepsi advertisement," and pulled up the google image search.
Good. Grief.
It's no wonder these brilliant individuals don't align themselves with product endorsement (assuming these particular companies have had the brains/courage to ask them). It seems that to become the face of something (an accomplishment so many wannabe Top Models strive to achieve) requires agreeing to degredation.
Take, for example, the ad that popped up from 2004 (which was also the year I graduated high school, so a bit dated-- but also not THAT long ago):
Notice Enrique-- decked otu for battle appropriately. Armor covers his thorasic cavity, and his weird pouty look is enough to distract anyone from actually attacking (okay, not really-- what is up with that face? That's the best image they could get?!). Anyway.
Then we move on to the other women. They're depicted as warriors, also preparing for battle (we can assume), but what is their attack strategy? Distract with cleavage? Assume blood is rushing to your genitalia, and thus your limbs will not be as fortified to deliver any sort of deadly blow? It sends the incredibly destructive, mixed message of "Women are strong! And powerful!" with "This is what it looks like to be a woman-- thin, toned, busty, and willing to share it all for the sake of empowerment-- if you aren't there yet, hopefully someday you'll be enough. [insert pity smile here]".
I'm trying to imagine such an ad being sent for approval fifty years ago, and the reaction it would get. It honestly looks like it could be the cover of a pornographic movie, and these women are just puppets in a fantasy held by the run-of-the-mill male.
So what do we do? Is there something that can be done to battle such imagery? Something I've been trying to do is to educate myself on the advertisments and moral code of the various companies filling the shelves of my local stores to understand who is promoting the values I want to support, and those that promote normalized pornography. I know I can't speak for all households, but in ours, I am the one with the most buying power. As the person who is typically running the errands and filling our pantry, I decide what we buy-- and if I refrain from the products that spend a large chunk of their money objectifying women and promoting these negative ideals, then maybe they'll get the message if other moms (and other concerned consumers) jump on board.
So in a culture where we, women, potentially have the largest say in what fills our shopping carts, why does this kind of behavior perpetuate? Why are so many companies getting away with telling us we aren't enough, we aren't sexy enough, and challenging us regularly to overcome our own demons of inadequacy and self criticism as well as creating an environment that does not allow our children to develop healthy ideas about relationships and sexuality?
Let's get smarter. Let's educate our selves. Let's take a consumer stand against products who utilize their advertising to tear us down, perpetuate rape myths, and promote the normalization of pornography.
It's one way to stop the cuts.
No comments:
Post a Comment