May 03, 2010
Media and its impacts on self esteem/self worth.
By
Dalya
At our last months WAVAW youth advisory meeting our topic of conversation for the evening was about media and its impacts on self esteem/self worth.
We watched a film directed by Sut Jhally with Jean Kilbourne called "Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising's Image of Women" and then went on to discuss an item that a co-worker had brought into the office...the "Super Model Gum" (image above).
I asked youth who were interested, to write about what they thought of the gum packaging. It seemed so blatantly obvious to me that it was merely re-inscribing messages to young girls, that they must be thin and starve themselves to be noticed and hold value in the world, but I was curious about what our youth thought.
Here is what one of our youth advisory members wrote:
I think I have a pretty good sense of humour. I’m not particularly uptight, and I laugh at well executed jokes, even (and especially) if they can be politically incorrect. This is why when I first laid my eyes on the “supermodel” gum, I chuckled, thinking that it was a satirical gag gift. But then I thought about what a younger, more desperate girl would think. The gum’s packaging is not overtly satirical; it very well may be totally serious. To someone willing to abandon all reason in order to pursue the ‘perfect body’, it may appear to be a genuine product. The instructions do say that it should be used as a meal replacement, and no where on the box does it indicate that it is a joke. To make things worse, the gum was being sold at Icing, by Claire’s, a chain store very popular with tween girls.
The problem of eating disorders amongst pre-teen and teen girls is not a hush-hush subject. Thanks to awareness campaigns by companies such as Dove (although one could question Dove’s sincerity, seeing as how they’re sister companies with Axe), the majority of the population is not ignorant to the plight of dieting nine-year-olds, already brainwashed into thinking that thin is in at such a young age. However, just because this issue is now more public than ever, doesn’t mean that it’s okay for corporations to joke about it. Anorexia nervosa and bulimia are very serious diseases. They aren’t phases. Anorexia has the highest mortality rate out of all psychiatric disorders at 20% - that means 1 in 5 anorexics will eventually die of the disease. This isn’t a funny matter, the same way that malaria isn’t a funny matter. If a corporation were to release a product belittling the one million people who die each year from malaria, they would receive thousands of scathing replies. However, because our culture treats eating disorders as subpar in seriousness to other diseases, products like "supermodel" gum are released into the mass market for consumption. Consequently, more and more people begin thinking that eating disorders are a natural part of being female, that the “5’9 97-pound figure” as the box’s packaging so aptly describes is actually what all women strive to be, and that even if all this were true, it’s really okay.
To anybody who hasn’t heard the retching sound of a teenage girl who determines her worth on her weight: it’s really not.
This of course begs the question...are there enough positive images and ideas of femaleness out in the media or advertising world? Where in our society do we support young women and girls to foster a healthy body image and a really believe they have worth in our world?
Next month WAVAW's Youth Advisory looks at "Masculinity" stay tuned!!
Tag(s):
Feminism,
Gender,
Media Activism,
Social Justice,
Teens and Dating,
Violence Against Women and Girls,
WAVAW,
Youth
On May 06, 2010 at 11:06 AM Sarah Davies wrote:
Great post. I'm looking forward to hearing more about the project!
Sarah Davies
Fundraising and Marketing Coordinator
Women Against Violence Against Women Rape Crisis Centre
www.wavaw.ca
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