Over the course of the past month I have done much research to try to find an answer to a very important question, what effect are advertisements having on young women’s perception of beauty? At the time of my first post, I believed that advertisements were a large part in decreasing the self esteem of young women. Throughout the posts following this, I discovered that advertisements are more to blame than I first thought. Not only are they causing harm to self esteem, they are partly to blame for the self harm and eating disorders that adolescents take part in. I also was surprised to discover that men, as well as women, are affected by advertisements. I now know that even if it is not in the same way that young women are affected, men still feel self conscious when faced with advertisements that make them question their appearance.
I found much research and many pieces of writing which helped me to understand the depth to which advertisements effect young women. While I did technically find an answer to the effects advertisements are having, I am left somewhat unsatisfied. All of my research has lead to many more questions. What I am most interested in now, is when did the vision of beauty change from curvaceous to very thin? And who decides what is beautiful and what is not?
If this assignment would have been longer, I would have liked to explore not only the effects advertisements have, but what has caused advertisements and the representation of what is considered beautiful to change throughout the years. During our next assignment, I would like to argue that advertisements should do more to help young women with their self esteem, and grow to include more “average” looking women rather than those who are airbrushed to perfection.
Although this blogging assignment has come to an end, I plan to continue some occasional research to find more effects advertisements have on young women’s perception of beauty. I am, and will continue to be interested in this topic, and I enjoyed this blogging assignment very much.
Absolutely! Good for you for discussing this! The ridiculous body image that most women have because of the "standard" that the media pushes on us is sad, to say the least. Marilyn Monroe was said to be a size 16 and she is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful women of our time. I was very excited to see the Dove Beauty Campaign that was used a couple of years ago that used "average" women instead of stick figures. While I am not over weight I have to eat right and exercise to stay that way. Sometimes I just want to eat some cake.
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