Essay --

Kierra Spaulding Media Criticism 3/11/2014 Professor Seong Min Reaction Paper: Killing Us Softly 4 I agree a great deal with the films idea of the media distorting the images of women. In the beginning of the film Jean Kilbourne states that, â€Å"the average American is exposed to over 3,000 ads every single day†. Thus, the advertising industry has the power to impact our outlook on many things in society including women. The issue is that advertisers are not looking out for our best interest; their main goal is to increase profit. As a result, individuals are physically, mentally, and emotionally affected by our culture’s unrealistic ideal image of beauty. I believe that we are constantly presented with this falsehood in the media about loving our bodies; only if our bodies are conveniently situated in what society finds attractive. For example, back in 2010, Victoria’s Secret launched the â€Å"Love Your Body† campaign. While it is very important to encourage everyone to love their body, the women depicted in the campaign all have the same body type. There is nothing wrong with their body type which is considered very slender, tall, long legs, and toned. The issue is that this is the only body presented in the campaign which makes women with other body types feel inferior and not of value. To this day, Victoria’s Secret still chooses to use this particularly slender body type to advertise their lingerie and such. Contrary to Victoria’s Secret, Dove started â€Å"The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty† in 2004. The campaign was started due to the fact that it was necessary to broaden the idea of beauty because it had become limiting and unattainable. The campaign included women of all different sizes as opposed to Victor... ...le more aware of these issues. However, the problems are still not being fixed. In fact, due to the unrealistic ideals of what a women’s body should look like, there are an enormous number of girls starting as young as 6 who hate their bodies to the extent of skipping dinner. Females are driven to the point of anorexia, bulimia, as well as binge eating. Women go on extreme diets that are not realistic to stay healthy causing them to go on excessive binges which in return are even worse. The statement â€Å"If looks could kill† can actually be taken literally because women are trying to â€Å"look† the part while unfortunately killing themselves emotionally, mentally, and physically. Sources Dove Campaign http://www.dove.us/social-mission/campaign-for-real-beauty.aspx Victoria’s Secret Campaign http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/01/victorias-secret-launches_n_480435.html