Last weekend I read a story in the SFChronicle about About-Face, a SF-based organization dedicated to improving females' body image and self-esteem. Sounds good in theory. In practice, it gets a bit tricky.

The San Francisco nonprofit is determined to equip women and girls with the knowledge they can use to dismantle these messages that tell them they must be tall, thin, blond, tan and sexually available to have any value.

"We give them the tools they need in order to understand what they're seeing so that in a way they can start to inoculate themselves against any negative images that the media perpetuates," says About-Face Executive Director Jennifer Berger, "and there are plenty."

About-Face runs media-literacy workshops for San Francisco schools and groups like the Girl Scouts and the American Association of University Women.  When I taught middle school kids, I created a media analysis unit  that had a broader focus than About-Face's. The students really enjoyed mucking about in pop culture and talking back to TV, radio, and magazine ads. I asked them to analyze the admaker's intentions: How do they want to make you feel? How effective are they at making you feel that way? My aim was to cultivate in the kids a more critical and cynical eye, to put a little distance and dispassion between them and the ads that bombard them.

But the unit included a twist. I taught at an arts magnet school, and a good many of the students had dreams of someday making a living doing their art. The truth is, many creative people end up in advertising: writers, filmakers, singers, artists, dancers, musicians, set designers, costume designers, and actors. I wanted the students to learn to be critical of both the message and the artistry of ads. And to be able to tease those aspects apart. I can appreciate the beauty of a clothing ad without feeling anything about the product or about my deficiencies. That seems like a good place to be.

About-Face is going for the same end-goal, which is "inoculation" against manipulation, but they advocate a much more activist approach. They encourage women and girls to begin campaigns against the advertisers that create offensive ads.

What constitutes an offensive ad is definitely in the eye of the beholder. Check out About-Face's Hall of Shame, where they've posted ads they consider toxic. Some of their analyses jive with my own. I am repulsed by ads that suggest violence against women or pedaphilia. But others just don't rate with me. Like this one for Oil of Olay lotion. I interpreted the message as "Don't waste your time on complicated beauty rituals. Just use this simple cream." They interpreted it as dissuading women from pursuing their dreams and discouraging a work ethic. Of course, I also never read the small print on body care ads.