The Quick Trim advertisement constructs the myth of woman that tries anything to get thinner. Through hyper feminization and heterosexuality the beauty myth evokes the stereotype of the woman that tries anything to get thinner. Naomi Wolf within in The Beauty Myth, discusses how liberation of women’s rights has caused the creation of the beauty myth. Within this myth Wolf mentions how it has caused there to be more health issues to women, specifically problems with bulimia and anorexia. Wolf states; “During the past decade, women breached the power structure; meanwhile, eating disorders rose exponentially and cosmetic surgery became the fastest growing medical specialty. During the past five years, consumer spending doubled; pornography became the main media category, ahead of legitimate films and records combined, and thirty-three thousand American women told researcher that they would rather lose ten to fifteen pounds than achieve any other goal” (487). Quick Trim is a diet pill that helps women lose weight the “safe” way.
However I would not like to focus on the health risks of taking a diet pill. I am more interested in how the beauty myth highlighted in this advertisement deceives women into believing this is all they need. “Contemporary standards of feminine beauty have devolved to a point that can only be described as anorexic, and America’s young women are paying the price through a near-epidemic of bulimia and anorexia” (Wolf 486). Through contemporary standards advertisements like this Quick Trim ad flourish because women struggling to lose weight feel the need to use these diet pills to help achieve a body “just like the Kardashians”.
“The beauty myth is always actually prescribing behavior and not appearance. Competition between women has been made part of the myth so that women will be divided from one another. Youth and (until recently) virginity have been “beautiful” in women since they stand for experiential and sexual ignorance” (Wolf 489). Women focus on the need to look the best and are willing to achieve this look of perfection any way possible; regardless of detrimental it is to their way of thinking and body. The advertisement for Quick Trim aids the notions of the beauty myth through the use of careful wording and who the company chooses to represent their product; “Now conscious market manipulation: powerful industries-the thirty three million dollar a year diet industry” (Wolf 492).
“The sexual revolution promoted the discovery of female sexuality; “beauty pornography”-which for the first time in women’s history artificially links a commodified “beauty” directly and explicitly to sexuality-invaded the mainstream to undermine women’s new and vulnerable sense of sexual self-worth…Western women control over our own bodies; they weight of fashion models plummeted to twenty three percent below that of ordinary women, eating disorders rose exponentially, and a mass neurosis was promoted that used food and weight to strip women of that sense of control” (Wolf 488). This advertisement screams heterosexuality through text and visuals. Going back to the myth of the women that is willing to try anything to get thinner, this goal of getting thinner coincides with wanting to appeal to the opposite sex. Quick Trim uses the images of Kim and Khloe Kardashian in skimpy bathing suites in order to attract the eye of women, and portray the message that if you take this your body will just be like the Kardashian girls. The Kardashian’s, especially Kim Kardashian, is known for having a very sexy body that heterosexual population recognizes.
“It is actually composed of emotional distance, politics, finance, and sexual repression. The beauty myth is not about women at all. It is about men’s institutions and institutional power” (Wolf 489). Heterosexual masculinity contributes to the beauty myth discussed today. Through the text within the Quick Trim advertisement attracts the women that are “ashamed to admit that such trivial concerns-to do with physical appearance, bodies, faces, hair, clothes-matter so much” (Wolf 486). The text with in this advertisement states; “how hot can YOU be?”, and “Keep up with Kim and Khloe.” Through this text the woman that is trying anything in order to lose weight visually sees the in shape thin bodies of the Kardashian women, and is reminded twice with in the text that Quick Trim is the way to achieve the hot body she has been looking for, and in order to “keep up” with the Kardashian woman a person has to take this Quick Trim diet pill.
“Beauty” is a contradiction: Where modern women are growing, moving, and expressing their individuality, as the myth has it, “beauty” is by definition inert, timeless, and generic. That this hallucination is necessary and deliberate is evident in the way “beauty” so directly contradicts women’s real situation” (Wolf 492). Hyper feminization is created with in this advertisement to accentuate the feminine body shape. The clothing…well lack of clothing shows off the curves of the Kardashian women, and once again brings home the message of the advertisement, “if you want to look as good as the Kardashian women you need to use Quick Trim”. This message aids to selling their product to the women that are willing to try anything to achieve the perfect body. “The beauty myth tells a story: The quality called “beauty” objectively and universally exists. Women must want to embody it and men must want to possess women who embody it” (Wolf 488). Women want to look the best, and according to this advertisement the Kardashian women are the “hottest”, because a person has to “keep up” with their beauty.
“It’s ideals change at a pace far more rapid than that of the evolution of species, and Charles Darwin was himself unconvinced by his own explanation that “beauty” resulted from a “sexual selection” that deviated from the rule of natural selection; for women to compete with women through “beauty” is a reversal of the way in which natural selection affects all other mammals” (Wolf 488). Wolf once again drives home the fact that these beauty myths are completely the doing of society, the way women think about themselves, and the competition women put against themselves because of heterosexual opinions.
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