The Original:
This advertisement depicts a woman with the “ideal” beach body, promoting a weight loss collection. The issue that I will be addressing in my culture jam assignment will be body shaming and societies idea of the perfect body.
After analyzing this advertisement, I was struck with disbelief that a company would intentionally body shame people into purchasing their products. The text, “are you beach body ready,” suggests the fact that if you do not look like the woman in the picture, you are not fit enough to show off your body. This is completely absurd for the main reason being the majority of women in the world do not look like that. The model in this image is seen to have a toned stomach, thin arms, and skinny legs. It is images like this that increase the likelihood of a women having insecurities about her body because she does not fit the stereotypical idea of the perfect physique. Young, impressionable girls who have to see this advertisement will unconsciously associate beauty based on this false display of a women’s body. This may lead to many women and girls to suffer from eating disorders in order to be happy with their bodies.
Furthermore, the advertisement is to promote a weight loss collection. Therefore, the company is stating that if you do not fit the shape of this women, you have to loss weight. I find this to be a major issue because it is a direct target towards people’ s insecurities about their bodies, in hopes that it will compel people to buy their products. This exploitation of people’s insecurities is harmful to society as it promotes an unrealistic standard that women are expected to uphold.
Overall, this advertisement is a direct example of the use of body shaming in today’s society to attract consumers to buy weight loss products.
My Jammed Version:
I made significant changes to the original advertisement to display a powerful message that every body type is beautiful.
The first change I made was with regards to the text. I chose to use the words “every bodies ready” to showcase that women of all shapes and sizes should feel confident in their body to show it off. From a young age, I remember playing with Barbie dolls and I unknowingly conceptualized the image of a perfect girl as tall and skinny. When I went through a chubby stage in middle school I was very self conscious with my body and I hated going to the pool or the beach because I knew I had to wear a bathing suit. A young girl should never have to worry about her weight but society indirectly programs our brains into associating beauty with thin. Therefore, I found it essential to showcase through the text that everybody is perfect. It sounds cliché but everybody is perfect if they are happy with who they are.
Furthermore, I decided to remove the image of the “perfect” model and replaced it with four unique body types that vary in shape and size. I thought that it would be important to include an image that displayed realistic body types of women because this is reality. In the real world, women are all different. There is not one specific shape that all women fit. Some may be curvy or skinny, tall or short. I do not think society has a right to label what it beautiful and what is not. For instance, who determines whether a thigh gap is considered hideous or attractive? Advertisements, like the original one I included, do not have the right to promote weight loss if a woman does not fit their mould of the “perfect” woman. The four women in the picture above are all unique and vary in size. What links them together is the fact that they are confident in their bodies and are ALL beach body ready.
