Ideal? or Unreal?

http://www.msmagazine.com/jan01/hooked_jan01.html

"The image projected behind her, a larger-than-life Revlon ad, is of a woman who is neither breathless nor smiling, but instead presents a lacquered, doll-like blankness.'We are surrounded by such images of ideal beauty,' says Jean Kilbourne, reminding the audience—as she has in more than a thousand college lecture halls around the country—that we are all being judged against this porcelain perfection. And that when we are compared to such a standard, 'failure is inevitable.' . . . As one of the preeminent scholars on the effects of advertising, Kilbourne has shown, through lectures, films, and a book, how marketing has perfected the science of seducing us. How its glossy allure can leave us feeling somewhat less than human. In the ideal presented by advertising, 'our face becomes a mask,' she says to the assembled students, as she clicks through slides of cosmetics ads, all featuring flawless faces. 'And our body becomes a thing.' . . . Her voice is calm, even a little sad now that she's flashing picture after picture of women with impossibly smooth, overwhelmingly Caucasian features onto the screen. 'And turning a human being into a thing,' she continues, 'is often the first step toward justifying violence.' The next series of ads begins by showing women as props, intended to make cars or apartments more attractive; it then shifts to tight shots of butts and thighs, and finally mere parts. Dismembered limbs. Meat."

This article was written by Clea Simon for Ms. Magazine. The speaker, Jean Kilbourne, makes a very good point. The ads we see, especially those geared to women, present this insane ideal that is impossible to reach. They breed a culture of dissatisfied, over-achieving women that do everything they can to attempt to appear like the thousands of images of "beauty" that are thrown in their faces everyday. Its really ridiculous, though, when you analyze these advertisements and bring them to their logical conclusions. Women, dressed up so pretty, are seen as pieces of meat, used to get attention, sell products, and make money. This representation and view of women are products of our 1st world culture--our consumerist, "progressive" society.