When I first started to read about framing, I immediately was taken back to when I was a young girl. Our generation grew up in a society very different from today’s youth. We didn’t have half of the games and barbies they have today, and media didn’t play as large of a role as it does now, in 2010. I was busy playing outside with my friends, while children today are posted up in front of the television watching highly influential television commercials – showing female’s that are perceived as “perfection.” Frame analysis “provides a systematic account of how we use expectations to make sense of everyday life situations and the people in them (Baran/Davis 316.)” Goffman asks “why are people so gullible (Baran/Davis 316.)” Children are gullable to this conformity, because it is what is perceived as “right.” Young girls are seeing images of skinny girl after skinny girl, who are assumed to be sexy and desirable.
There is a constant exposure of female advertisements in the media, and it is causing girls to become more conscious about their bodies, and how important they are, based on their beauty.
http://www.healthyplace.com/eating-disorders/main/eating-disorders-body-image-and-advertising/menu-id-58/
“Advertisements emphasize thinness as a standard for female beauty, and the bodies idealized in the media are frequently atypical of normal, healthy women. In fact, today's fashion models weigh 23% less than the average female (taken from article.)” This article emphasizes how unrealistic a models body is based on the average woman. And girls start to obsess over their weight when they start to play with their barbies, and see commercials of “real-life” barbies.
“Frames help illuminate many empirical and normative controversies, most importantly because the concept of framing directs our attention to the details of just how a communicated text exerts its power (Entman bottom of 5, top of 6.)” This article goes on to speak about framing paradigms. One idea, is the notion of audience autonomy.
“The concept of framing provides an operational definition for the notion of dominant meaning that is so central to debates about polysemy and audience independence in decoding media texts. “From a framing perspective, dominant meaning consists of the problem, causal, evaluative, and treatment interpretations with the highest probability of being noticed, processed, and accepted by the most people (Entman 6.)”
Problem -> Causal -> Evaluation (diagnosis) -> Treatment
I think that this helps us identify the problem with female’s and body issues. As Kelsey stated in her blog, young girls do have role models they can look up to. However, are they being outshined by commercial after commercial of selling sex through any product possible? Here is a youtube video made by Dove (a company trying to demolish this negative media influence, and “campaign for REAL BEAUTY.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U
I this clip even effective? Or do you think young girls don’t care that models are photo-shopped? Do you think Barbie’s should change the way they make their dolls, to send more of a positive message to young girls? Do you think a campaign for real beauty is effective and changing a girls beliefs, or had the media already effected them to the point where they aren’t influenced by Dove’s campaign? Do you believe that boys receive the same negative messages through commercials of muscular men, that are desireable to an attractive female in commercials etc...? Or through action figures that are not proportionate with what a male should look like?
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Mary has really hit the nail on the head with the problem girls are having today. As a young adult, I still feel the pressure that models, advertisements, and television put out for defining what "sexy" or "beautiful" is. The Dove Real Beauty campaign could be very effective. I know that all the videos the campaign has produced have hard hitting truth in them. Below is the link for another clip from the Dove campaign, one that I feel is a real eye opener.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epOg1nWJ4T8
"The expectations we form about ourselves, other people, and our social world are central to social life" (Baran & Davis 314). Where do we get these expectations from? The things we are exposed to, and what the majority of people do is what we expect to see. If young girls only see older girls whose ribs stick out, then that is what they feel is expected of them. That is what they expect to see of themselves. That thought and expectation really does become the center of their world. I think that the images the media show are more harmful than a barbie doll. Children know that Barbie is just a toy. It can be confusing, I'm sure, to see "real life Barbie's" and still understand she is just a toy. However, you don't see every child wanting to be like their toy lion just because lions really exist.
Entman describes the way in which frames work is that a person takes bits or pieces of information given them that seems most important, and by increasing these informational pieces, they create these "frames" for where they store their information. (pg 53) When young girls are only shown that skinny skinny women are beautiful, they create the frame that tells them they too should look that way. The problem with this, other than the fact that girls today have low self esteem and other body issues, is that they then grow up still feeling the same way, they could in turn becom role models teaching young girls the same negativity, which would create a vicious cycle of the negative body image frame.
If a lot of the media is giving out this negative influence to young girls by what they are being exposed to daily, then why can't a campaign that promotes positive body images to young girls do the same but with a positive influence? I believe most consumer products are targeted towards girls and women, I'm not sure whether men are affected the same way, but they also don't have as many examples of their flaws being pointed out to them constantly.
