Big Fit Girl. Louise Green

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СКАЧАТЬ worldwide, and more than 540,000 women and girls have joined their online community. The campaign’s popularity keeps growing and the videos and images have been viewed more than 40 million times through various social media.

      Could this be the start of a new wave in media and advertising? Positive representation of diversely sized athletes is the key to the future of women of size in sports. When we see ourselves pictured in magazines, on television, and in advertisements, we feel invited, inspired, and motivated to join in.

      Visual imagery strongly drives human thought patterns, and it currently excludes plus-size women in a big way. Media that depicts women of size is essential to changing the image of plus-size women. But there’s good news: we can create change and dictate what we want through what we choose to consume. Long ago, I decided to strip down my media consumption and avoid unhealthy images and messages of women. I removed media that portrayed women inaccurately from my newsfeed, bookmarks, and magazine racks. I started following body-positive leaders and brands that were spreading a new, positive message for women and girls. I stopped buying overly Photoshopped fashion and fitness magazines and started to invite only positive imagery into my sightline. I took control. Now, I dictate what I see. It’s not possible to hide everything that doesn’t speak to you, but if we refuse to buy in to exclusionary messaging, brands and media will be forced to change their strategies.

      If we work together, we can create change. Take the healthy media pledge with me! Use the hashtag #healthymediapledge and share it with your sisters, mother, daughters, and friends.

       I pledge to ditch negative media from my news feed, email inbox, and magazine stack. I will no longer consume media that doesn’t celebrate who I am. #healthymediapledge

       How Athletic Branding Impacts Stereotypes

      CONVENTIONAL ATHLETIC BRANDS don’t design their products for a diverse range of body sizes. Major brands steer clear of larger-bodied representatives, deepening the misconception that bigger bodies can’t be athletic or healthy.

      At the height of the 2012 Summer Olympics and Nike’s “Find Your Greatness” campaign, the activewear brand released a commercial called “The Jogger.” The commercial featured a 232-pound twelve-year-old boy named Nathan Sorrell. The ad was nicknamed “Fat Boy Running” on social media.

      The commercial was powerful in its simplicity, showing uncut footage of Sorrell jogging down a long, empty road, breathing hard but persevering. A calm voice narrated: “Greatness. It’s just something we made up. Somehow we’ve come to believe that greatness is a gift reserved for a chosen few. For prodigies. For superstars. And the rest of us can only stand by watching. You can forget that. Greatness is not some rare DNA strand. It’s not some precious thing. Greatness is no more unique to us than breathing. We’re all capable of it. All of us.”

      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 СКАЧАТЬ