Kluender 1

Anna Kluender

WR 13300

Professor McLaughlin

Research Essay

11 April 2017

All About ThatBody Shaming?

It is no secret that modern media idealizes ultra-thin and hyper-sexualized body types.

Everything from music videos to advertisements to social media presences often feature scantily-

clad, thin women who match the body type idealized by modern society. This aspect of the media

is often called body-shaming, the practice of making hurtful comments or actions which criticize

ones body size (Oxford Dictionary). Body-shaming can create hugely detrimental effects on the

audiences of these pieces of media, most of whom are adolescents, according to researchers Beth

Bell, Rebecca Lawton, and Helga Dittmar (143). Teenagers take in a huge amount of media

throughout the day, be it from phones, laptops, TVs, or other devices, and every piece of media

that they see effects its viewers. Adolescents compare themselves and their own bodies to the

images shown in the media and must deal with the possible consequences of lowered self-esteem

and self-confidence. In recent years, companies, celebrities, and other major figures in the media

have taken steps to counteract this body-shaming by promoting healthier bodies; the promotion

of an idealized body in the media caused a wave of body-positive messages, specifically in

advertisement campaigns and music videos, to be released. For example, music videos such as

Meghan Trainors All About That Bass and Colbie Callaits Try now feature curvier dancers

and lyrics with themes of body-confidence, yet these videos have much in common with their

body-shaming predecessors and affect the self-esteem of their adolescent viewers in a similarly
 Kluender 2

negative way. Advertisement companies support campaigns with a promise of more realistic

models, but these promises are often not followed through to fruition. These attempts to promote

positive self-esteem in viewers enjoy some success, but ultimately fall short of their goals to

break away from the medias obsession on one unrealistic, glorified body type.

As members of society grew to prefer a body that is absolutely tight, containedfirm,

(Bordo 190) images of this body type became propagated across many forms of mass media. For

viewers of such images, this creates a sense of shame and disappointment if the viewers body

does not match the one shown in the images he or she sees. This causes a decrease in ones self

esteem; for example, multiple scientific studies have proven that exposure to certain music

videos, which promote the idealized body types, result in lower self-esteem in viewers. Bell,

Lawton, and Dittmar explain in their 2005 study that music videos epitomize[d] the ultra-thin

beauty ideal for young women and thus cause a downtick in the self-esteem of adolescent girls

who watch such videos. According to Bell et al., the target audience of modern media is

adolescents, who spend most of their time online and exposed to such forms of media. For

example, adolescents are the heaviest viewers of music videos. These teenagers are

coincidentally still in their developmental stages and thus are at risk for developing serious self-

esteem issues (143). By featuring and idealizing such bodieswhich are often very difficult to

attain while remaining healthymodern media body-shames any viewers whose body types do

not match those found in the videos. The correlation between the propagation of ideal body

images and adolescent body dissatisfaction could explain high rates of eating disorders in

teenagers.

Likely in response to such negative body images in the media, campaigns were made to

counteract the body-shaming that has become so common. Different companies and industries
 Kluender 3

began to take stands against the ideal body that the media promotes; each one approaches the

problem in a slightly different way, yet similar trends can be found across the efforts. In 2004,

Dove became one of the first companies to publicly launch a campaign, entitled the Campaign

for Real Beauty (CFRB), to create a more inclusive definition of beauty beyond the narrow

perception of physical attractiveness. In their campaign, Dove featured real women who were

supposed to represent a range of body types. They then produced mini-films with positive self-

esteem messages with an ultimate goal of boosting the self-esteem of young girls (McCall, viii).

Perhaps Doves actions sparked a trend; about a decade later, in 2014, Aeriea subset of the

American Eagle Outfitters clothing corporationlaunched a similar campaign. Aeries efforts,

called the Aerie Real campaign, are marketed as being about empowerment and loving the

real you and include the promise to never retouch the models in their ads (#AerieReal).

