In Steve Craig's Women's Women, he describes a commercial of Weight Watchers. In the commercial, a thin woman is shown in a red bathing suit. She mentions how she does not like to be on diets but says that she has lost weight with Weight Watchers. She is then shown at a pizza restaurant with a man and two children. The woman then mentions that she "hates starving" but adds that with a new food plan she can eat with family and friends and still "have fun". She mentions at the end that she hates "not joining Weight Watchers sooner". Steve Craig then mentions that Coward wrote that "feelings about self-image get mixed up with feelings about security and comfort". Steve Craig also says that women try to attain and maintain their physical attractiveness and they feel in the need of getting approved by their family, to maintain them united and secured.
After reading this, I was not surprised at all of how women are seen and how the woman in the commercial expressed herself. It is sad to know that many women care too much about their physical appearence. They look for the approval of others and feel like being in shape is the secret to maintaining their family united. Maybe the way they feel has a lot to due with the way women are shown in commercials like the one of Weight Watchers. This commercial makes it seem like it is very easy to loose weight without even having to eat healthy, but the reality is that in order to loose weight, one must eat healthy as well and exercise. It is important to maintain a nice body, but having a great physical appearence is not everything a women needs to be happy.
