Even when the media does pretend to send a positive message, it is only a "mixed message" at best.
But this year, they're ramping up expectations to an all-time unattainable high.
Stop! Just stop this madness now. Please.
Friday, 3 January 2014
Defining Beauty
Have you noticed that since New Year resolutions time is here, TV is absolutely inundated with weight loss ads? Women all over the western world are once again beating themselves up because they don't look like Barbie.
Even when the media does pretend to send a positive message, it is only a "mixed message" at best.
But this year, they're ramping up expectations to an all-time unattainable high.
Stop! Just stop this madness now. Please.
Even when the media does pretend to send a positive message, it is only a "mixed message" at best.
But this year, they're ramping up expectations to an all-time unattainable high.
Stop! Just stop this madness now. Please.
Haha! I love that picture! I know what you mean though! It is scary! Young girls torturing themselves over some fake pictures of starving models(fake although they are already starving!). I used to be bulimic. I was thin and sick and now i am overweight and healthy!
ReplyDeletethat kitty pic is too funny!
ReplyDeleteI guess after all the holiday rating they figure we all will be tipping the scales! But your right, image and how one should look is out of control.
ReplyDeleteI fell into the New Year's weight loss craze on accident, becoming a bulimic against my free will. Yes, it was due to getting way too drunk on New Years Eve, but man, that vomiting was a great abdominal workout.
ReplyDeleteused to be on my list of resolutions every year;that is, when I was still doing resolutions.
ReplyDeleteMary
Such unrealistic expectations really have to stop. People should try to be comfortable with who they are.
ReplyDeleteAs for Barbie Cats, um meow....
It all comes down to the almighty-dollar! Sex sells and a sexy image sells even more. People are brainwashed into thinking that if they're skinny then they'll be sexy and if a person is sexy then they will be happy & wealthy. "Lose weight, you'll look like this and be happy & have money!"
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, here in Scottsdale AZ, Barbie is very real and she scares the shit out of me!
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I don't pay no mind to all that silly stuff. BUT, I will say that January for couponing is filled with more whole foods and good ingredient coupons, which I love.
ReplyDeleteIt is not easy for guys either... in all possible films and shows and even in books the men ladies fall for are bad boys or hunky guys... imagine living up to such flawed standards....
ReplyDeleteit's funny to see the cover for women's magazines, and you have to wonder how often do they recycle the same old content under a new name
ReplyDeleteBarbie has never looked better than with that cat face :)
ReplyDeletenot only lighter but younger. I don't suppose anyone knows the way to the fountain of youth????? What the hell is wrong with people, non self acceptance is a trigger for trouble. Like being addicted to chocolate. So there.
ReplyDeleteI don't read magazines for this reason. Plus being a photographer…I know how much of what we see is NOT REAL! No one is perfect. Gah! Why can't we just love our body for what it is. We are perfectly imperfect!!!
ReplyDeleteSo true! Weight Watchers and the YWCA commercials are on tv constantly, and Dove wants us to be happy with ourselves. I like to PVR, and fast forward all comhercials... Stay warm! L
ReplyDeleteAgreed! I live in America, so I can't even BUY shiny magazines b/c they make me so angry.
ReplyDeleteI recently tweeted:
"It's adorable that marketers still think Americans want to know how to get rid of belly fat."
But of course, if people continue to buy into the next "new diet" and/or the new super expensive "diet pill that burns fat" but meanwhile, does NOT, marketers will keep churning out new snake oil. STOP BUYING IT, people!!!
I wish people would accept how they look, and only make slow lifestyle changes for the sake of their HEALTH.
It's truly awful. I went into Barnes and Noble yesterday to spend a gift certificate, and the first thing i saw when ibwalked in the door was a huge table full of weight loss,and diet books. I walked right by it. Then i saw a magazine called 'Health' and the title article screamed 'Best Butt Ever!'. Ick. This morning on my husbands radio alarm i heard a screaming ad for Amberin.. or some hideous name of a miracle weight loss supplement. A guy was talking about how his 50 year old wife is.. get this.. 'STILL BEAUTIFUL' and looks like her 25 year old self! Read.. it's practically impossible to be beautiful if we're over 25 and weigh over 120. Ludicrous. Sorry about this book for a comment. I think i need to write a post about this since it obviously hits a nerve. Stop the madness is absolutely correct! Great post!
ReplyDeleteI truly wonder if it ever going to end. I had hoped that my daughter would be raised in a world where this didn't happen. I guess now I have to wait for my granddaughters.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree. Not even the folks who modelled for Egyptian hieroglyphics could attain that level of purr-fection. :)
ReplyDeleteFor me, weight loss is not madness... I just feel 10 times better when I have the additional weight being carried around on my framework. Perfection? No... just a healthy weight.
ReplyDeleteI will never again weigh what I did in my 30's....perhaps about 6 or 7 lbs heavier now.......look better.....feel better.
ReplyDeleteJo
Hopefully once they make it so ridiculous ,people will see the folly in trying to comply , and realize it's just plain silly propaganda .
