By Ashley Traupman
When was the last time you took a good look at the way people are represented in magazines? When you walk down the street, do you ever really look at the women and men portrayed on billboards or in other advertisements? Maybe it’s about time you opened your eyes to the impossible perfection depicted around you.
The media affects people on a daily basis. It’s impossible for a person to not be influenced by it, even if it happens subconsciously. Stereotypes are fostered through the media as it places norms on society.
On Tuesday, Dove launched the next phase of its Campaign for Real Beauty by releasing a short film called “Onslaught” online to promote the Dove Self-Esteem Fund. The film proves there are insane amounts of images thrown at people daily through a montage of beauty advertisements. According to Dove, a girl has seen more than 77,000 commercials by the time she is 12 years old.
Beautiful women and men can be seen on almost every page of almost any beauty or fashion magazine you open. The women are always pretty, skinny and without a flaw in sight. The men in the magazines are equally “perfect” with tan, buff bodies.
Distinctions between how men and women are portrayed in magazines are very stereotypical. Men are usually pictured with their shirts off as a way to show their perfectly toned and muscular bodies and women always wear makeup to enhance their stunning features.
Articles with titles that include words like “healthier” or “makeovers” may seem well-intentioned, but they are, in reality, highlighting imperfections instead of focusing on the good. A lot of material found in magazines sets up rules to improve a person’s life, but why is it assumed that the reader’s life needs improvement? One article in particular, “20 ways to be healthier without trying” from the August 2007 issue of Glamour, suggests to readers that their lifestyle isn’t healthy enough and they need to change it.
People are often told by the media that they have to please and impress others. Why should women have to wear makeup and look pretty for anyone but themselves? Similarly, why should men feel they have to work out to have buff bodies? People should do things because they want to, not because they feel they have to please someone else.
It’s funny when articles or pictures make references to “real” people, whether it be with headlines or in articles. This infers that the rest of the people featured in the magazine were “fake,” thus furthering the belief that it is impossible to look as beautiful and as perfect as the people pictured in magazines or advertisements.
Also, when men look at the flawless women pictured in magazines and in advertisements they begin to hold real women to that high standard. The same goes for women who see male models in magazines. They look for the impossible and are no long attracted to reality.
In magazines and in advertisements, there are rarely pictures of imperfect people, whether they are male or female. The models set up an impossible goal that readers may try to achieve, but probably never will.
Magazines are among the forms of media that put social pressure on the public to conform to the standards of beauty they present. But the standards on the pages are not reasonable. The articles make readers feel that there is something that needs to be fixed in order to conform to a society where everything revolves around appearance.
The media always leaves a subconscious imprint on our lives. Take notice of the message it’s implying.
-Ashley Traupman can be reached at