I remember seeing that commercial last year in one of my classes. I think it’s really sad that this became our perception of beauty - hours of makeup and hair and then retouching. Although as I read it I wonder why this became the norm for beauty. Why are people accepting this? Marilyn Monroe was absolutely gorgeous and I remember reading an article a few years ago (can’t remember exactly where) that said if she tried to model today she would be told her was too short and too fat. A similar article BBC News.com said, “In the 1950s, the curvaceous Marilyn Monroe epitomized the ideal woman. Today, casting agents would tell her to slim down and shape up.” (Lane) When models like Twiggy came on the scene the healthy body images of Marilyn Monroe were thrown out for the heroin chic look. I think it’s sad that no one is fighting harder to promote a healthy body image. I think it’s admirable of Dove but other companies need to step up because young girls are seeing unhealthy images everyday. Baran and Davis write,” The specific messages each of us gets from the ads can be very different, but their long-term consequences may be similar—dominant myths about women are retold and reinforced.” (Baran & Davis 218) I think the ads of women being retouched are obviously creating false impressions of women. I mean the women we see on billboards aren’t real and then women see that and try to be it and then when they can’t they become disappointed. And then advertisers expect women to look like that and the cycle continues because they retouch another woman to look like the retouched one in the other ad.
ReplyDeleteFraming: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm by Robert M. Entman states, “Whatever its specific use, the concept of framing consistently offers a way to describe the power of a communicating text.” (Entman 51) The power of framing in ads is obviously very powerful. There are women all over the world attempting to change their bodies to look like ads that are illusions.
Body image is a huge issue among females, especially young girls. I think the Dove campaign is a great example of how the media is capable of showing images of young women as they wish others to see them rather than for who they really are. I think it is an effective campaign and video because there are so many unrealistic images of “beauty” portrayed in the media. Many young girls see these unrealistic images and desire to look like the women in the images they see. They want to look like these beautiful women because they think it is achievable, even though it is really not.
ReplyDeleteIt is difficult to say whether or not a real beauty campaign is effective considering the media has already provided a skewed image of beauty to young girls. Baran and Davis define social cues as “information in the environment that signals a shift or change of action” (316). By continuously putting extraordinarily gorgeous models in advertisements, it makes it even more difficult to convince young girls that they can achieve great things without being supermodels. Real beauty campaigns can only be so effective and if they are not accompanied by advertisements featuring more average looking women or women who are successful and well known for their achievements rather than their looks, the social cues supporting real beauty will be counteracted. Young girls are so vulnerable that real beauty campaigns may not affect them until they are a little older and less likely to be persuaded by the images in the media. When young girls associate beauty with rewards such as love, money, fame, etc., it is even more difficult to persuade them that real beauty is what is important because they are already convinced that they need to look a certain way to achieve certain goals. “The notion of framing thus implies that the frame has a common effect on large portions of the receiving audience, though it is not likely to have a universal effect on all” (Entman 54). There has been a huge amount of praise for the Dove beauty campaign and I definitely support it as well, but I’m not sure if they are having as big of an impact on young girls as they are on adult women.
Commercials such as the ones for Axe body spray do give similar messages to boys and men that they need to be muscular in addition to using the product in order to be attractive to girls. However, I do think there are some commercials for Axe that use nerdy boys as the subject to show that no matter who you are, using the product will make you attractive to girls. In this sense, boys are not targeted in the same way that girls are because many ads aimed towards females will always use beautiful women as the subject.
I remember watching a video in a media studies course (possibly Media Audiences?) about how Barbie dolls and action figures have changed over the years. By giving these toys bodies that are completely unrealistic, children learn when they are young that this is what they should look like when they grow up. I think it is probably too late to change their bodies now because a fat Barbie and a scrawny superhero probably will not sell. As Mary mentioned, when we were younger, we spent a lot of time going outside to play. Maybe if more parents focus on exercise, children will be more fit and therefore feel comfortable in their own skin and be less vulnerable to the images in the media of idealized beauty.
In one way or another, women of all ages are affected and influenced to some extent by the media’s depiction of women. The media portrays “real” women to be extremely thin, youthful looking, flawless, and very sexy. From television programs and films to magazines and advertisements to music and even toys, this 24/7 in-your-face representation of the women sends powerful yet wrongful messages and serve as constant reminders of one’s own individual flaws and insecurities.
