Media, Advertisement and Word Choices: Skinny and Beautiful are not synonyms

I wrote this post because now that I am at home more, I have a bit more time to watch some TV, I like to leave the TV on while I do chores around the house so I can listen to the background noise. I have noticed something that I believe is worth mentioning. Looking at commercials I’ve found a horrific similarity among them and that is their focus on a common goal, to make you feel bad about yourself so you will buy their products. That’s right, the new merchandising strategy, guilt. Ads like the one of the bowflex thread climber, the NutriSystem ones and a lot of other fitness and dieting commercials target mainly women’s low self esteem and image problems to persuade them to buy expensive, non proved and sometimes useless equipment and products with the promise of a taste of “skinny paradise”. Most of these commercials strategize the constant use of the word skinny, but never the use of the word healthy. As most of us are aware (because most of us own a mirror), no two women have the same body type; therefore skinny for you might not mean the same it means for me. I mean, skinny for Queen Latifah does mean the same as skinny for Kate Moss, or Kim Kardashian, or Halle Berry, and it will never mean the same, because they are different women, with different body types, bone structures, genetic material, etc, etc. However, media and advertisement industries seem to disagree with these notions and it appears they have come to an understanding that as long as it has the word skinny on it, women should buy it because it will be good for them. Skinny has become the new “One Size Fits All” tag. This reminds me a lot of those Jimmy Dean commercials where at the end it gives you a nice display of the product and shows you the calories but there is a strategically placed plate with sausages or a sandwich so you won’t see the sodium levels. Where am I going with this example? Simple, just because it is low calorie does not mean it is healthy, the same way, just because it says skinny on it does not mean it will be good for you.    

Also people tend to forget that skinny does not equal beautiful, and that is what we should be teaching girls and women and even men around the world; fit and healthy equals beautiful, not skinny. Eating healthy and exercising properly IS loving yourself, but you don’t need expensive diet systems and expensive fitness equipment for that, all you need is to inform yourself on nutrition and health and put it to practice in a way that fits your schedule and budget. But most importantly, know that you are beautiful, smart and important regardless of anything else.