Killing Us Softly-IV

I wasn’t really surprised about anything that was presented in this documentary, however, I did make note of a statement made by Ranu Crain:

Only 8% of an ad’s message is received by the conscious mind. The rest is worked and reworked deep within the recesses of the brain.

This is concerning because we spend about 30% of a given day sleeping and this is when the rework occurs. So our minds are being conditioned while we sleep.

Women are subjected to an “ideal beauty” that isn’t even real or physically possible without becoming a statistic. Unfortunately, this video was a trigger for me and at one point I had to stop watching it. I have known people who have suffered from eating disorders ultimately dying from conditions inherent to disorders like anorexia nervosa. In addition, women and men are demoralized through this “ideal beauty”. Self-esteem and self-worth are jeopardized. I have identified three negative consequences related to the "ideal beauty" standards:

• Affects the self-esteem of women
• Men judge women based on the ideal woman
• Individuals become dehumanized

This “ideal beauty” includes the need to be thin and Kilbourne describes this obsession as the “cult of thinness.” This obsession is about cutting girls down to size – to aspire to become nothing. Yesterday's sex symbols would be considered fat by today's standards. Models keep getting thinner and thinner. If they are not thin enough, Photoshop is used to make them appear thinner. This is troublesome. I have five daughters who were very thin when they were in junior high and high school and they were considered quite pretty. As adults, they have gained a little weight and they look healthier.

I was very much like them when I was in high school. I was one of those girls that thought thinner was better and I worked very hard to stay thin. I would get so excited when I finally fit into a size 3 Levi. As a mother, I am concerned about the health of my daughters and worked hard to make sure that they don’t feel the need to purge or starve themselves. I am also a grandmother and I look at my granddaughters, who have taken after my husband's side of the family, and worry that as they get older that they may become self-conscious about their size. They are strong sturdy girls and will be over six feet tall. Like Jennifer Newsome, I am concerned for them. I don’t want them to think or feel that they are not beautiful because they are not paper thin.

Kilbourne addresses several issues in her film Killing Me Softly and the “cult of thinness”. Pop culture delights in ridiculing and mocking celebrities who’ve gained weight. The body type that we see in advertisements as acceptable or desirable is one that fewer than 5% of American women have. My younger sisters would have been a part of the 5% when they were teenagers. This was due to a thyroid condition. One of my favorite actresses, Kate Winslet, was discussed in this film, sharing that she has been outspoken about her refusal to allow Hollywood to dictate her weight. When British GQ magazine digitally enhanced her photograph to make her look thinner, she issued a statement saying,

I don’t look like that, and, more importantly, I don’t desire to look like that. I can tell you they’ve reduced the size of my legs by about a third.

However, there are other celebrities who endorse weight loss products and women are continuously bombarded with ads for products that promise weight loss. However, diet products are often dangerous, and at best they do not work. 95% of dieters not only regain whatever weight they lose within five years, but they also go on to gain more. Even with an educated consumer base, these products remain on the shelves. Obesity is a major public health problem: 1/3 of Americans are obese, and 2/3 are overweight. Obesity leads to cardiovascular disease as well as diabetes. Kilbourne states that we need to transform our attitudes as a culture about food and about the way we eat, but that’s very difficult to do in a culture that teaches all of us to hate our bodies.

The sexualization of bodies in advertisements has always been distasteful to me. I have a good friend who was a print model for a hot rod magazine. She is incredibly beautiful and was often sought after. It had become an issue when we both worked at a bank as tellers. Men would recognize her, giving her unwanted attention. Because of this attention, her husband would often have fits of jealous rage, leaving marks on her body.

The objectification of women in advertising is detrimental to society and often leads to violence. Women are no longer looked upon as a person but as an object to possess or control. Oftentimes this control develops into domestic violence and sexual assault. Many of my family members have been sexually assaulted and the shame has always been placed on the victim. I recall making a note while watching the Killing Us Softly video that media has generated and nourished a toxic cultural environment that not only is damaging to girls and women but to boys and men. Rather than accepting individuals as they are, we judge appearances against an ideal standard that is neither realistic nor even true.