Though these campaigns seem to include aspects that would appeal to those women

ostracized by the stick-thin women present in most modern media, they fall short of truly

accomplishing their goals of promoting self-confidence among all women. Mary McCall, whose

thesis analyzed the Dove campaign, argues that the campaign is problematic in the way that it

conflates beauty with self-esteem and offers models whose bodies only slightly challenge the

status quo (3). Similarly, the Aerie Real campaign was found to portray relatively thin young

women, who did not deviate greatly from the thin-ideal (Convertino et al., 9). The use of

women who cannot truly represent the whole population and the focus on beauty in advertising

are factors that combine to make the Dove and Aerie campaigns much less effective than

planned.

Despise the limitations of models found in the ads, the Dove and Aerie campaigns did

have some positive effects on their audiences. Convertino et al. found that women who viewed
 Kluender 4

the Aerie Real ads as opposed to original Aerie ads experienced a smaller decrease in self-esteem

after seeing the modelsyet the decrease in self-esteem was still there (9). In the case of the

Dove campaign, it did fulfill its original message of provok[ing] discussion and encourag[ing]

debate about the nature of beauty (McCall, 4). Undoubtedly, Doveand later Aeriepaved the

way for a critique of modern medias obsession with a stick-thin, idealized body. However, in

light of all this, it is essential that one keep in mind the base goal of both campaigns: both are

forms of marketing, with goals of selling products (body care and lingerie, respectively), and one

must ask what they have to gain from these campaigns. At the end of the day, the bottom line of

the companies is to sell items for a profit, which likely impacts the extent of the focus of the

companies on making their campaigns truly applicable and inclusive for all.

Joining the ranks of body-positive messengers like Dove and Aerie, in 2014, musician

Meghan Trainor dropped a single that would become one of the most celebrated body-positive

anthems of the twenty-teens. Trainors All About That Bass shot to the top of Billboards

charts and stayed there for weeks, beating out cult favorite artists like Taylor Swift and Nicki

Minaj. In the same year, artist Colbie Callait released her single Try with a similar emphasis on

loving ones body and accepting people regardless of outward beauty. Despite the huge positive

response these songs received from their audience, a closer look reveals themes in the lyrics of

both songs that suggest hurtful messages. Trainors pop melody, with lyrics like Yeah, my

mama, she told me dont worry about your size / She says, Boys like a little more booty to hold

at night wasand still islauded for its support of curvier women. However, those lines place

a focus on liking ones body based on male appreciation. She even mocks the thinner women

normally featured in music videos, calling them skinny bitches and stick-figure, silicone

Barbie doll[s] (Trainor). In fact, Trainors lyrics were so specific to a certain subset of women
 Kluender 5

and focused so much on others appreciation of womens bodies that Bustle journalist Alex

Kritselis rewrote the lyrics to be more positive and all-inclusive. Her version includes lines like

Because you know Im all about bodies / Bout bodies (no shaming) and True body

acceptance means Im lovin what I got (Kritselis). Kritseliss new version of the All About

That Bass is proof that the original lyrics left much to be desired in a so-called body-positive

anthem.

Along a similar vein, Callaits lyrics, which mention Put your make-up onKeep it slim

so they like you reference the cause of this whole debate: a focus on outward appearance

instead of inner self-confidence (Callait). She encourages girls that is it not necessary to put so

much effort into matching beauty standards, but in doing so, she draws attention to the very

beauty standards she is trying to argue against. Ultimately, Callaits lyrics do put an emphasis on

loving ones self instead of beauty status symbols, and the end of the song serves as a boost of

confidence with the line declaration that Callait likes her audience just as they are. Unfortunately,

these positive aspects of the song are lost in the focus on the materialistic nature of modern

beauty and idealized body types.

