The ad struck a chord with millions of people. Even though Nike wasn’t an official Olympic sponsor, the spot stole the show—as did young Nathan.
Despite its popularity—the video has 1.7 million views on YouTube—this campaign remains one of the very few instances where a larger body has been associated with a major athletic brand. Clearly the numbers show we want more! We need more examples of diversity in size from brand names. We must continue to celebrate magazines, companies, and campaigns that bravely step away from misleading cultural norms and include all shapes and sizes in their messaging and mission.
Only we can drive that change. Brands respond to trends, commerce, and demand, so it’s up to us—you and me—to take a stand against brands that represent only one ideal body size. Join me in changing athletic brand culture to include body size diversity.
Use the hashtag #brandmysize with pictures of yourself and other women of size on your social feeds.
I pledge to buy only athletic apparel from brands that not only cater to my size but also show women of my size in their marketing and advertising. #brandmysize
How Advertising Impacts Stereotypes
“ADVERTISING IS MUCH more than ads. It sells values, images, concepts of love, sexuality and success and perhaps most important, normalcy. To a great extent it tells us who we are and who we should be,” says Jean Kilbourne, renowned lecturer whose work is the focus of the documentary Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women.
But there is hope: behind closed doors at advertising agencies around the world, the percentage of female creative directors is growing (from 3 percent to 11 percent in the last three years), an increase that has the potential to change the face of advertising. When more women are shaping media, they are likely to expand how women are represented, with more diversity and accuracy.
Jean Batthany, a creative director at one of the world’s leading advertising agencies, is pushing for gender equality in the advertising world. “Women make up only 11 percent of creative directors in the United States,” she says. “Yet women make, on average, 85 percent of purchase decisions in the home. The hope is that if more women are leading the creative charge, the messages and images can and will be even more representative and persuasive to women. And that’s just good business.”
Batthany continues, “With men as the majority, women are viewed and portrayed through the male gaze. More specifically, it’s the idea that films and advertisements were created to please a heterosexual male audience.”
In most advertising, plus-size women are invisible; we simply don’t exist. Batthany sees things slowly changing, however; some advertisers are now coming to the table to talk not only about their products but also about their social mission.
“I definitely feel a shift as of late. This year there was lots of buzz when a Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue featured a plus-size model for the first time. Truth be told, it was a paid ad for Swimsuits for All featuring drop-dead gorgeous and sexy-as-hell plus-model Ashley Graham, and it got people talking!”
APPROXIMATELY 108 MILLION American women are size 14 or larger, and yet they remain virtually invisible in advertising and media. Though diversity in representation is on the rise, seeing a plus-size woman portrayed positively or shown in a position of power in advertisements is still rare.
Batthany says that although the Internet leads to faster change, cultural shifts take time. “Knowing the power of mass media, I am constantly reminding my two extremely self-conscious teenage daughters that the images they are exposed to are not real. They are retouched, edited, manipulated. It takes a village of hairstylists, makeup artists, wardrobe stylists, lighting specialists, cinematographers, photographers, and editors to get that one seemingly perfect shot. I have seen first-hand how self-esteem can be damaged by not fitting ‘the norm.’ Body hating, body shaming, eating disorders, and depression feel like they are at epidemic levels.”
“The good news,” she says, “is there definitely seems to be a movement toward redefining what is beautiful. And I am a firm believer in the adage ‘you cannot be what you do not see.’”
Together, let’s push to see more, so we can all be more. If companies and advertisers are hit in the pocketbook, they will be forced to make the change. Take the pledge and join me in creating important social change.
I pledge to eliminate or reduce my purchases of products from brands with harmful advertising messages or advertisers that alter the bodies and appearance of women in their advertisements. I pledge to use my purchasing power to support brands that promote healthy bodies and include women of all shapes and sizes in their messages.
How the Diet Industry Impacts Stereotypes
IF YOU ARE like me, you’ve probably tried to diet many times to conform to the ideal body type portrayed by the media. Disliking your body or feeling shame about it can prevent you from realizing your dreams and your fitness goals. The weight-loss industry offers empty promises of a new you and a better life. In the checkout line at most grocery stores magazine headlines tempt female shoppers to try the latest gimmick:
•“Look Hotter Naked” (Cosmopolitan, February 2016)
•“Better than Lap Band, Lose 25 lbs. in 8 Weeks” (Woman’s World, January 2014)
•“Your Dream Body in Just 2 Weeks” (Shape, January 2016)
Don’t buy in! We all know from experience that these “solutions” don’t solve any of our problems.
Melissa A. Fabello, a body-positive activist, sexuality scholar, and managing editor at Everyday Feminism, is critical of how plus-size women are perceived and treated in our weight loss–driven culture. “Currently, what’s on trend is for women to be thin but curvy, but not fat curvy. As we create narrower and narrower beauty standards, we create more and more disdain for anyone who falls, really, on either side of that ideal. However, the way that we look at ultra-thin bodies versus ultra-lush bodies is very different. We understand ultra-thin bodies as the embodiment of the constructs of ‘control’ and ‘willpower’ that diet culture sells us. And we understand fat bodies as the exact opposite—as a manifestation of sloth and gluttony.”
The annual revenue of the U.S. weight-loss industry—including diet books, diet drugs, and weight-loss surgeries—is 20 billion dollars. This staggering figure reveals how much desperation women feel; we will do anything to attain the feminine ideal, and marketers sell us on their unproven solution: weight loss.
We aren’t defective; the system is defective.
Jillian Camarena-Williams, Olympic shot-putter, Team USA 2008 and 2012:
“’Healthy’ means taking care of your body both physically and mentally. Too many people want to lose weight or change their body. I once did a Dexa scan, a scan that tells you your body composition. If I had 0 percent body fat I would still have weighed 170 lbs. That is still not a small girl. I knew I was taking care of my body, exercising, eating healthfully, and my body felt good. I may not have been my ‘ideal’ weight, but my body was healthy and functioning properly and that was all I could do!”
When I realized that my weight didn’t have to be a barrier to my happiness, I let go of chasing thinness. Ironically, this made me happier. I abandoned dieting and decided to pursue my athletic dreams in the body I had. My fitness goals were no longer about burning calories but about challenging myself, persevering, and achieving victory through the goals I set for myself.
How to Be the Change and Shatter Stereotypes
WHILE NOT ALWAYS easy, adhering to the following principles