Article Alert!
Yes, another Article Alert! There is such a plethora of articles on beauty lately that I had to share another one with you.
What: The Skinny on Why Thin is Still In by Joanne Laucius
Where: National Post, Life Section, October 2nd 2008
Laucius tackles the issue of why models are effective in advertisements, why they sometimes make women feel badly about themselves, and why they sometimes make women feel better about themselves. She does a great job of offering up juicy quotes from academic researchers and effectively peppers these throughout the article. She articulates that while the use of thin, beautiful models in advertisements can sometimes make women feel badly about themselves, it increases the value women attach to that brand, which is why they are effective at selling products. The marketing strategy of Dove is dicussed and the issue of thin models and eating disorders is briefly touched on. Not a complete discussion of these issues, but still an informative and interesting article.
The article seems to say that having a model as a role model is a bad thing. Personally, I disagree with this. There are many models who are healthy and contribute in positive ways to society. For example, Liya Kebede and her charity work through the Liya Kebede Foundation. Furthermore, the article calls models “underfed” yet it is tragic anectodal evidence, not research evidence that supports this view. Yes, most models are thin but there is no research evidence that says that most are unhealthy. I’m not trying to say that there are no models with eating problems, I’m just saying that people should not assume that most do when there is no concrete evidence to suggest this is true. For an article that does a good job of citing academic research on beauty and advertising it does a poor job of doing the same when it discusses models. This is an issue worth a more in-depth post that I look forward to sharing and discussing with you at a later date.
What should you take away from this article?
Be media literate – know what you are seeing in magazines, how those images were created, and why those images are there. Use your own power and knowledge to ensure that flipping through a magazine has an overall positive effect on you rather than negative. In the end, you are the person who decides how you are affected by what you see and hear in the world around you. Please don’t fall into the trap of stereotyping models, or any other group of people for that matter. And if you want an Oreo, have one.
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