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Sex and advertising. The two seem to be synonymous with each other these days, don't they? And yet, while most people claim they hardly pay attention to these ads (while wearing a shirt that says Nike or Gap on the front), the truth is advertising affects people more than one would think. And while men get off easy in our society, women are often the ones to take the brunt.

Face it, girls. In today's world, no matter how you look, you're never perfect. Ads splattered across billboards and across park benches proclaim they have the latest and greatest product to "cure what ails you". Women are constantly told in our society they are not good physically good looking, and that the norm for us is to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars each year buying these products to attain an idealized look that doesn't exist. Especially with today's technology, which allows for things like air brushing and other editing. If you look at an advertisement that features a woman, you'll see that they have no wrinkles, no blemishes....in fact, they have no pores. It's been computerized, and is now an icon for young girls to look up to.

Adolescence is really the time where this concept hits hard. The concept of "I'm not good enough". Look anywhere, and you'll find that it happens to girls and not to boys. Why? Sexualized advertising. At the ages of eight, nine, and ten, girls tend to feel pretty good about themselves, and while there is a little of the desire to look better, on the whole, girls do not have that insecurity. When girls hit adolescence however, this good self-esteem plummets, and we see a rise in teenage anorexia, bulimia, and other eating disorders, as well as a rise in the profits raked in by those who market to teens. The problem is that advertisers will project their product onto a body that only 5% of the world has, and is impossible to achieve through dieting. You could diet your life away, and never have the look of a runway model. They are genetically thin, often with broad shoulders and a small chest. There aren't that many of these women in the world, and yet they personify what a woman is supposed to achieve in her lifetime. She is a failure if she doesn't. Advertising tells us that.

The fact that many of the provocative images are marketed to teenagers is making the problem even worse. Teenage media for clothing, like Abercrombie and Fitch, has been challenged for their use of young teenage models put in scanty, "popular" clothing in

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