Trainor and Callaits accompanying music videos, released shortly after their songs

themselves, further strengthen the argument that they are ineffective at promoting increased self-

esteem in their viewers. Trainors video features Trainor with a host of busty, hippy women

dancing and singing along to the music. However, these women all fall in the range of healthy

weight, so they only make women who think they're fat feel good about the fat bodies they don't

have, while constantly reminding them that they should feel fat, according to blogger Jenny

Trout (McKinney). All About That Bass targets a very specific audience: women who believe

themselves too big to fit the ultra-thin image presented in the media, but who are not truly
 Kluender 6

overweight or plus-size. This means that both thin and overweight women are shamed by

watching the music video, leaving only a very small portion to be encouraged by the songs

catchy message. All About That Bass may take away one negative aspect of body-shaming, but

it leaves another in its place.

While Callaits video doesnt include quite as narrow a range of women as Trainors, she

too focuses on only one small portion of the struggle: makeup and outward appearances. Callaits

video consists of women of various ethnicities and ages wearing makeup at the beginning of the

video and taking it off by the end to reveal seemingly happier and more carefree lives. Despite

her intent to promote the confidence of adolescents who listen to her music, Callaits video

poorly chooses to focus on things like makeup and materialistic aspects of beauty instead of

focusing on inward beauty and boosting self-esteem. By making physical appearance the topic of

the video, Callait perpetuates the trend in popular media of judging someones worth based on

how closely they fit societys idea of perfection. Instead of inspiring confidence, Callaits Try

music video in fact underlines societys expectations of how women should present themselves.

These two music videos both possess similar trends and images to those found in traditional

music videos which promote the idealized body, which Bell et al. proved to be detrimental to the

self-esteem of adolescent viewers.

A year before Trainor and Callait entered the discussion about the nature of the media to

body-shame women, singer Sara Bareilles released her take on confidence in the face of media

pressures. The lyrics of Bareilless song Brave does not once mention body size, appearance,

beauty, materialism, or any other key terms which could lead to subtle negative effects on

viewers self-esteem. In contrast to Trainor and Callait, Bareilles chooses instead to focus on

inspiring pure courage and confidence in her listeners. Her lyrics include phrases like
 Kluender 7

Everybodys been there and I just wanna see you be brave (Bareilles). In doing so, Bareilles

moves away from the standard discussion of weight, beauty, or even acceptance and simply

encourages listeners to speak up against whatever holds them back, fostering a sense of

community and solidarity among her audience. This focus on encouraging the audience, instead

of trying to negate the influence of the ideal body overall, is perhaps just what this topic needs.

Unlike the videos of Trainor and Callait, which focus on materialistic ideals, Bareilless

music video for Brave continues her lyrics themes of confidence, courage, and acceptance.

Instead of focusing on appearance or weight, Bareilless video shows people of all shapes and

sizes breaking into dance in public places. Empowering lyrics are accompanied by dancers

some awkward, others completely engrossed in their movementsbut all confident and

comfortable in their own skin. Bareilles chose to represent the positivity and self-confidence in

her song by using the dancers as a metaphor. Each dancer, different in his or her own right, with

different approaches to their dance, symbolizes each member of Bareilless audience. Unlike the

videos studied by Bell et al., which defined and featured a certain idealized body type, Bareilless

video shows a wide range of bodies, which means that her video has little chance of negatively

influencing the self-esteem of viewers. The message of her music video is that each person is

unique and valuable because of their differences and individuality, not because they match the

ideal image displayed by popular media. By doing so, Bareilles ensures that Brave does not

exclude anyone from its message, and thus is successful overall at defying societal norms for

body type, size, or appearance.

Campaigns like those of Dove and Aerie as well as music videos like those of Trainor,

Callait, and Bareilles are definitely a step in the right direction; they started a conversation about

the importance of showing all body types in the media, not just the size 2 supermodels that
 Kluender 8

women are used to seeing. They are among some of the most successful in the advertising and

music industries, respectively. Yet most of these efforts ultimately fail at promoting the self-

esteem of adolescent viewers in the face of the idealized bodies that populate the media. By

refusing to show a wide range of bodies, displaying body types which are not far from the

normally-pictured size, and focusing on materialistic aspects of beauty, most of these campaigns

and music videos lack the overarching acceptance that must be present in order to help

counteract the negative effects of decades of unrealistic bodies being pictured in the media.

