Advertising, Image of Women in

In the fall of 2006 Spain banned too-thin models from the Madrid Fashion Week, reigniting the discussion
of how fashion’s—and advertising’s—unrealistic beauty standards influence women’s body image, their
actual bodies, their aspirations, and their health. Concerned that advertising has given many women, and
particularly young girls, a narrow definition of beauty, several corporations have begun campaigns to
widen the view of beauty. For example, Dove, which manufactures personal care products, has developed
advertising campaigns portraying the diversity of women’s physical attractiveness, including size and
shape, across all ages.

Sample Motions:
This House believes that thin models are poor role models.
This House abhors the male chauvinistic consumer culture.
This House believes that advertising and fashion must “get real.”

Web Links:
• CommonSenseMedia. <http://www.commonsensemedia.org/news/press-releases.php?id=28>
Summary of relationship between body image and the fashion industry.
• EDReferral.com. <http://www.edreferral.com/body_image.htm> Links to articles and videos on body
image.
• HealthyPlace.com.
<http://www.healthyplace.com/communities/eating_Disorders/body_image_advertising.asp>
Discussion of eating disorders and advertising.
• USAToday.com. <http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-09-25-thin-models_x.htm>
Newspaper article on the debate en-gendered by Spain’s ban on ultra-thin models.

Further Reading:
Bordo, Susan, and Leslie Heyword. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, 10th
ed. University of California Press, 2004.
Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. Harper Perennial, 2002.
Wykes, Maggie, and Barrie Gunter. The Media and Body Image: If Looks Could Kill. Sage, 2005.
PROS
1. Consumer advertising projects an unrealistic
ideal of the female body shape. The vast majority
of advertising uses female models whose key
features (e.g., thinness, particular figure,
unblemished complexion) do not correspond to
most women’s bodies. This can create false
expectations on the part of women and their
partners, as well as society at large. The portrayal
of women in advertising is also highly stylized and
can significantly distort the connection viewers
make between what they see in an advertisement
and what women actually look like and experience
in daily life.
2. Much advertising is filtered through a male lens
and, even if targeted at women, can reinforce an
unbalanced, male chauvinistic view of women as
sex objects. We see this in the fact that most
advertising uses young, attractive female models—
even for products both men and women use (e.g.,
cars).
3. Advertising featuring beautiful women plays on
female insecurities, linking beauty and success
with consumption. Through its near-relentless
focus on “ideal” body-type models, advertising also
pressures women into conforming to a “perfect”
body. This increases the likelihood of eating
disorders, as well as the pursuit of unnecessary
cosmetic surgery, anti-ageing treatments, etc.
4. Consumer advertising negatively objectifies
women, conforming to a misogynist perception of
women as commodifiable sexual objects. Most
advertising also uses models with a fairly
homogenous set of physical characteristics and
CONS
1. Advertising allows a form of escapism that
many women welcome and, indeed, pursue. As
with most artistic media, an implicit understanding
exists that what is depicted does not necessarily
mirror real life— and to many viewers this is the
very attraction of the images.
Models reflect how many women want to be,
which is why they are used to advertise fashion in
the first place. Women welcome such pictures as a
way of affirming their own focus on certain
elements of aesthetic attractiveness. The glamour
of the fashion industry in general and its
advertising campaigns in particular is a welcome
antidote to the humdrum existence many women
lead. Women are grateful for the chance to
fantasize about a glamorous, fashionable lifestyle.
2. Arguing that advertisers must choose between
portraying women either as aesthetically perfect,
sexually attractive objects or as thinking human
beings is a false choice. Models’ beauty in no way
undermines their intellectual capacity. The use of
female models in consumer advertising actually
empowers women. The successful models who
attract media attention are role models for many
women. Women are important consumers; media
focus on portraying them in a certain light because
advertisers are trying to cater to their interests.
3. The use of female models in advertising aimed
at women is the inevitable response to market
demand. Women want to see other women in ads.
Through their ongoing consumption of and
demand for pictures of “perfect” bodies, women
effectively signal a tacit acceptance of such images.
If enough women objected, advertisers would
change their approach rather than alienate their
target consumers.
4. Advertising and the fashion industry vary the
kind of images they use to suit different markets.
Advertising follows social norms; it does not set
them. The fashion industry is innocent of the
charge of homogeneity as it draws models from
styles them so that they are often interchangeable. ethnic minorities, thus promoting a more diverse
This approach emphasizes the view of women as view of beauty. Also, advertisers are beginning to
objects. use models with more “natural” bodies; as we saw
in fall 2006, a backlash has begun against ultra-thin
models.