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.