Reaction to The Beauty Backlash

This film made me realize how often I see advertisements that make many women feel bad about themselves, including me. I often watch television, flip through magazines, and see advertisements everywhere but I have never known the true effects. Advertisements seem to “trick” their audience and find ways to make their consumers feel bad about themselves in order to sell their product. The aftermaths of this video made me raise many questions about myself that I can’t answer.

Reflecting upon my experience with advertisements, typically when I see an advertisement with an extremely beautiful and skinny woman, I will look at the product and see how she is using it. I often judge whether or not the model looks good while using the product. If she does look good while using it, (98 percent of the time she does) I begin to think that I might be able to achieve the model’s level of beauty just by using the product. After looking at the advertisement, when I see myself in the mirror with out the product that is being sold, I begin to think how much better I will look once I buy the product. When the product (usually make-up) doesn’t look as good on me as it did the model, I find the advertisement and try to apply it like the advertisement shows. It never looks quite as good on me as it does on the model. I however look a little better with the make-up on, so I continue to purchase the product.

Reading over the last paragraph that I wrote is very disgusting. I feel my body deserves more credit than I give it when I look at the fake, computer made model seen in advertisements. I have never thought that a petty advertisement can ruin my self esteem. I have always told myself that I am different and not like the girls that feel bad about themselves. Because I use a product to “make me more beautiful” do I fall into that category? I use make-up products because I think I look better with make-up on than without it. Does that mean I think I am ugly? Are the companies doing what they want, hiding messages in their advertisements to get women to buy their products without taking a second thought?

Can advertisements do this? I don’t feel like this should be allowed at all. Making women all over the United States want look just as beautiful, sexy, and wanted as the woman on the advertisement. How many people a day do I see that look like the models on television, or in magazines? I have met a lot of women in my lifetime, and cannot remember meeting someone who is as pretty as the models I see in advertisements. American girls and women are spending money and causing harm to our bodies, only to try and look like someone we have never seen in person before. After this movie and reflection, all I can say is “WOW.”