ReplyDeleteWith the media’s misrepresentation of beautiful women, real women face intense scrutiny, regular comparison, and harsh judgments on their looks and appearances which can cause some women to take extreme health risks like having plastic surgery or developing an eating disorder. Heidi Montage of The Hills is an example of this extreme. Though she is an attention seeker, there is no doubt that she, who had ten plastic surgeries in one day, is a person deeply affected by this unnatural depiction of “real beauty”. Not only has she completely altered her physical features to look like a real life Barbie Doll but she plans to have more surgeries in the near future to “better” her appearances, all at the young age of twenty-three.
The growing epidemic of women wanting to change themselves is reinforced by the media, pressuring women to do and to buy whatever they can to achieve this Photoshop look. There are numerous amounts of television advertisements and magazine advertisements promoting weight loss and cosmetic products. If you buy this foundation, it will erase your wrinkles and you will look young again. If you try this diet pill, you will lose twenty pounds and then, you can get everything you want. Not only are these advertisements sending unrealistic messages, they provide consumers with false hopes of achieving impossible results.
This idealistic beauty presented by the media not only pressures women to change their appearances but also sends distinct messages about being beautiful and sexy, especially to young girls. In fashion, television, films, music videos, and advertisements, the trend of presenting girls as young as twelve years old as grown women is both rapidly increasing and utterly disconcerting. This type of youthful, innocent sex appeal is a very marketable commodity- just look at Britney Spears.
The sexual exploitation of young girls is apparent in the show Toddlers and Tiaras. Though entertaining to watch, it is sickening to think that these mothers cake their two year old daughters’ faces with make-up, dress them in skimpy clothes, show them suggestive, flirtatious poses, and teach them sexy dance moves. On one episode, there was an eight year old girl who said that she was glad there was a male judge because she will just focus her attention on him, dance for him, smile and wink at him, and he will vote for her. Girls are being taught at young ages that good looks and sexiness not only sells but also attracts people, especially men.
In Barans and Davis, it is written that “if the coverage is dominated by a single frame, especially a frame that comes from an elite source, then learning will tend to be guided by this frame” (332). People go to the media for news and information on all subjects from weather and sports to politics and foreign affairs to fashion and advice to entertainment. As the elite source, the media has created and defined beauty for women. The media, as Entman states, has “enhance[d] the probability that receivers will perceive the information, discern meaning, and store it in memory” (53). It has repeatedly and consistently displayed this definition to the point that not only is the made-up image socially accepted, it has become normal for women to desire and to attempt to be.
ReplyDeleteDove’s Campaign For Real Beauty is a great attempt to get rid of the delusional image of women and to promote healthy, attainable, real, beautiful women. The clip that Mary provided in her blog of the average woman being made up and later on, photoshopped into this supermodel is remarkable and a positive reinforcement of the unnaturalness of the beauty women are bombarded with by the media. Though Dove’s message will not fall on deaf ears, it will be somewhat diminished as the media continues to project this prominent fictitious image of beautiful women that dominates the media’s various channels.
As much as the media has created an ideal beauty for women, it has affected men to some extent as well. In magazines, many advertisements are of half-clothed men posed in provocative positions with sultry pouts along side of sexy, half-clothed women. In music videos, especially R&B, Rap, and Hip-Hop videos, men are shown, most of the time fully clothed and sometimes in three piece suits, being surrounded by half-naked women, waiting on them in enormous houses or grinding up on them. Though these send clear messages, the effect may not be as great as it is on women.
It is easy to conclude that parents have the power to prevent their children from consuming these images by not allowing them to watch or by telling them to go outside and play. But the images are so accessible and so available that they are everywhere- magazines in grocery stores, cartoons, billboards, the radio. One can keep it to a minimum in his or her own house but if his or her child socializes with other children, goes to school, participates in activities, or visits other homes, that child will be exposed to these messages. Also, the media targets little girls as well as older women, making the mother vulnerable to the media’s messages and effects too. In order for this image of beauty to change, all media needs to Campaign For Real Beauty.
