Remember how I had that one angry rant about ideal beauty standards and Pinterest? Well I basically wrote the scholarly version for my rhetoric class and I don't mean to toot my own horn but I thought it was pretty good. Go ahead and have a gander if you would like :
Rhetoric as Instrumental and Constitutive
It is no secret that the media uses
rhetoric as an instrument in persuasive marketing. Yet upon closer examination
the persuasive tactics that influence the viewer to buy the product also
construct physical and mental realities apart from the consumption of the
product itself. The Victoria’s Secret
“Incredible Bra” commercial illustrates rhetoric as being constitutive as well
as instrumental in that it is not only used to create the incentive to buy the
product through ethos and pathos, but also produces the reality of women’s
desire to look a certain way through the augmentation of emotions as a result
of pathos.
The Victoria’s Secret “Incredible Bra”
commercial currently airs across mainstream television advertising their newest
“Incredible” bra. The commercial features a montage of impossibly thin, leggy,
and well-endowed young females all dressed in subtly sexy lingerie gazing
wistfully at the camera, posing, running their hands through their flawless
beachy waves, and feeling their sculpted abdomens. The commercial uses very few
words, simply “The bra you love, now even more incredible” printed across the
screen, and no dialogue whatsoever behind an upbeat, sultry pop song. The
thirty-second commercial ends simply with the recognizable Victoria’s Secret
insignia printed across the bottom of the screen.
The commercial relies heavily upon brand
loyalty and familiarity to assume that viewers will recognize the salient as
well as reputable Victoria’s Secret brand and thus continue to consume their
new products. The commercial assumes that the female viewers already own and
love Victoria’s Secret’s other products, and because they do they will purchase
this new product. However, the commercial is not solely targeted at females, it
also catches the attention of male viewers who are drawn to the beautiful
models and may want to purchase the product for their significant other. The
advertisement does not need to saturate itself with logos and insignias due to
prior successful branding which has already infused the Victoria’s Secret name
with meaning; meaning that is associated with sexiness, dependability, and
quality. This is otherwise known as ethos,
or established credibility. Ethos is formally described as “the character
of the rhetor performed in the rhetorical act and known by the audience because
of prior interaction”( Palczewski, Ice and Fritch 7). Victoria’s Secret
implements this definition perfectly into their advertising by reminding the
audience of positive past experiences with their products and the bra they
“already love”. Consequently this affirms the viewer’s trust in the company so
they can be persuaded to buy the new product. Ultimately The Victoria’s Secret name is a
reputable brand with a developed customer base in which their advertisements
need only play off their already established success.
This specific commercial, however, is
successful in its own right, not simply due to brand repute, but also due to
definitive use of pathos. Pathos is
defined by Aristotle as, “ that which leads the audience to feel
emotion”(Palzewski, Ice, and Fritch 12). The Victoria’s Secret commercial is
successfully able to employ a pathos argument by setting the tone as sexy and
sultry so that the viewer is able to associate the product with sex appeal and
thus desire the product so that they too can be sexy. Or in the case of the
male consumer, he wants his significant other to be sexy like the models.
Essentially, Victoria’s Secret is not just selling a bra; they are marketing a
lifestyle. The commercial is telling the audience through imagery that whoever
purchases their product can ooze sex appeal just like the models. The
consumption of the product is no longer about buying a good quality bra, it is
about the emotions associated with buying the bra. Purchasing the product
directly correlates with a sense of beauty and self worth. The purchase of the
bra therefore becomes inextricably linked with the hopes, dreams, ambitions and
ideals of the female consumer. Or in the case of the male consumer the purchase
is linked with the fulfillment of his fantasies about women. For the female the
purchase may represent her desire to be beautiful or to turn men on, or it may
be linked to her weight loss goals to look like the models, or it may represent
an alter ego of her’s. Either way the commercial is no longer just selling a
product, but an answer to some woman’s intimate desires about who she wants to
be. Essentially, pathos becomes the central persuasive tactic in this
commercial as images of gorgeous women become linked to core desires and
emotions of the consumer and are thus manifested in purchasing the product in
order to fulfill those desires.
