Source: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/gender-ads-1960s

This is an advertisement that I found from the 1960s, that metaphorizes women should not look like a pear, as in have a pear-shaped body silhouette. In addition, the picture of the pear looks like it’s rotten, with black dots on it. From this, it can be inferred that the advertisement makes it seem like any girl, or women, with this body type is unappealing. The ad also has a slogan that says “This is no shape for a girl”, which makes it seem like this body type is unattractive and women shouldn’t have a wider bottom and no top. This ad is problematic because it shows young girls that the “ideal” body should be curvy – having an “hourglass” shaped body (wide top and bottom, with a super slim waist) is what people prefer.

However, women shouldn’t have to make their body a certain way just to please others. They should be able to have any body shape and feel confident in it. Young girls in particular, are sensitive to these kinds of advertisements because these advertisements show young girls what a “perfect body” should look like, and could cause them to feel insecure and have low self-esteem. This, in turn, can lead to girls to try to make themselves look “attractive” by trying all sorts of other false advertisement products, such as diet pills, or supplements that claim to have an effect. Girls should be able to look at advertisements and not feel bad about their physical appearance; they should be able to feel confident and love whatever body shape they have.

For my culture jam assignment, I’ve decided to address the issue of the body shape that is presented in this ad – I believe that girls should not have to conform to a particular body shape just because an advertisement says a certain body type is “perfect” in society.

In my jammed ad, I changed the slogan they had before and changed it to “This is the shape of a girl”, meaning that the pear that is present is just one shape, or form, that women can look like. I also added another statement, “So are these”, as an attempt to show that having a pear-like body is only one body type in the many that can be classified. By adding different fruits onto the ad, I attempted to humorize the “fruit” style body shape. The reason why I added many different fruit shapes is because this could metaphorically mean that women can be of any body shape (or, any fruit) that they want to be. I put a pineapple and a strawberry as a “body shape” because I think that women don’t have to fulfill a certain body shape in order to be attractive to others, hence the unusual, uncommon comparative fruits. I also blurred out the caption at the bottom, to get rid of their advertisement of promoting a bra that will give women what they think is an “ideal” hourglass body shape.

Through the edited advertisement, I wanted to show that there is not only one body shape that is ideal for women, and there is no such thing as a “perfect body”. Women can physically look however they would want to, and a certain body shape does not make the person more, or less attractive than another. Just like people preferring different fruits, it is the same for body types – not everyone will prefer the same body type, thus it is important to feel comfortable with oneself. I also wanted to show young girls that there is no particular body shape that is better than the other, and they shouldn’t be insecure about their bodies just because the way their body looks doesn’t conform to what society thinks is a “perfect” body.