Her, I AM NOT!

I ‘m going to get a better body by buying this magazine!  NOT! 

It’s amazing how much we are influence by advertisements.  I remember when I was in Junior High I would buy all the teen magazines, look at the ads, and then I would go out to the mall in search of those items.  How dumb!  All that money I wasted by trying to copy those girls in those ads.  I never ever looked like them.  I might have dressed like them or tried to be like them but being a teenager and not very skilled in the make-up and hair department, I could never look like them. 

 You’d think as women we would know better to avoid advertisements that influence us to be something or someone that we are not.  Today’s teen girls are still doing what I did in Junior high.  It’s definitely something that is intergenerational. 

Now that I am older, I admit that I am still influenced by ads or commercials that promote “youngness”.  Being in my thirties I am more aware of the wrinkles that creep up on me in the night.  So when I see wrinkle creams in commericials and in magazines I get a little PO’d when they use younger women like the following in this ad for Avotone Anti-wrinkle cream.

 

This girl doesn’t need wrinkle cream, she needs Baby Oil!  To keep her shin soft like a baby!!  (Sorry for the sarcasm, but as if she has one little wrinkle on her body!)

It’s not just that we as women are influenced by these type of ads, its how women are depicted in them and the message that it sends out to the public that is more frustrating!  I by no means am a feminist but I do believe we should all be promoted in a way that is not demeaning to us.  A prime example is the following ad by GUCCI that places the woman below a man.  It gives the depiction that the woman should be down on her knees and be ready to give into all his demands. 

 

I mean women are not all sex objects nor do they want to be.  They do however want to feel sexy and desireable but not in a negative sense, they want to be respected and know that they can buy things or do things that is not going to be damaging to their character. 

The follwing ad shows a group of women that is not at all sexist or demeaning, but promotes healthy images of various types of women.  It also shows that women come in all shapes and sizes and ages.  Sure the picture is touched up a bit (what picture isn’t in magazines) but it does kind of give you the general idea of how positive messages about women can be displayed in advertisements. 

Happy Blogging!

 Cindy