She once appeared on the covers of \Seventeen"" and ""Sports Illustrated,"" but now Ann Simonton vehemently protests the same images which once made her famous.
When Simonton, who spoke Tuesday in Memorial Union as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series, appears pictured now, it's usually because of the spectacle she has created at a protest. Simonton is now an activist and founder of Mediawatch, which is concerned with creating conversation about the media and exposing media bias.
""When you have a media controlled by a few national corporations, they're controlling the people,"" Simonton said.
Simonton says she believes the media does not sufficiently supply the population with the knowledge they deserve because advertising has control of the media and its stories. Statistically, 60 percent of investigative reporters say they have had advertisers try to kill their stories, Simonton said.
""You can find out more about what's going on here [in the United States] if you were to watch the news in some other country,"" she said.
Simonton also said she believes the media controls the way consumers think and further perpetuates stereotypes, especially those concerning women.
""Women are seen as an implied bonus that comes with alcohol,"" Simonton said.
She said she believes American society is one that still holds onto the idea that males dominate over females who provide little more than aesthetic value.
""We don't accept as a culture that we teach a certain beauty standard for women who are trained to be pathologically obsessed with how they look,"" Simonton said.
Simonton has been arrested 11 times, many of which occurred while protesting beauty pageants. She once wore a dress made entirely of bologna outside a pageant to make the point that women are seen as meat.
Simonton showed juxtaposed images from advertisements to make her point. One featured the image of a young blonde's face completely bandaged after plastic surgery next to a woman from Afghanistan whose face is covered by the traditional veil. She asked if the two are really that different.
""Men are taught to possess female objects because they are portrayed in ads as innocent, dumb and half-naked while the men are important,"" Simonton said.
While much of Simonton's focus was on the negativity of advertising, she made clear she believes some advertising can be positive.
Lauren Popko, a UW-Madison freshman, said the issues Simonton discussed are important ones.
""Issues like this, especially on campus, seem to be hot topics and she seems to be a reliable source of information on such topics,"" Popko said.
