Body Image and advertising

I found this cool article about body image with some interesting statistics.

Did you know that every year an adolescent sees 5,260 advertisements about attractiveness? In light of our lecture on advertising, isn't it an interesting tactic to play on people's insecurities to sell them things?

Did you know that 4 out of 5 women are dissatisfied with their appearance? Probably because the average woman in the US is 5'4" and weighs 166 lbs., while the average model is 5'11" and weighs 117 lbs. In one study, 69% of the girls surveyed said that seeing models in magazines influences their idea of the perfect body shape. A study done by people magazine said that 80% of women surveyed said that seeing images of pretty actresses in the movies and on TV made them feel insecure.

All these skinny pretty models are trying to sell us clothes, perfume, cars, and just about everything else. But what are they doing to society? In the US, 10 million women have eating disorders, and 20% of people with eating disorders die due to complications relating to their illness.

What would the world look like if we had advertising that made us feel good about ourselves instead of make us beat ourselves up? Do you think targeting people positively instead of negatively would make for better advertising? How about seeing some normal looking women in our magazines, do you think that advertising would be as effective?

I say let's feed the models and start having realistic representations of women on TV, movies, and magazines.

If you want more interesting statistics, I got mine from this article: http://www.upworthy.com/5-reasons-why-my-girlfriend-thinks-shes-not-beautiful-enough-no-matter-what-anyone-tells-her-5?g=2&c=ufb1
 

Music

My sister showed me this really cool video about music and I thought it really applied to our discussion of music in class this week. In this video, kids who live in slums on a landfill make musical instruments out of trash. They have a whole orchestra of their homemade instruments.

What I love about music is that its effect is universal. It can calm everyone down, excite everyone, and can make everyone feel something. It doesn't matter if you live in a mansion or your house is on a trash heap, you respond to music and it can improve your life.

A little girl in the video says that the sound of the violin feels like butterflies in her stomach and that her life would be worthless without music. I think that her statement says a lot about the power of music in our individual lives. When we play it, it can help us feel accomplished and self-actualized.For this little girl, playing the violin gave her life a purpose, and I feel much the same about my experience with music. Music gives me a medium to express my emotions, and my life would be pretty empty without it too. I think music is the most powerful medium in the media.

The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion

 by Christopher K. Germer is a fantastic book I just finished reading. It's about meditating, loving yourself, being aware of your emotions, and handling them appropriately.

The heart of the book is mindfulness, which I think is a cool and life-changing concept. It's all about fully being in the moment you're in. Your mind is not pulled back into the past, or fixated on the future. It is there with whatever your doing at the present moment. Once you establish a pattern of mindfulness, things like worries or anxiety start to have a lot less power over you.

After being in class today, discussing fast paced cartoons and endless distractions, I wondered- Do humans ever let themselves just be in a moment? It seems like our attention is always divided between a million little things. We have to worry about homework, money, relationships, some of us have to worry about taking care of children and spouses, while all the while, a lot of media, like facebook, youtube, and netflix contribute to the noise. We have so much going on, and I think it's detrimental to our emotional and spiritual well-being. But, if you employ mindfulness, it can contribute to your sanity and happiness. There is nothing richer than fully feeling a moment with all of your senses, being completely aware of yourself and saving that memory for a rainy day. If we were all mindful in every moment, it would revolutionize our relationships, our studying, and other pursuits. Mindfulness is about really living and enjoying life, when you might lose yourself in everything that's going on with your life.

So I have a new goal to be more mindful. I think it will really help me be happier.

Tinder

Tinder is one of the strangest social phenomenons I have encountered in the media. For those of you not familiar with it, it's an app on smartphones that let's you pick whether someone in your area is hot or not, and if you and someone else think each other is hot, it sets you up to chat. I'll shamelessly admit that I have spent some time on there; it has it's pros and cons. One of my favorite profile taglines I've seen is, "Can anybody really take this seriously?"

But it's a wildly popular app. I wonder why. Is it so hard to meet people in real life? Is dating digitizing? I think it is. It's so much easier to swipe yes on a person, than walking up to them and asking for their number. People have a lot more courage to be smooth or debonair,  hiding behind a keyboard.

The thing about technology is that it's all about innovation. It's about making things easier. Tinder is associated with a hook-up culture. Easy make outs make for a successful app. But a large part of me wishes that we could reclaim our self-respect in society. Getting someone to kiss you shouldn't be so easy, girls should make guys put in the appropriate work.

So is tinder derailing the fabric of society and dating? A little bit.

Gabourey Sidibe

I think it's common knowledge that Gabourey Sidibe rocks. First because she's one of four African-American women to be nominated for best actress in the last decade and a half, but also because she doesn't fit the Hollywood stereotype and she doesn't care.

I posted this quote of hers on pinterest the other day:

She also recently got a lot of flack for her appearance at the Golden Globes, but she handled her critics with class and sass.

Yesterday she tweeted: "To people making mean comments about my GG pics, I mos def cried about it on that private jet on my way to my dream job last night. #JK"

I hate that Hollywood bullies people that don't fit into their stereotypes, but I love that she doesn't let it get to her. I think a lot of us women let Hollywood stereotypes boss us around, but I'm going to try to follow Gabourey's example and practice being comfortable in my own skin.

It's your fault

How many of you have seen this commercial? It uses wit and sarcasm to fight against standard hurtful perceptions about sexual assault. I was impressed when I saw it, because I'm used to a media of airbrushing and gossip, full of plastic women and slanderous things about them. I like this commercial because it makes women seem smart, competent, and empowered. It calls for them to have the respect they deserve.