Cherry Xu

When we read a magazine, watch a television program, or glimps a commercial, we receives messages about how women should look, act, and behave. Nowadays, women shape their social values, behaviours, tastes and preferences based on what they see on advertisements from TV, magazines, newspapers and websites. The most common images people see from advertisements are skinny beautiful women selling fashionable products.

I recent read a research article, it shows that “The average woman sees 400 to 600 advertisements per day, and by the time she is 17 years old, she has received 250,000 commercial messages through the media”. In addition, “Only small amount of commercials have a direct statement about beauty, but many more focus on the importance of beauty”. This constant exposure to pretty women-oriented advertisements are influencing girls to become self-conscious about their bodies and appearances. Media conveys many behaviors, including regular exposure of a “perfect” appearance, one few women can ever attain. Women are influenced, and under constant pressure to be thin and beautiful. I think women are both physically and mentally affected by pursing perfect images.  Physically, the ideal images of women that advertisements portray affect women’s eating behavior and desire to diet. Mentally, women value their worth or self identity by their appearances.

I think the media should stop conveying the idea of the importance of women being beautiful and slim. Instead, marketers should use the power of media to deliver  healthy messages which can improve our quality of life.