MANIKINZ!

So, my friend and I just happen to be talking about body image and got into a discussion about manikins. We had just gotten back from the mall and made an observation about all of the manikins that were on display. They're all, if not mostly female. I wonder why that is. Maybe because females are suppose to look like these manikins. Maybe this is the image that is popular now-a-days. Although I find this logic to be completely insane because the manikins don't represent a woman. Real women have curves, real women aren't that small...at least most women aren't that small and if they are that small no woman has that type of proportion. The reason why this stands out in my mind as a good subject for a blog is because of the Old Navy commercials where they've completely gotten rid of their human models and replaced them with manikins who are the "perfect" client. They have the perfect body type that will never change over time. The manikins will always stay the same age, same weight, no blemishes, they will never get any wrinkles, they will never give you any lip, and most important of all, they're cheap. It just makes me irritated because it's as if now real people aren't good enough to be models anymore because this warped vision of what beauty is. The human body can only go so far.
Another thing that I've notice about female manikins is that many of them don't have heads, but if you look at some of the male manikins, they have heads. Once again making the female body less than human, making it just another object. I see it as something of an underhanded imagery that portrays women in a less than human.