A day or so ago, I was reading an article about some random bikini show for a random brand, and then all the complaints about a "lack of representation" of real women's body sizes on display. The argument was that the models didn't represent the average woman's body, with them being models and only one of them was "plus-size" - My question is,
Why should any brand represent average women?
Whilst this might be contentious, the thing is that these are companies with a product and that product doesn't have to appeal to everybody. The same show didn't have any octogenarians modelling either, yet they weren't complaining about it being agist.
Why is there an expectation that a bikini brand has to cater for all body shapes?
After all, it is up to the brand to decide what products they make and who they are targeting with their advertising. If they fail to sell their products, it isn't like all the people who didn't buy their products suddenly start buying them in a bid to keep them afloat. They have no skin in the game. And likely, the marketing people at these various bikini companies that use "non-normal women" (those that aren't overweight, as the norm is that most people in western countries are overweight) - know their audience, and know that despite the protests, the people who are complaining aren't likely to buy the products anyway.
It is just social media bitterness.
Like most of what is on social media these days. Complaints about things that people aren't really interested in, but need something to complain about.
I complain about the complaints.
People seem to think that they are entitled to having their feelings and opinions protected, no matter where they are, or what they do. They expect to scroll through random social media and not have their sense of self damaged in any way, feel no discomfort, or be exposed to anything that might make them feel bad about themselves.
These are supposedly adults.
I believe that children should be somewhat protected from a lot of the content that is available, where for example violence can be displayed away from their reach. But this is up to the parents to address, because with the proliferation of content on the internet and so many gateways, it is folly to believe that corporations, platforms and random strangers are going to behave in the way that a specific parent would want them to.
When are adults going to start acting like adults?
Representation isn't bad, but what it does is build identity around what might be relatively arbitrary or even harmful traits. We don't think about it this way most of the time, but not everything needs to be represented in every forum. For instance, do you want equal representation in your school district for pedophiles? Probably not. Yet, why is it that we expect to have equal representation around products that aren't actually designed to meet a broad market base?
Using bikinis as an example, pretty much anyone can wear any bikini, but depending on preference, no style is going to appeal to the entire bikini market to wear, because the market has such a variation in preferences - not just body types. For instance, my wife will not wear a thong bikini, even though she definitely could and I think would look good in one. There are some brands that only make thong bikinis - should she complain?
No!
Because those brands aren't making their product for her, they are making it for people who like or are willing to wear a thong bikini, or at least buy one in the hope that they would wear it. That is their brand design, that is their target and, that is who their marketing is designed to attract. And, attraction in marketing is rarely about reality, it is about making a potential buyer get the feeling that they will be better off for buying the product. Usually this comes in the form of selling a fantasy.
People buy fantasy, not reality.
Yet, when we get the reality home and realize that we aren't living the fantasy, we get buyer's remorse. However, if we saw footage of ourselves walking down the runway, most of us would likely never have bought the product at all, because ultimately for most of us, we wouldn't like what we would see.
And while people say "I am happy with my body the way it is", if that truly was the case, they wouldn't actually care about all the brands that don't cater for their body type and instead just buy from the brands that do, and there are plenty of them.
My wife can't buy clothes anywhere just about, because the vanity sizing keeps getting larger. The extra-smalls are too long for her height and swim on her as if she is wearing a potato sack. And the more "average" the store (made for the masses), the worse it gets. They are catering to the average in their sizing, discriminating against those that have maintained the same size over time, favoring those who have got larger.
Is my wife not a normal woman?
I don't want more representation, I want more discernment. People shouldn't be looking at every piece of content as if it is personally created for them and should meet all of their wants and desires. They should look at it through a lens of whether it is suitable or not for them and if it is, great, if not - move right along. Not every product has to represent you, or me, or the other 8 billion people on earth.
It is a brand's job to differentiate itself from other brands in some way in order to get market attention, and generally that is going to come through an innovative product, or innovative marketing channels. When it comes to something like bikinis, there isn't much innovation that can be had and there are plenty of brand alternatives, so they use marketing differentiation. Some will cater to a segment of the market that is motivated by images of slim people, some will go for more realistic alternatives, but at the end of the day, nothing stops a buyer making a purchase of either.
What is interesting to note, is that there are entire stores dedicated to larger or taller people, yet no one is seeing them as discriminatory of smaller or shorter people. It only seems to go one way, which makes me think that those who tend to call discrimination, are hypocritical and discriminatory themselves.
Every advertisement that has a market segmentation (all do) are going to be unrepresentative by design, because they aren't going to waste their marketing dollars in ways that they think aren't going to bring in income. There is no point in being representative for a company, unless it is going to either bring in income, or mitigate risks - and it is the latter that most are doing, out of fear of being called not representative.
I am discriminated against daily, because so much of what I want is outside of my price range. Ferrari and Rolex do not have representative products I can afford, neither do Armani suits, nor Gulfstream. It doesn't matter if they had someone who looks like me in their adverts, I am not going to buy from them regardless - no matter the fantasy they sell.
Do you think they should be representative?
Why should a bikini company, a car manufacturer or a tampon maker? Why is it wrong to market to the target audience, rather than to everyone who might chance upon the advert, even though the product isn't created with them in mind?
We are exposed to between 4,000 and 10,000 adverts per day - how many are representative of every body type, skin type, IQ level, hair color, financial situation, education, height, weight, nose shape, hand size, gender....
Pay attention and then, start writing a letter to each one complaining to all those that don't represent everyone.
Taraz
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