I definitely agree with all the responses above. It always shocks me when I see girls who are anywhere from 12-15 looking older than I am. As time goes on, it seems that the makeup and material items have become more important to younger and younger generations. I do feel that media and their portrayal of their young stars has a lot to do with this. One example of this that I found shocking was when we watched the video in class about the agency that goes out and tests the upcoming performers with the young girls to see what they like best so that they can shape the performer into a type of person that they feel will sell. Miley Cyrus is a perfect example of this. She is only 17 and has become almost a sex symbol in some aspects of her celebrity life. She has posed almost naked for magazines a couple times and has a somewhat scandalous music video. All of this, and the fact that her fan base is young girls definitely gives girls the wrong image of what their body should look like and what they should be dressing in. William Gamson, a framing researcher, believes that framing has the ability to promote and generate frames that can affect the social order and the way people see things (Baran and Davis 320). The way that people like Miley are thrown into the media and made up to be perfect, really does have an effect on the way the young people are seeing themselves. The way women are being portrayed in the media and the amount of media that children and young girls get today really plays a role in the way that they think they should look. This is not healthy for young girls and it is not realistic for them to think that they can look like these airbrushed girls on TV. One of the reasons this is such a problem with these young stars is that their audience is much younger and impressionable. They may not realize that the girls on TV are airbrushed and loaded with makeup. As Robert M. Entman says, “Receivers’ responses are clearly affected if they perceive and process information about one interpretation and possess little or incommensurable data about alternatives” (Entman 53). I agree that the media should feel that they have a role in the way that young people feel and should use that power for the better much like Dove has tried to do.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I am out of my element commenting on this particular blog; however, it sparked my interest, and with interest comes creativity. Or at least that’s true in my case. Grils and negative body image. That blows me away. When Mary quoted Goffman when he asks “why are people so gullible,” I found this completely appropriate. It is not only these young girls that fall for the media portrayal of the female body, but women as well. No one can tell me that they don’t see women right here at Quinnipiac mimicking celebrities and models. I was on Facebook today and I noticed that many female students have changed their Facebook picture to a celebrity that they believe they look like. Are these girls crazy? I don’t mean to offend anyone here, but give me a break! What happened to this idea of inner beauty? I remember when being a strong, confident woman was enough. Not anymore?
ReplyDeletePerhaps I can’t empathize with these young girls, but I can relate real life experience. My sister is eleven and my parents have made it very clear that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Sure, it’s cliché…maybe even a tad tacky, but it works. Where are the parents here? Give your daughter some confidence. I’m aware that boys are cruel, and the media does not help with this fact. So, not only do girls have to deal with the pressures of boys, friends, and family…but now their “escape” we call the media is telling them how to look as well. It’s tough. I can only imagine. But strength is so important. Maybe it’s true. Only the strongest survive…
I watched the YouTube video that Mary posted entitled Dove Evolution. That is wild. To tell you the truth I thought she was pretty before the makeup and photo shopping. Entman speaks of “framing” and how the media creates an image of how women should want to look. I feel as though the Dove Evolution video is counterproductive in arguing against this concept. I am going to assume that Dove wanted this woman to be recognized as “internationally average”. So shouldn’t this ad relieve pressure off of women? If an “average looking” woman can be on a billboard, then what is the pressure of trying to look like a supermodel?
Now, I know that I am a man, and I hope I did not insult anyone with this blog. I happen to have a lot of respect for women and I cannot begin to assume the pressures they go through on a daily basis.
I feel that the clip is effective, but more so towards people who are older than 18 years old. Whether we like to admit it or not, many people are very easily influenced by their peers when they are younger. A young girl could see the commercial but then 5 minutes later be obsessing over Miley Cyrus hair and body image because that’s what their friends are doing.
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 11 of Baran and Davis, the authors refer to George Mead. Mead had a very interesting theory which was discussed on page 301. “Mead argued that what occurs on a playing field is a sophisticated form of mutual conditioning”. Basically, what Mead says is that people do not learn certain things from books or classes, but rather from watching their surrounding peers. This theory applies strongly to young girls. Young girls tend to change their minds every few minutes based on what their friends think, including opinions regarding body image.
I don’t think that Barbie should suddenly change because I think that kids will just find another place to look for beauty tips and ideal body images. The media is everywhere and unfortunately, changing one aspect is not going to change the world. People who say that their product is going to change body image perception are being slightly unrealistic. The media has a shocking power over people.
