Body Shaming in Ads

People feel insecure enough as it is, they do not need advertisements to make them feel worse. It seems every advertisement shows the same type of body-type. This is why people become so insecure. Society has convinced people that only one type of body is considered attractive, but in reality there are many body-types that can be considered attractive. Many people, especially women, become depressed because they feel so insecure about their bodies. They realize their bodies don't look like all the models in ads. People need to know that they do not have to look like that and that all body-types are beautiful. This is why I believe that body-diversity should become a more prominent thing. If the media became more diverse in body-types, eventually less people would become insecure, depressed, or even suicidal. One company that is a main target for people promoting body-diversity is Victoria's secret. Many body-diversity advocates are outrages that Victoria's secret only advertises with one type of model and has never once hired a plus-size model. They even used the words, "the perfect body" in one of their ads showing an image of ten models with the same body-type:

Why is that considered the "perfect body?" Perhaps that is just one perspective and Victoria's secret should consider showing a variety of bodies. Advertisements featuring clothing tend to display models that only have one body-type. This can cause people to feel terrible about their bodies even if they are perfectly healthy. People need to know that other body-types are beautiful too. No advertisement should display the words "the perfect body" like the Victoria's Secret advertisement.

Not only do advertisements all show the same perception of a "perfect body," they also make it seem shameful to have any other body. There is a serious amount of body-shaming that mostly consists of fat-shaming in advertisements like this one:

This billboard is encouraging people to go vegetarian. Perhaps there is a better way to get this point across that doesn't involve fat-shaming. It clearly is comparing overweight people to whales and it is not only rude, but a ridiculously unrealistic comparison. No human being should be compared to a 420,000 lb animal. Maybe becoming a vegetarian would help people lose weight, and there are people that need to lose weight for medical reasons and this could help them. However, I do believe this message could have been expressed in different ways. Anyone with a body-type similar to the one on this billboard must have been extremely offended because it is just wrong.

People should be able to look at advertisements without feeling bad about their bodies. Ads should feature a variety of body-types and not consider only one as perfect.