"Bend Down the Tallest Branch That My Mother May Have Some..."
Here's something that annoys me:
An excerpt from my psychology textbook regarding context-judgement.
Context effects also extend beyond immediate perceptions, across a wide range of events. For example, people generally define their own social and physical characteristics by comparing themselves with others. Often without realising they are doing it, many women compare themselves with the highly attractive and ultra-thin models in advertising. Since the viewers cannot match the perfect, air-brushed images they encounter, they experience negative feelings (e.g., Bower, 2001). If viewers are prone to making immediate comparisons, their moods become more negative, and they feel more dissatisfied with their own bodies (Tiggermann & McGill, 2004). One study found that when male and female college students viewed beautiful models, they rated photos of more average-looking people as less attractive than did a similar group of college students who did not see the models' photos (Kenrick, Montello, Gutierres, & Trost, 1993).
So far this makes sense and is fairly typical, if awful. Note that people actually think other people aren't as pretty after they've seen models. Which is >_>. But. Here's where I have a problem.
Thus women prone to feeling bad about themselves after seeing advertisements with seemingly-perfect models could stop reading magazines that carry such advertisements, or they could continue to read the magazines but remind themselves that these models set unattainable standards that do not apply to real people. [1]
Whut. I am extremely bothered that the answer to "advertising kills self-esteem" is "stop reading magazines you enjoy that have advertising" or "just try to feel better about yourself". NO. The answer is "make advertising change". That's like saying "murder kills people" so "stop being around people who murder people" "just try to feel less murdered" instead of "stop murdering". IDK it just seems so much like trying to hide the problem instead of dealing with it. I AM ANNOYED.
This is incoherent because I am also a teensy bit high, but I really am annoyed and I think that this is the kind of thinking that enables advertising to continue being full of douches and crushed female egos. So you know.
[1] Psychological Science, Michael Gazzaniga, Todd Heatherton, and Diane Halpern, 2010.
An excerpt from my psychology textbook regarding context-judgement.
Context effects also extend beyond immediate perceptions, across a wide range of events. For example, people generally define their own social and physical characteristics by comparing themselves with others. Often without realising they are doing it, many women compare themselves with the highly attractive and ultra-thin models in advertising. Since the viewers cannot match the perfect, air-brushed images they encounter, they experience negative feelings (e.g., Bower, 2001). If viewers are prone to making immediate comparisons, their moods become more negative, and they feel more dissatisfied with their own bodies (Tiggermann & McGill, 2004). One study found that when male and female college students viewed beautiful models, they rated photos of more average-looking people as less attractive than did a similar group of college students who did not see the models' photos (Kenrick, Montello, Gutierres, & Trost, 1993).
So far this makes sense and is fairly typical, if awful. Note that people actually think other people aren't as pretty after they've seen models. Which is >_>. But. Here's where I have a problem.
Thus women prone to feeling bad about themselves after seeing advertisements with seemingly-perfect models could stop reading magazines that carry such advertisements, or they could continue to read the magazines but remind themselves that these models set unattainable standards that do not apply to real people. [1]
Whut. I am extremely bothered that the answer to "advertising kills self-esteem" is "stop reading magazines you enjoy that have advertising" or "just try to feel better about yourself". NO. The answer is "make advertising change". That's like saying "murder kills people" so "stop being around people who murder people" "just try to feel less murdered" instead of "stop murdering". IDK it just seems so much like trying to hide the problem instead of dealing with it. I AM ANNOYED.
This is incoherent because I am also a teensy bit high, but I really am annoyed and I think that this is the kind of thinking that enables advertising to continue being full of douches and crushed female egos. So you know.
[1] Psychological Science, Michael Gazzaniga, Todd Heatherton, and Diane Halpern, 2010.