By KATIE KLIMACEK
Staff Wrier
It seems as though despite all the technology that we have today, people are still making completely obvious mistakes for the whole world to see. This past week, a picture surfaced on the Internet from Target.
The ad showed a girl modeling a bikini, an ad that is nothing new this time of year. But what was different about this ad was the large obvious portion of thigh that was missing from the model. The ad looked as though an inexperienced graphic designer clicked on the erase tool in Photoshop and erased a section of the model’s leg to make it appear as though she had a thigh gap.
The trend of the Thigh Gap has been making its way though news and media in recent months. A term is used to explain the body image of when your knees are touching and a space remains between your thighs. It seems as though in recent years the struggle of the perfect body image has been one that no one can ever wave the white flag on.
Within the past week, Target fell under scrutiny for a Photoshop mishap that was released on their website. The picture showed an already thin model with portions of her body missing. It looked as though someone had taken an exacto knife to the picture and started haphazardly hacking off sections of the girl with no rhyme or reason. When this disaster was brought to the store’s attention, they made an apology and stated that it was result of an unfinished touchup. A statement that lead many to the question of why this already incredibly thin model needed to be touched up in any way. It seems as though that question is continuously being asked within the advertising industry nowadays.
It’s understandable, to a certain degree, that companies would try to deliver some kind of healthy advertising to their customers. But that doesn’t give them the go ahead to completely destroy what an actually body looks like.
Too many young girls are growing up with the constant reminder that their body is never going to be good enough. With each ad that comes out promoting a completely arbitrary body image of a thigh gap, another young girl looks at her self in the mirror, sees her thighs touching and thinks to her self that she can’t wear that outfit, or that boy she likes will never ask her to prom, or she will never get that job interview because she is not the “Right Size”.
It makes me sad to think that this is what young girls are struggling with today, weather or not there is a large enough space in between their thighs or not.
In response to the increase of photoshoped ads, Lingerie Company Aerie decided to come out with a campaign in which none of their models were retouched. In fact they call it AerieREAL, a campaign in which their models are “real”.
Equipped with nothing more than a miniscule touch of make up and their natural bodies, these models for Aerie reveal it all, tan lines, tattoos and even touching thighs.
It only makes sense to be realistic when you are promoting a product. Consumers are tired of constantly being lied to. It is exhausting to flip through a magazine and see all of these models that look like they could wear a Build-A-Bear outfit because they are so skinny.
Advertisers and companies say that it gives the customers inspiration and motivation to go work out, eat healthy, and do what ever else to achieve that look, but when in reality it just makes the consumer feel worse about themselves.
The look of women has changed so drastically in a matter of 50 years. Marilynn Monroe was known as a sex icon. She was attractive, had a great figure, and everyone loved her. She was the epitome of beauty and everything that surrounded it. However she was not a size 00, or six feet tall, and her thighs certainly did not have a gap. No, instead Ms. Monroe was an average height, curvaceous attractive woman who’s thighs touched and who so many idealized when it came to beauty.
It seems as though companies need to sit down and start reevaluating how they present their products to their customers now because the world is not a world of size 00 and thigh gaps. There is a different culture out there, and consumers are tired of dealing with the Stepford Wife model of advertising.
Hopefully advertiser and companies will soon see that there is a far different world outside their modeling studios, and will open their eyes to the new body image.
