From: egilmour@ac.dal.ca
Newsgroups: alt.supermodels
Subject: Re:  Elle MacPherson causes rape?
Date: 8 Nov 92 19:48:56 GMT
Organization: Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

I don't know how some of these people responding to the "Elle causes rape" 
debate can say that advertising does not affect people.  
The majority of advertising creates an incentive to buy a product by 
associating the achievement of feminine and masculine ideals with the 
purchase of the product being advertised.  If 
advertising had no effect on people, we would probably all be going around
with excess body hair, no makeup, earth shoes and wearing jeans and t-shirts.
If advertising doesn't work then I guess it must be a billion dollar 
waste of time.  

The affect that I think advertising has on women is that it reflects, creates 
and perpetuates certain feminine ideals that encourage women to strive to 
attain these ideals.  Just look at the skin care industry for one thing.  
The skin care industry is an extremely profitable business and one of the 
reasons is because of the ideals that ads create and  perpetuate for the 
purpose of selling their products.  Right now, the skin-care industry is
not merely as profitable in the area of men's products as it is for women's.
That is because society deems it acceptable for a man to age, and men are
considered "dignified", whereas women are looked at as much less desirable
if they are older.  

Advertisers perpetuate the idea that young is more desirable by displaying
photos of someone like
Isabella Rossellini with smooth and beautiful skin and accompanying thier ads
with statements of how one must fight the natural aging process
in order to maintain their beauty.
This type of advertising not only inspires women to buy skin 
care products but it also sets up young women as the desirable ideal for 
men too.  I think it is common for men to find younger women more 
desirable and this can be exemplified in some of the articles I've seen posted
in which the writers express their lust for someone like 
Niki Taylor who is only about fifteen, or the picture of Paulina in which she
looks very young.

Perhaps some women are lucky enough to be so secure with themselves that
they can consciously ignore advertising (and swimsuit calendars) and
just be themselves; I know of some women like this but they are usually rich
brilliant and beautiful anyway. There are many women in this society
who are affected by the images of beautiful, thin women in ads where they appear
to be successful and happy.  These are not very positive images for women
who do not even come close to the ideals being represented in ads and
subsequently makes women feel that they will not be successful and happy 
unless they have smooth young skin or whatever the focus is put on for the 
purpose of the ad.  

Through advertising we are given subtle
messages about what society finds acceptable and desirable, and this
can have devastating affects on women if they are made to feel that they
don't measure up to these standards - and it is hard to deny that
young, thin women are not displayed as the acceptable standards in society
today.  When women see men salivating over Elle calendars or 
the lastest beer commercial "fox", and then turn around and are ridiculed 
by men for being "fat" or "old"(and this does happen, on capuses,
in bars), I assume in most cases a connection can be made between the two.

I know beauty is supposed to be objective, but don't advertisers try to 
create the most subjective image of beauty that they can in order to reach 
greater audiences?  I know few people who would say they don't find Cindy 
Crawford even the least bit attractive.  

The affects of advertising and Elle calendars, since that is what started the
debate, can be very complicated.  I think in some cases women will
feel insecure about their bodies if they do not match a perpetuated ideal, 
no matter how unrealistic the ideal is.  As for anorexia, I think it
is even more difficult to say what affect advertising has, but anyone who has 
seen the latest commercials for Nutri-System which send out the distinct
message that if you are over-weight you will not be successful or "get
a man" can see that there is indeed pressure to be thin.  
In our socity it is obvious that pressure to conform surrounds us, 
and persecution results if one does not conform.

Personally, my opinions as concerns the Elle debate are that I 
totally dislike men displaying a sexy calendar if it is being displayed 
by a man with distinct sexist opinions and who sees women as objects.  
As well, I think these calendars have no place in the workplace no matter 
whether they feature men or women.