In Medellin, Colombia—a city suffering from an eating disorder epidemic and known for its “Silicone Valley” (i.e. where little girls dream of breast implants and plastic surgery)—one reader stumbled across this realistic mannequin.

Correspondingly, this mannequin was next to a park exhibition of Botero who tends to use plump figures in his works.

Thanks for the submission, Allison!

You can “express yourself” with botox and now you can express yourself with yet another stifling beauty product.

Models demonstrate how best to “landscape” in ad 1, while ad 2 convinces us, in Barney-esque song, that our favorite thing to do is mow the lawn.

Mental health professionals are now attempting to train the brains of people with anorexia to be more flexible and to see the big picture as well as fine details. In doing so, they hope patients will be less inclined to obsess about body weight and calories and be better equipped to overcome their eating disorder in the long term, as well as gaining weight more immediately.

From an article in New Scientist

Another not-so-clever ad using a not-so-subtle sexual innuendo.

I stumbled upon America’s Next Top Model the other night, and yes, I watched it. Some might call that hypocritical, but is it as hypocritical as Tyra Banks’s stand against good girls gone bad? The contending models posed as innocent girls playing childhood games with “bad girls” (a pregnant teen, druggie, etc). See photos here.

I knew I felt a little uncomfortable as Tyra Banks explained her disapproval that girls were growing up too fast; perhaps it’s because her industry has played a major role in that very phenomenon. My feelings were later confirmed when I say the pornographic Calvin Klein Jeans Ad during a commercial break in which topless models engage in a threesome.

How does an ad like this, and the fashion industry in general, influence children to “grow up too fast”?

• “Over a year, children and adolescents spend more time watching TV than any other activity other than sleeping” (91).
• Repeated exposure to such images cause girls to accept them as a “reference points against which to judge themselves” (92).
• Thinness, attractiveness, desirability, happiness, success, and status are linked together, making self-worth reliant upon beauty (92).
• “Studies confirm that social comparison, internalization of the thin ideal, and investment in appearance are related to body dissatisfaction and disturbed eating in adult and adolescent women and girls as young as 8″ (92).
• “Females in developed countries receive a clear message from multiple sources that the female body, much more than the male body, is to be looked at, evaluated, possessed by men, and in, in general, treated as an object” (81).
• “Treating girls as sexual objects in a way that is threatening, dehumanizing, and demeaning might focus girls on their bodies, encourage comparisons to the cultural ideal and to other girls, and ultimately result in body dissatisfaction and low body esteem. In elementary schoolchildren such objectification might take the form of peer teasing that resembles later sexual harassment” (70).

To summarize this, TV is a major influence on children and adolescents. Its messages are prevalent, clear, and destructive: low self image is probably the main cause of girls engaging in risky behavior, and our media encourages this behavior by upholding the beauty standard that causes low self esteem, by making beauty such a high priority, and by convincing minors that such behavior is fun and acceptable.

Quotes pulled from Body Image: A Handbook of Theory, Research, and Clinical Practice by Thomas F. Cash, Thomas Pruzinsky, published by Guilford Press, 2004

I’m not exactly sure why butt cracks are so offensive, especially when one considers Victoria’s Secret’s images in general. As if cloning (probably the Photoshop method used) over this woman’s crack somehow creates the illusion that she’s less naked! Regardless of whether or not you find Victoria’s Secret offensive–does removing the butt crack from this image, and other similar images, actually make one bit of difference?

 Photographers now offer digitally enhanced baby and child photos - correcting smiles, putting in or removing toothy gaps, turning little girls into facsimiles of china dolls. Girlie-sexy culture now entrances more rather than fewer of us.

From the article Why do we need bras for babies?

Does anyone else find it really ironic that Brittany Spears’s video for the song “Womanizer” includes her laying naked in a shower? The director’s cut is even worse.

Yes, I know she got back in shape and wants to show off her body, but come on. You can’t sing a song condemning a guy for being a womanizer when you’re encouraging tens of thousands of men to become womanizers…

Thanks to a friend who sent me this newspaper link. The author actually includes the same Dolce and Gabanna ad shown in demandit.org’s Italian Meat Market documentary, which basically depicts a gang rape scene: “It’s not edgy, it’s ridiculous. This is a gang rape, and any woman that sees those shoes instead of that message deserves those shoes.” Indeed.

This Jockey “feel free” web ad seems to be on the right track. I love that it addresses conformity and makes fun of beauty standards (though the “normal” girl is still probably still a model). Encourage more ads like this one!

http://www.jockey.com/en-US/CustomerService/ContactUs/

Jockey International, Inc.
2300 60th Street
P.O. Box 1417
Kenosha, WI 53141-1417 USA

Phone: 1-800-Jockey1 (weekdays 8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Central)