Cabrera 1

Abigail Cabrera
Professor Jon Beadle
English 115
7 December 2016
Your Confidence Will Slim Fast
What does it mean to be beautiful? Is it physical? Mental? Gendered? Most media
constructs beauty as something that women must attain, as something that they do not have
naturally, that women must work for in order to reach a common goal. One of the most common
misconceptions of beauty can be seen in a SlimFast advertisement shown in the October 2016
issue of Latina magazine. The SlimFast advertisement negatively constructs and promotes selfbeautification as an obsession for women so that they appeal to men. This in turn devalues
women in society as the subordinates to men.
When looking at the SlimFast advertisement it is clear that it focuses on selfbeautification of women for the purpose of sexual appeal. The advertisement shows a female
model posing in a flattering manner and holding a Slim Fast snack bag in her hand. Her pose
emphasizes her breasts and buttocks, while as the same time it presents her otherwise slimming
figure. The model is also dressed in a tight shirt that exposes her abdomen and accents her
breasts, a tight skirt that accents her buttocks. The model is also wearing red high-heels, has her
hair down and is wearing makeup. Aaron Devor, a professor of sociology, stated that Femininity
must be expressed through modes of dress, movement, speech, and action which communicate
weakness, dependency, ineffectualness, availability for sexual or emotional vice, and sensitive to
the needs of others, in her article the Becoming Members of Society: the Social Meanings of
Gender (40-41). This is clearly promoted in the SlimFast advertisement in how all the features

Cabrera 2
that the model displays ineffectualness through her apparel; the high-heels are not as functional
are regular shoes, nor would her outfit be appropriate for any occasion or activity. This promotes
the concept of weakness and vulnerability through the limitations presented through this type of
apparel. The apparel itself promotes sexual appeal in how the models outfit promotes common
female features that are associated with sexual intercourse, even more so by exposing more skin
on the model (the legs, arms, and abdomen).
Upon looking at the advertisement you can see that it presents a concept that ... girls
should preserves their bodies and make them more attractive to look at, rather that stronger,
healthier and more useful, as stated by Jacque Jackson, a graduate with a degree in psychology,
and Antonia C. Lyons, an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at Massey University
(31). This concept was clearly constructed through the appearance of the model in the SlimFast
advertisement. The model was presented in a sexually attractive manner. This promoted the
importance of self-beautification for women, given that the advertisement is presented in
Latina magazine, which has predominantly female readers, shows that it is only targeting
women. Scholars have argued that female sexuality requires women to make themselves object
and prey for the man (Jackson & Lyon 29). Here this advertisement promotes the same concept
in how the lack of functionality in the model apparel constructs vulnerability(making them the
prey) and in turn promotes male power and superiority(essentially making men the hunters of the
prey). Males construct strong warrior type women as unrealistic, implicitly constructing them
as deviations from idyllic nurturing femininity (Jackson & Lyon 30). The SlimFast
advertisement does not promote any power in the female model, but it does promote the
nurturing concept in how the advertisement is promoting women to nurture themselves by
staying slim. It is evident that there is no male model in this advertisement which promotes this

Cabrera 3
concept that men do not have to worry about appealing to women, but that women have to
appeal to men, further placing them as subordinates to men in the gender hierarchy.
The common problem in advertising is that sex sells. Sex sells because it attracts
attention. People are [hardwired] to notice sexually relevant information, so ads with sexual
content get noticed (Mulvey). The SlimFast advertisement represents the same concept, it
promotes a sexually appealing model as something for other women to compare themselves to
and strive to be identical to. This type of promotion makes people, and in this specific case
makes women, insecure about their physical appearance and there is no person that would want
to feel insecure, and that is exactly what this advertisement method causes. There is also the
argument that regardless of what the media presents , people can choose whether or not they will
allow what the media portrays to affect them. However, it is difficult for women to resist the
influence of these concepts when they are taught this role and conditioned to abide by it from a
young age. Rachel Granatino, a Marketing and Social Media director of (e)Merge, and Diana L.
Haytko, a professor of marketing at Florida Gulf Coast University, state that Between the ages
of seven and thirteen, girls desired to be approximately five percent thinner than their actual
size the desire to be thinned was found in young girls at approximately six years of age (45).
This shows that this same concept of self-beautification seen in the SlimFast advertisement is
forced upon women from when they are young, and reinforced as the grow older, which makes
these women insecure about their bodies. So sex may sell but it is only because the media, and
in this case Latina magazine it only continues because we allow it to. If all advertisements
stopped showing women as sexual objects for men then society would stop expecting it.
The promotion of self-beautification to appeal to men is harming women of all ages.
Women become emotionally and mentally distraught over their body image given that thin