I found it very fascinating when McQuail stated, “soft-news stories need not be ‘timely’. The Sunday newspaper is padded with feature stories about occurrences earlier in the week” (265). Sometimes the media forces more beauty and “spice” into their products because they need something to keep people pulled in. Watching the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is not going to help anybody learn a new theory or educate someone on an important breaking news story. Therefore, the models at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show are presented with over the top beauty and thin, slightly unrealistic, body images so that eyes will stayed glued to the screen.
I think people’s opinions can be changed about media, but they need to be a little older to change. With age comes maturity. If someone would have told me when I was 14 years old that the latest cover of Cosmo magazine did not depict an all natural person, I might have listened but not necessary believed them. Now, I am old enough to realize all of the effort that goes into a model and how much makeup and photo touching might have gone into a magazine cover model.
I personally don’t think that young boys receive the same messages as girls because I think that are taught to keep feelings inside (which is not necessarily a good thing). You won’t often find a 12 year old boy talking with his friends about how “awesome Justin Timberlake’s hair looks”. Perhaps I have this opinion because I am a girl, but I just don’t think that young boys think the same way as young girls. I think that boys are slightly influenced by the body images in media, but not nearly as much as girls are.
While it is true that female body image is a serious problem in our country, I don't think it's quite as hopeless as everyone makes it out to be. Much like framing can increase self-consciousness and the desire to fit a certain stereotype, I think it can also break away from such notions. As our authors point out, Goffman believed "we are always monitoring the social environment for social cues that signal when we are to make a change, and we ourselves are quite skilled at using these cues" (Baran & Davis 316). Basically, media today are used to influence these cues. If they can influence us to "change" to be like someone we see on a billboard or in a magazine, then can't they influence us to be empowered as well?
ReplyDeleteIt's true that one Dove commercial won't make a difference. As Entman says, "The culture is the stock of commonly invoked frames" (Entman 53). If culture consists of frames repeated over and over, then it can be inferred that changing a frame can possibly change a culture. If enough companies create similar advertisements such as those found in Dove's campaign, then they have the power to bring about a serious change in the lives of women. Sure, a revolution won't start overnight, but it could happen with time. After all, if these companies are powerful enough to influence women so negatively, think of the positive impact they could have as well.
I agree with all of these above postings. I haven't followed the Dove campaign that closely, and while I do applaud it, I'm not sure it is going to make that much of a difference. These commercials are only one advertising campaign in a sea of hundreds that will only cast the skinniest and the prettiest - how effective can they be? "Expectations can be quite resistant to change, even when they are contradicted by readily available factual information" (Baran and Davis, 314). It is easy to say that we want the media to be more realistic when it comes to portrayals of women, but when you've been raised thinking one thing it is difficult to change just because someone tells you you should. Its also easy to say that this is more of a problem for the current generation, that we weren't as bombarded with media when we were children. However, when I picture a princess I immediately picture Belle or Cinderella - not Camilla, Princess of Wales.
ReplyDeleteI distinctly remember sitting with a group of friends watching TV when one of the Dove commercials came on. One of my guy friends starting laughing and said all the women on the commercial weren't attractive (or as he put it, "fugly"). Obviously the message the commercial was trying to get across did not reach him. Entmann says that "The notion of framing thus implies that the frame has a common effect on large portions of the receiving audience, though it is not likely to have a universal effect on all" (Entmann, 54). Dove's campaign for "real" beauty is not going to reach everyone because nothing, even the powerful media, can universally affect everyone. My friend clearly did not come away with the intended message, but that is also a result of growing up surrounded by images of skinny women who were heralded as beauties. I do think that Dove is fighting a losing battle, particularly with this generation. Perhaps if their way of thinking takes off, and the next generation of children grow up with images of "real" beauty, things will change - but for now, Barbie wins.
(1 of 2) Beauty. We all want it. I don’t believe there isn’t one girl in our class that wouldn’t LOVE to wake up five pounds thinner. Is it because we all need to lose this weight to be healthy, or is it because of a sub-conscious desire (and sometimes obsession) imposed by society to look perfect?
ReplyDeleteLast year, when I did a report on Barbie I learned that her proportions are unobtainable. If Barbie were a real person she would have to crawl to get around because her chest would be too heavy for her body to support. They also considered her an image of unrealistic beauty that is thrown into a girl’s life at the age of two. We don’t realize that suggestions of beauty and perfection start from such a young age, sometimes before we can even talk.