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more with you, it is truly a disease of our consumer society. It is only 50 years ago when Barbie first appeared that standards suddenly changed. Marilyn Monroe today is considered fat, imagine that. Same goes for young men who must all sport 8 pack habs and 15% body weight. Totally silly but the voices against such nonsense are not very loud.
ReplyDeleteLove the Cat Barbie. Skip all the ads...and just remember one thing for 2014.
ReplyDelete"This above all; to thine own self be true." —William Shakespeare
Aloha to you for lots of Love, Peace and Harmony for 2014!
In the news today it said 1 in 3 ( or 4) people across the world are now obese. So our world is getting fatter it would seem.
ReplyDeleteWhen a person feels unhappy with their body image it's quite sad.. Still.. beauty really is in the eye of the beholder I think.
LOVE the cat pic, that is so apt.
ReplyDeleteI really like the barbiecat. Oy. It's crazy. And for all the talk about resolving to lose weight, I was one of three people at our most popular local gym last night.
ReplyDeletexoRobyn
I agree with you totally Debra! I have to admit, it took me a long time, to even go without a hat! As you know, I lost a lot of hair when I was sick. I still do my "comb over", but I feel if you don't like me because my hair isn't bushy, than poo on you! I love me, and that's the main thing ;o)
ReplyDeleteyou go girl! I am so there with you. It's ridiculous. I opened an Ophra magazine once and 8 out of the first 10 pages sold a product to make women prettier, younger, slimmer, more perfect somehow... really sucks.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about anyone else, but I high five myself because I DON'T look like Barbie....yay me!
ReplyDeleteIt's all about control and money. Give women an impossible goal and they'll waste their lives trying to reach it. (I see the same thing with religion - promise them heaven tomorrow for their life today.) Wake up folks! Life is to be lived. Skinny, fat, medium, tall, short, whatever! You get one chance at life - live accordingly. Thanks for letting me vent.
ReplyDeleteLMAO! Oh I love the pictures! And you're right dear lady. If we could only see just how beautiful we all really are...
ReplyDelete~madness indeed...never was one to care much about tv ads or magazines...why would anyone want to look like another!?! always believed be as you are...unique in this world! although Barbie cat is a bit appealing to the eye ; )~
ReplyDeleteWe are such a conflicted bunch of people when it comes to weight. We should all want to be a healthy weight but then then marketers attach perceived ideas of what that should look like. I think putting the face of "beauty" as it applies to weight is destructive, but then again.... those that spin true obesity as "I am happy and accept myself" is a dangerous train of thought as well.
ReplyDeleteI am for people looking like themselves in their healthiest way and everyone needs to quit judging each other.
did you see the two women fighting on the news (ctv) last night, the women from Curvy Girls was arguing with the young woman who has all the controversy right now about the add Whats your excuse, she is very fit after having three babies, itwas a tense argument, the Heavier women said all women are beautiful, the skinny one said no fat is beautiful, (thats breaking it down), I think both made good points,
ReplyDeleteI love the Barbie with the cat head, thats cute!
Instead of getting better in promoting women and men to accept who they are the way they are, it is definitely going crazier than it's ever been.
ReplyDeleteI guess and only hope younger people will educate themselves about how important it is to accept themselves.
And see! Even cats are being brain-washed!!
MeowBarbie does exist!!!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!! I am so with you! I don't watch TV around this time of the year because I find it so depressing to be inundated with so many messages that I am not beautiful as I am. Even knowing that it isn't true - seeing these messages over and over again does have an impact. xoxo Silke
ReplyDeleteI'll look like my cat before I ever look like a Barbie.
ReplyDeleteI inherited a big box of postcards from my grandmother that date to about 1904. In those times, not everyone had enough to eat. Guess who was considered sexy? The well-endowed, big-butted, curvy women!
ReplyDeleteLosing weight might make you feel better physically, but it won't change your mental vision of yourself one bit. Yet that is exactly what the magazines claim will happen. You'll suddenly feel beautiful. Sheesh, what rubbish.
Oh yes, I've noticed all the weight loss ads. Not my goal for 2014, though. And I *LOVE* the content in women's magazines pic. Hilarious, but true.
ReplyDeleteBut how are you going to have the sexiest sex that ever sexed (page 12) and use those 10 tips to please your man (page 37) if you don't lose 10 lbs in the next week NOW (page 101)?
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year! The media is ridiculous. I just ignore it all! Love that cat head on the Barbie!
ReplyDeleteI agree it is crazy! One add wants to sell diet drugs and the next has a recipe or add for a super fattening dessert! No wonder we are confused!
ReplyDeleteDexter thinks she's hot.
ReplyDeleteIt's so annoying how, after months of having nothing but food adverts on the tv, everything changes within a day and it's nothing but diet ads, exercise ads and low fat meals. Urghhh xxx
ReplyDeletePerfect post! All those ads are nonsense. That's one of the reasons I stopped watching TV. Why don't those Madison Avenues dimwits knock it off? Real women come in all sizes. Nuff said
ReplyDelete