The Media's Influence on Girls

This week in class we discussed the negative influence that the media has specifically on girls.

When girls read magazines such as Seventeen, or watch TV shows such as America's Next Top Model, they often feel pressure to look as beautiful as the models appear to look, even though they are often airbrushed to look "perfect." Girl's desires to look as skinny and pretty as girls portrayed by the media often go so far as to damage their body from eating disorders. This is proven from the statistic that one in every five college-age females has some type of disordered eating (The Media).

I love the Dove Self-Esteem Fund because it promotes girls loving themselves for who they are, not by how they look. The picture above was used by Dove as an advertisment for the Self-Esteem Fund. I saw this picture on a billboard in Chicago a few months ago, and I remember thinking to myself, "wow how unusual...normal sized models!" I believe that if more companies used healthy, normal looking women to represent their products like Dove does, then young girls would have more self-confidence and eating disorders wouldn't be as common.

I know first hand that the media negatively influences girls everyday, since my sister is 13 and sometimes struggles with self-esteem issues, like most girls her age tend to do. I always try my best to make her feel beautiful in her own way by complimenting her and taking her shopping to find clothes that make her feel good when she wears them. I honestly believe that if companies today didn't always use dangerously thin, airbrushed models, and instead actually showed women in their natural state, then girls today would have more self-confidence and be happier overall.

Un-TV

Last week we were given the Un-TV assignment, which was almost as dificult as "doing nothing." I did the Un-TV assignment while my grandpa was staying with us this weekend. First I watched Hannah Montana without any sound, which was almost impossible for me to do since I got extremely frusterated because I didn't understand what was going on in the episode. When watching TV without sound, I realized that I pay much closer attention to the little details of the show, such as body momvent and camera angles, than I do when there is sound. The next thing I did was watch the TV with the power turned off. This part of the assignment reminded me of the "doing nothing" activity since I had to focus all of my attention to one thing, in this case it was the blank TV screen, which was extremely boring. Then I went downstairs and sat on the couch with my grandpa who thought I just wanted to watch the old black and white movie he was watching. However, instead of watching the movie, I observed HIM as he watched the TV screen. He was extremely concentrated, so much that it looked like he was in a different world. He was also very calm and barely moved. From this assignment I've realized how much humans today are impacted by TV and that when we watch it, we become distant from our surroundings, and become consumed by the world on the screen.

Doing Nothing

Last Sunday I completed the assignment to "do nothing", which was a lot more difficult than one would think. While at dinner with my friends, I got up and stood next to the table for almost ten minutes, doing nothing. It was extremely difficult to think about absolutely nothing, because my mind kept wandering as I saw my friends around me eating and talking, and asking me what I was doing and if I was okay. It was also very difficult to break a social norm by doing nothing, when everyone around me was doing something. Breaking a social norm by doing nothing is similar to what the group Improveverywhere does. I watched some of their videos and they are hilarious....especially the foodcourt musical. It must be very difficult for all of the people who participate in those skits to break social norms so obviously! While I was doing nothing, my friends, and even strangers were staring at me, trying to figure out what I was doing, or if I needed help with something. It was embarassing to have so much attention drawn to me, but that is to be expected from everyone who steps out of the box and breaks a social norm.

Work in Tuesdays With Morrie

In the movie, Tuesdays With Morrie, Mitch clearly values his job and considers himself successful. Mitch recieved a good education, works hard, long, hours, and earns a decent salary. In America today, these are accomplishments that most people link to success. However, success does not always mean making a lot of money and having a job. I'm sure that success has many other meanings and interpretations in different cultures. Americans today believe that poor or homeless people are unsuccessful just because they dont have expensive material possessions. In reality, these people could actually be very successful in their own mind. They could be in love, or have a family that they care about. Therefore, success is different for everyone. For example, Mitch may be successful in the business world, but for awhile, he was not successful with having a wife and a family to take care of. To people in other cultures, Mitch might not seem to be as successful as Americans believe that he is, because he did not have many other things going for him other than making money and working long hours. The idea that a person can only be successful if they make a lot of money and buy expensive things, is installed in Americans at a very young age. This idea of success follows young Americans through high school and college, when they desperately strive to find a good career with a high salary. If they do not find these things, then they will probbaly consider themselves unsuccessful, when actually, they can find success in many other forms, such as love, personal growth, or helping other people.