Barbie : My Scene doesn’t leave you much choice.
At least in 1985 Barbie wanted to be a disco-dancing astronaut:
You’ve come a long way, Barbie!
Excerpt:
On the touchy subject of implants, Playboy’s policy seems to be don’t ask, don’t tell. We plotted each model’s bust size (chest circumference at the fullest points) and cup size (breast volume) for all years that data were available (early ’90s to now). While busts have shrunk faster than your 401(k), cup size has remained a buxom C or D. We don’t think evolution can explain this phenomenon.
Full article here.
From scientificblogging.com.
Excerpt:
In the first-ever study of food advertisements in UK magazines, researchers found them filled with sugary, salt-filled options often contradicting the health messages the articles were trying to put across.
Full article here.
From scientificblogging.com.
Excerpt:
This kind of sexualization of ‘tween girls – defined as those between the ages of 8 and 12 – in pop culture and advertising is a growing problem fueled by marketers’ efforts to create cradle-to-grave consumers, a University of Iowa journalism professor argues in her new book.
“A lot of very sexual products are being marketed to very young kids,” said Gigi Durham, author of The Lolita Effect. “I’m criticizing the unhealthy and damaging representations of girls’ sexuality, and how the media present girls’ sexuality in a way that’s tied to their profit motives. The body ideals presented in the media are virtually impossible to attain, but girls don’t always realize that, and they’ll buy an awful lot of products to try to achieve those bodies. There’s endless consumerism built around that.”
(Emphasis mine)
Full article here.
The Lolita Effect on Amazon.
From the Sidney Morning Herald:
Welcome to the new face of teen magazines. Indigo, a magazine started by a group of women in Victoria last year and headed by Barwon Heads mother Leanne Koster, emphasises real girls and their achievements, not celebrities and fashion.
The most recent issue included images of everyday girls and their stories, interviews with successful young women, pieces about the environment as well as creative activity ideas.
The philosophy behind the magazine? “When girls flick through the pages of the mag, they can see themselves,” editor Freya Holland says.
The launch of Indigo came in a year when teen mags stopped simply being hot property in schools and became the subject of intense public scrutiny.
The federal Minister for Youth, Kate Ellis, spoke out about the devastating effects of poor body image, linking the problem to the types of media girls and young women consume. Ellis announced a National Media and Industry Code of Conduct on Body Image, which demands labelling of airbrushed images in women’s magazines and the diversification of models’ size and shape.
Full article here.
Every morning I have a ritual: scanning the press (American, British, French and Italian) for news about the beauty industry, mass media, and advertising. Recently, I jumped on the Google Alert bandwagon and now my job is far easier: emails about “plastic surgery,” “dieting,” “airbrushing,” and “KGOY” (Kids Getting Older Younger) neatly make their way into my inbox, sending me off in unexpected directions, making me check out sites all over the blogosphere and from small newspapers I didn’t previously know about.
This morning, I received an alert about “breast implants” that directed me to a blog – Boy Culture – which had a post about unretouched photos of Madonna from a Steven Klein photoshoot (original post here). By digging through the site’s archive, I found a previous post with more photos from the same photoshoot (you can find it here).
Now, what impressed me the most was not Madonna’s unsightly appeareance – the blog author doesn’t spare compliments, saying, ” Madonna looked like sh*t in a freezer.” I didn’t gasp at the uncomfortable poses, age-inappropriate outfits, or at her wrinkles. No. What shocked me the most about these photos was a palpable sense of vulnerability: she looked raw, exposed, weak, offering herself up to the photographer’s lens. Her eyes just about killed me. They seemed to be pleading, “I’m 50, please make me look good.”
I remember how fiery and feisty she was throughout 1990s. Then came a revolution in Hollywood and a newfound cultural obsession with teen stars. And Madonna, chamaleon-like, kept reinventing herself to appeal to a young public. And she hasn’t stopped. Now at 50, after a career of extraordinary commercial success in the music world, and iconic status for many followers, she is still selling herself as a sexual object. And looking increasingly out of place.
