2010 New Year’s Resolution
I’ve been thinking a lot about the disturbingly Photoshopped images Ralph Lauren has been using in its ad campaigns. Two Sundays ago, roughly 30 NOW protesters stood in front of the 72nd Street flagship store the day after a snowstorm because Ralph Lauren, no, the people who work for Ralph Lauren (real people, not a faceless brand), are making standards of beauty for women even more impossible than they already are.
I own Ralph Lauren clothes. I like the people I know who work for brands like Ralph Lauren, Victoria’s Secret, Guess. If I do the math, I know that they are responsible for contributing to images of unhealthily thin and perfect women. But I don’t do the math, and neither do they. These are my friends, and this is their job.
There are days when I see a kid looking at an advertisement with a model whose figure can only be achieved through anorexia. I see the kid absorbing it, taking mental notes. And then I get an invite from a friend to join her Ralph Lauren Facebook group. And I wonder what I’m supposed to do. Am I supposed to email this friend and tell her that she is part of the problem? That she should march up to her superiors and demand that the brand use more realistic images of women? That she should quit her paying job in this job market?
The people I know who work in advertising, marketing, photography, corporate law, graphic design and production are thoughtful. Feminists even. In doing their jobs, they’re not trying to make 12-year-olds feel bad about themselves. And yet, that’s what happens when you’re a cog in the machinery. You do harm without thinking too much about it.
So here’s what I propose: In 2010, let’s do what we can.
If you’re sitting in front of a computer screen deciding how thin to make a Ralph Lauren model, make her as normal looking as you can. If you’re with someone who thinks that the term “feminism” has a negative connotation, state that you are a feminist and explain why as patiently and eloquently as you can. Get to a rally, even if you can’t get to all of them. Don’t say something catty about another woman’s looks, even if you have in the past and will again in the future.
It is the accumulation of small actions that ultimately leads to change. This year let’s all do what we can to make the world a better place for women.
