McKenna Hervey

Humanities 3-4
December 9th, 2016

The Most Empowering Woman

Since their invention nearly three-hundred years ago, advertisements have been

presenting American viewers with not only how to keep up with the latest trends, but also

societys latest philosophies, such as peoples perspectives on political events or modern fads.

Advertisements have a major impact on their viewers, seeing as the average person observes

about 2,000 a day. Not only do ads reflect societys current philosophies, but they also promote

these ideologies for the purpose of selling products. However, modern ads have a social injustice

in their portrayal of the female gender. They almost always show women who conform to U.S.

societys ideal image of a woman in physical appearance and character, presenting women who

almost always have unattainable features and beauty, setting unrealistic expectations for women

and thus putting an immense pressure on them to conform to it. In the interest of eliminating this

pressure from womens lives, advertisers need to include more realistic models to represent their

audience of real women.

Western culture has always had high standards of beauty. In the Victorian era, women

would wear rib crushing corsets to achieve the hourglass look. In the 20s, makeup was

introduced as a socially acceptable way to enhance ones appearance. In the 1940s, when the

war left women without stockings, they would draw seam lines up the back of their legs instead.

It may be hard to imagine, but many standards of the past were not optional. Going out without a

corset would have been like leaving the house without shoes. It was absolutely essential

regardless of how inconvenient, uncomfortable, or even painful it may be. Now it may seem like

there are more options and it would not be so outlandish to not conform to modern standards. But

this is not so for nearly half the nation.

 A standard of beauty today that needs to be addressed is wearing makeup. According to a

survey from the Renfrew Center foundation polling 1,292 women, about 44% of American

women feel unattractive when they are not wearing makeup. That is a staggering amount of

people who do not feel confident with themselves when they are wearing their natural, actual

face. When society ingrains a fixed definition of modern beauty in people, dismissing it becomes

immensely difficult, making women feel inclined to follow it.

Unfortunately, society stresses a connection between physical appearance and self worth,

yet has such a limited idea of what is respectable and what is not that attempting to avoid a

defect in one area inevitably leads to an excess of another. For instance, if a woman shows too

much skin she will be considered slutty, but if she covers too much she will be deemed

prudish. Women who are too feminine look weaker, but being too masculine is not lady-like.

Having too much makeup is showy, but not enough is sloppy. These examples are just a few of

the many stylistic traits that society believes belittle women, but they are all so contradictory it is

almost impossible to avoid being excessive in one way or another. It leaves women on edge to

keep themselves looking suitable and avoid judgement.

Advertisements feed into this insecurity of females to make sales by presenting their

product as a solution. For instance, an ad from the 1950s

says its model is having bad hair day (despite her hair

having no particular disheveledness) yet it is basically the

end of the world to her. She might as well kill herself if

she cant look pretty. The message this advertisement is

sending its female viewers is very clear. Despite her

flawless nails and on-point makeup, her life no longer has value if she does not meet all the

criteria for a perfect image, including slick hair.

Another ad from the 1970s follows closely in its message to women about their looks.

Aside from how degrading it is that she could only be a receptionist, not a dentist herself, the real

offense is in the suggestion that she would require this trait to achieve the job. That she could not

amount to a capable person because her looks would

contradict any of her abilities and competency.

The solution to this problem is already in action in

magazines and brands everywhere. Movements towards

body positivity and female empowerment have been

spreading across the nation like wildfire. Several

magazines have been presenting their products with

models who more closely resemble the average woman with no artificial modifications. To prove

their dedication to this movement, many have signed the No-Photoshop Pledge, a pledge that

they will not use photoshop to alter their models physical appearance. Some of these include

ModCloth retail, Aerie lingerie by American Eagle, Verily magazine, Darling magazine, and

even the well known Seventeen magazine. The success of these actions are not a mere trifle to

the companies. Aerie had a 26% increase in sales and Adore Me lingerie had a $15.1 million

boost in only two years due to its body positive social media marketing.

A major issue circulating among female consumers of magazines (no matter the genre) is

the Photoshopping of the models to rid imperfections beyond just lighting, coloring, or weird

shadows. Before publication, some magazines alter physical features of the models. This can
include thinning out even the smallest amount of body fat, smoothing perfectly natural stretch

marks, completely removing any wrinkle or

blemish from the face, and even giving the

models an entirely new figure. In some

cases, they will go so far that they end up

accidentally removing limbs, like in this

photo from the 2012 edition of Vogue China.

This is problematic on many levels. Most

models are already dangerously far from actuality. The average runway model has 28% less

body fat than the average woman (the average woman has a BMI of 26.5) and many fall under

the BMI for anorexia, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. This way of

editing photos of people already preened and polished takes perfecting to the next level, a level

that is literally impossible to reach without the help of Photoshop or without dangerously

harming oneself. There is a large gap between reality and the fictional ideals that magazines try

to sell consumers. Companies need to close it by creating ads that are accurate in their portrayal

of the buyers who would benefit from the product.

