TED X WanChaiWomen - Dying to be thing - Su-Mei Thompson

I started to look at TED talks, as I know these are a great source of learning and finding out about loads of different things. I started to look at body image, body dissatisfaction, and self-objectification

This one called 'Dying To Be Thing" from Su-Mei Thompson focuses on the promotion of the thin ideal across advertising and media. The thin ideal is the concept of the ideally slim female body. Thompson talks about how the advertisements and media that we are exposed to on a daily basis and how more and more girls are moving towards the thin ideal that ever before. Looking at advertising that promotes thinness as a solution or as an ideal leads women and girls to believe that thinness equals success and happiness. This coupled with a constant promotion of diet and weight loss can lead young girls and women towards depressions, unhappiness, and eating disorders.

Su-Mei Thompson also starts to talk about how advertising and media are starting to take responsibility for the content that they're promoting, and how they can use their brand ambassadors to promote the diversity of different female shapes and sizes. She also talks about the individual responsibility we can play in changing how media portrays women. By using the power of social media, you can call out the brands, companies etc that continue to objectify women. She emphasises the need to place less worth on the physical being and outward beauty and more worth on the confidence and aspirations of young girls and women.

I feel that after watching this I would like to investigate more into the thin ideal and how this is linked with objectification and how the aspiration to be thin is linked with positive life outcomes. I would also like to maybe develop my visual journal to look at how we can empower women and girls and promote body positivity, self-love and confidence over appearance.