The dove ads were extremely interesting. They were a campaign for REAL beauty. I thought it was interesting they decided to show real people but I personally believe they should have gone about it in a different way. I think that the ads would be more interesting if they didn’t point out that “these woman are overweight and we’re recognizing it and are telling you that this is real beauty so you recognize it too.” If they wanted to do a real campaign, use real people but don’t tell us what to think about it. Because of this I think the ad would have been much more effective if they just slowly transformed from stick figured to the common woman without doing it for attention.
I do believe that boys receive some negative messages. They are compared to muscular men and romantic heartthrobs portrayed in movies and society expects and hopes them to live up to such expectations. However, I do not believe they receive as much pressure from society as woman do.
(2 of 2) Baran and Davis go into detail about cultivation analysis. They describe the cultivation analysis as a “theory that television cultivates or creates a worldview that, although possibly inaccurate, becomes the reality because people believe it to be so.” I believe this is extremely accurate especially in today’s society. Even though we hope that the average person is more rational to determine what should be real and admired and what should not that is not always the case.
ReplyDelete17 year old Miley Cyrus has become almost an overnight phenomenon. From Disney pop princess to young diva she is idolized by millions. However her actions are not always that to be idolized. She has a tattoo at the age of 17, her nose and belly pierced at the age of 16 and has semi-nude pictures displayed all over the internet. When we think of Miley and the cultivation analysis we can rationalize that she is not one to be truly idolized for young girls. However the reality is that young girls have made her a hero because they believe she is, thanks to the media. Because of the effects of the cultivation theory we could have unintentionally provided our children with a negative idol.
In chapter 23 McQuail addressed five categories of news, hard, soft, spot, developing and continuing. Hard news concerns occurrences that leaves the information open to analysis while soft news are more commonly known as human-interest stories. Developing news is when reporters learn about an event and report continually with emerging facts. These three types of news reports are all around us. They are reported through the TV, in a newspaper on the radio in magazines, everywhere we look some sort of story is waiting to be discovered. I believe all of these kinds of stories of news are made to grasp the attention of the audience and they usually succeed. For our purposes we can look at Perezhilton alone and realize that he reports news in each manner for our entertainment.
“Z-list celebrity” Heidi Montag had 10 plastic surgeries in one day. She was a girl originally prettier than most and yet she wanted more. She blamed Hollywood and her lifestyle but still her story was shown in almost all five news categories in multiple news outlets. Because of this constant display of news coverage this story of the need for a perfect body was in the hands of people everywhere, influencing many girls in negative ways.
I truly believe the media is to blame for the way young girl perceive themselves. Weather the media is intentionally or unintentionally trying to manipulate young girls in order to sell them products, it is undeniable that the media has succeeded in reaching every person, everywhere. Media: For better, or for worse?
Mary’s blog is written perfectly, the issue of body image starts in young girls and the issue needs to be combated. I too as a young child was outside playing all day long and had no care for Barbie dolls and now noticing first-hand how young girls today are obsessed with Barbies and watching television programs no wonder their sense of body image is distorted. When I was little my sister went to a modeling audition and mind you, my sister was at the time about 5’8 and weighed about 120 pounds and they wanted her to model for Ford Modeling Agency which is a very prestigious agency. Initially my sister was thrilled, until they told her and my mom that my sister would need to lose 20 pounds and that she needed to lose the muscle that she has. To put this into perspective, my sister is and always has been a total toothpick, her losing 20 pounds would have meant she would have almost certainly looked anorexic and emaciated. Of course my mom said absolutely not and my sister and mom left and thankfully my sister knew that losing 20 pounds was ridiculous and she didn’t take the woman’s words to heart in any way. Watching any of the Victoria’s Secret runway shows or “America’s Next Top Model” on television one can’t argue that most, if not all of the models are skinnier than the majority of people anyone knows.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the media is solely to blame for constantly displaying in commercials, television shows, on billboards and in films the perception of what it is to be beautiful and desirable. All we see are attractive skinny women and buff attractive men made to look even more attractive and pretty than they are in real life while not so attractive people are constantly made to look less beautiful. Has anyone else ever noticed times when the media makes a rather unattractive person look even more unattractive? It’s like they are doing it on purpose. Also, have you seen the constant “proof” that if you are attractive and appealing you will succeed and get the great job, the gorgeous husband or the expensive car, or maybe even everything? Not to go back to “Mean Girls” but it seemed to be a film that the majority of the class was familiar with, did you notice that the non-popular girls were always unattractive and they were dressed in terrible clothes and made to look worse in any way possible? In a movie made to gruesomely depict the popular group versus the non-popular group how else is a young teen to perceive their body image than to relate themselves to the characters that fall into their “popular” or “non-popular” category?
