Media studies portfolio

Society’s high standard of perfect beauty has created a generation of women who feel inadequate and uncomfortable with their appearance (Azam, 2011). The women of today are doomed to an everlasting chase of the perfect body, flawless skin and long, silky smooth hair, an unrealistic depiction of women all over the world. This need to be perfect has led the youth of society to develop eating disorders in hopes to attain that perfect body (Pearson, 2011). The advertisement campaign used to deconstruct this societal norm, by means of a culture jam, is a campaign by the fashion brand Sissy Boy.

 

A culture jam can be defined as an act of activism that challenges or reworks the intended meaning of a campaign, slogan, public figures and many other forms of media (Shaughnessy, 2012, p213). The advertisement was chosen because of its hegemonic view of beauty. Hegemony can be defined as a two-way struggle and negotiation to maintain power and leadership by winning the consent of the majority to accept ideas as common sense (Shaughnessy, 2012, p205). The brand displays hegemony by using the tall, thin model in their campaign. This model is what is accepted by society as, beautiful. This promotes the dominant idea that tall and thin is beautiful. The culture jam is counter-hegemonic. Counter-hegemony can be defined as the opposition or challenge to the dominant world view (Shaughnessy, 2012, p206). By the changing the words of the advertisement campaign from ‘love yourself’ to ‘starve yourself’, the idea of thin is beautiful is being exposed and challenged. The culture jam is suggesting that to be beautiful you will need to go to great lengths, like starving yourself.  

  

In conclusion it can be noted that the only way to oppose the dominant view is to start using the everyday women in the advertisements aimed at the everyday women. Brands should be promoting confidence in being yourself and loving who you are, not chasing a body image that is near impossible to achieve.