Savanna - Final Presentation

Summary: As a female in American society, I am pressured. Pressured to be thin, to
be “girly”, to pursue a job that pays less than my male counterparts. While all of
these standards are pressing social issues that must soon be addressed, the pressure
to be thin is one that has recently transformed. No longer is it enough to be “thin”, a
woman must be health conscious, exercise, and ban foods from her palate. At first,
these guidelines seem quite reasonable- exercise is healthy, eating right is healthy,
and the goal is to, ultimately be healthy, right? However what happens when the
conscious dieting and exercise become obsessive? The answer is Orthorexia. Not yet
defined by Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Orthorexia is a
growing problem in our society that parallels the rise in worship of the health scene.
This health scene starts with advertisements and is further promoted by the use of
users of web 2.0. The lack of actual health advice within these advertisements is the
fallacy that must change. Rather than promote actual healthy ideals that would be
harmless to consume, advertisements and health magazines alike capitalize on the
idea of “bad foods”, overcompensation through exercise, meal replacement, and
calorie counting – all such examples found in researching various health magazines
in creating my activist artifact.

Thesis: It is no secret that the advertising industry thrives off of the
commodification of insecurity in women, however the newest front from these
agencies strictly defines the diet and exercise regimes women “ought to be”
following to insure perfection-thus resulting in a new form of eating disorders:
Orthorexia.

Vision: My final project will not only expose the harmful statements found in
advertisements within a magazine, it will show how individuals suffering with
Orthorexia see these advertisements. One side of the project will be a normal
looking magazine- same advertisements and articles one would find if he or she
would read through this month’s Women’s Health issue. Every right side page would
include a section from the magazine as it was purchased. Once one reaches the end
of the “magazine”, the back cover will be upside down. Once flipped right side up the
reader will see a rework of the front cover of the magazine-however this time the
harmful ideologies will be exposed through various Photoshop techniques. Now,
with the magazine flipped upside down, the reader can read through a different
version of the same magazine, the pages that made up the left side originally can
now be seen in a different light- now one that an Orthorexic individual would see
and further what harmful statements the magazine proposed in the first place. The
aim of this rework is to display the harmful messages that can be taken away from
the seemingly harmless promotion of diet and exercise within the advertising and
health industry.