While reading I read a particularly interesting quote, “once these signs are created, they become the structure that determines future action” (Baran & Davis 332). This quote sums the issue up perfectly, it explains that it becomes a snowball effect, therefore the fact that we are allowing the media to create these signs, the signs have become a part of the structure within our society. They are already embedded into our young children which is why the effect will continue to ripple, unless we can figure out ways to protect teens from these negative media signs teens body image will continue to harm our society in the future. Since having a negative body image toward oneself at a young age is nearly impossible to get rid of, these young girls and teens will most likely struggle with their body image for the rest of their lives. Why are we allowing the media to control the ways in which we view ourselves? Can we not be individuals and make our own decisions about what is right and wrong, what looks good and what doesn’t? Personally, I don’t believe that ribs showing is in any way a look of beauty. In 3rd world countries we are concentrating efforts to feed the people who we call starving and malnourished yet in the United States we call these same looks desirable and beautiful. How can that be?
I personally couldn’t believe the youtube video that Mary found made by Dove, I always knew that models are trimmed and slimmed by the use of computer programs in an effort to make them look more appealing but this video really blew me away. I believe that the clip is highly effective and I believe it should be shown on commercials worldwide to perhaps show young girls how even models aren’t “good enough” for society’s standards. Maybe it would make them take a step back and view the situation in a different light and recognize that beauty isn’t skin deep. I believe that Barbie’s should at least make other dolls that aren’t as skinny to at least vary their selection so that children can become more accustomed to difference in size rather than one twig-like Barbie after another.
ReplyDeleteSalience is what the media does to its viewers and listeners day in and day out. Salience means “making a piece of information more noticeable, meaningful, or memorable to audiences” (Entman 53). The media makes body image more noticeable by constantly showing it through films, television shows, commercials, advertisements in magazines, etc and thus its messages of what beauty looks like become more meaningful because we are constantly in contact with them whether we like it or not. In the end these messages become memorable because they start to become “all that we know” in a way since they are all we see. It’s a vicious cycle that needs to be stopped. I found this youtube video which was made by the National Eating Disorder Information Centre and I really like how they are giving the companies who cast the “ultra skinny models” as they call them a sample of the image they are sending to women worldwide. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIqCSeyJXRo)
It’s time that we as a nation actually do something and stop simply talking about it because the issue still stands. Whether we begin airing commercials that attack the issue in an obvious way or we show what normal people look like on a regular basis and target young girls as our audience. I however to answer Mary’s question about whether we believe boys receive the same types of messages about the “perfect” man…I absolutely do. Boys constantly see that skinny isn’t hot and neither is fat, while their perceptions are slightly different since girls are constantly being shown that skinny in girl-world is beauty, boys still share the abuse. Boys have to be strong and muscular in order to be considered hot and while the male body image issue seems to be silenced for some reason it doesn’t mean that it isn’t fully present.
I agree with the fact that the media has an affect on girls and how they feel they should look. They see these women on TV and many of them are real thin and attractive and these younger girls may think that they need to look like that to be successful or popular, but it shouldn't be that way. These girls must think they are expected to look a certain way because that is what the media and society tells them. In Baran and Davis, it says that, "Expectations are based on previous experience of some kind, whether derived from a media message or direct personal experience and these expectations are often associated with and can arouse strong emotions such as hate, fear, or love (Baran & Davis 314,315). This relates to how young girls experience images of thin, attractive women on TV and in magazines and they feel like they need to look like that to be excepted by today's society. Also, if they don't look like a model they may see, then it could definitely stir up some emotions and they may start to hate the way they look and that can definitely lead to some dangerous actions down the line.
