Regarding Susan Bordo's "Never Just Pictures", I agree with the points she makes in her essay about what is projected through advertisements and dummies and the negative effects that result from them. they must develop healthy self-esteem and body image. Everyone, regardless of gender, should openly embrace the strengths of their body, including its flaws. But we're still surrounded by everything from diet pill commercials to articles about celebrities doing everything they can to become slimmer and thinner to the bizarre concept that a plus-size model is as small as a waist 6 or 8. The fact that "a picture is worth a thousand words" perfectly reflects the emphasis on what one sees when someone looks at an advertisement for something, because it recognizes something much deeper than the 'viewed image. Apart from the company selling the product being presented, it is, in a way, sending subliminal messages about what a person who buys or wears the product should look and act like. Although advertisers and media outlets would be quick to deny that their work has anything to do with young women turning to eating disorders to resemble what they see around them, it is It's obvious that this obsession with self-image and being as thin as possible. humanly possible is clearly the result of nothing other than what is depicted in these very advertisements. In "Never Just Pictures", author Susan Bordo draws our attention to the influence of advertising in magazines and on television, as well as in the fashion industry, they are aimed at teenage girls and older women elderly, but also adolescents and men. She points out that "fat is the devil, and we're continually beating him – shedding" our bellies, "busting" our thighs... middle of paper... each in front of a larger audience. It's "a breath of fresh air," if you will, to see this shift in direction from the typical thin, made-up model to something so many of us see every day when we look in the mirror. Hopefully more of these types of women (and men) will be seen in future commercials and provide a fresh start for those people who feel so lost and unfulfilled because they don't look like what they're used to. see. It may very well be that we are only at the beginning of the process of this new transition, but with time and a sort of domino effect, I am convinced that what was once invisible or unheard of in advertisements will become the new norm - and healthy, too. Works cited Bordo, S. (1997). Never just images. In the Twilight Zones: The hidden life of cultural images from Plato to JO (pp.1-3). London: University of California Press.