Unrealistic Body Standards For Women Essay

I would first of all like to say thank you for all the time and effort you’ve quite obviously put in to making my voice heard about your appalling advertisements; thank you for all the emails you’ve never personally answered, but instead have had another employee respond with “we appreciate you bringing this matter to our attention”. Thank you for all the phone calls you have passed on to yet another employee to answer for you. And finally, I’d like to thank you for creating advertising campaigns that not only demean women in general, but suggest unrealistic body standards for young women and girls. Thank you for producing advertisements that are contributing to the creation of a generation of self-conscious females, of women who are seen by

As I’m sure you know, the issues of inequality, sexism, misogyny, gender rights, and women’s roles in society in relation to men are prominent issues in our world. Women are being objectified in advertisements, especially your advertisements, from increasingly younger ages with every coming year.

In 1990, it was only women from the ages of 20 or 25 who were your company’s target audience. When did Victoria’s Secret begin selling to 15 year old girls? Your company’s provocative, sexualised, and offensive advertisements have aided the increased sexualisation, objectification, exploitation, and deconstruction of young girls and women. You have told them through your advertisements that they should be half naked and have a specific body type (a sometimes unhealthy, unrealistic body type) to be considered sexy in the eyes of our patriarchal society.

Being bombarded by advertisements with the words “Be a summer bombshell”, or “Are you a heart breaker?” takes its toll on self-conscious girls growing up in a world where they’re being told exactly how to look in order to be accepted, liked, looked at, admired, or adored, in order to get attention. Your advertisements convince women and girls that it is socially acceptable, socially required, even, to sexualise themselves in order to get attention. From whom?