When I saw the photos, I though of an Ariel Levy quote (from her book Female Chauvinist Pigs):
“There is a disconnect between sexiness or hotness and sex itself. [...] Our interest is in the appearance of sexiness, not the existence of sexual pleasure. [...] Passion isn’t the point. The glossy, overheated thumping of sexuality in our culture is less about connection than consumption. Hotness has become our cultural currency.”
Why? Because I remember Madonna’s controversial statements in the 1990s, her provocative music videos, her book Sex, her album Erotica. Back then, she was talking about sexual pleasure. For marketing purposes, sure, but still, her message was about sex itself – just think about her video for the song “Justify My Love.”
Well, now I feel she is virtually indistinguishable from other musicians thumping sexuality in a completely superficial way, merely selling the appearance of sexiness for visual consumption, as Ariel Levy would say.
At 50, she should have known better.
ADDENDUM:
I’m eagerly awaiting for a day when girls will have a young positive female role model who is not a singer or an actress. Someone known for her intellectual acumen – not her body. Somebody fostering a real change in the world. (I nominate Naomi Klein).
Tristesse.
Most depressing quote, about a 13 year old who wants to get breast implants:
(Announcer, V.O.)
And Jemma doesn’t just want bigger breasts. She wants them to look like they’re fake.
Feeling incredibly sad and outraged for 2 main reasons:
#1 – these teenage girls want to go under the knife at an age when they are not yet fully aware of the long-term repercussions of such serious surgery
#2 – for big media, who, by deciding to broadcast a program about teen plastic surgery, without the participation of experts weighing in, are essentially normalizing this behavior, making it appear a viable option. Totally irresponsible on their part. Where is Germaine Greer?
Messing with ads in subways is becoming an artform, but this “Photoshopping” of ads in Berlin takes things to the next level by creating a Photoshop interface with stickers. This is pitch-perfect adbusting right here.
via Gizmodo.
Check out the rest of the gallery on Flickr.
American researchers are convinced the weekend bombardment of music videos containing images of skinny, semi naked models in sexual poses is damaging teenagers.
Once, music clips were a pure form of entertainment.
Now it seems it’s almost impossible to find a family-friendly clip.
…Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard, says …”It always concerns me when the images of very young people or children are sexualised. I think a childhood should be a childhood that should be replicated in our media and in the way in which we live. We should let boys and girls grow up with all the special innocence that childhood has,” says Gillard.
Whenever I discuss the issues of beauty, self image and the media – in a critical way – people instantly mention the Dove campaign for “Real Beauty,” invariably saying, “Wasn’t that wonderful, for a change?” Yes. And no. Because (a) it was heavily retouched in Photoshop by Pascal Dangin (b) Dove is owned by Unilever, which sells Slim Fast and the #1 skin whitening cream brand in Asia (c) the ultimate purpose of the ad is to sell a product – and smartly so, by differentiating the brand with the illusion that what they care about is real beauty (their sales shot up 700% in the UK with the – albeit retouched – Pro Age campaign showing older women). For more on Dove’s corporate hypocrisy, check out this earlier post: “An Egregious Example of Corporate Hypocrisy: Dove’s “Real Beauty” Campaign.”
Indeed, if you examine it closely, a Chomsky quote would be really appropriate regarding Dove’s “Real Beauty” (Photoshopped) campaign:
One of the ways you control what people think is by creating the illusion that there’s a debate going on, but making sure that that debate stays within very narrow margins.
Now, criticism aside, once every blue moon a campaign comes out carrying a positive, empowering message to women with no strings attached. No products to sell. No corporate image to make-over. Just pure, undiluted positivity. It’s the case of the award winning PSAs by the wonderful organization Girls Inc.
Their YouTube page does not allow embedding the video on external sites, so click on the link below to open up the video in a new window:
The first time I watched it, it almost made me choke up…
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