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Ideal Women. Bryan Lewis Ideal Women The American women of today can never
be too thin or too pretty. In today's cases thin equates ...
Ideal Women. The American women of today can never be too thin or too pretty. ... Is
the current image for the "ideal woman" healthy for the women of America? ...
Convincing Women Not to Idealize the Thin Ideal. Body image ... questions. The first
one was, is the thin ideal really detrimental to women? As ...
... Finally, the question remains…is this healthy? Is the current image for the
"ideal woman" healthy for the women of America? Is it "ideal"?
... Blacks were naturally excluded from the notion of ideal women and they suffered
additional discrimination which was even greater than that which the white ...
Submitted by funkysoda on March 17, 2006
Category: Social Issues
Words: 969 | Pages: 4
Views: 438
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Bryan Lewis
Ideal Women
The American women of today can never be too thin or too pretty. In today\'s
cases thin equates beauty, so the present ideal is a thin, fit, radiantly healthy, young woman. In magazines stuffed with models and advertisements, billboards on the highway, and actresses on TV, the message of what women should look like is everywhere. The inescapable presence of these images in effect shapes the image of women today.
It is very unfortunate that the media influences American society to the point that it defines the "ideal woman." According to Naomi Wolf, author of the bestselling book, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women , one reason media is so influential is "advertising is a 130 billion dollar a year industry. The average American watches 30 hours of TV a week and spends 110 hours a year reading magazines. That adds up to exposure to 1500 ads daily" (45). Advertising is a powerful educational force in our culture due to the simple fact of exposure. Economics is also a significant factor in the development of the ideal image. There is a wealth of businesses that depend upon the American desire for thinness to survive. Exercise and diet companies are an example. In order to create a market for their product, they attempt to make women feel inadequate about their own bodies through advertisement. According to Wolf, "the diet industry has tripled its income in the past 10 years from a $10 billion industry to a $33.3 billion industry" (47).
Other companies that cater to the current "large" population sell beauty, tactfully. As William Lutz points out in his article, "With these Words I can Sell You Anything," girdles are called body shapers or control garments (158), and in Diane White's article, "Euphemisms for the Fat of the Land," extra-extra large is changed to queen size (176). Either way, it is their diet, exercise, or control product that will get women on the way to the thinner,...
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