However, apart from the rhetoric being persuasive,
it is also constitutive of unattainable beauty standards for women through the
augmentation of women’s desires for personal attractiveness and thus
perpetuating feelings of dissatisfaction with their own looks. James Boyd White
defines constitutive rhetoric as the, “art of constituting character,
community, and culture in language”(Palczewski, Ice, and Fritch 7). White’s
definition aligns seamlessly with this rhetorical situation in that out of this
media comes a culture of feminine dissatisfaction where after viewing the
commercial a woman might feel that her body is inadequate. Contributor for
Psychology Today, Romeo Vitelli PhD, argues that, “The effect of media content
on ideas of physical beauty appears remarkably robust with women
reporting greater feelings of inadequacy regardless of their real
body weight”(Vitelli). Thus,
rhetoric has the power to construct normative statements in which viewers
develop ideas about how the world ought to be and sets standards in accordance,
regardless of whether these standards are healthy or even realistic. Women look
at the images on screen of rail-thin models portraying what women “should look
like” and wonder why they do not have mile long legs, toned tummies, and
voluptuous locks. Suddenly it is no longer about persuading the viewer to
purchase the product, but how the rhetoric involved has constituted feelings of
either self-doubt or discontent. In the case of the man he may feel
dissatisfied that his woman does not in fact look like a Victoria’s Secret
model, and that rather than realize that not everyone looks as they so, he
begins to believe all women should look like that. In both instances a new
standard has been set for women and thus reality has been generated. Ultimately,
rhetoric has the authority to not only influence and persuade, but it also has
the ability to shape people’s ideas about themselves and the world.
But what are the cultural implications of an
exceptionally high standard of beauty for women? The creation of unattainable
ideals of physical appearance has manifested themselves into subsequent
dissatisfaction, low self-esteem, eating disorders and the objectification of
women. According to Vitelli,
“With thinness presented as the ideal body shape and a necessary prerequisite
for health and happiness,
anyone falling short of this ideal is vulnerable to depression,
poor self-esteem, and general body dissatisfaction (Vitelli). The
prevalence of thinness has predicated the idea that it is superior, which of
course is unrepresentative of all female body types, yet impresses the idea
that if someone does not look a certain way they are not beautiful. Phycology
Today goes on to affirm this saying, “Research has demonstrated the depression
and despair that women often feel over falling short of the media
models presented to them… the outcome is low self-esteem, biased perceptions about how much food they should
eat, and a tendency towards poor eating habits that can aggravate health
problems”(Vitelli). Subsequently, the rhetoric being used to market Victoria’s
Secret products creates a real cultural impact in how women see themselves and
the choices they make about their bodies, choices that are often harmful. That
is not to say Victoria’s Secret is the principle offender, but their ubiquitous
use of rail-thin models in advertising reinforces and creates these ideas,
which thus become symbolic action. Cultural implications, however, stretch
beyond the female psyche and effect how men view and objectify women as well.
In the instance of this particular Victoria’s Secret commercial, the bra
becomes more than just a functional article of clothing, but a piece of sexual
iconography that objectifies women. According to Stephanie Berberek of the
University of Buffalo, “men compare the women in their lives to what they see
on television screens, in magazines, and on billboards. Both the self and
society has suffered because of the objectification, sexism, exploitation and
assessment”(Berberek). Berberek goes on to quote fellow researcher Swami
explaining, “the existence of patriarchal structures and attitudes should
result in significant relationships between sexist attitudes and the
endorsement of beauty ideals and practices”(Berberk). It is evident that as men
are exposed to these idealistic images of women both their expectations for
physical appearance as well as ideas of women as merely sexual objects
increase. The results are dastardly for women as both they themselves as well
as the opposite gender put more and more emphasis on outward sex appeal. On the
part of Victoria’s Secret, it is clearly no accident of marketing that viewers want
females to look like the models being shown, but the negative societal
consequences continue to impact viewers long after the television has been
turned off.
In conclusion, the rhetorical techniques of
pathos and ethos employed by Victoria’s Secret are not only successful in
persuading the viewer to consume their product, but subsequently in setting
unrealistic beauty standards for women that result in negative self-images,
disordered eating, personal dissatisfaction, and objectification of women.
Works
Cited
Berberick, Stephanie N. "The
Objectification of Women in Mass Media." The Online Journal of the New
York State Sociological Association 5 (2011): n. pag. May 2011. Web. 21 May
2014. <http://newyorksociologist.org/11/Berberick2011.pdf>.
Palczewski, Catherine Helen., Richard
Ice, and John Fritch. Rhetoric in Civic Life. State College, PA: Strata
Pub., 2012. Print.
Vitelli, Romeo. "Media
Exposure and the "Perfect Body"" Psychology Today.
Psychology Today, 18 Nov. 2013. Web. 22 May 2014. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.psychologytoday.com%2Fblog%2Fmedia-spotlight%2F201311%2Fmedia-exposure-and-the-perfect-body>.
