austra:

Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women | ChallengingMedia

First, thanks to Austra for posting this.

I watch this video and I am horrified. I am horrified in part because what this woman says is true: that for years, womens bodies have been cropped, cut up, and transformed into objects for consumption. The images that we are fed day in and day out are not real, and in their falsehood set unbelievably high standards for everyone else. They make us think that we are not pretty enough, skinny enough, muscular enough, tall enough, and for some not white enough to be beautiful.

The second thing that horrifies me is that I have been told repeatedly by my parents, their colleagues and my friends that I am “really good at this.” And by “this” they mean my photography, my eye for beauty, my ability to market shit.

I am sometimes unsure of whether this is good or bad; that the potential to be a good, if not great photographer means that I have the ability to perpetuate the very ideals under attack in this video. Yet at the same time, capitalizing on my skills would mean a fairly stable and financially secure future. I would be able to have the freedom that I’ve always desired, to travel, to do the work I want, to support a family, a home and maybe even a few dogs. I’ve already had a taste of this type of work and I will admit that it is extremely seductive. If the perks on a small scale are so enticing, one can only imagine what it would be like ten-fold.

However, the allure of it all is balanced by the inscrutable boredom of hours behind the camera and in front of a computer screen. A few months ago I photographed a well known Canadian female artist for a publicity program. She is a woman in her mid forties, and while she enjoyed the aesthetics of my previous work she wanted to maintain complete control of the outcome herself. In an instant, my role as the artist was taken away from me and I became nothing but the vessel for a product. Following the shoot, she gave me a list of what she wanted done to the photo for post-processing. I was slightly troubled by the sheer amount of things that required “fixing”. It was clear to me that this woman who I once listened to repeatedly in my youth, who was featured on Dawson’s Creek no less, was under even more pressure to be as young and beautiful as the other girls of the world.

After that I stopped taking photos for a while. I had a lot to think about. There are a lot of women in my life, and growing up with with the majority of them through high school, watching us go through our own struggles with food and image issues was enough for me. Not to mention the fact that still, to this very day, I find it difficult to figure out breakfast, lunch and dinner. I flip flop over having actual meals sometimes because I’m scared of what it will do to me; sometimes more so afraid of what my mind will ultimately perceive in the end. Women have been objectified for hundreds of years by men in power. And now, the growing number of gay men are next (or rather, have already been dominated)—provide a disadvantaged minority with vast amounts of expendable income access to a sense of power and acceptance, and you have a gold mine.

But while I understand the aesthetic of the rich and powerful, I don’t think I can make a living off of it. I will just have to stare at it like everyone else: slightly detached, slightly angry and slightly invested in the glossy, manicured pages of a big, shiny magazine.