3,000 ads a day,

challenging girls to attempt the impossible.

3,000 encouragements

of self-starvation to become nothing.

3,000 false images,

stripping women of self-confidence,

of self-love.

3,000 reasons

for the study of gender and advertising.

3,000 reminders

that these 3,000 beautiful knives

are Killing Us Softly.

 

Advertising-

a “technology of enchantment,”

cursing young women

with unrealistic ideals.

Skewing

their definitions

of beauty.

 

Silent doctrines

distorting our minds,

our perceptions.

Placing perfection before poise,

fabrication over authenticity.

 

Retouched images,

a sickening art

distorting and dehumanizing

women-

conceiving demands

that are unreal,

a challenge.

Girls,

women,

all green with envy.

Envy

that becomes actualized.

 

Girls.

Women.

All altering their bodies,

trying to fit a mold

that is not theirs.

Trying

to change their physique

with desperate

and dangerous

measures.

All under false pretenses.

 

A vicious cycle

forever sucking in girls.

Dictated by “perfect” idols;

models

who have also fallen victim

to the silent killer.

This idol

can be just as influential,

if not more,

as the

flawless images enslaving us-

Conceiving a

“toxic cultural environment.”

 

Flawless.

The model of my model;

subtly corrupt,

influential,

adverse.

A womanly figure;

drowning in society’s demands.

 

Claiming

“Pretty Hurts.”

Yet she seems to never age;

never imperfect.

Clear tan skin,

but not too dark.

Expressive,

sensual brown eyes.

Defined and

“impeccably shaped”

eyebrows.

Gorgeous locks,

never a hair out of place.

Hour-glass shape,

but no unenticing

extra fat.

Luscious,

irresistible lips.

Pristine smile.

Does she want

a life

lived in pain?

 

“T.V. says bigger is better…

Vogue says thinner is better.”

The beauty ideal

is flexible,

always changing,

women always chasing

nothing.

Trying to reach

the impossible,

but cannot.

Desperate.

Self-loathing.

Self-harming.

Failure is inevitable.

But it is killing

our nation’s

young girls

and women alike.

 

Exposing the façade

that sucks in our girls

is a national effort.

One person

cannot destroy

a deceiving

250 billion-dollar industry.

“Perfection is a disease

 of a nation.”

The cure

is refusing objectification.

 

Objectifying women.

Transforming bodies

into objects:

beer bottles,

sports cars,

cheeseburgers.

Creating a “climate

in which there is

widespread violence

against women.”

Justifying abuse,

exploitation,

racism.

Because she’s just a beer bottle.

Because she’s just a car.

Because she’s just an item to eat.

 

Women

need to be recognized

for the people

that they are.

Not

sexualized objects

living by the standards

of men.

 

Young girls are

tearing their bodies,

their minds

 apart.

Wondering why.

Why they don’t have

breasts at age eleven

like

 that girl in the commercial.

Why their bellies

are too chubby,

too plump,

too realistically

average-sized

compared to

 that girl in the commercial.

 

Some fall as deep

as the darkest hole;

a disease of the mind.

It controls every move,

every decision,

every emotion.

It eats women alive

in a paradox

too commonly known;

the women begin

disappearing,

withering away

into nothingness.

 

Advertisements

have always been this way:

objectifying and sexualizing

women,

sculpting false ideals

for beauty,

demolishing body images.

But it has gotten worse

and gained power.

Beauty,

the main focus

of advertising,

has become a weapon

against women.

And it needs

to be

controlled.