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The impact that media has on body image and beauty
Is female perception of body image affected by the media
Is female perception of body image affected by the media
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No one can deny the impact the media has had on the current society. Peoples opinions and views on the world have mostly likely came from television or other forms of technology. This can be both a negative and positive thing. The media is known for portraying people as stereotypically as possible, which is very toxic if watching at a young age. Adults can easily realize that one portrayal of a person doesn’t mean every single person is like that but kids cannot. A little girl may see a girl being portrayed as a damsel in distress waiting for a prince, and she will believe that all girls must act like this. Girls only seeing themselves as weak, sexy, plot devices, allows them to lose aspirations they have in life. After watching the documentary …show more content…
The documentary first starts of with a group of teenage girls being interviewed. Girls talked about having eating disorders in 5th grade, and putting on makeup or dressing a certain way to fit. One girl talks about straightening her hair in order to be accepted in school. Another girl breaks out in tears discussing how her sister cuts herself due to getting bullied. T.V shows like the Kardashians or the Real World over sexualize woman and potray them as all being white and skinny with straight hair. Only one type of woman is shown on television and most young girls don’t see themselves on television. Pictures in magazines or on billboards are severely photoshopped, warping men’s belief of the ideal and forcing woman to mold themselves to those standards. The quote “You can’t be what you can’t see” perfectly encapsulates the dilemma woman go through on a daily basis. Women are fed unrealistic standards of beauty and rarely see themselves on T.V. How can a young girl be comfortable in their skin when they are told what they look like is ugly and unnatural? Men are given so much more positive promotion and are taught that they can be anything they want. On the other hand, woman are nothing but sex objects that fulfill men’s dreams. Media does not portray women as doctors, lawyers, astronauts, etc. and that’s a problem. It is very difficult for
The documentary, “Miss Representation,” is a film about how women are perceived in the media. It is written, directed, and produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom. She is an actress and a film maker who advocates for women. In the beginning of the documentary, Newsom discusses her struggles as a young woman surrounded by the pressures of looking a certain way. This film is targeting mainly women of all age that has experienced her struggles. Jennifer Siebel Newsom effectively convinces the audience of “Miss Representation” that the media has molded women in a negative way through statistics, celebrities’ and younger generation’s testimonies, and clips from the media.
There is a group of people in the world today who are more persecuted than anyone else, but they are girls. Being born a girl means you are, more likely to be subjected to violence, disease, poverty and disadvantage than any other group on the planet. The documentary, I am a girl, directed by Rebecca Barry paints a picture of the reality of what it mean to be a girl in the twenty-first-century. I am a girl introduces us to six young women from all over the world. Katie is a wealthy, middle-class student from Australia getting ready for the exam, suffers from depression. Kimsey is a sex worker from Cambodia who supports her entire family. Manu is a Papua New Guinea villager whose unplanned pregnancy has put her in deep conflict with her traditional
"Fed Up (Soechtig, 2014)." narrated by Katie Couric, focuses on the growing link between sugar consumption and the obesity epidemic. The film aggressively attacks the food industry, advertising, and the government who, it claims, all contribute to the U.S. sugar-dependent, obesity problem. The film sets out to prove the government, and food industry is knowingly causing an increase in the amount of obese children. It reserves its most critical comments for government advisory panels who make and enforce food and health policy, and its failure to properly regulate the food industry. They claim lobbyists for the sugar board have been instrumental in the removal of negative statistics from research papers worldwide. Instead
In the documentary “Fed Up,” sugar is responsible for Americas rising obesity rate, which is happening even with the great stress that is set on exercise and portion control for those who are overweight. Fed Up is a film directed by Stephanie Soechtig, with Executive Producers Katie Couric and Laurie David. The filmmaker’s intent is mainly to inform people of the dangers of too much sugar, but it also talks about the fat’s in our diets and the food corporation shadiness. The filmmaker wants to educate the country on the effects of a poor diet and to open eyes to the obesity catastrophe in the United States. The main debate used is that sugar is the direct matter of obesity. Overall, I don’t believe the filmmaker’s debate was successful.
