I'm in the middle of reading a book called "Jesus Land" by Julia Scheeres. The book is a memoir and makes you aware of many serious issues such as racism, sexual abuse, and legalism.
Though not as serious as the previous listed issues, there's one line that stuck out to me and made me think of all the topics we discussed this semester.
The narrator, 16 years old at this point in the book, is looking through Glamour magazine and says, "The perfection of the cover model, dark-haired in a pink argyle sweater, knifes me with envy. Anyone that beautiful must be happy."
We've discussed so many times in class the effect of "ideal women" in the media has on adolescent girls. This is so sad. In the book, Julia has a terrible view of herself and is just lost trying to figure out who she is. I'm sure it definitely doesn't help that she thinks being beautiful and famous is the only way to be happy.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
While writing my final paper, I have been reading numerous articles and case studies on the topic of media and body image. I have been, many times, fully engrossed in the study, anxious to know what they have discovered.
Then I noticed... all the conclusions use phrases like "perhaphs", "maybe it's the case that", "more research needs to be done about...", "we think that ___, but not a lot of research has been done", etc.
So I realized... there are no absolute truths about the way people are affected. There is no equation, right or wrong, way to solve it so we can avoid it, etc.
We can only continue to study and infer and make up our best guesses. So what is the point of researching if the ideas behind the data are already commonly known? What light does research shed on issues? Just confirmation that peole ARE affected by things?
I'd like to think that the goal is that media literacy will keep us from being affected. But this is not true. I think things are already ingrained in us. Even while reading about the society-imposed desire for women to be thin, I found myself thinking about how I was not as thin as I should be. I'd hoped that being aware of media/society's goal would make me push away those thoughts. Guess not.
Then I noticed... all the conclusions use phrases like "perhaphs", "maybe it's the case that", "more research needs to be done about...", "we think that ___, but not a lot of research has been done", etc.
So I realized... there are no absolute truths about the way people are affected. There is no equation, right or wrong, way to solve it so we can avoid it, etc.
We can only continue to study and infer and make up our best guesses. So what is the point of researching if the ideas behind the data are already commonly known? What light does research shed on issues? Just confirmation that peole ARE affected by things?
I'd like to think that the goal is that media literacy will keep us from being affected. But this is not true. I think things are already ingrained in us. Even while reading about the society-imposed desire for women to be thin, I found myself thinking about how I was not as thin as I should be. I'd hoped that being aware of media/society's goal would make me push away those thoughts. Guess not.
Lambiase posted a link to an article about stereotypes of fathers:
http://diyfather.com/content/the-21st-century-dad-no-time-for-old-stereotypes
I liked this article and found it very interesting. The author, "Brandon", sees an ad that fuels the stereotype of father's being incompetent, "ignorant, clumsy, and incapable". He raises a lot of good questions and calls to action.
When we see advertisements and media like this, are our ideals being reinforced... or are ideas being imposed on us? I think that to an extent, it is our ideas that are being represented, but that is not okay anymore. It's come to a point (years ago actually) that this is (though it may be true for many fathers) is not or cannot be represented as the norm. I think it will negatively effect too many fathers and children.
So what Brandon does is great. We can't support this view. Whether that means not watching shows that ad to this view, or taking a bolder action. Brandon wrote the company that made this advertisement and let them know it was not appreciated or true. This is a reminder that there ARE things we can do to change stereotypes. Of course it will take time... views of fathers will not universally change because of an email Brandon sent, but he probably opened eyes to many people on staff.
http://diyfather.com/content/the-21st-century-dad-no-time-for-old-stereotypes
I liked this article and found it very interesting. The author, "Brandon", sees an ad that fuels the stereotype of father's being incompetent, "ignorant, clumsy, and incapable". He raises a lot of good questions and calls to action.
When we see advertisements and media like this, are our ideals being reinforced... or are ideas being imposed on us? I think that to an extent, it is our ideas that are being represented, but that is not okay anymore. It's come to a point (years ago actually) that this is (though it may be true for many fathers) is not or cannot be represented as the norm. I think it will negatively effect too many fathers and children.
So what Brandon does is great. We can't support this view. Whether that means not watching shows that ad to this view, or taking a bolder action. Brandon wrote the company that made this advertisement and let them know it was not appreciated or true. This is a reminder that there ARE things we can do to change stereotypes. Of course it will take time... views of fathers will not universally change because of an email Brandon sent, but he probably opened eyes to many people on staff.
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