It’s not very hard to find an ad within our culture that comes across as offensive or just plain unnecessary. This topic happens to be a major struggle in my own life. I fear for a world with no boundaries, a world that never questions morals, character, or respect. What happened to the world that did? It’s been a rare commodity for these characteristics to be seen in our culture and media as I have grown up in a violent, dirty, and sexual society in which seeing and hearing these things was simply unavoidable. What a sad reality.
The ads and articles that specifically bother me are those that portray and show extremely sexy women in an unrealistic and completely false way. Since when did eating a Big Carl lead to having THAT body, in THAT bikini, with THOSE heels on? I don’t think so. I understand that sex sells. It’s a sad reality when we can’t even go and see a movie unless some girl shows a little (which is now A LOT) of skin. There is absolutely no respect within this skewed picture of what’s simply called “advertisement.” First of all, it’s disrespectful from the men in our world that have resorted to presenting a practically naked woman on the screen to increase your sales of cheeseburgers. (DISCLAIMER: sorry guys, the girl DOES NOT come in the bag). Secondly, do women have any self-respect for themselves anymore? It makes me so sad as I watch these women explicitly display their bodies as they think and have come to believe that THIS is what will make them “socially accepted”. That is such a lie! I hope that women can one day regain the dignity that they truly deserve and should have.
With all of that said, I don’t think that individual lives are being considered as these things are being filmed, photographed, or displayed. I can’t help but feel completely inadequate as I sit next to my boyfriend (who thankfully chooses to look away) as Kim Kardashian sensually roles around in her silk sheets as she devours her grilled chicken sandwich. What about ALL of the other men who are not like my amazing boyfriend, as they feast their eyes on this kind of cheeseburger?! Millions of poor men are being spoon-fed an absolute false image of the “perfect” woman. A woman that most of us girls look at and think, “I could never look like that.” I KNOW I sure can’t. I stand 5’9, significantly white (unless I focus a lot of energy into changing that…which I don’t), with a face that has decided to sprout a wonderful world of ever-present acne, and let’s not even get started on the size of my boobs. Ha. The fact is that our world has established this standard for women that ultimately says, “if you don’t look like this, you’re not sexy enough.” And the funny thing is that honestly, most of the people that know me or see me constantly tell me how talented or beautiful I am or that I would never have any reason to feel insecure in these areas. However, it has been a constant battle for me to even establish that in my mind as these waves of stomach churning insecurity hit me. I understand why these beautiful young girls are hanging their heads over the toilet puking themselves to “perfection.” GIRLS: hear me loud and clear; don’t believe the lies that our world is telling you. YOU are beautiful just as YOU are. Don’t change that.
These are the reasons that I believe that this ad, and many more just like it, should be taken out of circulation. We are going to drive ourselves to destruction. If we don’t stop, our scarce and slight lines that we have are going to soon disappear and there won’t be any moral or respectable fibers in our bodies. We will eat, sleep, and breathe in sex. And it won’t just stop there. If we can’t establish some sort of restraint in this area, who’s to say we will in regards to the many other areas of our lives? Are we ready for a world that won’t stop at anything? I’m not. I hope you can look deep inside of you and honestly say that you aren’t as well.
Let the lines be drawn by you.
I do indeed have to say, that if there is an advertisement on daytime television that is so sexually provocative that anyone’s boyfriend has to turn away as Kim Kardashian eats a chicken salad, then we as a society have a major problem in what is being marketed to us. Sex sells but are we buying sex when we want to purchase a burger, or any other ordinary item? Are we selling this idealism to children as they watch commercials between cartoons and channel surfing? I do happen to agree with your friends and think that you are beautiful and you have just shown to the world that it does not matter how beautiful we are externally as people, particularly as females, we are yet still forced to feel as though we do not match up to the glamorized celebrities of this world. Try as we might even twins are not 100% identical, there is always that slight difference that allows us to tell twin A apart from twin B. Women in the real world and women on television will never look the same. In the male dominance of marketing executives, advertisers and the like, to sell a product with a seductive woman next to it equates that woman to the object. Then females try to be like the Kim Kardashian’s and in turn attempt to objectify themselves for the sake of being thought of as beautiful. All of this will really mess up someone brain, causing eat disorders, plastic surgery and whatever else. I know that for me, it is GOD that keeps me sane through this terrible madness.
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