The film has made me think that media can be a dangerous thing if you let it get very big and use a person in what the media is doing. I have also learnt that a reality T.V. show that gets big can take over someone’s life and control what they do. I think that watching the film has made me think that if you take part in the media you have a very big responsibility and you shouldn’t let it get out of hand.
I chose these four journal writings because I believe they are the strongest pieces I have written from the second half of the semester. The main focus of these journals was based on readings under the women as objects topic. The oppression of women has led to females being objectified and used as gratification for men. A woman’s body and appearance have become a commodity, especially in the media. Films, television shows, music and advertisements use women’s bodies to attract their audience and sell products. The movie watched in class “Killing Us Softly 4,” highlights this fact while presenting how women are represented throughout the media. The media has set and perpetuated a particular standard of beauty that is restrictive, but for some many women completely unattainable. The women represented in the media are young, thin and have western or European characteristics. Where does that leave the majority of women that do not fall under this category? This leads to women developing eating disorders to achieve an ideal body image that is manufactured through Photoshop and other picture editing systems. Women of color, women with disabilities or any woman that does not follow this standard is not represented within the media. When a few women do break this mold and become famous, they are set at a different standard. These women’s differences become the highlighted feature of their fame. However, the one constant in the media when it comes to women is the objectification and sexualization of women. This sexualization can lead to aggression or violence against women and the perpetuation of rape culture. The images viewed in the media directly impact how women view themselves and how others view women. By examining the issues women f...
Miss Representation, a documentary film produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom released in 2011, presents a contemporary issue which is the misrepresentation of women’s portrayal in mass media. The media is powerful in shaping audience’s belief in how to be feminine. Women are expected to be beautiful, attractive, and even sexual on the media to attract audience’s attention. Also, the film points out the existence of social system in which men are considered more powerful and dominant than women. Finally, the film tries to increase the awareness of female real value including capability, educational achievement, and leadership. Consuming the media wisely to eliminate gendered stereotypes can help young women build their confidence and be successful.
The movie Shock Doctrine revolves around the concept of the same name. The film begins by discussing psychological research on the effects of shock therapy. It is evident that a person under extreme stress and anxiety commonly experienced during a crisis functions and performs inadequately. It is noted that the studies are conducted by a man by the name of Milton Friedman, from the University of Chicago; the studies took place in the past, and some of the subjects are still recovering in the aftermath. From this research, interrogation techniques were learned and the concept of the shock doctrine was formed. Essentially through causing a crisis, the population of a country can be shocked into complying with accepting laws that favors the United States and capitalism. This theory coexists with Friedman’s belief in that government regulation is bad, and through a crisis a country would better itself with deregulation. The video uses Chile as an example and shows how America allowed a crisis to occur in Chile, through coups, interrogations and subterfuge. In the end a new government is formed that allows capitalism. Unfortunately afterwards violence and riots occur, as the rich gain most of the wealth and poverty rises. In addition to Chile, Argentina, Russia and even Iraq underwent the shock doctrine. Almost in every account, poverty rises and violence ends up erupting. The movie ends by showing how the US was in the process of the shock doctrine, and still is but the population has taken notice. Protests such as Occupy Wall Street are some of the initiatives necessary to bring awareness to the problems of class inequalities in order to prevent capitalism from benefitting the rich and increasing the wealth gap among the classes.
In the film, “North by Northwest” we see a series of shots that creates suspense and danger. The point of the film is very vague and it ends without a resolution to the main conflict. The incredible camera work and techniques that Alfred Hitchcock did created a feeling of danger and suspense, making the audience want to see more. Also, Hitchcock's film main character Roger O. Thornhill creates suspense with his mistaken identity and fight for his escape. The film uses a handful of shots, for example, medium shots, close ups, long shots and shot-reverse-shots. I found particularly interesting how a handful of shots can create suspense and the feeling of danger can create a misleading plot.
