I think one of the topics that we should address in our study is the portrayal of beauty and body image for men and women in the media. I am considering media to be television, magazines, and advertisements. I think that this is a very important issue because the media’s interpretation of what is considered “beautiful”, “sexy”, and “manly” is distorting the world’s idea of what is real. Photo shopped advertisements and magazine cover shoots of both men and women are shoving unhealthy ideas down the throats of young adults. This is resulting in very unhealthy habits such as eating disorders, the consumption of questionable supplements, dangerous diets, and plastic surgery. Although this issue is already beaten to death, I still think that it is a very important issue that needs to be made public and brought to the attention of the public. I think we need to expose the results of these antics that are being put into place by the media. We need to expose the results of the fashion industry on models in the industry and those who hope to break into the industry, skeletal female celebrities and perfectly chiseled men that average people constantly compare themselves to and are viewed as the epitome of sexiness. I also think that reality TV is another negative influence on female and male body image because of the people that are chosen to be on the shows. The way that they dress and always seem to look so put together and professionally made up also bashes body image and beauty, because normal people cannot and do not look this way in their everyday life. I found an article at www.media-awareness.ca that talks about body image in the media and the negative effects that it is having on society and young adults. It talks about how the media does not have real women in it’s articles and ads instead of painfully thin models. It also states that girls from the ages of 6-12 have image issue and already think they are overweight and have tried dieting. Barbie dolls are a source of negative body image for young girls because the measurements of Barbie’s body could only house half of a liver and her back would be too weak to support her entire upper body. Obviously these proportions are so unrealistic. Models twenty years ago used to weigh 8% less than the average person and today they weigh a shocking 23% less than the average person. (media-awareness.ca)
I think that one way that we could address this issue through a project would be to do something similar to the French street artist JR and what he did in Rio De Janiero. It was an artistic way to make people aware of a situation and to make people ask questions like “What does this mean?” and “What is the statement that is being made?” It is such a cool and inspiring way to create awareness and controversy.
MLA citation: "Beauty and Body Image in the Media." Media Awareness Network | R. Web. 11 Mar. 2010.
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