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It's gonna be really hard to find messages of self-love and support anywhere, especially in women's and gay men's culture. It's all about how you have to look a certain way, or else you're worthless. You know, when you look in the mirror and think, 'Ugh, I'm so ugly, I'm so fat, I'm so old.' Don't you know that's not your authentic self? But that is billions upon billions of dollars of advertising. Magazines, movies, billboards, all geared to make you feel shitty about yourself, so you will take your hard earned money and spend it at the mall on some turn-around creme that doesn't turn around shit.

Margaret Cho#58

Body imageMediaAdvertisingConsumerismInsecurity

About this quote

What does it mean?
Cho criticizes industries that profit from making women and gay men feel bad about their bodies, exposing how advertising manufactures insecurity to sell products.
In plain terms
Companies make you feel ugly so you buy things to fix it.
What can you take from it?
Advertising often profits from your insecurities.

Where it applies

  • body image struggles
  • consumer culture

Putting it to work

  • question beauty ads
  • reject superficial fixes

Questions to consider

  • How much of your insecurity is bought?
  • Who benefits from your self-doubt?

Another view

Some self-improvement products genuinely help people.

More from Margaret Cho

  1. So from the age of 10, I became anorexic, and then bulimic, and then stayed that way for about twenty years, until one day I just said, Hey, what if this is it…

    Permalink to quote #57
  2. If you are a woman, if you are a person of colour, if you are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, if you are a person of size, if you are person of intelligen…

    Permalink to quote #59
  3. I can't even look at those 'women's magazines' anyway. I love fashion, but I look at the pictures of the skinny models, and they're wearing clothes I can't eve…

    Permalink to quote #56

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