For example, when the documentary showed the band members and how they were symbolizing women. The band members had the woman against the wall with either no clothes or just undergarments on and throwing slices of meat at her. A lot of films and music portray this message that women are just a piece of meat and that they are only good for sexual experiences. Another example was Snoop Dog’s lyrics in his film, Diary of a Pimp, “you gotta break these hoes for Snoop” learning the lifestyle of a rapper and a pimp illustrating prostitution of women. Dreamworlds documentary also mentioned this when talking about the lives of women when a man is not present in their life. It illustrated scenes of sadness and loneliness. Women are not creatures who desire sex all the time and the purpose of the film was to teach us that how women are presented in music videos is not right. Women are more than just their bodies and do not need to continue to be objectified. Every media production should follow the Bechdel Test in communication of women and their actions. Women in music and films should not always be talking about men or living their life under the control of a man. Media acts as if women can’t be independent. If media continues to show women getting treating as objects and knowing that media influences society, then in society people will continue to think as if treating a woman as such is acceptable. Treating women as objects is not acceptable at all. However, what we see from media shows
This documentary also helped me understand the social expectations of women. Terry Neumann, despite her family’s financial struggles, felt obligated to stay at home and care for her children while her husband worked. She wasn’t able to do this and make ends meet, so she had to go into the workforce. At work, specifically as a truck driver, Terry said that she “felt the power behind the big truck…” and “got more looks than she did baking muffins.” This illustrates our expectations for women-
The film Missrepresentation, by Jennifer Newsom, is about the underrepresentation of women by the media (2011). The film challenges the viewpoints of media that are constantly depicting females as to being dependent on males. Furthermore, even when females are displayed as lead characters, the plot will ensure that their life’s will surround the life of a male. Examples of these include, a lead female falling in love with her “prince charming” as he saved her from great dangers. We rarely see a female character saving a male in the media (2011). According to the film the media continues to encourage the ideology that a women’s power is associated with her youth, beauty and sexuality, instead of her knowledge and intelligence (2011). The film also provides starling statistics, for instance by the age to 18 78% of females are unhappy with how the look. Also of the 8 million people with eating disord...
When the documentary was produced, media exposure was limited to private and expensive mediums such as television, movies and radio. These outlets were plagued with marketing agendas designed to sell products under the guise of authentic music and entertainment. Formerly non-existent cultural archetypes such as the boy band, pop diva, and gothic artist were created and promoted by corporations with the intent to profit from their fame. This systematic fabrication of teenage culture was achieved through the monopolization of popular media by people and companies with money. This created a narrow and one-dimensional mainstream cultural media, limiting the prefere...
Hidden Figures is a movie based on the true story of three pioneering African American women whose calculations for NASA were helpful to several historic space missions, including John Glenn’s successful orbit of the Earth. The Movie was set in 1960, where a lot of historical events were happening, such as the Space race between two initial rivals of the Cold War (The United States, and Russia). Also, Women and African-Americans were discriminated Against during the 60’s, but that did not stop Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan from advancing and accomplishing what they accomplished. After all they did not only help themselves advance, they helped America advance. Hidden Figures was a very accurate film of how it was in the 1960 and how these three women went with their intelligence rather than their ego.
Kidnapping not only happens in the United States, it happens worldwide. There are some children who are found and there are some who has been missing for years to come. The call was a great way to let young adults know the severity of being kidnapped and it lets dispatchers know how severe a person being kidnapped really is. The call was a movie made in the year of 2013 starring Halle Berry and Morris Chestnut. Halle Berry and Morris chestnut work together to make this film become a great life lesson and also create suspense. During the last 32 years, NCMEC’s national toll-free hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST® (1-800-843-5678), has received more than 4.3 million calls. NCMEC has circulated billions of photos of missing children, assisted