Cabrera 4
female models present an image that most consumers cannot attain, and so strive to attain it
to be rid of the cause of their inner turmoil (Granatino & Haytko 46). In reality the source of the
issue is not the individuals. Ruth Hubbard, a professor of biology at Harvard University, stated
that In our society changes in style not just of clothing but of body shape are generated, at least
in part, because the entire industries depend on our not liking the way we look so that we will
buy products that promise to change it (48). The SlimFast advertisement does this as well in
how its promotion associates their weight loss product with feminine sexuality. Essentially
preying on the insecurity of body image satisfaction in order to sell their product, and women are
taken in by the tactic. However the product only helps you lose weight, it does not directly make
you more feminine, nor sexually attractive. In the article, Body Image Confidence And Media
Influence: A Study Of Middle School Adolescents, Granatino and Haytko provide this statement
given by a participant in their study: You have to be skinny, tall, beautiful, and plastic. Thats
what I think when I hear the word model. They make them look amazing in photos, which
sometimes makes me feel ugly (49). Here you see that this concept is already damaging this
adolescents confidence in her body image and in turn femininity. This damage often leads
women, and girls, to take drastic measures to help them attain the perfect body. Women tended
to engage in traditional dieting practices as well as much more harmful weight control practices
(Granatino & Haytko 46). Some of these weight control practices include common dieting
products, as SlimFast and dieting pills, but when women and girls are not satisfied they can
become obsessed and often develop eating disorders or resort to plastic surgery. The SlimFast
advertisement plays into this obsession and reinforces women to feel powerless.
The October 2016 issue of Latina magazine displayed a SlimFast advertisement that
promoted the common concept of self-beautification for women. The advertisement presents that

Cabrera 5
women are supposed to look beautiful, to look feminine. It communicates to women that if they
are not beautiful and sexy then they are in turn not a woman, and if they are not a woman then
they will not get a man. This says women are meant to serve men, being valued as less. This
concept will keep society from evolving from a gender hierarchy, to a society that defines its
members by what they contribute and not by what they look like.

Cabrera 6
Works Cited
Granatino, R., & Haytko, D. L. (2013). Body image, confidence, and media influence: A study of
middle school adolescents. Journal of Applied Business Research, 29(1), 45. Retrieved from
http://libproxy.csun.edu/login?
url=http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.csun.edu/docview/1426770036?accountid=7285
Devor, Aaron. Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender. Composing
Gender: A Bedford Spotlight Reader, edited by Rachael Groner and John F. OHara,
Bedford/St. Martins, 2014,pp. 35-43.
Hubbard, Ruth. Rethinking Womens Biology. Composing Gender: A Bedford Spotlight
Reader, edited by Rachael Groner and John F. OHara, Bedford/St. Martins, 2014,pp. 4651.
Jackson, J., & Lyons, A. C. (2012). The perfect body: Men and women negotiate spaces of
resistance against beauty and gender ideologies. Women's Studies Journal, 26(1), 25-33.
Retrieved from http://libproxy.csun.edu/login?
url=http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.csun.edu/docview/1267533226?accountid=7285
Mulvey, Jeanette. Why Sex Sells More Than Ever. Business News Daily, 7 June. 2012,
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2649-sex-sells-more.html
SlimFast. Latina October 2016: 107. Print.