Quick question – does it bother anyone else that Carl’s Jr. commercials are increasingly disturbing forays into soft core porn? Because the fact that a fast-food bag is the only thing separating a supermodel’s vagina from the camera is clearly no longer advertising to peoples’ stomach: somewhere lower, perhaps.
And it’s not only the nether regions that are being marketed to; it’s the insidious attack on our minds that we need to be worried about. We’ve allowed our values to be shaped by the assault of society – watch an hour of television and tally the number of commercials featuring women scantily clad, lips parted suggestively, clearly made to look like a car/hamburger/stick of deodorant is the most erotic thing they’ve ever seen. These are images we’ve somehow come to accept as commonplace. We’ve gone so long without questioning them that it has become acceptable, even passé, each commercial attempting to out-hot the next with women that are unrealistically gorgeous and oozing sex.
That said, I am a sex-positive person. Two consenting adults with a predetermined set of boundaries is fine, whatever. But when we have children who grow up in a world where some fast food commercials might as well be competing with the porn industry, they grow up thinking that perfection is the norm. Without being told that this on-screen perfection is the work of airbrushes and surgery.
The instinct is to point to parents, tell them that they aren’t doing a good job of filtering the world that their kids know as reality. But the parents are victims, too. Herein lies my real point; if the parents can’t tell the difference between grossly inappropriate and acceptable (or, even worse, don’t care) then how do children have a fighting chance at growing up without being emotionally damaged?
I cannot, or, rather, I refuse to believe that I am the only one whose fingers find themselves in fists when walking past Hollister. More precisely, walking past the Hollister models. What’s worse is that they don’t know that they’re pawns of a greater evil. They’re not selling clothing, hell, they don’t have on enough clothes to be advertising clothing. There comes a certain point when you have to realize that there’s something else afoot. It’s not mere advertising when two guys lounge around the Hollister storefront of the mall with their six pack abs on display. Wearing swim trunks. In the winter. They want you to believe that their store provides the image guys and girls alike have been raised by the media to covet: waif-like girls with perfect hair and their bronzed, ripped boyfriends.
In 1979, there was a documentary exploring the media’s impact on women. It was called “Killing Us Softly.” In 2010, the “Killing Us Softly 4” was released, with many of the same criticisms and contemporary examples. This means that for 31 years, a point has been made that people must simply not be getting. It’s similar to the very point I’m making now. There shouldn’t even be a need for 30+ years of the same series just trying to get itself heard.
Children raised by the glow of the TV screen grow into the insecure teenager vying for that unattainable perfection. Teenagers turn into ignorant adults who allow their children to become the targets of billboards, magazines, music videos, etc. On goes the cycle. Please, for the love of god, just think. Question. Dare to spit out the gruel of Supermodels ‘n Sex Objects being poured down society’s throat. Statistics from National Institute of Mental Health have shown eating disorders affect more than 5 million Americans each year. According to the American Anorexia and Bulimia Association, approximately 1,000 women a year die because of an eating disorder. And still, still it’s alright to provide the world with the unattainable holy grail of perfection.
This might sound like the bitter ranting of the ugly girl, sad she hasn’t found a mold to fit into. Maybe it is. But make no mistake, I don’t think people should look like me. I just think people should look more carefully at the standards they’re perpetuating, realizing that as we allow each generation to travel passively down the conveyer belt of media influence, they’re coming out the other side more damaged and insecure than the last.
