Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Introduction to the Media

Question: Other than being magazines, what do these six images have in common?

 

 

Answer: They all deal with body image.

To the left is a seventeen magazine from March 2009. On the cover two beauty related headlines have been highlighted, the first being "672 Ways to Look Pretty for Spring - Perfect Hair & Makeup Tricks for You!" That headline is a typical headline for most teen girl magazines. Then, on the right is another headline which states "Flat Abs & A Great Butt By Spring Break!" Considering that headlines sell the content directly to readers, this is more alarming. Being a teenage girl myself, I have read seventeen magazines before and every magazine has a health section where it discusses all sorts of health related issues. I commend them for adding health to their magazine where topics range from beauty to sex to eating healthily, yet it some what saddens me that they also include ways to lose weight (ie. the "Flat Abs & A Great Butt" headline).

Even fashion magazines use body image and beauty to sell their products. Let's get real here - what isn't appealing about looking our best, or as Glamour puts it, "10 Totally Gorgeous New Hairstyles - Because Every Woman Deserves Man Magnet Hair." It's headlines like that that grab consumers. By using beauty, products such as magazines seem more desirable. The media is able to prey on the fact that most women want to look their best, so by having that in their back pocket, advertisers sell beauty tips, workout help, reasons why gaining weight occurs (as seen on the Vogue cover), and more.



My goal here is not to undermine the magazine industry. In fact, I am rather fond of magazines, but the goal of this post is to uncover the real intentions of all magazine covers. For example, recall the Cosmopolitan cover. The largest headline other than the magazine's name said "Flatten Your Belly." While at the local CVS, I scoped out the article. It talked about how to effectively use water to curb your hunger. Basically the water is making you bloated, and although it curbs your hunger, not eating or unbalancing your hunger is an unhealthy way to lose weight. Magazine covers aren't the only place where the beauty myth is housed. Through magazines there are ads everywhere, and almost every ad has something to do with make up or fashion. Sometimes there are even weight loss ads in magazines like Fitness. The media is constantly pushing the beauty myth at us.

It is important to note that all kinds of media use beauty to sell their products. Although magazines were used to show this, they are not the only industry at fault. The fashion world, which is closely related to magazines, also doesn't help when it comes to creating body image. The average American woman is 5’4” tall and weighs 140 pounds. The average American model is 5’11” tall and weighs 117 pounds. This statistic came from a previous post of mine, and it's true. Not every woman is that tall nor that thin, yet the media sells women such as that to the American public as being perfect.

Question: How could the media help reverse the beauty myth?

Answer: Use real women as their models

If magazines used real women as their models in magazines, or designers used them in their ads and shows, I think more women would feel more comfortable with their own bodies. Even if women don't realize that the media influences their thinking, it affects every one's opinions of body image.

Unfortunately, using real women as models doesn't seem to be a reasonable request. Too many industries are involved, and although one can wish that it could be easily changed, it will take years to change an industry so built up. And that's where I come in. With that known, I realize that it will be hard to change an industry such as the fashion world or advertisements, but if women are educated in health and true beauty, we can change the world.




No comments:

Post a Comment