Moreover, this inaccurate portrayal of the female gender has caused serious distress to the

consumers because it presents them with a person they are supposed to relate to, yet there is

nothing about the model that is relatable or realistic. Despite how impossibly flawless the model

is, the viewer still sees this as an attainable image, which negatively impacts their body image

when they see they look different. In fact, this can trigger anorexic behavior in people

predisposed to the eating disorder. This is no small amount of people. According to the National
Eating Disorder Association, 10 million American women suffered from an eating disorder in

2013 alone. An estimated 1/5th of these people will die prematurely due to health complications

or even suicide. If a companys advertisements are really targeted towards women, it should

understand the effects the ads have on those consumers including potential harm that could come

to them. For ethical reasons, as well as ensuring their companys success, the wellbeing of their

consumers should be in any companys best interest. That is why businesses need to shift their

focus in advertising away from selling impossible ideals and start acknowledging the needs of

their buyers, having healthy models viewers can relate to advertising products.

One might argue that female viewers should understand the separation between the media

and reality, but having that knowledge cannot comfort the damage done to the womens self

esteem. In a survey from People Magazine, 80% of respondents said that the people in

advertisements make them feel insecure about themselves. In another study focusing on girls

teenage and younger, 69% said that the women in advertisements influence their idea of the

perfect body and 47% said seeing them made them want to lose weight. The negative way in

which advertisements affect their female consumers demonstrates how misdirected the ads are. If

they were truly intended for women, the companies would make an effort to send a positive

message to truly benefit women rather than degrade them and cause them anxiety.

To send a message of self love to its consumers, Dove launched a campaign called Real

Beauty in 2004, which creates videos, billboards, and other advertisements to promote body

positivity and encourage women to be comfortable in their own skin. These ads question the

concept of standard beauty and delves further into how it affects women without their even

realizing it. In one video, women are individually brought into a large, almost empty room where
they sit and describe to a sketch artist how they look without him actually looking at them. They

mention many negative aspects of themselves, like how their chin juts out when they smile or

having a fat rounded face. After they leave, a person they met recently describes the

participant in their own way. Then they re-enter the gallery to compare the two pictures. The first

is a bit grotesque while the second is much more accurate. The slogan appearing at the end reads,

You are more beautiful than you think. The three minute version has over 67,000,000 views

while the six minute has nearly 7,000,000. The campaign has resulted in a sales increase from

$2.5 billion to $4 billion. Moreover, the staggering number of people who took interest in their

videos is directly tied to their interest in the subject of body positivity and the comments, which

are hardly anything but support of this video, show how eager they are to discuss it. This

commercials having become one of the most viral ad videos ever clearly means a large portion of

the world (men and women alike) are ready to embrace this new style of pro-confidence

marketing. It would improve the sales of brands and the lives of their consumers, a win-win

result.

The feminine hygiene brand Always has taken a different approach to its marketing for

real women, focusing more on empowerment and disproving degrading stereotypes of the female

gender. They describe their #LikeaGirl program as an epic battle for keeping girls confident by

encouraging them to keep playing sports. They say that 7 out of 10 girls feel they dont belong

in sports and that half quit at puberty, when their confidence plummets. They argue that women

18-24 years of age are twice as confident when they play a sport. When the first video of this

campaign premiered at the Super Bowl, the commercial had 80% praise from the audience, was

ranked the top digital campaign of the sports event, and later won the 2015 Outstanding
Commercial Emmy Award. The video films various people, women and girls and even boys,

responding when they were asked to run like a girl or fight like a girl. The women and boys

did these actions weakly, smoothing their hair after they ran in a prissy way or throwing an

imaginary ball feebly. When the girls were asked, they delivered the actions with much energy

and exertion, working as hard as they could. The video highlights not only the differences

between boys and girls but also between women and girls, giving an informative insight into how

girls mentalities change when they enter womanhood. This advertisements goal is to inspire girls

to stay strong, keep fighting like a girl, and keep their confidence raised through sports.

An important way in which this campaign has been successful is that it targets its

advertisements at an audience which can relate to and benefit from the people in it. They are real

people who have real personalities and experience exactly what the viewers do, particularly in

their realization of this new concept, what it means to do something like a girl. The models

purpose in the ad is more than to just stand there and look pretty. They are there to improve the

lives of their viewers and make positive changes in society, which may be the most empowering

way they could be featured in it and the most empowering message they could send. The Dove

campaign has employed the marketing tactic of female empowerment to their advantage to sell

their products and make women of all ages feel confident in themselves and their gender.

With the remarkable success brands which use these marketing tactics experience, one

would think that other companies would follow their example. But the problematic way

advertisements have been made for so long is rigid and does not seem to be going away. More

companies need to try this technique of body positive and empowering advertising to improve

the unfavorable circumstances women face in society. Advertisers need to include bodily diverse
women with their own, unique standards of beauty to truly represent the majority. It would

benefit not only the companies, but also the female population to see someone they can relate to

promoting products they want to use. Its time to put an end to their suffering and finally set the

bar where everyone can reach it and be happy.