Task 6 Introduction

How does fashion/beauty advertising, such as for perfumes, perpetuate the feminine ideal of size zero, does it influence young teenage girls/models and why?

“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels’’This quote was what struck the size zero controversy to reinforce moral panics in the fashion industry, when Kate Moss the 35 year old model shocked campaigners fighting to abolish the cult of stick-thin models. From the mid 1960’s British model Twiggy changed the fashion trend of being curvy forever. As her skinny size 8 figure ushered in the trend, she implied that a fashion model or any desirable woman must be a size 0 or 2, in order to be fashionable or as it has been portrayed in films and magazines, desirable, that thin is in. The media have a powerful impact on audiences as they reinforce negative body image and influence young teenage girls to follow the thin is in trend .“The media is the main source of information about women’s health issues” for adolescent girls. In addition, National Eating Disorders Association finds that,“1 out of every 3.8 television commercials sends some sort of ‘attractiveness message,’ and the average adolescent sees an estimated 5,260 attractiveness messages per year.’’.Advertisements emphasize thinness as a standard for female beauty, and the bodies idealized in the media are frequently a skinny body image. “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted. Every girl deserves to feel beautiful just the way she is.’’ “Campaign for Real Beauty”, kicked off in 2003, it aimed to encourage adult women to help girls and teenagers feel better about themselves. The first campaign took six real women in white underwear from different sizes and shapes, feeling confident and happy to help reinforce a positive body image. This essay will investigate how and why the size zero controversy is the next big trend, and how fashion and beauty perpetuate size zero as being a feminine ideal particularly in advertising for perfumes and how it has such a big impact on influencing young teenage girls.