Reading this article, I was reminded a lot of a book that I read part of a few years ago, although this article dealt primarily with racism and the piece I read was about female beauty ideals and portrayal. "The Beauty Myth" by Naomi Wolf has a great chapter on the way women’s images are used in advertisements and how this affects the way woman view themselves as a result. She gives numerous examples of ads printed in the past in high-end fashion magazines that depict nearly naked women in sexual poses or close-ups of women with overtly sexual expressions on their faces, even depictions of bondage-style violence against women, being used in ads for products such as designer shoes or handbags. Wolf uses the term “beauty pornography” to describe the imagery of women that we see opening up pretty much any magazine or by turning on the TV. The already “ideal” bodies of the models, who have had professionally applied makeup and styled hair, are further airbrushed to create an even more so-called “perfect” woman. No woman could ever possibly meet these beauty ideals, because they don’t exist—they’re created on the computer. Even photos of the celebrities that so many people worship—or at least are intrigued by—are airbrushed to make us think they look great all the time. When celebrity rags get “revealing” photos of stars without their makeup or looking saggy in their bikini, we are supposed to be shocked. But is this really such a surprise? What is this sick interest we have in exposing other people’s flaws?
This goes for the stereotypes given in television commercials as well. How many TV ads have you seen with a powerful woman taking charge of a situation and using her brains to solve a problem? How many have you seen of woman wistfully looking over a piece of dessert or acting embarrassed by their dry, dull hair, before they discovered the new no-guilt, low-fat yogurt that tastes just like key-lime pie or the new hair dye that brings shine and strength to their ‘do? How do you feel about the use of women in advertising? Are we supposed to assume that everyone who sees ads in magazines knows that the women don’t really look like way and that it is an unrealistic goal to try to look the same? Even if we do know that the images are airbrushed and unrealistic, can we truly stop ourselves from—even involuntarily—secretly feeling that those are images of true beauty and something to aspire to look like?
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I completely agree with you, Katie.
Your descriptions of how women are portrayed in advertisements actually reminds me of a commercial that Dove put out on television; it's called "Evolution", and it basically shows a woman being altered in different ways to become an "ideal" look for a billboard ad (in the end she even gets her face/eyes stretched through computer graphics). Their catch phrase for the commercial was "No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted", which I think really applies to your blog. It's a well-made commercial and the link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hibyAJOSW8U if you'd like to take a quick look.
I think this "airbrushed" and distorted look is more often than not exposed to women in Korea (possibly even more so than in the United States). I believe there might be more exposure in Korea because of the high success rate with plastic surgery there. I know we've talked about it several times in class, and perhaps one of the major factors behind why this "trend" is so popular is due to how women are constantly bombarded with these images of what beauty is "supposed" to be. I remember watching television in Korea, and there would mostly be lengthy, elaborate commercials for cosmetics or clothes (especially on fashion channels and on channels that mostly attract a woman audience such as "OnStyle").
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