What is a “real” woman? Criticism of existing body positive advertising Increasingly thinner models are used in combination with Photoshop, creating an impossible beauty ideal that is influencing the physical and emotional health of women in our society. The typical fashion model featured in advertisements has protruding hip bones and an androgynous body shape due to dangerously low body fat. They are slimmed down and smoothed further in images through the use of Photoshop. The documentary MissRepresentation points out: "you never see in the media a photograph of a woman considered beautiful that has not been digitally altered to make her absolutely inhumanly perfect." Since the 1980s, the quest to be slim has shifted from eliminating excess weight to eliminating bulges or loose flesh (“Slender Body” 191). It's no longer enough to be thin. Even the ideal body is toned, strengthened and maintains “firm body edges” (“Slender Body” 191). This nearly impossible standard of beauty is reflected and reinforced by advertisements featuring emaciated models selling products to smooth out bumps, reduce wrinkles, or tone the body. The media's portrayal of female bodies has a detrimental influence on women's perception of themselves and has been criticized in recent years. Girls growing up in our media-soaked culture internalize society's increasingly thin standard of beauty, believing they can never be thin enough. The negative effect of the media has been linked to the spread of eating disorders (“Never Just Pictures”, Thompson). This led to a public outcry against incredibly thin, airbrushed models and calls for more honest advertising. The movement towards “body positive” advertising is a response to the harmful effect… middle of paper… .love, continues to dismiss older and disabled women as beautiful. It also makes women with imperfect skin or tattoos unacceptable. Although Skinnygirl claims to showcase the average woman in its advertising, it still only represents a limited demographic. Although presented as body positive, advertising campaigns from Dove, M&S and Skinnygirl using 'real women' continue to underwrite existing beauty standards to maintain firm body margins and reject certain body types as beautiful. Although well intentioned, beauty product advertising is not in itself a good starting point for the body positive movement because it relies on the consumer's feeling that they need to better themselves in order to purchase the product. Instead of focusing on how to make “ordinary” women feel beautiful, the focus should shift away from the body. Women should not think that their beauty is their self-worth.