Media Assault on Women: TV Commercials

I actually have seen this commercial a couple of times, just in the last few days: it is a commercial for a hair product and the voice-over is saying, “Remember all that natural body your hair used to have, before all that heating and styling destroyed it? We can help you get it back.”

I was totally floored.  So now they are selling women the ability to have hair that is just like the way their hair used to be, before all the commercials and TV shows told them to heat and style the crap out of their hair to look different than their naturally healthy-looking hair.

Since it tends to be women who are considered by most humans to be the ‘better looking’ sex of the planet (though this author would dispute that point), why is it that women are faced–on average–with 15 commercial messages an hour that instruct us how to improve our looks and lacking features?

There is an explanation: advertisers sell to audiences that buy the message and the product. If the intended audience turns the channel, or worse, boycotts a product or TV show based on an offensive ad, that is not good for business. Marketers build successful careers inundating women with messages of how to improve our looks, because it appears that this is a message that women are concerned with and do listen to. Marketers have research. If no one is watching or sales aren’t moving, the ads would likely change.

One observatory question is: why are there so very few messages and TV commercials telling men to step it up a bit in areas they are insufficient? There is adequate recent research that girls and women have negative thoughts about themselves many times a day (probably about as often as teen boys and young men think of sex). My biggest comment about that is, ‘well then stop it already. Think about hot male bodies instead!’ I catch myself putting myself down too, though; I suppose all women do it to some degree. For example, reflecting back on an embarrassing moment from two years ago, out loud I may say, “oh I am such a dork!”– as I relive the shame of the moment. The problem there is twofold:  one–I am putting myself down, reinforcing negative views of myself; and two–I am holding onto a moment from the past and re-living the reality and the emotion of the moment, instead of just letting it go; it’s in the past.

The fact is known that girls–and subsequently women–have low self-esteem.  The only remedy for low self-esteem is to think for yourself and be adventurous, to learn about life on your terms, through your own personal lens and journey, but also incorporating wisdom and knowledge from other sources. Don't just assume you don't know something, find out if you don't know! Then you learn frames of reference, which gives you self-esteem, because you know stuff and you have some control over analyzing the situations that come your way.

With all the commercials on TV aimed at women–who supposedly want and inherently need–to improve our looks, women are becoming obsessed with something that doesn’t even exist: their made-up persona, based on being told modes of behavior, dress and attitude.  Instead of paying attention to all that, women would be much better off just developing our own personal expression of who we are in the world as intelligent and intellectual individuals with a unique self-expression–independent of the archetypes that media drills down our throats as it tries to define us. It is hard though, with all the media inundation, to separate nature from fabrication, and one's true reality from media reality, and it's made worse by the blending of celebrity and reality that is so prevalent right now in media. Reality shows on TV are a far cry from actual reality, but they create a lens through which to view and live life which is really icky and definitely drives misogyny. So why do women even support those shows by watching?

Women are doing themselves a disservice by being so interested in how to improve their looks. Nobody else really cares or gives a damn, honestly.  Jenny McCarthy once made a series of really tasteless commercials for Candie’s shoes (which were largely criticized, rejected and not shown) and recalls the way she felt back then was feeling really proud of her work at that time, because she was super proud of the fact that she was a size 6 and could totally rock bright red lipstick.  These were actualized accomplishments in her mind, to be a hot woman who can visually represent a certain pre-ordained sex appeal.

Take a look at how men go about, if you want to see how hard they are working to look good. And start counting the commercials that tell men ways they can improve their looks, while also tallying the ones that tell women how to improve their looks.

See, sexualization is ok; we just need to level the field a bit. Women look fine, we don’t need all this improvement. If anyone needs some commercials telling them how to improve their looks and appearances, it’s men.  Of course, men aren’t seemingly interested in that message the way women are, which is the crux of the biscuit.

The solution is women need to let go of giving our time and attention (even 30 seconds) to any and all commercials that tell us how to look better.  Just look away and mute the sound, or leave the room, or change the channel or turn off the TV, or close the magazine.  Just refuse to buy into it.  Use the few products you enjoy to keep yourself the level of made-up attractiveness you want, but remember, it is the you under all that that is the real woman, not those images we see on TV of girls 18–23 posing as grown women in makeup commercials.  Even the ‘older’ gals that they use to sell makeup on TV are insulting. Those gals are usually about 32-35. Not old ladies at all, though women are taught to feel that is over the hill. That age is only the beginning of woman's great sexual peak! When women are at their most prime–and it lasts a good ten years at least after that, as you will see.  Women are young till 50 and beyond, with sufficient health, diet, rest and vitamins and minimal makeup, chemicals, and processing. 

So next time you see an ad telling you how to look better, have smoother hair or skin, shinier hair or skin, less hair, different hair, improved skin tone, better complexion, walk away. Turn it off. Don’t believe the message.  And then repeat to yourself, “I look fine. Women are beautiful inside and out naturally.  I am going to radiate my natural goodness, kindness and beauty. And go see if I can find a hot looking, well-stylized man before I feel guilty about my looks.”

The irony of the whole makeup-skincare, gotta-look-pretty TV onslaught is that, most young girls, say age 16 to 28 or so–which the ads appear to be geared for, judging by the models and message–don’t even need any makeup, as they have the natural beauty of youth.  Like natural color in cheeks and lips, and no need for foundation.

So while it’s nice to have options to make ourselves look prettier–for work, for play, etc–women have to learn to see the media programming that is constantly saturating us, telling us to be concerned about our looks and how we need to improve our looks.  And then simply change the channel.