MEDIA KILLS












Women have been subjected to many different kinds of influences pressuring them to have a certain body image. Throughout the years the perfect image has varied but still remains a strong focus in the lives of women. However, most recently it seems to be the same ideal within the minds of women. Media is to blame for women who struggle for that perfect apperance. Woman are suffering from eating disorders, addiction to diets, over-exercising, depression, low self-esteem, and obesity more than ever. Magazines, T.V. shows , musical artists, commericals, and movies all present women who are paper-thin and gorgeous in a way that makes them seem larger than life. Many women even go to the extreme of surgery as they try to achieve the 'perfect body' image. Consciously or not women absort these images from the media and try to re-create that same look.
Dove recently started a new campaign called, "Campaign for real beauty." The campaign asks the question, "How did our idea of beauty become so distorted?" The answer is the media. Dove presents the viewers with a short video clip. Watch this.
Evolution Film.






This short film actually shows the viewers a woman completely changing the way she looks to become 'more beautiful'. She is a normal looking woman, but not yet billboard material. She must undergo a complete make-over. Not the type of make-over that consists of just make-up and a new hair style. After her pictures are taken they are sent to the computer screen. There the pictures get another type of make-over. Using a computer program her lips are plumped up, her neck is elongateg, her eyes are blown up, and her hair is made to look thicker. At the end of the ad a message shows up on screen, "No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted." A study conducted by Dove shows that only 2% of women around the world would consider themselves as beautiful, and 81% of women in the U.S. strongly agree that the media and advertising set an unrealistic standard of beauty that most women can't ever achieve."



The Dove websites provides thier viewers with a forum where people have created a discussion based on the question, "Does true beauty really have to fit into a size two?" This goes to show just how much women are affected by the media. As you can see it does not matter what the age of the women are. They have been subjected to the media starting at a very young age. A study conducted by Hayley Dohnt and Marika Tiggemann found that, "As early as school entry, girls appear to already live in a culture in which peers and the media transmit the thin ideal in a way that negatively influences the development of body image and self-esteem. " (929).



Our society needs this kind of wake up that Dove is creating. As well as Dove, other types of sources are using different forms of media to send out the right message to women. It will take a lot of these small wake-up calls to reverse the curse media has left on women, but every little bit counts. The musical artist Pink has created a music video showing young women constantly trying to be something they are not. Watch this.
http://www.dove.us/#/thewomen/videos.aspx/




It is now safe to say that we live in a culture in which our role models are celebrities and models. A culture who's entertainment is Dr. 90210, Nip Tuck, America's Next Top Model, and Celebrity Fit Club. If you were to go into a third grade elementary class and ask them what they want to be when they grow up, a little girls reply will be, "I want to be like Jessica Simpson." Children are bombarded with these images through magazines, billboards, T.V. shows, and movies. What ever happened to children wanting to be firemen, teachers, police officers, or astronants? Our society has covered that up with something that is un-achievable. University of Wisconson-Madison postdoctoral reseacher Shelly Grape agrees. She says, "What's happening in our society is that many women are striving toward something that's not very realistic or obtainable, and that leads to a lot of health consequences." (656) That little girl who wanted to be just like Jessica Simpson, will never be just like her. While she grows up and begins to realize that, it will make her self-esteem go way down. Shelly Grabe hopes that, "wider recognition of the media's role will encourage people to see the issue as a societal one, rather than as a problem of individual women as it's viewed now." (656).

Back to the Dove ad, I think it was very smart of them to step out of the norm, and create a campaign geared towards 'real women'. When women see this ad it reminds them to just be themselves and not like Jessica Simpson.

A poem written by Alyssa L.





One of the many young women struggling with self-confidence issues.



Bottle up your adipose tissue! Quickly now!





"I'm so fat."
"Ugh, look at these love handles.
"Sorry, I can't make it. I've got an appointment to get my nails done..."
Plastic surgery can change your body.
And once that's done
You can all look the same.
Squirt your tans out of a bottle.
Suck your fat out into a bottle.
Pick your hair color out from a bottle.
Then, when you finally all look the same
you'll all be beautiful.Right?
I wish that I had known sooner
that happiness comes in a bottle.

Works cited

Pressures to Conform. Celia Milne. Maclean's. Rogers Publishing Toronto: Jan 12, 1998. Vol. 111, Iss. 2; pg. 60, 2 pgs

University of Wisconsin-Madison; Sweeping analysis of research reinforces strong media influence on women's body image. (2008, May). Women's Health Weekly,685. Retrieved November 9, 2008, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1482251911).

http://www.dove.com/

http://www.youtube.com/

http://allpoetry.com/tag/show/body+image