The new requirements to be healthy: skinny, pretty and model thin - Thank you modern media!

Something at the very core of my belief system is ending body shame and unreal body images in advertising/ introducing “real” looking body images into the advertising world. I’m not talking about phasing out thin models completely – thin body shapes to exist as well – but introducing other body images.

I think a huge reason that the advertising world is so one-dimensional is because of what we’re forced to believe. Take for example the South Beach Diet Bars commercial. This is a commercial in which a happy looking, thin, blonde woman walks confidently wherever she’s going and is greeted by the catcalls “You go healthy,” “hey there, healthy,” insinuating that she is by all means healthy enough to comment on.  The snack described as “the better snack choice whether you’re on a diet or not,” makes you “push hunger away and make better snack choices…” Ignoring the fact that your choice of snack food is influencing more than your hunger level, let’s focus on just the body image and what this means.

First off the woman is thin and by all societal definitions pretty. The slogan “Healthy Never Looked So Good.,” implies that that is what the definition of healthy is. Increasingly, that’s what you’re seeing now as the masses have demanded a change from beauty to healthy. Instead of bringing about a good amount of real change, they slapped a new word on the same picture; it’s comparable to wrapping a Christmas gift in different wrapping paper and saying “now its birthday gift!”

The reason I’m making such a big deal about this is because they [the media] barely ever portray other body types in the media as being healthy. It’s all size two, tiny, perky, societally beautiful women; and for some people that’s their healthy body type. For others it’s not. Look at the female weightlifters, those women are machines, they are athletes and for all intensive purposes they are healthy. You never, EVER see a female weightlifter being showcased in the kinds of commercials like the South Beach Diet even though I can guarantee protein and fibre play a large part in the diets of weightlifters.

Look at the media fuss over Olympic gold-medal swimmer, Liesel Jones from Australia. She’s training to compete in her, what, fourth Olympics? She’s healthy. She’s in fantastic shape, amazing shape. She’s a hotty to put it bluntly. Is the media splashing her on the front of magazines saying, women of the world; look at this picture of health! Nope! They’re pointing out the fact that she looks like she’s gotten fatter than the last time she competed in 2008.

WHAT! South Beach Diet can hire this actress to get hit on for being healthy in commercials, but this Olympic gold medalist gets splashed across the tabloids as fat and therefore unhealthy?! What is wrong with us?! The poor girl! I have to commend her for standing up to the media and for the support that flocked to her.  She deserves it.

The media defended its stance saying it was solely making an observation. My question to the media is, why don’t you make an observation on the unfair showcasing of the one-dimensional “healthy” body type and call us in the morning.

Please spread the word on this issue, Facebook, Tweet and Tumble this issue until it becomes talked about. #Endbodyshame

Commercial can be viewed at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmCDhQAtbbA - South Beach Diet Commercial