ReplyDeleteWith regard to the Dove commercial, I definitely like what they tried to do in showing how these women that we see in magazines and on TV are never really like that. They are photo-shopped and worked on constantly to make them look that way and it's not really them. This commercial has a strong message that women everywhere should see and take note of, but I don't think that can or will happen. Entmann said that, "The notion of framing thus implies that the frame has a common effect on large portions of the receiving audience, thought it isn't likely to have a universal effect on all (Entmann, 54)." I agree with what Entmann is saying because this message will not reach everyone in the universe, but the people that it does reach, they should definitely pay attention to it and not dwell on how they look, because they are fine the way they are. I really do think that younger girls need to stop focusing on what they see in the media with regards on how they should look because it really is detrimental to these girls. I have sisters and plenty of female cousins, so I know this topic pretty well. I don't think my sisters have been really affected by the media because I have talked to them about this subject and they know all the tricks that take place to make these women look the way they do. But, I just hope my cousins know this someday before they start thinking that they need to change because no one will like them otherwise. It really is a shame that this is what is has come to, but things like the Dove advertisement show me that people are starting to become aware of this problem and maybe things will change slowly, but surely.
I really agree with what Mary has said in her post. The Dove campaign was a great one that received a lot of exposure when it first appeared, but seemed to be quickly brushed under the rug to make way for yet again, the media where stick thin women are featured. If the campaign had gotten more exposure and had more longevity in the media, I think it really could make an impact. I know that personally after seeing that a few times in the past few years, I do take it into account when I’m looking at magazine advertisements. I’ll think to myself about how “perfect” the model or celebrity is in that particular advertisement, but much of the time, I will usually follow that thought with the thought of “But who knows how much she was airbrushed or edited to look that way!”
ReplyDeleteBaran & Davis describe the framing process as, first, “exposure to mass media representation of everyday communication”, second, “attention directed toward cues used by media professionals in media representation”, third, “decoding of media representations in everyday communication”, and lastly, “frames developed to interpret and plan human actions” (Baran & Davis 315). Looking at this step by step process of how framing works, it is clear that when you analyze the problem of inaccurate media advertisements (in this case, regarding women and beauty) that messages can be conveyed that aren’t realistic. When a young girl sees an advertisement either in print or on TV, they see what they are being told is “beautiful”. They may unconsciously analyze and come up with an answer about how they personally compare, which could lead to various effects in real life, whether it’s mentally, such as low self esteem, or physically, such as an eating disorder. These messages that are being pushed through advertisements in the media can have a large effect on women’s and girl’s primary reality, and how they experience life.
Mary also mentioned how there are in fact realistic role models for young girls today, but they are being out-shined by the thinner and more “beautiful” women. I agree with this wholeheartedly. One example that comes to mind is the recent hit film Precious. This movie isn’t full of stick thin actresses, but rather, realistic looking women who are somewhat more relatable. Besides movies, television also has an enormous amount of the stick thin actresses. If you think of many of your favorite shows, or the most popular shows, do they have actors/actresses that are very thin and fit? Or do they have actors/actresses that are more “normal”? I know when I think of my own personal favorite shows, it’s pretty much the first choice hands down.
The Dove campaign was a really great idea, and one that I personally wish would be pursued more because if it did get more exposure and did have more longevity, I think that it really could have an impact. I’m sure that boys do face similar, if not the same, pressures as young girls do, but for some reason, it seems as though it’s only discussed when it comes to girls.
"Expectations can be quite resistant to change, even when they are contradicted by readily available factual information." (Baran and Davis)I think this statement embodies the issue at hand. That yes we could be aware that this is not a reality that real people don't look or weight the same as these celebrities or models. Or even that an actual human being is incapable of the physical dimensions of a Barbie doll, still is drilled into both the minds of men and females of how "beauty" should be perceived.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with Mary that when we were younger I don't think we were bombarded with thoughts of body image at such a young age. Honestly, I don't remember watching that many shows when I was little that weren't cartoons but out of the ones that had actors I only remember The Mickey Mouse Club, Clarissa Explains It All and like Boy Meets World or other family type shows. Basically shows used to be family based and showed a support system something that as a kid you can relate to. I feel like today's kid shows are about kids being on their own be more mature than they are. Maybe that's the change there is no typification. As defined by McQuail, typification refers to classification in which the relevant characteristics are central to the solution of practical tasks or problems at hand and are constituted and grounded in everyday activity. So without this sense of connection maybe this could be a factor to why kids are acting more mature, why they feel they have to look a certain way or act a certain way to be accepted or feel beautiful. There is more out there to agree with these facts then to contradict and when that is then facts are looked over simply because mass media is disguising it.
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