In response to Michelle Brett’s letter about the External Affairs’ billboard (Gazette, March 31); my heart goes out to her, and to every person who has suffered as a result of being subjected to unattainable images. Her boldness in addressing the ads has prompted me to share my own concerns.
As parents of teenage girls, we have family discussions about what authentic beauty in humanity looks like. The type of advertising on the billboard (and location, as Michelle pointed out), is both counterproductive and damaging to parents, and to others that work diligently in promoting healthy messaging. If it takes a village to raise a child, then there are those who are negligent in their obligations.
The billboard appears to be strategically placed at the intersection of St. Albert Trail and the turn-off to Village Transit Station. The buses may be the specific target, as college students constitute a large part of the ridership. Sitting impatiently in the buses, waiting for the lights to change, we are all a captive audience to these ads. My husband, who works in advertising, would say this is clever marketing. Agreed, but dissected critically and ethically, the subliminal messages pander to women’s potential emotional insecurities and negative self-imaging. It may also press them to look for imperfections within themselves, and identify what needs improvement (i.e. “the perfect lip shape” as per Michelle’s concern). As cases of anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues are on the rise (especially in young women), these ads are both alarming and irresponsible. Objectionable as well, in that the predominant focus is towards women, which then brings up the second subliminal message: Is it only women who need improvements, and therefore, is it only women who are flawed?
The strength of foresight of the Famous Five Women is a guiding path for me. They worked against great odds to make society a better place for women. They fought for real issues like freedoms, voting and working rights, better wages, and health care. What would Louise McKinney (and the other four), think, upon viewing the current billboard: long, nude legs appearing from nowhere, with the tag line “Sexy and Smooth?” Would she feel that her life’s work was in vain and that we’ve time-travelled decades into the past? Paraphrasing my teenager, “the ads remind me of the clichéd '50s house-wife, dinner in the oven, ready to please her man, when he walks through the door.” This outdated objectification of women, to fit someone’s idealized female template, is both counter-evolutionary, and socially anti-progressive.
I am grateful for colleagues, family and friends who have travelled tandem in my life journey as they are valued and cherished, not by external appearances, but by virtue of their generosity, intelligence, humour, and contributions made to others. We need to remember what really matters in people, authentic beauty is a multi-faceted diamond that sparkles from the inside-out forever; the exterior is only a fleeting and transitory vessel, quickly forgotten.
Ady Dedich, St. Albert
