"Bend Down the Tallest Branch That My Mother May Have Some..."

[psalm_onethirtyone]

Here's something that annoys me:

An excerpt from my psychology textbook regarding context-judgement.

Context effects also extend beyond immediate perceptions, across a wide range of events. For example, people generally define their own social and physical characteristics by comparing themselves with others. Often without realising they are doing it, many women compare themselves with the highly attractive and ultra-thin models in advertising. Since the viewers cannot match the perfect, air-brushed images they encounter, they experience negative feelings (e.g., Bower, 2001). If viewers are prone to making immediate comparisons, their moods become more negative, and they feel more dissatisfied with their own bodies (Tiggermann & McGill, 2004). One study found that when male and female college students viewed beautiful models, they rated photos of more average-looking people as less attractive than did a similar group of college students who did not see the models' photos (Kenrick, Montello, Gutierres, & Trost, 1993).

So far this makes sense and is fairly typical, if awful. Note that people actually think other people aren't as pretty after they've seen models. Which is >_>. But. Here's where I have a problem.

Thus women prone to feeling bad about themselves after seeing advertisements with seemingly-perfect models could stop reading magazines that carry such advertisements, or they could continue to read the magazines but remind themselves that these models set unattainable standards that do not apply to real people. [1]

Whut. I am extremely bothered that the answer to "advertising kills self-esteem" is "stop reading magazines you enjoy that have advertising" or "just try to feel better about yourself". NO. The answer is "make advertising change". That's like saying "murder kills people" so "stop being around people who murder people" "just try to feel less murdered" instead of "stop murdering". IDK it just seems so much like trying to hide the problem instead of dealing with it. I AM ANNOYED.

This is incoherent because I am also a teensy bit high, but I really am annoyed and I think that this is the kind of thinking that enables advertising to continue being full of douches and crushed female egos. So you know.

[1] Psychological Science, Michael Gazzaniga, Todd Heatherton, and Diane Halpern, 2010.

Comments

[ladybretagne.livejournal.com]

Ummm I'm sorry there Mr. Psychology Man, how about you DIE IN A FIRE with that kind of attitude. Ugh, people, seriously.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

but but but it's your fault if you feel bad for being a fattie, you just shouldn't listen to all the people calling you that!

[ladybretagne.livejournal.com]

That is clearly a logical response! I see it now! *groan*

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

/sets the record on the "amazing revelations" track

[petronelle.livejournal.com]

Oh, for fuck's sake. I'm with you, and the conclusion "If the toxic things bug you, don't look" sucks hard.

Also, now I'm singing my favorite verse of the Cherry Tree Carol, wherein Joseph flew in angry. Whoosh.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Tell me about it. >_> I'm actually really glad that people are commenting to agree with this, because when I first read this passage I knew that something felt off to me but I wasn't sure whether that was just personal hypersensitivity based on my background or whether there really was something wrong.

>:D in anger he flew!

[mmebahorel.livejournal.com]

Stop reading magazines, or watching TV, or reading newspapers, or going out in public where they might see billboards, or riding public transportation, or looking at any websites that carry advertising: yes, those are completely viable solutions.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Ikr? This might be a solution if the images and culture that goes with them weren't so goddamn pervasive, but it is. Frankly, companies like Dove that campaign against it are admirable, but even the amount of backlash that they get for doing things like that (MAD magazine ran a parody a few years ago complaining about the "lumpy half-naked women" in Dove commercials) shows that our collective consciousness has absorbed what these people are selling, and considering that it's literally everywhere it's not really surprising.

[dreamer-easy.livejournal.com]

Psychological self-defence is good. I abuse all advertising verbally (sometimes in public, oops). Which said, I am constantly bombarded with those "perfect" images, AND I DON'T READ THOSE STUPID MAGAZINES TO BEGIN WITH. The suggested solution wouldn't work even if it wasn't victim-blaming.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

This stuff is so ubiquitous that saying "ignore it" is like saying "ignore that bully" while he's punching you in the face.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_grayswandir_/]

Hm. I'm going to play devil's advocate here. The thing is, I think it's pretty obvious to everyone, surely including the folks writing the passages you quote, that the best answer would be if advertisers used actual human-looking models and we could judge ourselves against other actual human people instead of some kind of magical airbrushed fake people. But, if you're going to give people advice, I think it makes a lot more sense to tell them "the ads lie, ignore them" than to tell them they should somehow change how advertising is done, which might not be impossible but is really not something you can just go home and decide to do. I can't change the advertisements on TV. I can ignore them and realize they don't matter. And I think I personally would feel a lot more helpless if I thought the only solution was to get rid of advertisements, since that's way, way outside my control.

And honestly, I feel the same way about murder (or rape, or whatever). Obviously the answer is to stop the murderers. But since I'm not a murderer, "stop murdering" isn't very helpful advice to me. Maybe I can support programs that help the kinds of people who might otherwise become criminals not become criminals, which might be great in the long run; but in terms of immediately protecting myself and others, I can't prevent murder from happening that way. I can, however, try to avoid the kinds of people whose behavior makes me think they might be capable of killing/raping/etc. someone, and I can avoid walking down dark alleys at two in the morning looking vulnerable and not carrying mace. You know?

Besides that, while I agree that people failing to react against this kind of advertising does enable advertisers to keep doing it, I also think that, short of writing angry letters to every major ad company, ignoring the ads and not letting them affect what you buy or think is the best way to make them change their tactics. Because the only way they're going to stop that kind of advertising is if it stops making them money.

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

I see your point, but I think the way the passage is worded (calling models "perfect", "beautiful", and "highly-attractive") carries an implication that advertising culture is full of women who look the way women are supposed to, and that women who can't attain that should avoid looking at what they can't hope for. That's a large part of what bothers me. I feel like something is "off" about the wording and somehow condones (or appears to condone) the problems with advertising culture as a result, and that's really why I posted about it.

[josiana.livejournal.com]

That's...not a very possible solution. Even if they know intellectually that the standards are unobtainable, they're still going to feel bad. :x

[rainbowjehan.livejournal.com]

Prrrrretty much.