Saturday, September 1, 2012

Beauty and Deception

I would like to point out the deception of beauty even existent within a blog supposedly trying to 'debunk' beauty or expose how women are subject to manipulation from media advertisements telling them how they should look.

The blog starts with the author expressing concern for the effect of beauty advertisements has on women saying that these can lead to "depression, insecurity, and even committing suicide". 

The blog displays a picture saying "Girls see over 400 advertisements per day telling them how they should look" written on the wall where a woman being portrayed as one who has accepted this within her self-appearance is standing next to it looking at her hair in a portable mirror.

The author begins to list a series of things wrong with these beauty advertisements: She states: "1. Girls, don't believe this kind of advertisements. 2. The majority of them aren't even real, don't you know what Photoshop can do?".

The first statement shows that she has potential to want to expose the nature of pre-programming within society and the concepts of beauty. But then she goes on to deceive the reader into believing that this image of beauty is actually valuable in that it is something that one would even want to attain in the first place. Instead of stating "you don't need to live up to these ideas/pictures of beauty in order for you to accept yourself and care about yourself" - she deceives the reader by making him/her feel better about themselves 'for having known that most of the photographs aren't even real photographs in that they are altered in some way to look like they do" all the while within doing that she is actually accepting the nature of the pre-programming that she is supposedly trying to expose or speak out against!

She goes on to state in her third counter statement: "3. Don't compare yourself to the women in these ads, half of them have eating disorders such as anorexia, since many of them only eat plain lettuce and water every week. Many of these women are going through depression. Don't become like one of them.". Within this statement she is accepting and allowing the idea that one must fulfill a certain image of beauty such as 'being thin' in order for one to accept themselves/embrace themselves. She uses the polarity of being really skinny vs. being really fat to denigrate the ones who are really skinny as a way to instill fear into the reader as in 'you don't want to be anorexic do you?'. This is deceptive because she is still accepting the premise the one should look 'thin' in order for one to accept themselves while using the polarity of becoming anorexic as way to scare the reader.Within stating "half of them have eating disorders" she is accepting the idea of beauty but is using fear as way to say 'you don't want to become like that'. Even within stating this she is accepting the idea 'that you want to become skinny' but you 'just don't want to become anorexic'. So using anorexia as an example she instills fear into the reader to 'not become anorexic'.

Her fourth statement goes on to say that one should embrace their size/shape: "4. Embrace your own shape and size, don't listen to what ads say, "lose weight, tips on losing weight, diets"... Blah blah blah.". Here she is appealing to some common sense wherein she is displaying the stupidity of diets.

Her fifth statement shows how she is still supporting the 'ideal body' but then concludes that it is 'impossible' , "5. It is absolutely impossible to achieve the ideal body that magazines portray; girls, these aren't real natural bodies.". Here she is appealing to the reader's sense of 'I want that body - I just don't know how I would get it'. Within that deceiving herself and the reader into actually believing that somebody would actually want to achieve that kind of body image.

Her sixth says, "6. Beauty=Personality, confidence, happiness and being you!". Ok so again here she is masking the desire tendency to want to be/look beautiful by saying 'its whats on the inside that counts!'. Again accepting the premise that one would want to be beautiful but it is 'just too hard to obtain' so therefore learn to 'just accept yourself'.

Her seventh is, "7. Barbie is just a doll!". Here she is accepting the picture presentation as 'not real' and therefore 'unattainable' all the while accepting the premise that one would ever want to obtain this 'perfect' picture presentation. She does not expose the deception within advertising she just accepts the premise that is 'unattainable' as a way to scare the reader from taking their addiction to beauty to the extreme. All the while not exposing that this idea of 'beauty' has been and still is the problem when it comes to women and their portrayal of themselves. She does not define beauty as self-acceptance but rather as 'personality, confidence, and being you' which is the exact same thing as saying 'be a pre-programmed robot who gives in to the exact ideas/fears that society has enstilled in you!'.

She does not say 'Beauty is reality and the reality is that beauty is a fallacy'. Instead she deceives by giving the reader reasons not to obtain beauty and thus live out their belief in a 'perfect' body image but hints to still retain one that is at least 'respectable'.

Join Desteni I Process where we learn to examine things critically wherein we can learn to expose a message being sent across that may not actually represent what is best for all or actually assisting anyone in overcoming their beliefs/opinions/ideas about the world and society.

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1 comment:

  1. Hello Cris,
    can you place a photo with your posts to share them also in Pinterest!
    Thanks, cool Info here!! :D

    ReplyDelete