Regarding “Never Just Pictures” by Susan Bordo, I agree with the points she makes in her essay about what is projected through advertising and fashion and the effects negatives these have on the development of healthy self-esteem and body image. Everyone, regardless of gender, should openly embrace the strengths of their bodies, flaws and all. Yet we're surrounded by everything from diet pill commercials, to articles about celebrities doing everything they can to get thinner, to the bizarre concept that a plus-size model is as small as a size 6 or 8. that "a" picture is worth a thousand words” rings very true to the emphasis placed on what you see when someone looks at an advertisement for something because they recognize something much deeper than the image you see. In addition to the company selling the product shown, they somehow send subliminal messages about how a person who would buy or wear the product should look and behave. While advertisers and the media would be quick to deny that their work has anything to do with young women turning to eating disorders to look like what they see around them, it is clear that this obsession with self-image and for being as thin as humanly possible is clearly the result of none other than what is depicted in those same advertisements. In "Never Just Pictures", the author Susan Bordo, brings to our attention how much influence advertising in magazines and on television, as well as in the fashion industry, has on teenage girls and older women, but also on teenage boys and men . She points out that “fat is the devil, and we beat it all the time: 'eliminating' our stomachs, 'splitting' our thighs... middle of paper... reaching a wider audience. It's "a breath of fresh air," if you will, to see this change in direction from the typical skinny, made-up model to more of something many of us see when we look in the mirror every day. Hopefully more of these types of women (and men) will be seen in future adverts and will provide a fresh start for those people who feel so lost and dissatisfied because they don't look like what they are used to seeing. It may very well be that we are only at the beginning of the process of this new transition, but with a little time and some sort of domino effect, I'm sure that what was once invisible or unheard of in advertising will become the new norm, and healthy , what's more. Works Cited Bordo, S. (1997). Never just images. In gray areas: The hidden life of cultural images from Plato to OJ (pp.1-3). London: University of California Press.