Stereotypes In The Advertisement Of Wonderbra

What we see in the media is a reflection of who we are, or is it? Advertisements have always tried to sell us an ideal life. In many advertisements we are forced to see through the lenses of discrimination and sexism who ultimately try to belittle people in aspiration that these people will buy into a fantasy. Looking at an ad for Wonderbra we can see the stereotypes of women that continually bombard our culture solidify a woman's image through beauty, sexual desire, gender roles, and submissiveness to men. As men and women are besieged by thousands of advertisements a day it becomes harder to navigate what is genuine and what is forged.
In this ad for Wonderbra there is a thin, white, blond haired, blue-eyed women in the center wearing
That is 3,000 images a day telling me what to wear, what to look like, how to be happy, and what my relationships should look like. Should look like is the key, because my life does not look like anything in the advertisements I see or hear. I used to believe I was missing out on something because no matter the products I bought I was still never as happy as the women in the commercials. My skin was never as poreless, my hair not as voluminous, and I still could not find a boyfriend. For a long time I viewed this as a problem with myself, that I could not be a “normal teenager”. What I realized is that the people who I actually interacted with, not those on the television, had the same concerns as I did. Their skin was just as bad, their hair dry and frizzy, and we were all single, and this was viewed as all negative qualities, when they are just natural. The media bombards us so harshly on what we are not doing right in my life that it forgets to celebrate what we have accomplished. For me now, it is important to turn off the television or not to pick up the beauty magazines because that is an unattainable image. Putting myself down for not being able to be what is in the magazines is harmful to my self esteem. This is a problem for everyone. I am already harsh enough on myself as a white woman and I get to see other white women in the media in a positive light, other ethnicities do not get this luxury. Advertisements affect everyone because they remind us about how imperfect we are, and how not being perfect is not acceptable. What is important to realize is that beauty is not the only value we need to uphold, especially the beauty portrayed in the media because it is skewed with its inherent sexism and