OUR BODIES COMMODIFIED
by Maura Hanrahan
It’s hard to find a woman who doesn’t like a good moisturizer or a nice lipstick.
It’s also hard to find a woman who is not bothered, hurt even, by the parade of anorexic female figures through the magazines we read, on the soaps we might watch on a sick day, or in the big-screen romantic comedies that are supposed to make us feel good. Size-zero dresses are all over the stores, even as young models drop dead from self-starvation. It is frustrating and, for those girls and women who internalize the message contained in these images, possibly even dangerous.
As a result, many women were thrilled to see Dove’s new magazine and TV ads featuring older women apparently proud of their wrinkles, potbellies, and sagging skin. The women in the ads are white, black and several colours in between. Real beauty, we’re told, comes in all shapes and sizes.
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