Change the image of beauty-Post 3

We look to media for value; everything we see and hear around us influences who we are and who we strive to be. It presents for many in society "an endless struggle for gender self definition" according to Susan Douglas. Advertisement is one of media's biggest influential tools. Advertisement, according to Jean Kilbourne is basically national distributed peer pressure, "perhaps the most powerful educational force in society."
More than simply selling products, advertisements sell images and concepts that causes consumers to question and scrutinize themselves. Advertisers play upon our insecurity to get us to by product.According to Douglas, advertising strategies involve having "our deepest aspirations and anxieties carefully and relentlessly researched. then they're repackaged and sold back to us as something we can simply get by watching or buying." Advertisers employ stick thin beautiful models who are usually even further airbrushed to convey and appealing unattainable image; the "perfect provocateur" according to Anthony Cortese, whose "accepted attractiveness" is her only attribute. This image is unreal and yet because it's the image consumers are constantly being bombarded with ["blue eyed blondes seductively touting variety of products"-Kilbourne], it's the image that so many consumers, women, try to emulate. It presents a beauty myth that needs to be changed.
First we need to change the main tool of advertising, which involves exploiting the sexuality of a woman to play into the fantasy for the consumers. Women are depicted as objects to be subjected to the will of men. They are often scantily clad, striking inviting poses with suggestive look, sometimes next to sexually suggestive captions. Some advertisements portray women as sexual toys or victims of violence showing images depicting dominance and dismemberment of the female body [Kilbourne].

(http://thegirlrevolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/deadgirlad.jpg)
It's advertising's approach to reduce women to sexual objects, causing the average woman to be "conditioned to view her face as a mask [something you up on] and her body as an object" according to Kilbourne. Women are dehumanized, often portrayed as "dependent, passive, nurturing types, uninterested in competition, achievement or success, who should conform to wishes of men in their lives"(Douglas). Women are far more than this, ["we could be rebellious, tough, enterprising and shrewd"-Douglas], which advertisements have began to portray but as a myth. this image should become more than just a myth signaling 'progress' but the new provocateur.
The advertisement above features a female race car driver, Danica Patrick. In 2008, Patrick became the first woman to win the Indy Car Race. Besides being a super competitive driver, Patrick is also a model and has been on numerous list for sexiest women in the world. Here in this advertisement, she is full clothed and still portrays sexiness. She is looking up rather than down which is the characteristic of many advertisement, showing women as weak and passive. On the contrary, Patrick looks confident and strong in her athletic gear. She isn't smiling, but she still a picture of radiance and beauty. In this advertisement is appealing without presenting herself in a way to be objectify. This should become the norm rather than having half naked subjects, especially in advertisement where it is not necessary (as opposed to how it is necessary in Victoria Secret advertisements).
In this advertisement, this image of Patrick is alluring to both the male and female eye because while she is exuding sexiness, her image is still one that is chaste, she has a look of power but it's not intimidating, she appears meek while still representing a female who demands respect. Instead of being a contradiction of the two image of women that exist in society, she embodies both; furthermore this advertisement shows that women can convey more than just superficial beauty in advertisement but they can also show that they stand for something. There needs to be more advertisements such as this; advertisements that highlight the success of women instead of their insecurities/failures, advertisements that positively influence young girls and change the standard of beauty that has been established by mainstream media advertisements. These celebrities and models need to find new ways of being appealing and selling product without selling negative ideals; and one way to start is by not depicting such over-sexed imagery.