Bareilless video makes great strides towards the type of material that must become a goal for

any efforts to promote higher levels of self-esteem, but most others fall short of this standard. In

the face of the effect of idealized bodies on the self-esteem of viewers, as well as failed attempts

at counteracting those effects, it is crucial that audiences become critically aware of the media

that they intake on a daily basis.

The National Association for Media Literacy Education defines critical medial literacy as

the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act (Media Literacy Defined) on any form

of media. This means that audiences become aware of the subtle, less-than-overt messages preset

in the media that they view and then can make critical decisions about whether to believe those

messages. This is especially important with the knowledge that companies and individuals all

have a stake in what they create for audiences. For example, companies like Dove and Aerie

want consumers to purchase their body care and lingerie products. Musical artists like Trainor,

Callait, and Bareilles want listeners to buy iTunes tracks, merchandise, and tickets to their next

tour; their music lyrics and videos are meant to be catchy and memorable to cause audiences to

purchase them, which means that an emphasis on selling the song is often more important than

creating songs with a positive message. Critically analyzing the media that audiences take in
 Kluender 9

like ads, songs, and videoswould allow audiences to filter out their hidden themes and

agendas, such as Aeries lack of deviation from traditionally beautiful models or Callaits focus

on materialistic beauty standards. With this filter of media literacy, audiences could perhaps reap

only the benefits from songs like All About That Bass and ads like Aerie Real while receiving

none of the negative effects of the body-shaming that can still be found in them. Audiences

should be able to watch an ad or video and identify the purpose, claims, and rhetorical techniques

found in that piece of media, as well as be aware of how those factors influence their reaction to

what they have just viewed. A combination of increased media literacy coupled with a distancing

from materialistic beauty standards and a higher number of efforts to display more nontraditional

views of beauty could put modern media on the path to dispel the problems that come with

idealizing womens bodies.

 Kluender 10

Works Cited

#AerieReal. American Eagle Outfitters, 5 April 2017, https://www.ae.com/featured-

aeriereal/aerie/s-cms/6890055.

Bareilles, Sara. Brave. YouTube, uploaded by SaraBareillesVevo, 14 May 2013,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUQsqBqxoR4.

Bell, Beth T., Lawton, Rebecca, and Dittmar, Helga. The impact of thin models in music videos

on adolescent girls body dissatisfaction. Body Image, vol. 4, no. 2, 2007, pp. 115-226.

Body shaming. Def.1. OxfordDictionaries.com. Oxford Dictionaries, Aug. 2013. Web. 3 April

2017.

Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. University of

California Press, 1993.

Callait, Colbie. Try. YouTube, uploaded by ColbieCallaitVevo, 8 July 2014,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXoZLPSw8U8.

Convertino, Alexandra D., Rodgers, Rachel F., Franko, Debra L., and Jodoin, Adriana. An

evaluation of the Aerie Real campaign: Potential for promoting positive body image?

Journal of Health Psychology, 2016, pp. 1-12.

Kritselis, Alex. Meghan Trainor's All About That Bass Lyrics Rewritten To Be More Body-

Positive & Inclusive. Bustle, 15 September 2014,

https://www.bustle.com/articles/39992-meghan-trainors-all-about-that-bass-lyrics-

rewritten-to-be-more-body-positive-inclusive.

McCall, Mary Sullivan. Discourse Behind Doves Campaign for Real Beauty: Making Peace

with our Bodies. MA Thesis. Purdue University, 2012. Web. 11 April 2017.
 Kluender 11

McKinney, Kelsey. All About That Bass Isnt Actually Body-Positive. Vox, 12 September

2014, http://www.vox.com/2014/9/12/6126429/ban-meghan-trainor.

"Media Literacy Defined." National Association for Media Literacy Education. Accessed 18

April 2017. https://namle.net/publications/media-literacy-definitions/.

Trainor, Meghan. All About That Bass. YouTube, uploaded by MeghanTrainorVevo, 11 June

2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PCkvCPvDXk.